Housing Segregation in the United States - Research Paper Example

Housing Segregation in the United s The Supreme Court, in a landmark decision, Village of Euclid v Amber Realty Company, approved the use of municipal zoning and unwittingly set in motion the so called neutral, non exclusionary zoning regulations which in fact, perpetuated racial segregation in residential neighbourhoods (Nelson, 1996). Urban sprawl, or the migration of the middle class away from the inner city areas into the suburbs, has produced a state where poor minorities are primarily to be found in inner city areas, restricted in their movement by the lack of available public transportation, while middle class whites live elsewhere in the suburbs. Opponents of urban sprawl have argued that this has produced a state of residential racial segregation, wherein poor minorities tend to get isolated into pockets within inner city neighbourhoods. Public housing policies also appear to support racial segregation by providing housing for the poor minorities only in such racially segregated areas. Opponents of segregation however, argue that the residential scenario is not discriminatory or racially segregated; rather there is a growing trend to gentrification, wherein inner city neighbourhoods are being developed in a manner that would make them attractive to more affluent sections of the population. The process of gentrification occurs when upscale whites move into rundown minority neighbourhoods. Gentrification has also been viewed as a form of discrimination, bringing about racial segregation through pushing out the poor from gentrifying neighbourhoods, but studies cited later on appear to suggest otherwise. This essay will examine both sides of the argument on residential racial segregation. Segregation is a term that is generally associated with the era prior to the Civil War, when African Americans were literally isolated from the mainstream. It may be contended however that in the context of housing in the United States, segregation is still practised, because poor, black Americans are mostly concentrated in areas that are not as affluent as the suburban neighbourhoods. This was not however, always the case. As Massey and Denton (1993:17) have pointed out, blacks and whites lived side by side before 1990, but a progressive migration of blacks from the South and their congregation in urban areas of the north led to the formation of ghettos, i.e, areas of poverty largely populated by blacks. Increasingly, public housing programs and urban renewal projects were instituted, which all had the net effect of causing manufacturing jobs to move out of the inner city areas, leading to the phenomenon referred to as “urban sprawl”. The phenomenon of urban sprawl has been an ongoing feature of the American environment; it has resulted mainly out of the shifting of jobs in areas located far away from cities. Due to the lack of availability of transportation to these far out areas, poor blacks and Hispanics were not able to access better, higher paid jobs located out in the suborns and became confined to the inner city areas, where their poverty and lack of opportunities in employment became a vicious cycle. Powell (2000) points out that in the year 1970, only 25% of the nation’s offices were located in the suburbs, but that figure has been escalating rapidly, so that in the present day, it is more than 60%; drawing away jobs and people with the means to travel away from the inner city areas. Orfield (1999) has argued that the net result of this phenomenon he refers to as white flight is the development of an isolated group of blacks and Hispanics from lower socio-economic backgrounds, who remain trapped in inner city areas where jobs become increasingly scarce and their poverty is exacerbated by falling property values and lack of availability of credit. Denton and Massey (1991), in describing the process of development of residential racial segregation have shown how white flight from an inner city area tends to produce a condition where more blacks start moving into those neighbourhoods until they have completely taken it over, aggregating them into these inner city pockets. Powell (2000) further argues that the property values start to drop in such areas, mortgages become more difficult to get and developers are less interested in investing into improvements in such areas. Trapped in a vicious cycle of poverty and lack of availability of any means to get themselves out of it, including the restrictions due to lack of transportation, blacks and poor minorities tend to get segregated into such racially isolated areas. Powell (2000) supplements his arguments on urban sprawl by specifically examining various American cities. The city of Alberqueue for instance, has been experiencing urban sprawl and white flight for several decades and the net result has been to confine coloured minorities within the inner city areas. The policies followed by the city itself may have exacerbated the problem, because no efforts have been made to create jobs for the poor communities, so that they remain trapped in the inner cities by economic constraints. As opposed to this, the city and the entire state of New Mexico has instituted measures to support middle class businesses, such as reduction of personal income taxes, investment tax credit for manufacturers and economic development and enhancement.