building one america
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TRANSCRIPT
john a. powell
Director, Kirwan Institute for the Study of Race and EthnicityWilliams Chair in Civil Rights & Civil Liberties, Moritz College of
LawSeptember 17-18, 2009Washington, DC
Building One AmericaA National Summit
on Regional Opportunity
My Biography
• I was born…
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My Biography
• I grew up…
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My Parents
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My parents were sharecroppers in the South.
They left the South in search of opportunity.
HOME
• They moved north seeking opportunity and bought a house.
• Today I would say they bought into a low opportunity neighborhood.
• They moved north seeking opportunity and bought a house.
• Today I would say they bought into a low opportunity neighborhood.
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My Old Neighborhood
The vacant grassy plots are not parks.
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What’s left behind?
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Vacant lots and abandoned houses
Where I Grew Up
I grew up in a low opportunity structure in a declining opportunity city. 8
It is also known as Detroit.
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I now live in a high opportunity structure.
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A Tale of High and Low Opportunity Structures
Low Opportunity High Opportunity
• Less the 25% of students in Detroit finish high school
• More the 60% of the men will spend time in jail
• There may soon be no bus service in some areas
• It is difficult to attract jobs or private capital
• Not safe; very few parks
• Difficult to get fresh food
• The year my step daughter finished high school, 100% of the students graduated and 100% went to college
• Most will not even drive by a jail
• Free bus service
• Relatively easy to attract capital
• Very safe; great parks
• Easy to get fresh food 11
Which community would you choose?
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Some people ride the “Up” escalator to reach opportunity
Others have to run up the “Down” escalator to get there
Who’s to blame?
14Photo source: (Madoff) AP
An interlocking set of laws, government policies, and court decisions have ‘set the stage’ for the disparities we see today
• In Brown v. Board of Education, the Supreme Court announced that segregation on the basis of race was unconstitutional, and that ‘separate educational facilities are inherently unequal.’ 347 U.S. 495 (1954).
The Courts: School Desegregation
• By the mid-1970s, the Court began to slowly withdraw its support for school desegregation.
• In Miliken v. Bradley (1974), the Court ruled that lower courts could not order an ‘inter-district’ remedy that encompassed suburban districts without first showing that the suburban district was liable.
School Desegregation:Drawing a Line at the School Border
• The effect of the decision was to sanction white flight and jurisdictional fragmentation to escape the Brown mandate.
• Between 1950 and 1990, the number of municipalities in major metropolitan areas grew from 193 to 9,600. During the 1990s alone, the suburban population grew 17.7% compared to 9% for cities.
School Desegregation:Drawing a Line at the School Border
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Historical Government Role
“If a neighborhood is to retain stability, it is necessary that properties shall continue to be occupied by the same social and racial classes. A change in social or racial occupancy generally contributes to instability and a decline in values.”
–Excerpt from the 1947 FHA underwriting manual
THEN: Neighborhoods that had racially restrictive covenants (whites only)
NOW: Highest loan denials
Sacramento
Urban Renewal decimated entire neighborhoods, displacing city residents from their communities and re-housing them in high-rise, public housing projects
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The Rise of Suburbia: But not accessible to everyone
In the suburb-shaping years (1930-1960), less than one-percent of all African Americans were
able to obtain a mortgage.
Federal subsidies bankrolled Whites’ departure to the suburbs, while neglecting public transit in the cities, creating racially and economically inequitable regions
1956
1958
1960
1962
1964
1966
1968
1970
1972
1974
1976
1978
1980
1982
1984
1986
1988
1990
1992
1994
1996
1998
2000
2002
2004
20060
5,000
10,000
15,000
20,000
25,000
30,000
35,000
40,000
45,000
50,000
Total Federal Spending for Infrastructure, 1956-2006 (in millions of nominal dollars)
Transit Highway
$ in millions
Source: U.S. Congressional Budget Office, Trends in Public Spending on Transportation and Water Infrastructure, 1956 to 2004, August 2007. Data obtained from supplementary tables downloaded from www.cbo.gov/ftpdocs/85xx/doc8517/ SupplementalTables.xls, 17 December 2007.
Regional Fragmentation
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Central City
Suburbs
Suburbs
Suburbs
Suburbs
Low-income whites are not as spatially
segregated as low-income people of color
Structural Racialization
27Adapted from the Aspen Roundtable on Community Change. “Structural Racism and Community Building.” June 2004
Institutionalized Disinvestment: Redlining Map of Philadelphia
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From Redlining to Reverse Redlining
Connecticut
Columbus
Cleveland: Foreclosure and Race - Same Trends
Maps: Produced and adapted from Charles Bromley, SAGES Presidential Fellow, Case Western University
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Baltimore: Foreclosure & Race/Income
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Gentrification:A New Form of
Exclusion?
