Poverty & Race

PRRAC POVERTY & RACE RESEARCH ACTION COUNCIL

January - April 2021 Volume 30: Number 1

Land Values and the Enduring Significance of Racial Residential Segregation Henry Louis Taylor, Jr.

I. Introduction comes, wealth, and other critical services has celebrated the ideal of inclusivity, and experiences that bolster their life’s residential integration, and social mo- The life chances of many African opportunities and outcomes. For this bility since the dismantling Jim Crow Americans are tied to their experiences reason, researchers that study neighbor- racism in the 1960s. Yet, despite the in underdeveloped central city neighbor- hood effects have convincingly argued passage of the Civil Rights Act of 1964, hoods. The implication of living in these that neighborhood-based social deter- the Fair Housing Act of 1968, and the Black spaces was suggested in a provoca- minants produce undesirable health and outlawing of redlining, restrictive cov- tive question posed by the historian Carol socioeconomic outcomes among Blacks. enants, and discrimination in the rental Anderson in her book, Eyes on the Prize, Consequently, African Americans cannot and sale of housing, residential segre- which I paraphrase, “How could the Civ- make significant socioeconomic progress gation endures and continues to define il Rights Movement leave in its wake a until this racist system of segregation Whiteness and frame storylines about nation where schools are more segregat- is dismantled and their neighborhoods Blackness. Why does residential segre- ed than ever, where Black workers are turned into great places to live, work, gation endure despite efforts to end it? stuck in low-income jobs, where racial play, and raise a family. The ending of ra- Discussion of residential segregation residential integration is a dream de- cial segregation will require dismantling typically defaults into narratives about ferred, where most Black children live in the land value system that undergirds it. government housing policies, individual poverty, where significant health dispar- preferences, and discriminatory practic- ities exist between the races, and where II. The Systemic Structural es. I want to take a different approach by Blacks comprise 32% of American pris- Racism Framework situating residential segregation within oners but only 13% of the population?” market dynamics and systemic structur- I theorize that African Americans have Persistent racial residential segrega- al racism and social class inequality. The made minimal socioeconomic advance- tion is an American paradox. The nation (Please turn to page 2) ments since the Civil Rights Era because of racial residential segregation. Residen- tial segregation is more than the separa- IN THIS ISSUE: tion of Blacks and Whites in geograph- ical space. It is a market-driven system Land Values and the Enduring Significance of Racial of denying African Americans equal and Residential Segregation...... 1 equitable access to education, jobs, in- Henry Louis Taylor, Jr. Henry Louis Taylor, Jr. (htay- The Making of Boston’s AFFH Ordinance - A Brief Oral [email protected]) is a Professor in History...... 3 the Department of Urban and Re- Megan Haberle gional Planning in the University at The American Right to Education: The Northwest Buffalo. This article is part of an upcom- Ordinance, Reconstruction, and the Current Challenge....5 ing policy brief series on housing Derek Black finance, racial justice, and segre- Gentrification, Demographic Change, and the Challenges gation, produced as a collaboration of Integration...... 7 between staff at PRRAC and the Furman Center at New York Uni- Kfir Mordechay versity.

Poverty & Race Research Action Council • 740 15th Street NW • Suite 300 • Washington, DC 20005 Recycled Paper 202/866-0802 • E-mail: [email protected] • www.prrac.org (LAND VALUES: Cont. from page 1) Frederick M. Babcock invented this land government, the White masses, and Black value system based on the intertwining people. Thus, on the eve of the Second intent is to shift the conversation away of race, place, economics, and culture. A Great Migration of African Americans to from “state blaming” and the actions of belief that the mere presence of Blacks in urban centers, the government and their individual Whites and to refocus it on the a community reduces residential property private sector allies had already created markets and systems that produced these values anchors the system. However, land a new method of residentially segregat- segregated outcomes. The systemic struc- value is not an autonomous ontological ing Blacks. In this system, White racism tural framework is critical to understand- feature of the city-building process, but a and economic advantage are inextricably ing how market dynamics interact with system that is reflective of, and constitut- bound together. This interconnectivity state systems to produce residential seg- ed by, prevailing social values and biases. drives the residential segregation process regation. Structural racism refers to insti- Babcock played to the racist sentiments of and produces a culture infused with ra- tutions merged into systems that operate Whites in developing a land value system cial stereotypes and biases to support it. to bring about undesirable socioeconomic that supported racism and the commodi- and health outcomes for Blacks. Although fication of the owner-occupied house and III. Black Neighborhood and institutions and systems’ operations are its transformation into a wealth-produc- Predatory Development unique, they nevertheless work inter- ing vehicle. Therefore, he structured a actively to generate policies, programs, mortgage-risk system in which the pres- Our story does not end here. Blacks and activities that produce unwanted ence or absence of Blacks determined pay a heavy price for being segregated social, economic, cultural, and political the value of housing and neighborhoods. in residential spaces. Scholars typical- outcomes for Blacks and people of color. Babcock argued that neighborhoods ly conceptualize Black communities as Operating within this market-driven had life-cycles and that the presence of disadvantaged, poor, or sites of disin- structural racism framework, the educa- Blacks in a community signaled the onset vestment and concentrated poverty. I tion, labor, housing, and land valorization of a period of rapid decline in that area. conceptualize these Black neighborhoods systems interactively function to push In this system, as the percent of Whites as underdeveloped places characterized Blacks into low-value, marginalized, and social class exclusivity-- measured in by “segrenomics” and predatory entre- and underdeveloped neighborhoods. For terms of median household income and preneurship. A high wall of land values example, the failure of resource-deplet- percent of the population with a college trapped Blacks in these underdeveloped ed schools that often service the Black degree— increases in a locality, so does sites, where they do not own the land on community reduces Black success in the the house-value and the wealth-produc- which they are building their community. labor market, while Whites have the com- These sociospatial units become the petitive edge because of their access to site of oppression, exploitation, and con- resource-rich schools with an abundance The ending of racial segre- testation because Blacks have limited of extra-curricular activities. Blacks are gation will require disman- housing and shopping options; segre- the perpetual losers in this rigged la- tling the land value that nomics dominate. Segrenomics refers to bor market competition and the result- undergirds it. the predatory profit-making activities that ing low incomes force them to search occur in communities where residential for housing in the most undesirable segregation limits residents’ consump- residential settlements in a metropolis. ing capacity of that residential district. tion options. Thus, in these residential Many Blacks are trapped in these On the flip side, as the percent of Blacks districts, predatory landlords generate low-value, marginalized, and underde- and social class inclusivity increases, hyper-profits in Black neighborhoods veloped neighborhoods. The sociologist the house-value and wealth-producing by delaying or postponing maintenance Patrick Sharkey argues that they are stuck power of that residential district de- and charging high rents. Neighborhood in place. Based on a longitudinal study creases. These residential districts are merchants overcharge them for goods of African Americans in Chicago over scattered across a land value continuum, and services. Local governments fail to four decades, beginning in 1968, Shar- and where a community falls along this maintain streets and sidewalks, poorly key concludes that residential mobility continuum will determine its housing maintain publicly owned vacant lots, and does not exist for most Blacks. Roughly values, amenities, hedonic features, and refuse to aggressively enforce existing three-quarters of all Black children who access to quality goods and services. housing and building codes. Concur- grew up in the 1970s and 1980s in under- This land value system structured an rently, these residents are often the tar- developed Chicago neighborhoods were urban residential environment character- get of excessive fines and ticketing for still poor and living in the same type of lo- ized by neighborhood inequality and set- municipal revenue-generating purposes. calities in 2008. These Blacks did move, tlements in which Blacks and Whites lived Meanwhile, greedy bankers and realtors but their new neighborhoods were no dif- in separate and unequal neighborhoods. turn the Black community into a golden ferent from the ones they left behind. As A public-private partnership created the goose of profitability through the use of Sharkey puts it, they were stuck in place. strategic framework for de facto residen- subprime loans, mass foreclosures, and The racist land valorization system is tially segregated communities during the other unscrupulous home finance meth- the producer of these racially segregated Depression era. These racially segregated neighborhoods. The real estate appraiser neighborhoods structured relations among (Please turn to page 4)