(Brunt, 2001). But inner city areas get ignored and isolated as more outer rings develop around cities where economic activity takes place and business and opportunity moves away. Those who advocate urban sprawl and have moved away into suburban areas argue that there are many benefits offered in such a move; for example lower density of houses and therefore less noise and greater privacy with lower crime rates because these suburbs generally tend to be more affluent areas (Norman et al, 2006). Downs (1999), in providing an assessment of the pros and cons of urban sprawl and the issues that it gives rise to, point out that one of the problems that is tackled by urban sprawl is the congestion which arises in the inner cities as a result of rapid population growth. This also produces traffic congestion, rapid increases in school enrolment and overcrowding. There would also be an increase in the levels of spending on infrastructure and a greater need experienced for open spaces. The proponents of urban sprawl argue that such overcrowding, congestion and pressure on civic amenities can be alleviated through the phenomenon of urban sprawl. Downs(1999) also points out that no city can control the levels or extent of its population growth, because even if they adopt measures such as limiting new growth and development and laws on halting of housing construction, it would not necessarily halt the pace of development and halt the onset of overcrowding. More and more people would tend to move away in order to escape the congestion, hence to some extent urban sprawl may be inevitable. Is urban sprawl and the resultant segregation really beneficial in the long run? The arguments stated above may not necessarily hold true in every instance; for example it could be argued there is a greater likelihood of accidents during travel over long distances to get to suburban areas and people living in these areas are less healthy than inner city inhabitants who often need to walk to work or to their destinations, thereby increasing their levels of exercise. It may also be noted that due to urban sprawl, land that could otherwise be left to nature, for the development of wildlife parks and similar purposes, has to be used instead to build highways and parking infrastructure. This reduces the levels of taxable land and revenues and providing services like water, gas and heating to these areas is also more expensive. The net result is that such areas then become less desirable options in terms of housing cost. Pollution in the atmosphere is also increased because there is a higher volume of traffic flowing through these suburban areas. Due to the distances created between the affluent sections of society that could draw in wealth and resources into a particular region and the poor who are restricted into inner city neighbourhoods, the net result undeniably, is a separation of individuals on the basis of their socio-economic status; the wealthier ones move into the suburbs and the poor remain in the inner cities, where the lack of job opportunities only creates segregation and fuels higher levels of crime. It could thus be argued that urban sprawl in the long run, not only causes segregation, but also turns out to be more expensive in the long run from the perspective of the environment and public services. Opponents of residential racial segregation most often proffer the argument of gentrification to contest that inner city neighbourhoods are not being isolated and segregated; rather they are being revamped and refurbished. “Gentrification” is a process of displacement and has been defined by Smith and Williams (1986) as the “rehabilitation of working class and derelict housing and the consequent transformation of an area into a middle class neighbourhood.” (Smith and Williams, 1986:1). In effect, wealthier people move into low income inner city areas and bring improvements and business to these areas. Poor and low income inner city neighbourhoods are improved through an influx of private capital coupled with an increase in middle income homebuyers. Gentrification emerged in the 1970s when gasoline prices began climbing, travelling long distances became a less viable economic proposition, thus artists and graduate students began to take a fresh look at the old cities with their fine architecture, well laid streets and proximity to the civil center. People began moving into these neighbourhoods and improving them, thereby pushing property prices up and creating new economic opportunities in these areas. Gentrification produces a range of benefits, such as higher level of available jobs, streets that are safer due to reduced instances of crime and better trash pick-up facilities (Hampson, 2005). Reinvestments are made in infrastructure, roads, schools