Suburbs' growth feeds segregation
Copyright 2003 The Columbus Dispatch
Columbus Dispatch (Ohio)
May 21, 2003 Wednesday, Home Final Edition
SECTION: NEWS; Pg. 06E
LENGTH: 594 words
HEADLINE: SUBURBS' GROWTH FEEDS SEGREGATION, RACE EXPERT SAYS
BYLINE: Alice Thomas, THE COLUMBUS DISPATCH
BODY:
America's building boom has segregated the country, throwing gains made by the civil-rights movement in reverse, says the head of a new institute on race relations at Ohio State University.
In Columbus -- which has been judged slightly more segregated than the average American city -- the issue is about to be front and center.
"The way we structure space within a region is the most important civil-rights issue of the century," said john powell, director of the Kirwan Institute for the Study of Race and Ethnicity. He does not capitalize his name.
The institute will take up the issue at a two-day conference beginning Thursday titled "Growing Together: Achieving Racial Justice and Sustainable Growth Through Regional Planning."
Powell said the two biggest social movements of the past century include one that favored integration -- civil rights -- and one that didn't -- suburbanization.
With the federal government picking up the tab to expand infrastructure outside cities and new mortgage laws making home buying easier, people began moving outward in the 1940s.
But early mortgage laws that favored whites and "steering" by real-estate agents -- as well as a desire among blacks to live near other blacks -- contributed to white and black enclaves, powell said.
"We're more segregated, jurisdictionwise, than we were in the 1940s," he said.
Increasing freedom gave blacks more mobility, and many moved from rural to urban areas. But they tended to move to less prosperous areas than the areas that attracted whites, leaving blacks with a struggle to get ahead.
"Most whites live in a piggy bank. . . . The vast majority have accumulated wealth from their home," powell said.
Columbus ranks 63 on a segregation scale of 0 to 100, with 100 being apartheid, according to a scale developed by David Rusk, an urban-policy analyst who was mayor of Albuquerque, N.M., from 1977 to '81.
The national average is 61. Cleveland comes in at 77.
Albuquerque -- one of the most integrated cities for blacks in the United States -- ranks 31, which Rusk attributes to a comprehensive growth plan.
About a dozen states have enacted anti-sprawl plans, with Oregon's being the strongest, he said.
Columbus' policy of annexation puts it in a better position than other cities to control growth, Rusk said.
But there's one big stumbling block: attitude.
"In Ohio, all growth is considered good," said Kimberly Gibson of the Mid-Ohio Regional Planning Commission.
"This (conference) is going to hopefully get people to stop and think that there are winners and losers in the growth game."
Poorly planned and populous areas suffer traffic congestion, skyrocketing taxes, poor air quality and lack of open space, Gibson said. To address the issue locally, MORPC in September will begin work on a regional-growth plan that's expected to be completed next year.
"This region could end up being another Atlanta if we don't invest resources in planning," she said.
athomas@dispatch.com
Box Story:If you go
The Kirwan Institute for the Study of Race and Ethnicity at Ohio State University will hold its inaugural conference, called "Growing Together: Achieving Racial Justice and Sustainable Growth," on Thursday and Friday.
Featured speakers include former Maryland Gov. Parris Glendening, now the president of the Smart Growth Leadership Institute, and David Rusk, former mayor of Albuquerque, N.M., and an urban-policy analyst.
The public is invited to a community session, which will be held from 4 to 5:30 p.m. Thursday at the King Arts Complex, 867 Mount Vernon Ave.