2 • Poverty & Race • Vol. 30, No. 1 • January - April 2021 The Making of Boston’s AFFH Ordinance - A Brief Oral History In late 2020, the City of Boston an- emeritus at Tufts University, and I be- due to my background and racial justice nounced new legislation amending the came involved initially as a consultant perch, I’ve continued to work with this city’s zoning code to include affirmative- to the Boston Housing Authority. The committee and the city and to just gener- ly furthering fair housing requirements. late Bill McGonagle, who I did some ally be a thorn in the city’s side. It’s re- The legislation, effective in March 2021, work for at the Boston Housing Au- ally such an honor to be able to have a evolved out of extensive local advocacy thority, asked me to come on board and relationship with our elected officials and efforts and community concern around help with the data piece primarily, and activists doing this work. housing issues, spurred in part by the re- then I also became involved in the writ- cent Assessment of Fair Housing (AFH) ing some of the drafts. By the second or Megan Haberle (PRRAC): My first process and related public engagement third drafts, the city then requested that question is: what do you see as the con- efforts by the advocacy community. It re- they borrow me from the BHA. And so, nection between zoning and fair housing, quires that proposed developments be as- I worked on writing the June 2019 draft and how did your thinking about that con- sessed for both their impact on historical report (as we like calling it, the June- nection inform the creation of this new exclusion and displacement risk and that teenth report) and presented it to the city. requirement in Boston? developers identify measures to further fair housing. Lydia Edwards: I’m a City Coun- Lydia Edwards: I think what I have Below, members of the Boston advoca- cilor in Boston. I represent District One, learned and what I’ve seen through the re- cy community and City Councilor Lydia which is East Boston, Charlestown, and search, especially in Boston is that zoning Edwards recount some key lessons from the North End. Many people are at ground has been one of the greatest undoers of the effort to pass this landmark piece of zero for school busing in Charlestown. civil rights and fair housing goals. It has local legislation. This conversation was been how the city and local municipali- facilitated by Megan Haberle, Deputy Di- [Unless] you are intention- ties avoid actually having to integrate and rector, Poverty & Race Research Action al in your planning, unless build inclusive communities. Council. Zoning for too many has been the in- you are actually integrating jury. [Some in power] pretend that it’s Nadine Cohen: I am an attorney at civil rights in how you de- raceless, classless, and just about density, Greater Boston Legal Services, and I sign a new neighborhood, height, or traffic. One example of this per- used to be on the Board of the Fair Hous- you actually injure the spective at work in Boston was the cre- ing Center of Greater Boston. I’ve been underserved...[t]hat is the ation of the Seaport district. That demon- a long-term fair housing attorney and direct connection between strated that unless you are intentional in advocate. I got involved early on in the your planning, unless you are actually Assessment of Fair Housing (AFH) pro- zoning and civil rights... integrating civil rights in how you design cess that the city of Boston was doing a new neighborhood, you actually injure to meet their obligation to Affirmatively the underserved. Now you have one of the Further Fair Housing. I was also part of And now East Boston is the home of the whitest, richest neighborhoods in Boston, this community advisory board and have single largest private development in the and that was just done recently in a city city [the Suffolk Downs redevelopment that is becoming browner. That is the di- been working with this group and with project]. I am a former - but forever in rect connection between zoning and civil Councilor Lydia Edwards to get both the my heart - practicing attorney at Greater rights, and unless we intentionally bring AFH and AFFH amendment included in Boston Legal Services. So that’s where I civil rights to zoning, it will injure the the zoning code. met a lot of these folks. I did community moral compass of the city. organizing for immigrants and domestic Oftentimes the problem is the capital- Kathy Brown: I’m from the Boston workers before I was in politics. I also ran ist understanding that if you build more, Tenant Coalition (BTC), which co-an- a legal clinic for domestic workers. Cur- you’ll get more - there’ll be a trickle down chored the whole AFH organizing process rently, I’m doing a lot in housing and zon- to the underserved - or that marketing af- with the Fair Housing Center of Greater Boston. We worked together to help the ing. I helped draft and introduced the first fordable units, in diverse communities is city create a good AFH, as intended by version of this zoning amendment. somehow meeting the obligation to Affir- the Obama administration’s framework. matively Further Fair Housing. [Our community] engagement was really David Harris: I’m with the Charles That’s traditionally been how the Bos- extensive. I’m really proud of all our ef- Hamilton Houston Institute for Race and ton Planning and Development Agency fort around organizing and engagement. Justice at Harvard Law School. I’ve been (formerly Boston Redevelopment Au- And we’ve just been supportive since in this space through the development of thority) has met its obligation. We’ll just day one of Councilor Edwards’ amazing the Seaport and everything else. I was tell everybody of all colors that they can’t AFFH amendment. the founding director at the Fair Housing afford to live here. [The AFFH] amend- Center of Greater Boston. Even though I ment is there to undo those injuries and James Jennings: I’m a professor don’t do fair housing directly anymore, (Please turn to page 10)

Poverty & Race • Vol. 30, No. 1 • January - April 2021 • 3 (LAND VALUES: Cont. from page 2) the Black underdeveloped neighborhood Black space with a culture that supports ods that bilk homebuyers of millions. problem on five interacting realities. First, and reinforces the collective approach to When Blacks do become homeowners, Black neighborhoods’ stigmatization is to everyday life and culture. The intent is they discover that their homes are situated normalize the oppressive and exploitative to pursue participatory democracy, com- in places where house values appreciate at conditions found there, to justify poverty munal ownership, and shared equity to a much lower rate than in White commu- deconcentration programs aimed mostly inform the transformation of the Black nities. In all too many instances, the Black at public housing units, and to rationalize community into a great place to live. The owner-occupied house is more of a cul- neglect of these communities by the local community land trust is the most vital tural artifact than a vehicle of wealth pro- government. Second, Blacks are stuck in tool in this quest for communal owner- duction. These underdeveloped and mar- place because of constrained residential ship, and it must be pursued with other ginalized Black residential districts are mobility. Third, Blacks are a renter-dom- forms of collective ownership, including stigmatized, their oppressive and exploit- inated community that does not own or cooperatives, limited equity cooperatives, ative conditions normalized, and mass control the land on which their commu- deed-restricted houses, and condomini- arrests and lethal police force are used to nities are built. Fourth, Whites resist ums, along with a cultural framework that control the masses. According to the Wash- race and social class integration because supports a collective way of life. Finally, I ington Post, Blacks are killed by the po- they economically and socially benefit want to stress that the regeneration strate- lice at more than twice the rate of Whites. from residential segregation. Lastly, ra- gy involves a remaking of the institutions The underlying assumption undergird- cialized spatial inequities result from a and programs servicing the Black com- ing the residential segregation paradigm munity, including schools and policing. is the seeming impossibility of radically The second strategy uses a radical resi- transforming these underdeveloped Black The first strategy features dential mobility scheme to enable Blacks, sociospatial units. This theory, based on a people-centered neigh- desirous of leaving the community, to the work of Robert E. Park, Ernest K. move to other parts of the metropolis. Burgess, and the Chicago School of So- borhood regeneration ciology, caused “integration” and residen- plan designed to allow for Existing residential mobility stratagems, tial mobility to become the default goal of community ownership and built on HUD’s tenant-based subsidy urban planners and policymakers. Blacks programs, focus on moving people into have always favored “integration,” not be- control over the land on “opportunity neighborhoods” without cause of an affinity for Whites, but because which Blacks are building necessarily restructuring those com- of the high levels of residential develop- their community. munities or altering their racist culture. ment found in White spaces. Yet, Whites Radical residential mobility, in contrast, will resist racial residential integration be- is not about “race mingling” or merely cause the apartheid system rewards them racist land valorization system that gen- living next door to Whites, but it is about economically and provides them with ac- erates high land values in white neigh- a process of changing these White-dom- cumulated privileges/advantages and ben- borhoods by reducing land value in Black inated neighborhoods so that these com- efits and a competitive edge in the educa- tional and labor markets. That’s why more neighborhoods. This land value system munities can accommodate and meet the than sixty years after the 1954 Supreme drives residential segregation, so it has to needs of the Black newcomers, as well Court decision outlawing school segre- be dismantled to build just cities based as other people of color. Radical racial gation and more than fifty years after the on racial and social class inclusivity. mobility is an anti-racist residential in- Fair Housing Act outlawed housing dis- The underdevelopment of Black clusive strategy that operates at a greater crimination, America is still a highly seg- neighborhoods is part of the larger prob- scale than existing mobility programs. It regated society. According to the St. Louis lem of neighborhood inequality and it requires the deep cultural and structural Federal Reserve Bank’s dataset on White- must be attacked on a metropolitan lev- transformation of White space to disrupt Non-White dissimilarity index for each of el. The plan should consist of two in- the land value system and recreate resi- the nation’s counties, most American cit- teractive strategies aimed at disrupting dential space so that it meets the cultural, ies remain highly segregated, especially market-driven metropolitan residential social, and physical needs and desires of those with large African American popu- lations. The index of dissimilarity ranges development. The first strategy features a the Black and colored newcomers. Such from 0 to 100. It measures the percentage people-centered neighborhood regenera- changes require altering the land value of the non-Whites in a county that would tion plan designed to allow for communi- system, erasing the culture of White su- have to change census tracts to equalize ty ownership and control over the land on premacy, and mitigating market dynam- the racial distribution between Blacks and which Blacks are building their commu- ics in these White residential spaces. Whites across all tracts in the country. nity. The design must pursue collective The abundant neighborhood effects lit- ownership, build community wealth, and erature indicates that Blacks will never get IV. Disrupting Predatory emphasize developing political power. free if they live in stigmatized, marginal- Development and the Land These political actions should not only ized, and undeveloped neighborhoods, Valorization System include radical electoral politics, but also plagued by the activities of predatory en- building alliances with other communi- trepreneurs and complicit anti-Black gov- Practitioners, activists, and policy- ty groups across the urban metropolis. ernment officials. The Black community makers must base strategies for solving Concurrently, it is necessary to imbue (Please turn to page 13)