and water mains; there is expansion of businesses and the development of long and short term job opportunities; existing housing stock is improved or renovated in order to make it escalate in value. In a national study of gentrification that was carried out by Lance Freeman, an assistant professor of planning at Columbia University, when upscale white people move into rundown, minority neighbourhoods, improvements occur such as rising prices, but this does not necessarily push the poor people out. As opposed to this, Hampson (2005) has also cited several cities where gentrification is not being viewed favourably because the long time, minority residents in the neighbourhoods are being ignored and passed over in favour of newer residents. In the city of Portland, for instance, streets, sidewalks and transportation is being improved, with the Government also offering grants and loans to minorities. But as Yardley (2008) points out, old time minority residents feel that such moves are being instituted mainly to raise housing prices and bring newcomers into the neighbourhood, rather than being designed for its long time, black residents. An eloquent argument has been offered on the basis of capitalistic philosophy that shows precisely how gentrification can lead to displacement of poor minorities from inner city neighbourhoods where they have been living for a long time (www.articlesbase.com). The crux of the argument is that capitalism mandates the pursuit of profits. When a neighbourhood is gentrified, property and rental values in the area generally tend to rise, as a result landlords will be prone to raising rents and the earlier, poor tenants might find themselves unable to cope with the rise in rents and thereby be forced out. They literary have no choice in some instances but to move away from their long time homes, into other areas where rents are not on an upward spiral. Displacement of long time minority residents is one of the fiercest arguments that have been offered in support of the argument that gentrification also instigates racial segregation by forcing minorities to move out of a gentrifying neighbourhood. On the one hand, gentrifying improves a neighbourhood by improving job prospects and property values; on the other hand, it tends to displace the poor who are unable to keep in pace with the developments and unable to pay higher rents and property taxes. From a statistical standpoint, LeGates and Harman(1986) have estimated that the average annual displacement figure for the United States is 2.5 million people, while Marcuse(1986) in a study, found that about 10,000 to 40,000 households were displaced every year in New York city. In Harlem, one of the city’s most populous black neighbourhoods, the blacks are increasingly moving out while people with wealth are increasingly moving in (Hampson, 2005). The net effect of gentrification is that it may tend to disrupt some of the long established community structures and institutions which have been set up to serve the needs of a particular racial group, so that these groups are forced to move away from those community institutions which have been built to serve their needs. Harlem, for example has been quintessentially a black neighbourhood; during the 1930s and 1940s a plethora of black performers, artists and writers arrived en masse in Harlem (Whitaker, 2001). Harlem became the center of black creative output and as Whitaker puts it, created a new aesthetic which produced a radical transformation of American music, theatre and literature. When there is a congregation of a particular race in this way within a particular neighbourhood, the entire ethos of said neighbourhood tends to reflect the underlying cultural and racial traditions and practices that are integral to that particular community. In his article, Whitaker (2001) has indicated that the phenomenon of aggregation of blacks into the Harlem neighbourhood produced a cultural renaissance of sorts that was quintessentially black. With the onset of gentrification however, new money and new neighbours are pouring into Harlem, thereby providing scope for the development of another form of renaissance, but one that is considerably different from the earlier one. In essence the strength of the black culture in the region has been diluted and the institutions and ethos that were once solely black are now slowly being displaced, giving rise to a different form of renaissance. Hampson(2005) however has offered a strong argument suggesting that minorities and black people actually tend to stay on in gentrifying neighbourhoods and he offers a few explanations for the phenomenon. First, despite the rise in rents and mortgage payments, poor homeowners in gentrifying neighbourhoods stand to benefit from the rising property values. Second, federal housing subsidies and rent control measures instituted to protect the poor have enabled them to stay on despite escalating prices. Other measures utilized by the poor to cope with rising prices is doubling up in apartments or entering into tenant-landlord