Title: Seizing Opportunities to Create Equity in the Baltimore Region
1Seizing Opportunities to Create Equity in the
Baltimore Region
- Keynote Address
- BRIDGE Summit
- October 6th 2005
- john powell
- Executive Director, The Kirwan Institute for the
Study of Race and Ethnicity - Williams Chair in Civil Rights Civil Liberties,
Moritz College of Law - The Ohio State University
2Todays Discussion
The Baltimore Region from Space
- National context - What did Hurricane Katrina
expose in New Orleans? - Baltimore regions challenge
- Baltimore regions opportunities
- How do we respond to this opportunity?
3What was Exposed by Hurricane Katrina?
- The continued racial inequity in our cities
- The failure to invest in poor communities of
color - Policies and structures that produced segregation
and concentrated poverty - Social isolation and segregation from opportunity
caused by regional inequity
Storm Survivors in New Orleans Photo from
Katrinahelp.com
Storm Survivors in New Orleans Photo from
Combined Federal Campaign of the National Capital
Area
4Were the conditions in New Orleans Unique?
- The segregation, racial/social inequity and
isolation from opportunity found in New Orleans
is not unique - These conditions can be found in almost every
major city today
5Racial Inequity in Baltimore and New Orleans
- Baltimore and New Orleans
- Pre-Katrina like inequity and social conditions
can be found in the Baltimore region
6Segregation in Baltimore
Source Map taken from Brookings Institute,
Living Cities Databook for the Baltimore Region
7Concentrated Poverty in Baltimore
Source Map taken from Brookings Institute,
Living Cities Databook for the Baltimore Region
8Baltimores Challenge How did these conditions
occur in Baltimore?
- A number of historical/contemporary policies and
structural factors created todays conditions in
Baltimore - Regional dynamics
- White flight, urban decline, job sprawl
- Spatial racism
- Policies that concentrate poverty, disadvantage
communities of color and promote segregation
9Regional Dynamics Sprawling Development and
White Flight
- Suburbanization has stripped Baltimore of much of
its White population - Housing discrimination and subsidized housing
policies blocked access to the suburbs for
African Americans - Leaving the city extremely segregated
10Population Change 1970-2000 Population Changes
since 1970 in the Baltimore region have shifted
much of the regions population to the suburbs.
11Whites have moved throughout the region since
1970, while African Americans have moved
primarily to concentrated areas adjacent to the
City of Baltimore.
12Spatial Racism
- Spatial Racism is the cumulative collection of
structures (policies and institutions) that
inhibit the health of inner city African American
communities and disproportionately benefit white
suburban communities. - Examples
- Subsidized housing policies and
segregation/concentrated poverty - Exclusionary zoning and fair housing
13The Effects of Neighborhood SegregationSegregati
on from Opportunity
School Segregation
Impacts on Educational Achievement
Exposure to crime arrest
Transportation limitations and other inequitable
public services
Neighborhood Segregation
Job segregation
Racial stigma
Impacts on community power and assets
Adapted from figure by Barbara Reskin at
http//faculty.washington.edu/reskin/
14Subsidized Housing Policies and
Segregation/Concentrated Poverty
- Historic and contemporary housing policies have
reinforced the racialized concentrated poverty in
Baltimore by locating most housing in poor
African American inner city communities - Evidence of this can be seen in the Thompson case
15Segregated Public Housing in Baltimore. Public
Housing and African American Neighborhoods. Map
from the Maryland ACLU website.
16New Subsidized Housing Production LIHTC
- LIHTC
- These same trends can be seen in new LIHTC
housing developments
17Exclusionary Zoning
Areas with Potential Exclusionary Zoning in 2000
- Exclusionary land use policies hinder the
production of affordable housing - Blocking housing opportunities for low income
families
18Emerging Opportunities
- A convergence of factors have created the
opportunity for strategic action (and
intervention) in the Baltimore region - Katrina (National Awareness)
- Baltimores growing housing affordability problem
- Thompson decision
- Suburban organizing
19Opportunities from the Thompson Decision
- The Landmark decision in Thompson
- The Thompson decision verifies that housing
policies were not providing fair housing
opportunity in the Baltimore region - The remedy to this violation will create a
tremendous opportunity to create integration in
the region and promote integration with
opportunity for public housing residents
20Baltimores Organizing Opportunity
- The suburbs are changing, traditionally urban
issues are now impacting our older suburbs and
these communities have fewer resources to deal
with them - Suburbs may be in greater need
- Swing areas
- Creates tremendous organizing opportunity
21At-Risk and Diversifying Baltimore Suburbs
- Evidence suggests that these suburban trends are
evident in Baltimores older inner suburban
communities - Population stagnation
- Increasing poverty
- Job losses
- Educational disparities
22Population Decline in Baltimore and the Inner
Suburbs
Source Map taken from Brookings Institute,
Living Cities Databook for the Baltimore Region
23Suburban Organizing Opportunities
- African Americans are the fastest growing racial
group in Baltimores suburbs, slowly reversing
trends from previous decades - This new growth presents both opportunities and
challenges - The opportunity to build more racially diverse
coalitions throughout the region - The challenge to assure African Americans are
moving to suburbs of opportunity (not declining
opportunity)
24Baltimores suburbs are changing and diversifying
due to African American suburbanization, more
African Americans moved to Baltimores suburbs
than Whites in the 1990s.
Source Figure taken from Brookings Institute,
Living Cities Databook for the Baltimore Region
25How do we respond?
- It is crucial to act at this critical juncture
- Take advantage of the opportunity created by the
convergence of these different issues in the
region - How to respond
- Strategic interventions and action
- Collaborative activities and action
26Strategic Interventions and Action
- Target energy toward Strategic Interventions
- Big problems do not necessarily require big
solutions - In a structurally oriented initiative, small
interventions can be critical to creating change,
but these interventions must explicitly target
the structural arrangements causing disparity
27Examples of Strategic Interventions in the
Baltimore Region
- These activities are already underway in the
Baltimore region - Inclusionary housing/preservation campaigns
- Reforming LIHTC (PRRAC)
- Organizing in at-risk suburbs
- Gap financing for housing
- Thompson related activities
28Collaboration and Organizing will be Critical to
Success
- BRIDGE is already active in collaborative action
- Continuing and expanding these activities and
maintaining these relationships will be critical - Baltimore Regional Housing Campaign New choices
for all families children - Must be collaborative across spatial/racial and
class boundaries - A challenge that the faith based community is the
most likely to success at
29Collaboration and Collaborative Action for the
Faith Based Community A Challenge and an
Opportunity
- Collaboration is key in moving regional equity
agendas forward - Faith Based Organizations offer a great
opportunity for building coalitions because many
congregations are already diverse racially,
economically, and politically
30Churches in the Baltimore region cross both
spatial, racial and class boundaries
31Concluding Thoughts
- A tremendous opportunity for action is occurring
in the Baltimore region - Strategic interventions and collaboration are
critical to take advantage of these opportunities
and promote real change - Seize the opportunity
- The faith based community must be the leaders in
organizing for this change
32For More Information Visit Us On-Linewww.KirwanI
nstitute.org