4 • Poverty & Race • Vol. 30, No. 1 • January - April 2021 The American Right to Education: The Northwest Ordinance, Reconstruction, and the Current Challenge Derek W. Black ity during the nation’s first century. The he original theory of America was structure of these future states. The T most glaring breach was slavery. In ad- quite radical. In a world ruled by kings Northwest Ordinance divided every dition to physical slavery, states tried to and queens, our founders sought to turn town into thirty-six lots and reserved a bind African Americans’ minds, making political power over to average people. center lot for public schools, requiring it a crime for slaves to read and write. This new experiment in self-govern- outer lots to generate resources for those That breach, however, evoked re- ment depended on educated citizens. schools. Then, while delegates were sponses that involved some of the na- Without education, the founders feared literally drafting the Constitution, the tion’s most inspiring and redeeming mo- democracy would devolve into mob rule Continental Congress added a guiding ments—moments that the modern mind and open doors to unscrupulous poli- principle to the Ordinance: “religion, mo- struggles to fully appreciate. Slaves ticians and hucksters. Our democratic rality, and knowledge, being necessary fled for Union lines shortly after the experiment might very well just fail. to good government and the happiness Civil War began and, once safe, made As Benjamin Franklin bluntly acknowl- of mankind, schools and the means of the acquisition of learning—a right long edged at the close of our Constitutional education shall forever be encouraged.” denied them—a top priority. Makeshift Convention, the founders had estab- Our founding era presidents also im- schools immediately sprang up and lished “a republic, if you can keep it.” plored the nation to expand public edu- quickly swelled beyond capacity across Recognizing the challenge, the na- cation as rapidly as possible. President the South—from Fort Monroe along the tion’s commitment to public education George Washington urged Congress that Virginia coast (the location where slaves actually predates the Constitution itself. no “duty [is] more pressing on [the na- had ironically first arrived in America) Two years before the Constitutional to the banks of the Mississippi. Some Convention met, the Continental Con- The Northwest Ordinance schools had over one thousand students. gress needed to resolve the colonies’ divided every town into Underneath these efforts was a deep competing land claims in the western thirty-six lots and reserved human longing. For instance, when a territories and establish the rules for white missionary teacher first arrived creating new states, not just extensions a center lot for public at a freedmen’s camp along the Mis- of existing ones. The solution came in schools... sissippi River, an elderly former slave the form of the Northwest Ordinances, greeted her at the water’s edge, imme- which still today are reprinted at the diately indicating that he knew her pur- front of every copy of the United States tional] legislature” than “the common pose: “I’se been ’spectin you…for de Code alongside the Constitution and education of a portion of our youth from last twenty years. I knowed you would Declaration of Independence. In 1785, every quarter.” The very “prospect of come, and now I rejoice.” Similarly, the Northwest Ordinance divided new [a] permanent union” depends on their when asked if she wasn’t “too old to lands into territories and towns that education. Thomas Jefferson was simi- learn,” an eighty-five-year-old wom- would ultimately become the states of larly convinced that public education is an explained that “she must learn now Ohio, Illinois, Indiana, Michigan, Wis- “necessary to prepare citizens to partic- or not at all, as she had but little time consin, and Minnesota. Those same rules ipate effectively and intelligently in our left, and she must make the most of it.” later governed land west of the Missis- open political system [and] to preserve Swelling numbers and passion soon sippi too. In total, the Northwest Ordi- freedom and independence.” He bold- transitioned into a burgeoning move- nance helped shape thirty-one states. ly proposed committing the nation’s ment. Freedmen asked for, and some- Education was embedded into the financial treasure and future surpluses to education—and amending the Con- times demanded, education through stitution if necessary. John Adams was letters, face-to-face encounters, and the Derek W. Black (blackdw@law. even more specific, arguing that - gov organizations they created to advocate sc.edu) is a Professor at the Uni- ernment has a responsibility to provide for education. Their expectation and ar- versity of South Carolina Law education to “every rank and class of ticulation of what freedom meant—and School. This article is excerpt- people, down to the lowest and the poor- education’s central role in it—literal- ed from his new book, School- est” and pay for it at “public expense.” ly redefined the nation’s constitutional norms regarding citizenship. With edu- house Burning: Public Education Yet universal access to public educa- tion—much like universal participation cation and voting at the top of the freed- and the Assault on American De- in self-government—was a concept hon- men’s list, those things were soon at the mocracy (Public Affairs, 2020). ored more in American ideas than real- (Please turn to page 6)

Poverty & Race • Vol. 30, No. 1 • January - April 2021• 5 (EDUCATION: Cont. from page 5) the gift of public education back. They of education would soon rise, not drop. are turning their backs on ideas as old As education went online and stayed top of Congress’s too. For instance, as a as the constitutions under which they there, the technology gap became more condition for rejoining the Union after operate. While threats to the ballot are important than ever before and expand- the war, Congress forced Southern states immediately understood as threats to ed already unacceptable achievement to rewrite their state constitutions and democracy, attacks on public educa- gaps. Sensing a freefall, parents with embed the right to education in them. tion are not always fully appreciated means began retreating to their corners, Senator Charles Sumner wanted to as such. But rest assured, just as the worried less with the overall health of go even further. He offered an amend- gift of public education has helped the education system and far more with ment to the Reconstruction Act to re- build up our democracy, taking it back maintaining their kids’ competitive ad- quire that the system of education that threatens to tear down our democracy. vantages. The result was a wave of new southern states were about to create Fortunately, regular citizens are private school enrollments, pandem- would be “open to all, without distinc- standing in opposition. In 2018 and ic pods, and individualized demands. tion of race or color.” The Amendment 2019, tens of thousands of citizens— National leaders, including President surprisingly failed by a single vote, but including in the reddest of red states— Trump and Secretary DeVos, eventual- the idea even more unfathomably made marched together, demanding that their ly charged that public education itself its way into southern state constitutions legislatures fully fund public schools, was the problem and holding the na- anyway. No less than South Caroli- tion back, throwing more fuel on the na led the way. Delegates to its con- fire of one of the most divisive- pres stitutional convention argued that “[i] [A]s a condition for rejoin- idential elections of the modern era. t is republicanism to reward virtue. It ing the Union after the war, History suggests both danger and is republicanism to educate the people, Congress forced Southern possibility ahead. Public education without discrimination.” Another ex- states to rewrite their state has always served to bring disparate plained that “the question is not white constitutions and embed groups together and expand opportu- or black united or divided, but whether the right to education in nity to those without it. It also reveals children shall be sent to school or kept that private institutions have never at home. If they are compelled to be ed- them. been successful in systematically do- ucated, there will be no danger of the ing either of those things. Ameri- Union, or a second secession of South fairly compensate teachers, and place ca’s ability to reach the other side of Carolina from the Union.” Those ar- real limits on the privatization of educa- crisis as a stronger nation rests not guments carried the day and a constitu- tion in the form of charter schools and upon radical new ideas that denigrate tional guarantee of education soon be- vouchers. After securing key legisla- or undermine public education but came the national norm. No state ever tive victories in the states and catching upon its willingness to cling to those again entered the Union without guar- the attention of the full democratic slate ideas that were once radical, two hun- anteeing education in its constitution of presidential candidates, public edu- dred years ago, and managed to get and other existing states following suit. cation appeared poised for a comeback. us this far. And the events of January Today, all fifty state constitutions A worldwide pandemic, however, re- 6, 2021, painfully remind us that we protect the right to education. This set the political, cultural, and economic remain on a precipice, that we have right and its protections were so suc- landscape again. States immediately never fully committed to those ideas, cessful over the past half-century that cut public education budgets and gave and still have a long road ahead. ▀ one might have concluded that the con- no consideration to the fact that the cost stitutional rights to education and vot- ing, proceeding together, secured an irreversible triumph. Notwithstanding Poverty & Race (ISSN 1075-3591) is published three times a year by the Poverty imperfections in our voting and edu- & Race Research Action Council,740 15th Street NW, Suite 300, Washington, DC cational systems, the rights to vote and 20005, 202/906-8052, fax: 202/842-2885, E-mail: [email protected]. Sofia Hinojosa, education were no longer in serious editorial assistant. Subscriptions are $25 year, $45/two years. Foreign postage extra. dispute. The overwhelming majority Articles, article suggestions, letters and general comments are welcome, as are notic- of Americans seemingly believed that es of publications for our Resources Section—email to [email protected]. Articles everyone ought to be able to vote and that the federal and state governments generally may be reprinted, providing PRRAC gives advance permission. must ensure a quality education all. But democracy’s triumphs are rarely © Copyright 2021 by the Poverty & Race Research Action Council. All rights re- irreversible or settled. Some states— served. aided and sometimes prodded by fed- eral officials—have been trying to take

