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Seizing Opportunities to Create Equity in the Baltimore Region

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Executive Director, The Kirwan Institute for the Study of Race and Ethnicity ... It is crucial to act at this critical juncture ... – PowerPoint PPT presentation

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Title: Seizing Opportunities to Create Equity in the Baltimore Region


1
Seizing 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

2
Todays 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?

3
What 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
4
Were 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

5
Racial Inequity in Baltimore and New Orleans
  • Baltimore and New Orleans
  • Pre-Katrina like inequity and social conditions
    can be found in the Baltimore region

6
Segregation in Baltimore
Source Map taken from Brookings Institute,
Living Cities Databook for the Baltimore Region
7
Concentrated Poverty in Baltimore
Source Map taken from Brookings Institute,
Living Cities Databook for the Baltimore Region
8
Baltimores 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

9
Regional 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

10
Population Change 1970-2000 Population Changes
since 1970 in the Baltimore region have shifted
much of the regions population to the suburbs.
11
Whites have moved throughout the region since
1970, while African Americans have moved
primarily to concentrated areas adjacent to the
City of Baltimore.
12
Spatial 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

13
The 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/
14
Subsidized 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

15
Segregated Public Housing in Baltimore. Public
Housing and African American Neighborhoods. Map
from the Maryland ACLU website.
16
New Subsidized Housing Production LIHTC
  • LIHTC
  • These same trends can be seen in new LIHTC
    housing developments

17
Exclusionary 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

18
Emerging 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

19
Opportunities 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

20
Baltimores 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

21
At-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

22
Population Decline in Baltimore and the Inner
Suburbs
Source Map taken from Brookings Institute,
Living Cities Databook for the Baltimore Region
23
Suburban 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)

24
Baltimores 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
25
How 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

26
Strategic 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

27
Examples 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

28
Collaboration 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

29
Collaboration 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

30
Churches in the Baltimore region cross both
spatial, racial and class boundaries
31
Concluding 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

32
For More Information Visit Us On-Linewww.KirwanI
nstitute.org
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