Urban Geography and Race

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Urban Geography and Race

• Understanding the Geography of Race, Class and
  Opportunity in Contemporary U.S. Cities
• Guest Lecture Geography 240 Urban Economic
  Geography, The Ohio State University
• Jason Reece, AICP
• Reece.35_at_osu.edu
• Senior Researcher, The Kirwan Institute for the
  Study of Race Ethnicity, The Ohio State
  University
• October 14th 2008

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About the Institute

• Founded in 2003 at The Ohio State University
• Under the leadership of john a. powell
• Interdisciplinary and externally focused
• Policy focused
• Working on projects at both the local, national
  and international level
• One of the largest race research centers in the
  nation
• More than 30 staff

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Outline of Discussion

• Location, Location, Location
• Place Matters Neighborhoods and Pathways to
  Opportunity
• Segregation in US cities
• Segregation by Race - Segregation from
  Opportunity
• How did we get here? Race, Class and Space in
  U.S. Cities
• Historical Causes
• Contemporary Causes
• Remedies and Solutions
• An opportunity based model of community
  development and integration

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location, Location, Location

• Place Matters Neighborhoods and Pathways to
  Opportunity

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Neighborhoods Access to Opportunity

• Five decades of research indicate that your
  environment has a profound impact on your access
  to opportunity and likelihood of success
• Impoverished Blacks and Latinos are far more
  likely to live in neighborhoods of concentrated
  poverty
• These high poverty environments create deplorable
  living conditions and are a manifestation of
  living isolated from opportunity

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The Cumulative Impacts of Spatial, Racial and
Opportunity Segregation
Segregation impacts a number of life-opportunities
Impacts on Health
School Segregation
Impacts on Educational Achievement
Exposure to crime arrest
Transportation limitations and other inequitable
public services
Job segregation
Neighborhood Segregation
Racial stigma, other psychological impacts
Impacts on community power and individual assets
Adapted from figure by Barbara Reskin at
http//faculty.washington.edu/reskin/
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Neighborhood location determines access to
schools.
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Influences access to jobs
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and access to neighborhood resources
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Segregation in U.S. Cities

• Segregation by Race Segregation From Opportunity

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Segregation by Race in US Cities

• Studies by numerous demographers and the U.S.
  Census Bureau indicate very prominent levels of
  residential segregation by race in the U.S
  (although these levels have declined slightly in
  the past two decades). African Americans remain
  the most segregated population in the nation
• In 2000, residential segregation (as measured by
  the dissimilarity index) indicates that the
  following proportion of each racial population
  was geographically segregated from Whites.
• African Americans (64) Latinos (51) and Asians
  (41).
• The U.S. Census Bureau. Racial and Ethnic
  Segregation in the United States 1980-2000. By
  John Iceland, Daniel H. Weinbert and Erika
  Steinmetz. Census 2000 Special Reports. Issued
  August 2002. CENSR-3. Available on-line at
  http//www.census.gov/hhes/www/housing/housing_pat
  terns/papertoc.html

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Fair Housing Integration
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Racial Segregation Economic isolation
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Racial Segregation Educational Isolation
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Economic Segregation and Racial Segregation in
Public Schools Southwest Ohio High Poverty
Schools (Red and Yellow) are Concentrated in
African American Neighborhoods (Areas in Gray)
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Segregation by Race and Class in Cincinnati
Schools
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Neighborhood Segregation Socioeconomic isolation

• Over 3.1 million African Americans lived in
  Concentrated Poverty Neighborhoods in 2000,
  Blacks and Latinos represent nearly 3 out of 4
  residents in these neighborhoods
• Nearly 1 out of 10 Blacks lived in a concentrated
  poverty neighborhood in 1999, compared to 1 out
  of 100 Whites
• Whites only make 30 of people living in high
  poverty neighborhoods, although they represent
  55 of the total population living in poverty

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Segregation from Opportunity Neighborhood Poverty

• In all three of Ohios largest metropolitan
  areas, African Americans live in neighborhoods
  with 2 to 3 times the poverty rate experienced in
  White Neighborhoods

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How Did WE Get Here?

• Race, Class and Space in U.S. Cities

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How Were These Communities Created, How Was
Segregation Created?

• Housing policies, discrimination, land use policy
  and patterns of regional investment and
  disinvestment converge to produce continued
  racial segregation in our society
• Producing a racial isolation in neighborhoods
  that are lacking the essential opportunities to
  advance in our society (fueling racial
  disparities)
• Both historical factors and contemporary factors
  converge to produce segregation and opportunity
  deprived neighborhoods

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A History of Spatial Segregation and Isolation in
American Cities

• A Few Reference Points in Time
• Pre-19th Century (Jacob Riis)
• How the Other Half Lives highlights the social
  isolation in New Yorks tenement neighborhoods
• The 1968 Kerner Commission Report on the 1960s
  race riots (National Advisory Commission on Civil
  Disorders)
• Our nation is moving toward two societies, one
  black, one white-separate and unequal.
• 1980, 1990s and today
• The Ghetto Underclass (William Julius Wilson)
• American Apartheid (Massey Denton)
• Concentrated Poverty/Opportunity Isolation
  (Jagorwoski, Galster, Briggs, powell, Turner,
  Orfield and others)

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A Pre 20th Century Look at Tenement Neighborhoods
in New York(Photos by Jacob Riis)
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The 1960s And Today Urban Unrest and Urban
Distress
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Historical Factors Contributing to Residential
Segregation and Isolation