understandings wherein tenants make themselves responsible for maintenance of the property in exchange for lower rents (Hampson, 2005). This may lead to yet another disadvantage of gentrification, which is provided below. Other disadvantages of gentrification are those that arise as a result of a similar situation that leads to urban sprawl; i.e., overcrowding and congestion. In general, when a neighbourhood is gentrified, the urban density is increased because the number of people living in a particular square mile increases and it also creates parking problems and associated congestion. As more and more people move into the neighbourhood to avail of the benefits of centralized locations, proximity to civic centres and a good road and civic services network, overcrowding is the result. In particular, since the gentrified neighbourhoods also contain the original poor residents of the neighbourhood and these individuals may not choose to move out of the neighbourhood as the prices of property and rents start to rise, but double up and move in together to save money, this only produces much higher levels of congestion. In conclusion therefore, no definitive conclusion can be reached on the question of residential racial segregation. At the outset, debates have led to the belief that both urban sprawl and gentrification of inner city neighbourhoods tend to cause racial segregation. In the former, it occurs by leaving the poor and the minorities in the inner city neighbourhoods and moving out into more prosperous, suburban areas, limiting the movement out of these minorities through the lack of availability of public transport. On the basis of arguments offered earlier in this essay, urban sprawl may indeed have contributed to the problem of isolation of minorities and blacks into inner city neighbourhoods. Urban sprawl also has other detrimental effects on the environment through increased pollution and increased expenses in the provision of civic facilities. Gentrification is the opposite, i.e, more affluent people moving back into inner city neighbourhoods as the prices of properties in suburban areas increases and the prices of gasoline shoot skyward. Racial segregation is alleged in this instance in a different way, i.e, not through isolation of the minorities but rather, by displacing them out and away from the gentrifying inner city neighbourhoods. Harlem is a typical example of a neighbourhood that has been gentrifying rapidly, as property prices in other parts of New York shoot up. To counter the argument of racial segregation, opponents such as Hampson(2005) have contended that the poor minorities actually tend to benefit because they stay on in gentrifying neighbourhoods. Despite the rise in property values an escalation of rents, they tend to remain and benefit from rent control measures and subsidies offered by the Government, enjoying facilities such as prompt trash pick-up, safer streets and higher market values of their properties. References: * Brunt, Charles D, 2001. “New Mexico legislature lobbied heavily by commerce, industry association”, Retrieved November 8, 2010 from: http://www.accessmylibrary.com/coms2/summary_0286-8401591_ITM * Hampson, Rick, 2005. “Studies: gentrification: a boost for everyone”, USA Today, April 19, 2005; Retrieved November 8, 1010 from: http://www.usatoday.com/news/nation/2005-04-19-gentrification_x.htm * LeGates, R and Hartman, C, 1986. “The anatomy of displacement in the United States”, IN Smith, N and Williams, P, “Gentrification of the city”, London: Unwin-Hyman. * Marcuse, P, 1986. “Abandonment, gentrification and displacement: the linkages in New York City”, IN Smith N and Williams, P, “Gentrification of the city”, London: Unwin-Hyman. * Massey, Douglas S and Denton, Nancy A, 1993. “American apartheid: segregation and the making of the underclass”, Harvard University Press. * Nelson, Jania S, 1996. “Residential Zoning Regulations and the Perpetuation of Apartheid”, 43 U.C.L.A. Law Review, 1689 at 1704. * Norman, Jonathan, McLean, Heather L and Kennedy, Christopher A, 2006. “Comparing high and low residential density: Life-cycle analysis of energy use and greenhouse gas emissions”, Journal of Urban Planning and Development, 32(1):10-21 * Smith, N. and Williams, P. (eds) (1986) Gentrification of the City, London: Unwin and Hyman * “The gentrification of America: what role does the working class and the poor play?” Retrieved November 8, 2010 from: http://www.articlesbase.com/economics-articles/the-gentrification-of-america-what-role-does-the-working-class-and-the-poor-play-543057.html * Village of Euclid, Ohio v. Ambler Realty Co., 272 U.S. 365 (1926) *Whitaker, Charles, 2001. “Cultural revival empowers and transforms Harlem, New York”, Ebony, August, 2001; Retrieved November 15, 2010 from: http://findarticles.com/p/articles/mi_m1077/is_10_56/ai_76770632/ * Yardley, William, 2008. “Tensions of gentrification lead a U.S. city to dialogue”, The New York Times, May 29, 2008; retrieved November 8, 2010 from: http://www.nytimes.com/2008/05/29/world/americas/29iht-race.4.13319303.html Read More