6 • Poverty & Race • Vol. 30, No. 1 • January - April 2021 Gentrification, Demographic Change, and the Challenges of Integration Kfir Mordechay Since the Supreme Court ordered al outcomes, including less experienced eral public. Gentrification in its classic the desegregation of American schools and less qualified teachers as well as high form entails an influx of higher socio- in 1954, the legacy of Brown v. Board of levels of teacher turnover (Clotfelter economic status individuals and outside, Education has yielded both progress and et al., 2010). Students attending segre- often predatory, investment into relative- disappointment. The unanimous ruling gated schools also have fewer and less ly poor neighborhoods that have experi- not only started the process of eliminat- advanced curricular options as well as enced disinvestment. Most scholarship ing de jure racial segregation in educa- inferior facilities and resources (Yun & has emphasized neighborhood changes tion, but also set the precedent for remov- Moreno, 2006). As a result of these com- in educational attainment, housing stock, ing the same barriers to housing access, pounded disadvantages, the outcomes for and income as the defining features of employment, civic participation, and oth- students who attend segregated schools gentrification. In recent decades, howev- er facets of American society (Noguera, include lower academic achievement er, race has also become a central feature. 2019). Yet, even as we acknowledge the (Mickelson & historic significance ofBrown , there have Nkomo, 2012), been many changes since. Intense levels higher dropout of segregation—which had decreased rates, and lower markedly in the decades after 1954— graduation rates are now on the rise. This is happening (Balfanz & as American society is in the midst of Legters, 2004). profound demographic changes, with the The segre- country’s suburbs and gentrifying areas gated features at the forefront (Mordechay, Gándara, of American & Orfield, 2019). This article seeks to neighborhoods, describe the phenomenon of gentrifi- especially hous- cation and its complex interplay with ing patterns are public schools. It then considers how a major driver policy might be deployed to minimize of racial school gentrification’s harms while harness- segregation. Al- ing some of the benefits it may present though this link for a return toward the vision of Brown. has loosened in The question of equity in education recent years, the vast majority of children Historically, gentrification has been a mi- remains as relevant now as it was at the still attend their local neighborhood pub- nor force of urban change in most cities, dawn of the Civil Rights Movement, lic school (Snyder et al., 2019). Because but there is general agreement that it has but the context of today could hardly of the tightly linked relationship between become much more substantial in a num- be more different. Simply put, Ameri- housing and school attendance, schol- ber of urban centers in the last two de- cans are vastly more diverse. Whereas ars have begun to pay attention to the cades (Ellen & Torrats-Espinosa, 2018; Whites accounted for approximately phenomenon of gentrification, through Florida, 2003). The scope of this demo- 90% of the population in the decade of which affluent and educated, and mostly graphic shift has been large, with some the Brown ruling, their share has steadi- White households have swept back into estimates suggesting that 20% of neigh- ly dropped. Since 1980, the share of the urban cores from which their parents borhoods in America’s fifty largest cities Whites has declined from close to 80% once fled. As a result, a notable number of have experienced gentrification over the to 60% of the total population, with communities have become newly hetero- last two decades. In several cities with some projections suggesting the nation geneous via this process of gentrification, more extensive levels of gentrification, will become “minority white” around particularly since 2000 (Ellen & Tor- more than half of all neighborhoods have 2045 (Frey, 2018). K-12 schools have rats-Espinosa, 2018). This carries poten- been gentrified (Maciag, 2015). Perhaps already hit that point (figure 1). And tially significant implications for many most surprising is that this trend is a re- yet racial segregation in U.S. public urban school districts across the country. versal of decades of disinvestment and schools is increasing in many parts of white flight in the mid-20th century. the country (Frankenberg, et al., 2019). I. Gentrification: From Many theories have been offered to ex- Racially isolated schools are associat- Minor to Major Force plain what is fueling gentrification. These ed with a plethora of unequal education- accounts range from drastic decreas- The term gentrification dates back es in violent crime (Ellen, et al. 2019), to the early 1960s to describe the mi- increased racial tolerance by Whites Kfir Mordechay (kfir.mordechay@ gration and subsequent transformation (Sander, 2018), deliberate urban revital- pepperdine.edu) is an Assistant Pro- of working-class areas of East London ization efforts by municipal governments (Glass, 1964). Since then, the definition (Smith, 1996), millennials’ distaste for fessor of Education in the Graduate of gentrification, as well as its causes and commuting (Okulicz-Kozaryn & Valente, School of Education and Psycholo- consequences, has been widely debated (Please turn to page 8) gy at Pepperdine University. among scholars, activists, and the gen-

Poverty & Race • Vol. 30, No. 1 • January - April 2021• 7 (GENTRIFICATION: Cont. from page 7) However, these same parents may also their neighborhoods. Such programs can lead to the marginalization of the popu- target low-income residents who are at 2019), and two decades of development lations that preceded them at the school the highest risk of displacement (such plans tailored to the “creative class” of (Posey-Maddox, 2014; Siegel-Hawley et as renters), or those that have long ties college-educated professionals. These al., 2016; New York Times, 2020). Stud- to the community. For example, the city forces along with increasing affordabil- ies exploring modern parenting practices of Portland recently adopted a program ity pressures drive higher-income house- have suggested that this is in part driv- that gives affordable housing to residents holds to lower-income neighborhoods in en by a set of common fears and anxi- who were displaced as a result of past search of less costly housing (Ellen, et eties that motivate privileged parents to redevelopment efforts. Similarly, other al. 2013), further fueling gentrification. engage in exclusionary behaviors that cities including San Francisco, Seattle, often “hoard opportunities” (Goyette New York City, and Austin have adopt- & Lareau, 2014). This in turn creates II. Gentrification and Neigh- ed similar policies (Goetz, 2018). For borhood Schools a dynamic where school leaders find themselves rarely willing to challenge these policies to be effective, they must In spite of these trends, gentrifying this behavior and frequently cater to be carefully tailored to the particular neighborhoods that achieve racial and higher-SES, White families, undermin- community and regularly reviewed for economically diverse communities may ing the equity aims of the school (Mor- compliance with the Fair Housing Act not result in diverse schools. High SES dechay, 2021; Calarco, 2020). These (for example, New York City’s policy and White families who move into tran- power and privilege dynamics can cre- was challenged in a Fair Housing Act sitioning neighborhoods often do not ate highly racialized environments in lawsuit filed in 2015 that is still pending send their children to the neighborhood which race and class shape student ex- in 2021). Properly crafted community school, instead choosing private schools, periences in ways that might accentuate preference policies can be an effective charters outside the neighborhood, or inequality. All of this points towards a strategy for minimizing displacement other choice programs. However, recent complicated interplay between school and ensuring that long-term residents data seems to suggest this may be chang- diversity and urban gentrification. of color benefit from neighborhood im- ing, and some schools serving gentrify- provements occurring around them. In ing neighborhoods may be experiencing III. Implications addition, preserving subsidized housing a decrease in segregation (Mordechay & that already exists in gentrifying commu- Ayscue, 2020; Deim et al., 2019). Sev- While gentrification can be an inex- nities can help to lock in diversity over eral recent analyses of traditional pub- orable destructive force in neighbor- the long term. In strong market neigh- lic schools in New York City and the hoods without significant protections in borhoods, local governments should District of Columbia found that in the place, these communities also have an also enact policies that protect existing cities’ most rapidly gentrifying areas, opportunity to harness the upsides of tenants from harassment and evictions. White enrollment increased and school neighborhood change and alleviate the The social environments of newly gen- segregation declined, albeit modestly stark racial and economic isolation that trifying communities are often character- (Mordechay & Ayscue, 2020, 2019). has been so pervasive throughout ur- In addition, the rise of charter schools ban America. In order for the outcome ized by limited social interaction across has presented an added layer of complex- of gentrification to be a shared - oppor races and class, and often with dynam- ity for understanding schooling within tunity, efforts at meaningful integration ics of exclusion. For the communities to gentrification contexts. Some research across the lines of class and race are im- be truly integrated, intentional efforts to shows that charter school emergence may portant. To achieve longer-term integra- break through the challenging social bar- actually facilitate gentrification in many tion, however, policymakers will need riers are critical, including developing circumstances (Pearman & Swain 2017). to work in coordination with housing more inclusive forms of governance and Charter school growth may lead to a rise and education entities as well as com- welcoming public spaces for shared use in school segregation and a decline in munity-based organizations, leveraging (Chaskin & Joseph, 2015). Long-stand- residential segregation as neighborhood existing community assets and resourc- ing community organizations are likely and school choices decouple (Rich et al. es. The goal must be to seek a revital- best equipped to help break down the 2021). Also, several recent studies have ization model that will work for both social barriers that are common within documented that in urban districts where long-time residents and newcomers. demographically shifting neighborhoods. charter school options proliferate along- This can help ensure that all residents feel side gentrification, neighborhood diver- Keeping Neighborhoods Affordable part of the community and can take full sity does not necessarily trickle down to advantage of any emerging opportunities. the nearby charter schools (Mann et al., Limited housing supply and increased 2020; Bischoff & Tach, 2020; Morde- demand in central cities have combined to Schools as Anchors of Integration chay & Ayscue, 2017). As charter schools cause housing prices to skyrocket, which expand across urban centers, it remains puts vulnerable households at risk of dis- A key neighborhood feature in both unclear whether or not they are an obsta- placement. Housing market pressures attracting and retaining families with cle to the desegregation of local schools. are especially pronounced in gentrify- children are the local public schools. Scholars have begun investigating the ing neighborhoods (Freeman & Schuetz, social and racial tensions that often ac- 2017). Cognizant of the potential pitfalls Efforts to integrate gentrifying families company these demographic shifts. Gen- of gentrification, a number of cities and into local schools must include policies, trifier parents can bring needed resourc- nonprofits are utilizing community pref- practices, and effective leadership that es and improvements to local schools erence policies allowing residents prior- are responsive to both new and long-time that have been historically segregated. ity access to subsidized housing built in (Please turn to page 9)