Building Sustainable, Inclusive Regions• Strong coalitions between cities and suburbs• Federal policies integrating housing,
transportation, and infrastructure– Affirmatively connecting all people to opportunity
throughout regions
Equitable regionalism
– The city’s economic future is dependent on its most plentiful natural resource, human capacity and innovation
–Without addressing the social, racial and interregional inequities facing the region, the future of the entire region is compromised
Learning From Our Mistakes?
• If we fail to pay attention to the resources that communities possess, we are likely to repeat the mistakes of the New Deal.
– For example, Social Security benefits were initially denied to household and farm laborers – effectively excluding 65% of the Black population
• How do we avoid the New Deal mistakes?–We must be intentional. – Policies should be targeted and programs
should be structured so that they reach certain populations and communities.
Principles for Fair Policy
– Targeted: Recognize the nature of our interconnected structures / larger inequitable, institutional framework.
– Attention to situatedness: People are situated differently in the economic and social landscape of society.
– Review outcomes: It may seem great if unemployment is cut in half, but if all the jobs go to white males, serious problems remain.
– People of color included the process: Input from people often most impacted by the policies is vital.
Communities of Opportunity
– Everyone should have fair access to the critical opportunity structures needed to succeed in life
– Affirmatively connecting people to opportunity creates positive, transformative change in communities
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Housing
ChildcareEmployment
Education
Health
Transportation
Effective Participation
Housing is an opportunity anchor and key leverage point
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Example: Opportunity Based Housing - Integration into Opportunity
• Rethink fair housing…• Not just integration but integration
into opportunity• Inclusive fair housing means access
to good schools, jobs, doctors, child care, transportation, parks, and the civic fabric
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High OpportunityLow Opportunity
Connecting Multiple Domains: Housing and Schools
How can we reverse this pattern?
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LIHTC and Segregated Schools• Currently, LIHTC development is conflicting with
efforts to desegregate schools.• Nearly ¾’s of African American and Hispanic LIHTC
residents are located in segregated schools.
Figure 8: Percentage of LIHTC Population within Proximity to Segregated Schools:
Population in household by household race:
> 90% White
50 to 100% Students of Color
American Indian 16.8% 18.7%
Asian 6.9% 71.3%
Black 6.0% 69.6%
Hispanic 8.4% 74.3%
Other Race 33.5% 23.2%
White 32.5% 17.0%
Agenda for Sustainable, Inclusive Regions
• Revitalize core cities• Stabilize Older Suburbs• Diversify Newer Suburbs
Federal and state policies can support sustainable regional development by:
• Mandating inclusionary opportunity-based housing development
• Eliminating tax advantages and subsidies for ‘Greenfield’ development
• Limiting sprawl-inducing transportation and other infrastructure investments
Key Federal Policies
• Surface Transportation Authorization Act of 2009
• Sustainable Communities Initiative• Reform HUD Housing Policies• Support diverse school districts and
integration efforts
These must work together across multiple domains to connect all people to regional opportunity
Connecting to Opportunity
The Sustainable Communities Initiative must
• Involve the entire region• Focus on social and racial justice
goals• Utilize a strategy of changing the
“geography of opportunity”
Connecting to Opportunity con’t:
Reforming HUD Housing policies• Section 8 reform and reauthorization• LIHTC allocation policy• Enforcement of fair housing
Connecting Multiple Domains: Housing, Transportation and Land use Planning
The Surface Transportation Authorization Act should:
• Encourage Transit-oriented Development• Implement a “Fix it First” policy• Track race and opportunity in regional
development patterns• Reform Metropolitan Planning Organizations• Set regional goals to reduce Sprawl, Segregation,
and Concentrated Poverty• Increase employment of Women and Minorities in
Federal Infrastructure Projects
Crisis … • Etymology: Middle
English, from Latin, from Greek krisis, literally, decision, from krinein to decide
• The Chinese symbol for crisis is a combination of the symbols for danger and opportunity
Courtesy Hill Holiday Communications
Urgency…
• Detroit’s “frog in a pot” is cooked. Everyone else’s is just warm…
19th Century
21st Century
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G20 Protests in Europe - 2009
Reuters: Toby Melville; Digby Oldridge/PR Eye; Chris Ison/PA
Where will she grow up and go to school? ...
