john a. powelljohn a. powell

Director, Kirwan Institute for the Study of Race and Ethnicity

Williams Chair in Civil Rights & Civil Liberties,

Moritz College of Law

State of the Region

Hosted by Urban Habitat & the Bay Area Social Equity Caucus

January 15, 2010 Berkeley, CA

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I was born…

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I grew up…

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My parents were sharecroppers in

the South.

They left the South in search of opportunity.

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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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The vacant grassy plots are not parks.

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Vacant lots and abandoned houses

What’s left behind?

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I grew up in a low opportunity structure in a declining opportunity city.

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Setting the context: Opportunities and challenges facing low-income communities and communities of color

Understanding how people are situated within opportunity structures

Regionalism

Successful regional efforts

Looking ahead: What is our vision of the future? How do we get there?

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Opportunities and challenges facing low-income communities and communities of color

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Opportunity includes access to:

Healthcare

Education

Employment

Services

Healthy food

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Employment

Housing

Childcare

Effective Participation

HealthEducation

Transportation

We all live in opportunity structures.

The opportunities available to all

people are not the same.

We must consider how institutions interact with one

another to produce racialized

outcomes.

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It’s more than just a matter of choice.

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A series of mutually reinforcing federal policies across multiple domains have contributed to the disparities we see today.

School Desegregation

Suburbanization/ Homeownership

Urban Renewal

Public Housing

Transportation

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Some people ride the “Up” escalator to

reach opportunity.

Others have to run up the “Down” escalator to get there.

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Individual/family costs Living in “concentrated disadvantage” reduces

student IQ by 4 points, roughly the equivalent to missing one year of school (Sampson 2007)

Societal cost Neighborhoods of concentrated poverty suppress

property values by nearly 400 billion nationwide (Galster et al. 2007)

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People of color are far more likely to live in opportunity deprived neighborhoods and

communities.

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… generates unhealthy levels of stress hormones in children, which impairs their neural development

… correlates with children having levels of lead in their blood 9 times above average; high levels of lead linked to ADD & irreversible loss of cognitive functioning

… links to higher levels of violent offending among juveniles

… is highly correlated with childhood aggression and social maladjustment

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Why should those who are not marginalized care about equity challenges?

A region and all its residents share a linked fate

Inequities impact everyone

To thrive, regions must be competitive in the global economy

Isolation from opportunity results in lost productive and creative capacity, depriving a metropolitan area of its ability to compete and innovate

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Discussions about regions are enhanced by thinking about opportunity – both structurally and socially.

We need to think about the ways in which the institutions that mediate opportunity are arranged – systems thinking.

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Our relationship to these systems and the responsiveness of systems is both uneven and racialized. 

While understanding the relationships that exist within a system is important, we need to look for nodes of influence and power.

Where are the levers that can enact change?

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Is there an alternative way to think about how society arranges its institutions?

Can we think not about mere parity or redistribution, but growing the entire region? Future pathways of success?

What would represent a transformative change?

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Opportunity should be fairly distributed; this is not a zero-sum situation

Fair access to these opportunity structures is limited by various spatial arrangements and policies, such as sprawl, exclusionary zoning, and fragmentation

Regional equity is more than just reducing disparities

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“Equitable regionalism affirms the need for every community to have a voice in the resource development and future of the region. It builds and sustains region-wide, collaborative institutions with inclusive representation and a common goal: improving the health of the whole and expanding opportunity for all people and communities across the region. Equitable regionalism requires comprehensive and strategic investment in people and neighborhoods.”

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“Regionalism: Growing Together to Expand Opportunity for All.” 2007. Summary report, pp. 1-2.

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Investing in equity builds the economy of the entire region, thus uplifting everyone

“…even controlling for the fact that growth itself probably lowers poverty and inequality, improvements in various equity measures are likely to improve regional performance and therefore benefit city dwellers and suburbanites alike.” (p. 98)

“But our research, both in Los Angeles and in the rest of the country, suggests that individuals and communities that are better connected to regional opportunities experience higher incomes and increased efficacy.” (p. 12)

Pastor, Manuel, et al. Regions that Work: How Cities and Suburbs Can Grow Together (University of Minnesota Press, 2000).

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Metropolitan AreaTotal Local

Governments

Local governments per 100,000

residents

1. Pittsburgh 418 17.7

2. Minneapolis - St. Paul

344 12.3

3. St. Louis 312 12.2

4. Cincinnati 235 12.2

5. Kansas City 182 10.6

6. Cleveland 267 9.2

7. Philadelphia 442 7.4

8. Milwaukee 113 6.9

9. Chicago 567 6.6

10. Detroit 335 6.2

20. San Francisco 114 1.7

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Excerpt of chart from p. 132 of American Metro Politics by Myron Orfield (2002). Data from U.S. Census Bureau

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Administrative efficiency issues tend to dominate early discussions of regionalism, especially in times of budget/fiscal stress.

Administrative efficiency will be a result - but should not be the overriding goal - of regional cooperation.

Efficiency-based regional efforts have little impact on long-term opportunity.

What about improving quality of education?

Improving distribution of resources?

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Miller, David Young and Joo Hun Lee. “Making Sense of Metropolitan Regions: A Dimensional Approach to Regional Governance.” Publius online 12/10/2009 . 0:pjp040v1-40; doi:10.1093/publius/pjp040

A four dimensional model by David Young Miller & Joo Hun Lee

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Regionalism without an explicit racial equity component can cause communities of color and low-income communities to be further marginalized.