8 • Poverty & Race • Vol. 30, No. 1 • January - April 2021 (GENTRIFICATION: Cont. from page 8) References Ellen, I. G., Horn, K. M., & Reed, D. (2019). Has falling crime invited gentrification? residents (Mordechay & Ayscue, 2018). Balfanz, R., & Legters, N. E. (2004). Locat- Journal of Housing Economics, 46, 101636. Once schools in gentrifying areas attract ing the dropout crisis: Which high schools a more diverse student body, additional produce the nation’s dropouts? Where are Freeman, L., & Schuetz, J. (2017). Produc- they located? Who attends them?. Center ing affordable housing in rising markets: policies and practices are needed to en- What works?. Cityscape, 19(1), 217-236. sure schools are not just desegregated for Social Organization of Schools, Johns Hopkins University. on the surface and segregated within. Glaeser E, Vigdor J. 2012. The end of the Simply assigning students to schools in Bischoff, K., & Tach, L. (2018). The racial segregated century: racial separation in a manner that creates diversity will not composition of neighborhoods and local America’s neighborhoods , 1890-2010. Civ. produce desired outcomes. Making sure schools: The role of diversity, inequality, Rep. No. 66. Manhattan Inst. Policy Res., that the teachers of diverse classrooms and school choice. City & Community,17(3), New York. http://www.manhattan- institute. org/pdf7cr_66.pdf are prepared to handle the challenges 675–701. that often accompany rapid demograph- Calarco, J. M. (2020). Avoiding Us versus Glass, R. 1964: London: aspects of change. ic shifts is imperative. Providing these Them: How Schools’ Dependence on London: MacGibbon and Kee. educators with professional develop- Privileged “Helicopter” Parents Influences ment opportunities that focus on strate- Enforcement of Rules. American Sociologi- Goyette, K., & Lareau, A. eds. 2014. gies for adapting to racial changes can cal Review, 85(2), 223-246. Choosing Homes, Choosing Schools. New help ensure equitable inclusion of stu- York: Russell Sage Foundation Chaskin R.J. and Joseph M.L. (2015) dents from all backgrounds. As has been Mann, B., Bennett, H., & Rogers, A. well documented, tension in gentrifying Integrating the Inner City: The Promise and Perils of Mixed Income Public Housing (2020). Gentrification, Charter Schools, and urban schools is common. Therefore, Transformations. Chicago, IL: University Enrollment Patterns in Washington, DC: preparing school leadership to work ef- of Chicago Press Shared Growth or New Forms of Edu- fectively with all parents is essential, cational Inequality?. Peabody Journal of especially ensuring that the schools do Cucchiara, M. (2013). “Are we doing dam- Education, 95(3), 211-228. age?” Choosing an urban public school in not become sites for opportunity hoard- Maciag, M. (2015). Gentrification in ing by the more privileged parents. an era of parental anxiety. Anthropology & Education Quarterly, 44(1), 75-93. America report. Governing the States and In addition to leadership preparation Localities Magazine. Retrieved from http:// that combines high-quality research and Clotfelter, C. T., Ladd, H. F., & Vigdor, J. www.governing.com/gov-data/gentrifica- hands-on experience, it is important to L. (2010). Teacher credentials and student tion-in-citiesgoverning-report.html consider the racial and ethnic diversi- achievement in high school a cross-subject ty of school leadership. Administrators analysis with student fixed effects.Journal of Mickelson, R. A., & Nkomo, M. (2012). Human Resources, 45(3), 655-681. Integrated schooling, life course outcomes, of color can have a number of distinct and social cohesion in multiethnic dem- advantages, including more trust when Diem, S., Holme, J. J., Edwards, W., Haynes, ocratic societies. Review of Research in communicating with community mem- M., Epstein, E. (2018). Diversity for whom? Education, 36(1), 197-238. bers that share their racial and ethnic Gentrification, demographic change, and background. Therefore, in diversifying the politics of school integration. Educa- Mordechay, K., & Ayscue, J. B. (2017). schools located in racially transitioning tional Policy. Advance online publication. White Growth, Persistent Segregation: neighborhoods, districts should priori- doi:10.1177/0895904818807316 Could Gentrification Become Integra- tion?, UCLA Civil Rights Project/Proyecto tize hiring a diverse corps of principals. Florida, R. (2003). Cities and the creative class. City & Community, 2(1), 3-19. Derechos Civiles. https://www.civilright- sproject.ucla.edu/research/k-12-education/ Embracing Diversity Frankenberg, Erica, Joy Ee, Jennifer Ay- integration-and-diversity/white-growth-per- scue, and Gary Orfield. 2019.Harming Our sistent-segregation-could-gentrifica- American society is in the midst of Common Future: America’s Segregated tion-become-integration/DC-Gentrifica- profound demographic changes; and as Schools 65 Years After Brown. Los Ange- tion-122217-km.0.pdf les: Civil Rights Project, UCLA. the nation becomes more diverse, a re- Mordechay, K., & Ayscue, J. (2018). turn toward the undoing of segregation Frey, W. H. (2018, March 14). The U.S. Policies needed to build inclusive cities and the vision of Brown becomes more will become “minority white” in 2045, and schools. Education Policy Analysis imperative. Currently, gentrification is Census projects. Brookings. Retrieved from Archives, 26 (98). 1-14. a growing social and economic force https://www.brookings.edu/blog/the-ave- in many cities, offering an opportunity nue/2018/03/14/the-us-will-become-mi- Mordechay, K., & Ayscue, J. B. (2019). to integrate what were once segregat- noritywhite-in-2045-census-projects/ School integration in gentrifying neigh- borhoods: Evidence from New York City, ed neighborhoods and schools. While UCLA Civil Rights Project/Proyecto unchecked gentrification is unlikely Ellen, I.G., Horn, K.M. and K. O’Regan (2013). Pathways to Integration: Examin- Derechos Civiles. https://www.civilright- to produce any lasting integration, it ing changes in the prevalence of racially sproject.ucla.edu/research/k-12-education/ is possible that with explicit diversi- integrated neighborhoods. Cityscape, integration-and-diversity/school-integra- ty efforts from schools and communi- 14(3):33-54. tion-in-gentrifying-neighborhoodsevi- ties, gentrification could lead to shared dence-from-new-york-city/NYC-031019. opportunities for all stakeholders. ▀ Ellen, I. G., & Torrats-Espinosa, G. (2019). pdf Gentrification and Fair Housing: Does Gen- trification Further Integration?.Housing (Please turn to page 15) Policy Debate, 29(5), 835-851. Poverty & Race • Vol. 30, No. 1 • January - April 2021 • 9 (BOSTON AFFH: Cont. from page 3) so that the community benefits could go to decision-making. the South Boston Betterment Trust, set up The community became energized by to create healing. It requires us to hold a for the benefit of “long time residents” of Councilor Edwards’s efforts to amend the mirror up to the developers and say: ‘This South Boston. We fought the racist idea zoning code and include fair housing. It is what you purchased in 2021, here is that only one group could benefit from was a great connection between political what it looked like in past decades; here’s the creation of one of the first new neigh- activists, community activists, lawyers, the displacement crisis that you are now borhoods in any city in the country. We academics, environmental justice groups, responsible for undoing; these are the in- had an opportunity to create a brand-new and health advocacy groups. I think that juries; and now, here’s a whole list of mit- neighborhood, and there was a struggle was a very important part of this. igation measures. You will be part of help- over that and we were able to success- ing to undo those harms through planning fully stop it, but then we didn’t have all Megan Haberle: Could you highlight and zoning.’ the tools to stop it. It’s really important to some of the specific fair housing require- understand the role of community orga- ments that the new zoning code requires James Jennings: It’s interesting that nizing and agitation, but you also have to developers to undertake? the zoning codes for the city of Boston have the statutes. were established in 1956. We have the Lydia Edwards: What I learned from, Fair Housing Act of 1968. This basically Megan Haberle: With regard to the from the Seaport, and what I’ve learned represented two divergent narratives for AFFH amendment, could folks speak a bit from Suffolk Downs [an East Boston the city of Boston up until a few weeks to the role of the community in pushing development project] is that the process ago. When you look at the zoning codes is where the community needs to be in- in Boston, there isn’t one word on fair volved in literally in telling you the ques- housing, decades after the Fair Housing We wholly adopted the tions that you need to ask. For example, Act of 1968. In a sense, the amendment at Obama administration defi- when developers come in, they have to fill last conjoins fair housing and zoning, as nition of AFFH on purpose out a worksheet. They have to get a long should have been clear all along. worksheet and those questions were com- because it has tried, true, pletely informed by the community. They Kathy Brown: In terms of backdrop, tested case law to support initially gave us a draft that asked how I would add that the Boston Tenant Co- it. many tenants are living in the building alition, in addition to helping to anchor when you purchased it, but the commu- the AFH community advisory committee, nity came back and said: not all of us are also anchors a coalition around inclusion- the effort forward, and also to the inter- considered tenants, some of us are just oc- ary development policy, Coalition for a action between advocacy groups and the cupants. We changed the vocabulary. Tell Truly Affordable Boston. We’re trying council? How did that effort come into us who will live there? And did you re- to reform that in Boston and are working being and to fruition? quire it to be delivered to you vacant? Did with Councilor Edwards on the state level you get this building vacant on purpose? and city level. The reality is as the Coun- Nadine Cohen: I think the commu- The community came with the ques- cilor said, the mayor’s housing strategy nity part started with the Affirmatively tions, to ask the developers: When you has been build, build, build. It’s approx- Furthering Fair Housing mandate from approached this project, what were your imately 57,000 units, that’s what they say the Obama administration. The mandate real intentions? And then we went into the need in the city of Boston is to address calls for looking broadly at all the things commercial displacement: did you just housing needs. Right now, it is maybe that go on in a municipality that keep peo- get rid of the only bodega in the entire 15,000 units of those that are affordable? ple from having the opportunity to get neighborhood? Did you just get rid of Part of the way of getting there is inclu- housing, live in any community, and get Johnny Food’s Mart (which they did in sionary development, but the reality is the services they need - everything from Charlestown, and replace it with a Whole that the development that is happening healthcare to transportation, to education. Foods)? is mostly market rate, and a lot of luxu- It’s so much broader than just housing. Developers had never been trained in ry units. While the payout has been im- Through the efforts of the Boston Tenants this kind of thinking or analysis. They proved, the actual percentage of units that Coalition, and this group of us that came never thought they were going to have are affordable is so paltry. And the income together from legal services, and we had to do this. And so now we’re going to do targeting by “Area Median Income” just people from ACE, an environmental jus- their job for them, we’re going to have to doesn’t work. tice group in the community. We initial- be the consultants and the judges of what ly had the Lawyers’ Committee for Civil they do. The community informed the David Harris: I’m not as versed on Rights and a number of other community questions in the process. Then it goes to a zoning as others here, and I want to make groups as well come together. We went committee, and they take their list of their sure that we get a different point in the out and had many community meetings. proposed mitigations, their proposed re- record. It has to do with the Seaport and The city was involved as well and talked port from the historical and displacement the work that Nadine and I did long ago, about what the major housing issues were. mapping that they’re going to get from the back when the Seaport was known as the And I think it all came back to displace- city. South Boston Seaport. The reason it was ment, unaffordable housing, and lack of And then they have a whole analysis known as the South Boston Seaport was services. I think that informed a lot of our (Please turn to page 11)

