Blog tag: segregation

Missing Priorities of New Housing/Transportation "Sustainable Communities Initiative"

note: this post also appears on Rooflines.org

At a US House of Representatives hearing last week on "Livable Communities, Transit Oriented Development, and Incorporating Green Building Practices into Federal Housing and Transportation", HUD Secretary Shaun Donovan and Department of Transportation Secretary Ray LaHood announced an new partnership. A joint task force, the "Sustainable Communities Initiative", will address the intersection of transportation and housing affordability.

While any genuine effort to address housing affordability is welcome, this new HUD/DOT task force is particularly exciting because it reflects a new understanding of the complex issues that confront metropolitan regions and the sometimes surprising ways they intersect. Encouraging smarter planning, expanding the definition of affordability, and researching the livability of communities work in tandem to increase the use of public transportation, decrease our carbon footprint, reduce urban sprawl, enable the smarter use of regional resources, and improve affordable housing options for families.  In short, this is one of those rare initiatives that seem to naturally align a multitude of interests.

Unfortunately, two considerations were missing from this announcement: the impact of racial and economic segregation and the importance of open government data. But with just a few tweaks addressing these concerns, HUD and DOT can dramatically expand the impact of this new task force.

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What did you think of Holder's speech?

Earlier this week, new Attorney General Eric Holder delivered an interesting speech on race.

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News and Notes

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Meet MoveSmart.org: Our Newest Board Member, Prof. Maria Krysan

This is the first in a series of posts in which we'll introduce you to the folks behind MoveSmart.org.

We're incredibly excited to announce that Prof. Maria Krysan of the University of Illinois at Chicago and the Institute of Government and Public Affairs* has joined the MoveSmart.org board of directors. Maria's work on the Chicago Area Study has been enormously influential on this entire project and she is going to be a huge asset as we get into the nitty gritty of designing the neighborhood search mechanism.

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News and Notes

This is the first in a new series of posts on integration-related news from around the web. If you have an item you'd like us to include just drop us a note.

  • Chicago, America’s most segregated big city
    "The paths taken by Colin Lampark and Rosalyn Bates help illustrate why Chicago is the most racially segregated big city in America.
    Both are young professionals with handsome earning potential. Both moved to the city a few years ago—Lampark, 28, to Lincoln Park; Bates, 31, to Bronzeville. And both chose neighborhoods reflecting their race, a practice common in Chicago.
    Their personal stories, and many others, explain why blacks in Chicago are the most isolated racial group in the nation’s 20 largest cities, according to a Tribune analysis of 2008 population estimates. To truly integrate Chicago, 84 percent of the black or white population would need to change neighborhoods, the data show."
    from the Chicago Tribune

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A Rare Opportunity: the Housing Bill and Segregation

While most news outlets have focused on the Fannie/Freddie bailout and the fund for FHA-insured re-structured loan pieces of the new housing bill (formally named “The Housing and Economic Recovery Act of 2008“, H.R. 322), a number of the less well-known provisions will have an enormous impact on affordable housing opportunities and pose a challenge to housing advocates and HUD - will these new housing opportunities add to, have no affect on, or decrease segregation?

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