Building One America

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? ...

Questions or Comments: www.kirwaninstitute.org

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