10 • Poverty & Race • Vol. 30, No. 1 • January - April 2021 BOSTON AFFH: Cont. from page 10) throughout this process? ing. That’s their idea of outreach and en- gagement. of whether they meet the mark, whether James Jennings: That question re- For us, there was this question of ac- they’re going to Affirmatively Further flects how to approach fair housing as it countability, of getting the city to write Fair Housing or not. That the committee should rightfully be approached, which into their AFH that they are going to be is internal within city government was a is as intersectional. We had groups who held accountable. That there are going fight and for many advocates it wasn’t were involved with different areas of ac- to be mechanisms by which people will their preference. Still, the report comes tivism by presenting fair housing as not both have input and be involved in assess- out to the public. We know when the com- just looking at just affordable housing or ments. mittee meets, we get to look at their re- building more housing, but really how is I think that’s where the real break- ports and self-assessments, and we give health connected to fair housing? There throughs are coming. Not only here, our own opinion. might be people who were concerned they’re coming all across the country Part of our job going forward now is: about health equity at the table. We have where people are starting to say, we want how does this work? How do you demand a big homelessness problem among chil- to control our fate, and a little dinner for more? What are you looking for? How dren and families in the Boston public us or something at a meeting isn’t going do you use the analysis, what questions schools. I remember some early meetings to do it. can push for the community to get more? where some people were asking me, what From day one, it must involve trained does health have to do with fair housing? Lydia Edwards: I wanted to add to the community members. We have to go take But by approaching fair housing as it lessons learned from the Seaport, which these papers, take this process to com- should be, intersectionally, it allowed for is that it’s not the first final product that munity advocates, groups, and do what a a space for groups working on all kinds of gets approved where the injury is done. lot of groups have learned to do with the social justice issues to come together. So The Seaport on its first draft on paper is a Boston jobs policy. We have a job policy green lush, beautiful place to live. By the that says this many people of color, this time they got through amending it quietly, many women, and this many Boston resi- [A] lot of young people, going through their process without com- dents. They show up at the site. They do a young people of color, all munity engagement, it’s a concrete jungle census at the site and they show up at the sorts of people are working with a postage stamp of greenspace. committee meetings for the jobs policy We knew that we had to make sure that and say, this isn’t right, to those who are with us to fight the kind of there were enough hooks. Now when they not in compliance. development that is really try to amend a development plan, they will That’s what we need to do: train peo- impacting them. have to do a robo-call to the community ple to be part of this conversation. It’s in English and Spanish. They will have to exciting in that sense and that’s how it’s say we’re going to amend it - we’re going expected to work. On its face not only fair housing emerged as a powerful glue to do these things. We also required the does it include fair housing, but for the in the city. developer to come back every two years first time it uses affirmatively integrated and give the community updates on the communities as a goal in zoning. David Harris: One answer is that in mitigation process, buildings, and envi- We wholly adopted the Obama admin- our surveys that stuff came up. We actual- ronmental impacts - all of these things are istration definition of AFFH on purpose ly talked to people, got feedback. People required. because it has tried, true, tested case law mentioned violence. Violence becomes We linked the AFFH amendment, not to support it. And that’s taking meaning- a fair housing issue if you understand it just in the zoning code, but to Article 80, ful actions to remove all obstacles to op- correctly. And you think about how you which is our large and smart project re- portunity. And making sure that we use allocate resources and how the city takes view. When they go to amend their proj- that specific language, and that was a big care of itself. ect, they have to do this assessment again. push too, to negotiate that with the city. It wasn’t clear that the city understood The impact of the amendment has to go or knew what fair housing was either, in through all of this as well. You changed Megan Haberle: As someone who its statutory nature or applied nature. The your project. Now you have to make sure also lives in a city that’s a high-cost mar- beauty of having this zoning legislation, that the environmental standards that you ket, with a lot of displacement, but also a was that as we worked with the city, as we agreed to are still going to be met as well, very deeply segregated city, I’m curious: tried to argue for the Juneteenth report, it and the affirmatively integrated commu- as you talk about the building of political was important for us to be able to point nity that you promised us. will to push this initiative forward, was to some action that people could take that the conversation around displacement and this bill was it - it was perfect. The Kathy Brown: I feel like I’ve also and the conversation around other fair other piece of the struggle with the city learned more about the legal hooks and housing issues, including, segregation and doing this was precisely around this tools, as I’m more of the organizer. Hous- and housing choice, were those things in- question of community input. ing discrimination is a huge problem in tertwined from the beginning or was there The city, as all municipalities do, thinks Boston. Suffolk University just did a daylight between them? How are those about outreach. They think, we’ll have a study about housing discrimination, es- concepts working together for people, in- meeting at five o’clock, maybe we’ll even cluding for some of the advocacy groups go to the neighborhood and have a meet- (Please turn to page 12)