Gentrification: A relocation – rather than the elimination – of racialized concentrated poverty.

Power Dilution: Exclusion of people of color from planning and decision-making, thus diluting their political power.

EX: Indianapolis and Louisville

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Commissioned by the Presidents’ Council

Funding from the Cleveland Foundation

First major discussion on regionalism structured and led by African American and City leadership

Moves away from city versus suburb model

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Encouraged the investment in the central city that would both help to stabilize the city and link the city more consciously with the region.

Suggested creating a collectively-controlled regional school

Worked toward new agreements of a metropolitan approach to housing and some tax sharing that would keep jobs and other resources within communities.

New growth would be sensitive to the unevenness of jurisdictions in the region.

Created an equity fund for businesses and a regional development plan.

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Achieving success in Cleveland was a process that took approximately three years.

In June 2007, the city created a position in the Mayor’s Cabinet for a Chief of Regional Development.

An anti-poaching agreement was enacted.

Avon Lake interchange

2007: Cleveland Cavaliers practice facility

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Minnesota Fiscal Disparities Act of 1971

“Taxing jurisdictions in the seven-county area contribute 40 percent of the growth in commercial-industrial (CI) property tax base since 1971 into an area-wide shared pool.”

“Shared tax base is then redistributed back to jurisdictions - reducing fiscal disparities.”

For cities with population above 10,000: Ratio of highest to lowest CI tax base with & without fiscal disparities

Per capita without sharing 10 to 1

Per capita with sharing 4 to 1

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www.sxc.hu (glanzerr)www.metrocouncil.org/metroarea/FiscalDisparities/index.htm

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Portland’s Metro manages the urban growth boundary for the metropolitan area, which separates urban land from rural land.

Metro’s land-use planning powers:

“Coordinating between regional and local comprehensive plans in adopting a regional urban growth boundary

Requiring consistency of local comprehensive plans with statewide and regional planning goals

Planning for activities of metropolitan significance including (but not limited to) transportation, water quality, air quality and solid waste.”

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http://www.oregonmetro.gov/index.cfm/go/by.web/id=277

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eWhat is our vision for the future?

How do we get there?

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Important questions to address:

What is meant by regionalism?

Define your focus. What type of regionalism are you seeking?

What lenses are being used in your vision of regionalism? What foci matter?

What does a healthy region look like?

What would regionalism look like applied to your area?

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Adopt strategies that open up access to levers of opportunity for marginalized individuals, families, and communities

Bring opportunities to opportunity-deprived areas

Connect people to existing opportunities throughout the metropolitan region

Targeted Universalism

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Communities of color need to step forward proactively at the front end of the policy making process

Don’t wait for an invitation

Don’t wait for leaders if they are slow to mobilize

Be more than just involved in name only -- have a say early and often

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Frame the story so that it moves people in a positive direction

Use inclusive language“Good for the whole region” includes marginalized

groups without calling them out directly

Present the message using an array of people from different races/ethnicitiesDiversity in perspectives credibility of goals

being presentedAvoid being pigeonholed

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Continue to develop regional coalitions among:

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CDCs

Local governme

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Philanthropic

institutions

Anchor institutions

Business communit

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Now is a time to change the rules of the gain so that no one is left behind. We can’t just depend on the markets.

We don't want to kill the goose that lays the golden egg… BUT, we don't just want it working only for certain

groups (i.e., bankers, particular racial groups, etc.)

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Photos: sxc.hu; 13dede, arinas74

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 Green job will have a very local component.

We can't outsource putting on solar panels, for example.

But some cities have shown that a local focus in hiring can be a challenge.

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Photo: sxc.hu; jbolhuis

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Aim for goals that are shared by many and resisted by few.

Incentivize these goals.

Make sure your goals are central to your enterprise and not just marginal/an ‘add-on.’

Acknowledge people’s complexity.

People may act on their financial interests one moment and their emotions (or other interests) another. Recognize this multi-dimensionality.

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www.KirwanInstitute.org

KirwanInstitute on:

www.Transforming-Race.org

www.race-talk.org

eHispanic Segregation Index – Bay Area cities

Regional Cooperation

Supporting Sustainable Regional Development

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http://pewresearch.org/pubs/1045/americans-claim-to-like-diverse-communities-but-do-they-really

Hispanic Segregation Index

Source: Pew Research Center using data from U.S. Census Bureau, Racial and Ethnic Residential Segregation in the United States: 1980-2000, Census 2000 Special Report CENSR-3, 2002.

The dissimilarity index measures the percentage of a group’s population that would have to change neighborhoods for each neighborhood to have the same percentage of that

group as the metropolitan area overall.

12-2-2008

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Equity based regional policies address the following:

Regional school strategies to address segregation and concentrated school poverty

Regional affordable housing strategies

Regional transportation/mobility strategies Strategies to curb sprawl and reinvest in existing

neighborhoods (with infrastructure and other resources)

Strategies to make decisions regionally and to share resources (taxes)

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Mandating inclusionary opportunity-based housing development

Eliminating tax advantages and subsidies for ‘Greenfield’ development

Limiting sprawl-inducing transportation and other infrastructure investments