• Segregation as policy
• Jim Crow in the south
• The Great Migration North
• FHA policies upholding segregation
• Redlining, discouraging mixed race neighborhoods
• Blockbusting, racially restrictive covenants and
  other forms of discrimination in the housing
  industry
• Urban renewal, highway construction and public
  housing policy
• Suburban sprawl and white flight

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Policies Enforcing InequityHistorical
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

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Redlining Map of Philadelphia
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The Wailing Wall in Detroit
http//www.albany.edu/jmmh/vol2no1/sugrue.html
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The Rise of SuburbiaBut 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.
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Urban Renewal in Boston
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FHA Highway Construction in Cincinnati
Demolishing much of the African American West
Side
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Development of the Public Housing Tower
Pruitt-Igoe in St. Louis
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Development of Public Housing Towers Cabrini
Green in Chicago
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Contemporary Factors Contributing to Residential
Segregation and Isolation

• De facto segregation and opportunity isolation
• Exclusionary zoning
• Subtle forms of housing discrimination
• Racial steering, editorializing
• Fragmented school districts and court decisions
• Economic development policy, infrastructure
  policy and subsidized housing policy
• Continued exurban sprawl and white flight
• Reverse redlining
• Buy here pay here, rent to own, payday lending,
  subprime mortgage loans

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Exclusionary Land Use Policy
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Racial Steering and Discrimination

• Recent studies by researchers and the federal
  government (HUD) found that racial steering,
  discrimination and exclusion are still prevalent
  in the housing market
• Creating barriers to housing access outside of
  cost impediment
• Orfield and Luce (2005) Iceland, Sharpe and
  Steinmetz (2005) Dawkins (2004) Pendall (2000)
  HUD HDS (2000) Galster (1998) Schill and Wachter
  (1995) Massey, Gross and Shibuya (1994) HUD HDS
  (1989)

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Racial Steering in Detroit
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The Growth of the ExurbsContinued White Flight
and The Movement of Opportunity Away from Urban
Communities
Table From the Exurban Change Project, Dept. of
AEDE, The Ohio State University
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New Threats The Credit Crisis and Foreclosure
Challenge

• The result of the sub-prime foreclosure crisis
  in the US may significantly erode fair housing
  gains and further isolate inner city
  neighborhoods
• More than two million foreclosures expected in
  the next two years
• Nationwide, nearly 55 of all high cost loans
  went to African American borrowers
• Experts estimate that the loss in home equity to
  African American and Latino homeowners will
  exceed a quarter of trillion dollars
• Why, direct asset loss (foreclosure) and loss in
  home value due to the geographic concentration of
  foreclosures in minority neighborhoods

Source United for a Fair Economy
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Predatory Lending and Race Example (Cleveland)
Maps Produced and adapted from Charles Bromley,
SAGES Presidential Fellow, Case Western University
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Predatory Lending, Foreclosure and Race Example
(Cleveland)
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Why Were Subprime Loans Concentrated in These
Neighborhoods?

• Why is the growing foreclosure problem causing
  problem in communities of color?
• -Lenders targeted communities of color with
  subprime loans
• -Lack of loan information or understanding for
  consumers in many of these communities
• -Communities were historically starved of credit
• -Mortgage securitization and the growth of the
  subprime industry created incentives to target
  new markets with mortgages

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The Impact of Concentrated Foreclosures in a
neighborhood

• Foreclosures pull wealth/equity and assets our
  out of the neighborhood
• Widespread displacement of renters, homeowners
  which rips the neighborhoods social fabric and
  creates instability for school age children
• The growth of vacant property encourages crime,
  disinvestment and public safety risks
• Challenges which eventually ensnare all residents
  (even those who were never foreclosed upon)

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Remedies Solutions

• An Opportunity Based Model of Community
  Development and Integration

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A Transformative Agenda Achieving Equity
through an Opportunity Based Model of Social
Justice

• Everyone should have fair access to the critical
  opportunity structures needed to succeed in life
• Low Opportunity neighborhoods limit the
  development of human capital
• A Community of Opportunity approach can develop
  pathways that result in increased social and
  economic health, benefiting everyone

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Kirwans Work Supporting Opportunity Based
Community Development

• Fair Housing/Affordable Housing/ Opportunity
  Based Housing
• Example Baltimore (Litigation Support)
• Example Foreclosure Research (Connecticut
  National Convening on Foreclosure and Race)
• Regionalism and Regional Equity
• Example Cleveland Regional Equity Initiative
• Neighborhood Revitalization
• Example Advising on strategies to promote
  neighborhood revitalization
• Recent projects Baltimore, Columbus, Cleveland

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People, Places and Linkages

• People
• We need to build human capital through improved
  wealth-building, educational achievement, and
  social and political empowerment
• Examples
• Promoting/protecting homeownership for residents,
  helping low income families access tax credits,
  leadership training, job training, asset building
  strategies, providing stable/supportive housing
  to those in need

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People, Places and Linkages

• Places
• We must invest in places by supporting
  neighborhood development initiatives, attracting
  jobs with living wages and advancement
  opportunities, and demanding high-quality local
  services for all neighborhoods, such as local
  public schools that perform
• Examples
• Improving school conditions, providing
  supplemental educational opportunities,
  supporting minority and small businesses in
  distressed communities, attracting jobs, spurring
  investment in housing and infrastructure,
  addressing vacant properties

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People, Places and Linkages

• Linkages
• We must also encourage better links among people
  and places, fostering mobility through
  high-quality public transportation services and
  region-wide housing mobility programs
• Examples
• Supporting and promoting fair housing, public
  transportation initiatives, allowing urban
  students access to suburban schools

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