Poverty & Race • Vol. 30, No. 1 • January - April 2021 • 11 (BOSTON AFFH: Cont. from page 11) push the envelope in terms of communi- be my hope that the next mayor is a little ty organizing, asking the questions, and bit more engaged directly in these issues pecially people with subsidies. Blacks how to become more involved. and a little more committed and knowl- are discriminated against way more than edgeable about fair housing in its full di- everybody no matter their income. I just Nadine Cohen: As Councilor Ed- mensions. want to make sure that in addition to wards said this is just the beginning of talking about displacement, we mention the process, and we have to stay vigilant Lydia Edwards: I’m hopeful in what housing discrimination including against - you can’t let up. We all know power I see for my colleagues now. One of the families and people with subsidies. So never concedes anything. You push, you saddest things I learned in this is that much of all the new housing has been demand, and you organize for it. I think unless you were an expert in housing like one-bedrooms and studios - not for we have to be vigilant, keep that up, and and able to ask the right questions as a families. I want to mention that is in the have the community organizing part and city council, [you didn’t have the tools zoning amendment, in addition to dis- also the legal as well. The city of Boston to assess developers]. I happen to have placement - the historical exclusion, and did not understand any of this when we worked for the administration in housing, looking at areas that have historically first got together in 2017 to talk about happened to have access to experts on the been white. AFFH, and I think we have educated phone, and not everyone does, even the I just want to talk a little bit about the them. best person may not have this expertise on hand. Developers eventually come to amazing timing of all this. Two different We have pushed them and Councilor my table and asked for my support, they components of it. One is racial justice: Edwards has pushed them from the other always do. Now, I literally hold up the awakening, awareness, organizing, and side. So will things change? I hope so. amendment and say, get as close to this accountability. The flashing of the lights I do want to say that I think the AFFH on the city and public figures to act. The as possible, and then go further. I don’t care what size your project is, you’re go- other thing which is exciting is all the [I] really hope...that other grassroots organizing that has happened ing to follow this amendment and that’s in many neighborhoods where a lot of cities see the example of it. So it has provided a guidebook for ne- young people, young people of color, all Councilor Edwards and re- gotiating tactics for politicians. sorts of people are working with us to ally push for fair housing to Also, I’m hopeful that Cambridge fight the kind of development that is im- become part of their zoning and some other cities will start to pick it pacting them. It is happening all around laws. up, but it’s not just going to be in Mas- sachusetts. We set a national conversa- the city, Roxbury, Dorchester, Jamaica tion, a mold, and every single city has Plain, and Brighton - where an insane efforts from the Obama administration its own special sauce of injury, pain, and amount of development is happening. In and the 2015 rule helped energize us to discrimination. This amendment is flex- terms of the timing of this amendment push forward. And I hope the Biden ad- ible enough so that the healing can be and using this amendment, we have all ministration goes back to the 2015 rule city-specific. this amazing organizing and leaders of and that other cities see the example of We were going to change the zoning color on the ground fighting the BPDA Councilor Edwards and really push for code for the city of Boston, no matter around these developments. It’s just re- who won the national election. And so I ally good because we didn’t have that fair housing to become part of their zon- ing laws - because that’s a big part of it. hope that was also inspiring to a lot of several years ago - it feels like the timing other cities. It will come from the grass- is perfect. David Harris: I’m an optimist, and roots efforts of saying there’s harm done, you know where my optimism is right and there needs to be healing now. And Megan Haberle: What is your sense this is how we’re going to do it. ▀ of hopefulness going forward about how now - we’re going to have a new mayor. much impact you see this fair housing One of the things measure having on the city of Boston? that we learned in New on PRRAC’s Website this process that James Jennings: Well, I think there’s was painful and Mixed income neighborhoods and integrated schools: going to be some resistance. I think the difficult for us was Linking HUD’s Choice Neighborhoods Initiative with the call to continue community organizing that we never dealt Department of Education’s Magnet Schools Assistance Pro- is going to be critical. About two weeks directly with this gram, by Philip Tegeler & Laura Gevarter (March 2021) ago, the Boston Business Journal high- mayor. This mayor lighted a piece entitled “As Walsh Heads never engaged this Reviving and Improving HUD’s Affirmatively Furthering to DC Boston’s Real Estate Is Fearing process fully or co- Fair Housing Regulation: A Practice-Based Roadmap, by Upheaval. We’re going to get resistance operatively. In oth- Megan Haberle, Peter Kye, and Brian Knudsen (December from the powers that be, from the status er cities that’s not 2020) quo. But we now have a framework to the case. It would

12 • Poverty & Race • Vol. 30, No. 1 • January - April 2021 (LAND VALUES: Cont. from page 4) Imbroscio, D. (2020). Race matters (even more than you is now the epicenter of systemic structural racism and the site of already think): Racism, housing, and the limits of The Color of contestation over neighborhood development. Therefore, to get Law. Journal of Race, Ethnicity and the City. DOI:101080/2688 free, Blacks must transform the communities in which they live 4674.2020.1825023. and eliminate racial residential segregation by launching a rad- ical residential mobility strategy aimed at dismantling the land Rothstein, R. (2017). The color of law: A forgotten history of value system and disrupting the market forces that drive it. The how our government segregated America. Liveright. progressive urban strategy must therefore center neighborhood inequality and inequity in the battle to build just cities based on Taylor, Jr. H.L. (2020). Disrupting market-based predatory racial and social class inclusion and socioeconomic justice. ▀ development: Race, class, and the underdevelopment of Black neighborhoods in the U.S., Journal of Race, Ethnicity and the References/Further Reading City. DOI:10.1080/26884674.1798204.

Hall, J.D. (2005, March). The Long Civil Rights Movement Taylor, K.Y. (2019). Race for profit.University of North Caroli- and the Political Uses of the Past. The Journal of American na Press. History. 91/4, pp. 1233-1263.

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Poverty & Race • Vol. 30, No. 1 • January - April 2021 • 13 Resources Housing • Aaronson, Daniel, Jacob W. Faber, Daniel Hartley, Bhashkar Mazumder, & Patrick Sharkey. “The Long-run Effects of the Education 1930s HOLC “Redlining” Maps on Place-based Measures of • Bergman, Peter, and Isaac McFarlin, Jr. “Education for Economic Opportunity and Socioeconomic Success.” Regional All? A Nationwide Audit Study of School Choice.” Columbia Science and Urban Economics Volume 86 (2021) 103622. University, 2020. • Bigelow, Jonathan. “Implementing Creating Moves to Oppor- • Bottia, Martha C., Elizabeth Stearns, Roslyn Mickel- tunity.” MDRC Building Knowledge to Improve Social Policy, son, Stephanie Dancy & Cayce Jamil. “The Importance of January 2021. Community College in Students’ Choice to Major in STEM.” Journal of Higher Education, 91:7, 1116-1148 (2020). • Dane, Stephen M. “Has Comcast Altered the Standards for Pleading Civil Rights Claims?” The Federal Lawyer, Volume 67, • Bradbury, Katharine. “Racial and Socioeconomic Gaps Issue 6, November/December 2020. in New England Metropolitan Areas: State School Aid and Poverty Segregation.” New England Public Policy Center • Ellen, Ingrid G., Katherine O’Regan, Sophia House & Ryan Research Reports, February 2021. Brenner. “Do Lawyers Matter? Early Evidence on Eviction Patterns After the Rollout of Universal Access to Counsel in New • Dancy, Melissa, Katherine Rainey, Elizabeth Stearns, York City.” Housing Policy Debate (2020). Roslyn Mickelson & Stephanie Moller, “Undergraduates’ Awareness of White and Male Privilege in STEM.” Interna- • Faber, Jacob W. “We Built This: Consequences of New Deal tional Journal of STEM Education 7, 52 (2020). Era intervention in America’s racial geography.” American Socio- logical Review (2020) 85(5): 739-775. • Holme, Jennifer J., Erica Frankenberg, Joanna Sanchez, Kendra Taylor, Sarah De La Garza & Michelle Kennedy. • Freeman, Lance, A Haven and a Hell: The Ghetto in Black “Subsidized Housing and School Segregation: Examining America (Columbia University Press: 2019). the Relationship between Federally Subsidized Affordable Housing and Racial and Economic Isolation in Schools.” • Baocchi, Gianpoalo, H. Jacob Carlson, Marne Brady, Ned Education Policy Analysis Archives (2020), 28(169). Crowley & Sara Duvisac. “The Case for a Social Housing De- velopment Authority.” Urban Democracy Lab at NYU’s Gallatin • Mickelson, Roslyn A., Mauricia Quiñones, Stephen S. School, November 2020. Smith & Toby L. Parcel. “Public Opinion, Race, and Levels of Desegregation in Five Southern School Districts.” Social • Graziani, Terra, Joel Montano, Ananya Roy, & Pamela Ste- Science Research 93 (2021) 102477. phens. “Profit from Crisis? Housing Grabs in Times of Recovery.” UCLA Luskin Institute for Inequality and Democracy, October • Mickelson, Roslyn A., Martha C. Bottia & Savannah Lar- 2020. imore. “A Metaregression Analysis of the Effects of School Racial and Ethnic Composition on K-12 Reading, Language • Layser, Michelle D. “How Federal Tax Law Rewards Housing Arts, and English Outcomes.” Sociology of Race and Ethnici- Segregation.” 93 Indiana Law Journal 915 (2018). ty (2020). • Menendian, Stephen, Samir Gambhir, Karina French, & Arthur • Milligan, Joy. “Plessy Preserved: Agencies and the Effec- Gailes. “Single-Family Zoning in the San Francisco Bay Area tive Constitution.” 129 Yale Law Journal 924 (2020). – Characteristics of Exclusionary Communities.” Othering and Belonging Institute, October 2020. • Owens, Ann. “Unequal Opportunity: School and Neigh- borhood Segregation in the USA.” Race and Social Problems • Patterson, Kelly L., Robert Mark Silverman, & Chihuangji 12, 29–41 (2020). Wang. “It is Not Always Sunny in San Diego for Housing Choice Voucher (HCV) Holders: The Reproduction of Racial and Socio- • Rich, Peter, Jennifer Candipan & Ann Owens. “Segregat- economic Segregation under the Choice Communities Initiative.” ed Neighborhoods, Segregated Schools: Do Charters Break a Journal of Policy Practice and Research (2021). Stubborn Link?” Demography (2021). • Turner, Margery A., and Mica O’Brien. “Place-Conscious • Roda, Allison, Ryan Coughlan, Paul Tractenberg & Deir- Strategies to Restore Opportunity and Overcome Injustice – Five dre Dougherty. “Making School Integration Work in New Guiding Principles Illustrated by Building Healthy Communities.” York City Schools: A Long Term Solution to the Enduring Urban Institute Metropolitan Housing and Communities Policy Problem of Segregation and Inequality.” 48 Fordham Urban Center, February 2021. Law Journal 669 (2020). • Siegel-Hawley, Genevieve, Kendra Taylor, Kimber- Health & COVID-19 ly Bridges, Erica Frankenberg, Andrene Castro, Shenita Williams & Sarah Haden. “School Segregation by Boundary • Benfer, Emily, David Vlahov, Marissa Long, Evan Walk- Lines in Virginia: Scope, Significance and State Policy Solu- er-Wells, J.L. Pottenger, Gregg Gonsalves & Danya Keene. tions.” Center for Education and Civil Rights, November “Eviction, Health Inequity, and the Spread of COVID-19: Hous- 2020. ing Policy as a Primary Pandemic Mitigation Strategy.” Journal of Urban Health (2020). • Scott, Janelle T., Genevieve Siegel-Hawley, Elizabeth DeBray, Erica Frankenberg, and Kathryn McDermott. “An Agenda for Restoring Civil Rights in K-12 Federal Education Racial Justice Policy.” National Education Policy Center, November 2020. • Archer, Deborah N. Archer. “‘White Men’s Road Through Black Men’s Homes’: Advancing Racial Equity Through High- Environmental Justice way Reconstruction.” 73 Vanderbilt Law Review 1259 (2020). • Ezer, Tamar & David Stuzin. “Petty Offenses Symposium Synopsis.” University of Miami Law School, 2020. • Alexandra Woods, “The work before us: Whiteness and the psychoanalytic institute,” 25 Psychoanalysis, Culture & Society (2020) Poverty • Ezer, Tamar & David Stuzin. “Petty Offenses Symposium Synopsis.” University of Miami Law School, 2020.

14 • Poverty & Race • Vol. 30, No. 1 • January - April 2021 PRRAC’S SOCIAL SCIENCE ADVISORY BOARD Dolores Acevedo-Garcia Jamila Michener Brandeis University Cornell University

Camille Zubrinsky Charles Roslyn Arlin Mickelson Dept. of Sociology, Univ. of Pennsylvania Univ. of No. Carolina-Charlotte Regina Deil-Amen Pedro Noguera Univ. of Arizona College of Education UCLA Graduate School of Education Stefanie DeLuca Paul Ong Johns Hopkins University UCLA Luskin School of Public Affairs Ana V. Diaz Roux Gary Orfield Drexel University UCLA Civil Rights Project Dornsife School of Public Health Ann Owens Ingrid Gould Ellen University of Southern California New York University Wagner School of Public Service Vincent Reina University of Pennsylvania Jacob Faber New York University John Robinson Wagner School of Public Service Washington University in St. Louis Lance Freeman Patrick Sharkey Columbia Univ. School of Architecture, Princeton University Planning and Preservation Gregory D. Squires Heidi Hartmann Dept. of Sociology, George Washington Univ. Inst. for Women’s Policy Research William Trent Rucker C. Johnson Univ. of Illinois at Urbana-Champaign Univ. of California-Berkeley Goldman School of Public Policy Margery Austin Turner The Urban Institute William Kornblum CUNY Center for Social Research Margaret Weir Dept. of Political Science Maria Krysan Univ. of California, Berkeley Univ. of Illinois, Chicago David Williams Michael Lens Harvard School of Public Health UCLA, Luskin School of Public Affairs Willow Lung-Amam University of Maryland

(GENTRIFICATION: Cont. from page 9) Posey-Maddox, Linn. 2014. When Middle-class Parents Choose Urban Schools: Class, Race, and the Challenge of Equity in Public Mordechay, K., Gándara, P., & Orfield, G. (2019). Embracing the ef- Schools. Chicago: University of Chicago Press. fects of demographic change. Educational Leadership, 76 (7), 34-40 Mordechay, K., & Ayscue, J. (2020). Does Neighborhood Gentrifica- Rich, P., Candipan, J., & Owens, A. (2021). Segregated Neighbor- tion Create School Desegregation. Teachers College Record, 122(5), hoods, Segregated Schools: Do Charters Break a Stubborn Link?. 1-34. Demography. Doi: 10.1215/00703370-9000820 Mordechay, K. (forthcoming 2021). A Double Edged Sword: Ten- Sander, R. H. (2018). Moving toward integration: The past and sions of Integration amidst a Diversifying Public School. Leadership future of fair housing. Harvard University Press. and Policy in Schools. doi:10.1080/15700763.2021.1879165 Siegel-Hawley, G., Thachik, S., & Bridges, K. (2017). Reform with New York Times. (2020). Nice White Parents. Podcast audio. reinvestment: Values and tensions in gentrifying urban schools. Education and Urban Society, 49(4), 403-433. Noguera, P. A. (2019). Why School Integration Matters. Educational Leadership, 76(7), 20-28. Snyder, T. D., de Brey, C., & Dillow, S. Smith, Neil. 1996. The New Urban Frontier: Gentrification and the A. (2019). Digest of education statistics 2017. National Center for Revanchist City. New York: Routledge. Education Statistics, Institute of Education Sciences, U.S. Department of Education Yun, J. T., & Moreno, J. F. (2006). College access, K-12 concen- trated disadvantage, and the next 25 years of education research. Okulicz-Kozaryn, A., & Valente, R. R. (2019). No urban malaise for Educational Researcher, 35(1), 12-19. Millennials. Regional Studies, 53(2), 195-205.

Pearman, F. A., & Swain, W. A. (2017). School choice, gentrifica- tion and the variable significance of racial stratification in urban neighborhoods. Sociology of Education, 90(3), 213–235. Poverty & Race • Vol. 30, No. 1 • January - April 2021 • 15 Poverty & Race Research Action Council Nonprofit 740 15th St NW • Suite 300 U.S. Postage PAID Washington, D.C. 20005 Jefferson City, MO 202/866-0802 Permit No. 210 Email: [email protected] Website: www.prrac.org

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POVERTY & RACE RESEARCH ACTION COUNCIL Board of Directors/Staff

CHAIR Damon Hewitt Philip Tegeler Olatunde C.A. Johnson Lawyers’ Committee for Civil Rights President/Executive Director Columbia Law School Under LawWashington, DC New York, NY Megan Haberle David Hinojosa Deputy Director VICE-CHAIR Lawyers’ Committee for Civil Rights José Padilla Under Law Gina Chirichigno California Rural Legal Assistance Washington, DC Director, National San Francisco, CA Coalition on School Diversity Camille Holmes SECRETARY National Legal Aid & Defender Assn. Michael Mouton john a. powell Washington, DC Communications & Othering and Belonging Institute Partnerships Manager University of California Berkeley Elizabeth Julian Berkeley, CA Inclusive Communities Project Brian Knudsen Dallas, TX Senior Research Associate TREASURER Brian Smedley Chinh Le Peter Kye American Psychological Legal Aid of the District of Columbia Law & Policy Associate Association Washington, DC Washington, DC Darryn Mumphery S.M. Miller Law & Policy Fellow John Charles Boger The Commonwealth Institute University of North Carolina Cambridge, MA Sofia Hinojosa School of Law Administrative & Chapel Hill, NC Dennis Parker Program Assistant National Center for Law and Economic John Brittain Justice Caroline Doglio University of the District of New York, NY Policy Intern Columbia School of Law Washington, DC Gabriela Sandoval The Utility Reform Network Sheryll Cashin San Francisco, CA Georgetown University Law Center Washington, DC Theodore M. Shaw University of North Carolina Craig Flournoy School of Law University of Cincinnati Chapel Hill, NC Cincinnati, OH Justin Steil Rachel Godsil MIT, Dept. of City Rutgers Law School and Regional Planning Newark, NJ Cambridge, MA [Most recent organizational affiliations listed for identification purposes only]