By Robert D. Bullard, Ph.D.
The President's Council on Sustainable Development, in Sustainable America, outlined a vision statement that emphasizes three major pillars: economic prosperity, environmental protection, and social equity. It is doubtful that this vision of a sustainable America can be achieved without addressing race and social equity, especially in the nation's central cities and metropolitan regions. To be successful, the emerging smart growth movement will need to address racial, ethnic, and economic barriers that divide people and communities.
Getting a Seat at the Smart Growth Table
From New York to California and a host of cities in between, smart growth advocates are gradually moving their plans into action. For whatever, few people of color organizations or institutions are at the smart growth table. Even in Atlanta, a city where race has always mattered, it's African American community, (i.e., the city is 68 percent black) is "invisible" in the local smart growth initiative. The players in the Atlanta Smart Growth Partnership include the Georgia Conservancy, Metro Atlanta Chamber of Commerce, Georgia Institute of Technology, and the Urban Land Institute District Council.
Suburban sprawl impacts the daily lives of people of color. The smart growth movement also influences what happens in and around people of color neighborhoods. The politics of metropolitan and regional development, suburbanization, and urban sprawl are intertwined. Both race and class are implicated in white flight, residential segregation, and urban infrastructure decline. Smart growth involves expanding opportunities and breaking down artificial barriers (i.e., housing, employment, education, transportation, land use and zoning, health and safety, public investments, etc.) that limit social and economic mobility of racial and ethnic groups.
The Race-Sprawl Connection
Historically, people of color have had fewer housing and residential choices than whites. African American communities have been redlined, abandoned, and targeted by predatory lenders. Many of these urban core neighborhoods have also been "rediscovered" as part of smart growth initiatives, accelerating gentrification and displacement of incumbent residents. When the demographics of the nation's large sprawling cities are examined, the race-sprawl connection becomes quite clear. The percent of people of color in the Sierra Club's "top fifteen" sprawled-threatened large cities include: Atlanta (68.9%), St. Louis (49.0%), Washington, DC (70.4%), Cincinnati (39.5%), Kansas City (33.1%), Denver (27.8%), Seattle (24.6%), Minneapolis (21.5%), St. Paul (17.6%), Ft. Lauderdale (30.4%), Chicago (54.5%), Detroit (78.4%), Baltimore (60.9%), Cleveland (50.4%), Tampa (29.0%), and Dallas (44.6%).
Racial segregation in housing, as well as schools and jobs, is fundamental to the geography of the modern American city. Spatial mobility and social mobility are interrelated. Residential apartheid continues to be the dominant housing pattern among African Americans. Most growth in metropolitan regions is occurring outside of central cities-away from where people of color are concentrated. Over 80 percent of the country's future growth (if current trends hold) is expected to occur in "edge cities" and other suburbs. Nationally, 32 percent of Americans live in central urban areas, 32 percent live in urban fringe areas, 25 percent live in rural areas, 6 percent live in small towns, and 5 percent live in midsize towns.
New job growth is concentrated on the fringe of the metropolitan areas and beyond. The exodus of low-skilled jobs to the suburbs disproportionately affects central-city residents, particularly people of color, who often face more limited choices of housing locations in growing areas. Between 1990 and 1997, jobs on the fringe of metropolitan areas grew by 19 percent versus 4 percent job growth in core areas.
From American Dream to Nightmare
Homeownership is an integral part of the American Dream. Between $50 to $90 billion dollars a year in tax subsidies underwrite suburban homeowners. From 1990 to 1997, new construction in outlying counties in metropolitan areas grew by 15%, compared with only 5% housing growth in counties closer to central cities. This middle-class entitlement is by far the broadest and most expensive welfare program in the nation. More than 73 percent of whites owned their homes in 1999 compared with 46.3 percent of blacks, and 46.2 percent of Hispanics. If blacks and Hispanics owned homes at the same rate as whites of similar age and income, their homeownership rates would have been 61 percent in 1998 versus 72 percent for whites.
The American Dream has turned into a nightmare for millions of Americans mainly because of predatory lending practices undertaken by creditors, brokers, home improvement contractors, and mortgage lenders. Predatory lending practices are most heavily concentrated in lower-income and people of color neighborhoods - resulting in massive foreclosures in many inner-city communities. Black and Latino borrowers are the most hurt by subprime lending. Predatory lending increased at the same time conventional, prime lending decreased in black and Latino neighborhoods. Studies from Freddie Mac and Standard and Poor indicated that nearly two-thirds (63 percent) of subprime borrowers would have qualified for conventional "A" or "A-" quality loans.
Housing Discrimination Tax
Discrimination persists in housing and real estate markets despite the passage of the Federal Fair Housing Act in 1968 and the Fair Housing Amendment in 1988. Real estate agents, brokers, and mortgage lenders cater to the racist attitudes of some of their clients-and in effect determine the racial mix of neighborhoods, cities, suburbs, and metropolitan regions. Housing discrimination denies a substantial segment of people of color communities a basic form of wealth accumulation and investment through home ownership.
Black or Hispanic households, on average, must pay discrimination "tax" of roughly $3,700. The total cost of current discrimination amounts to about $3 billion per year for all Black households (owners and renters) and to almost $2 billion per year for Hispanic households. The current generation of blacks has lost $82 billion due to discrimination. Of this total, $58 billion was lost as a result of lack of housing appreciation, $10.5 billion from paying higher mortgage rates, and $13.5 billion from the denial of mortgages.
Over 33.9 percent of African American and 26.1 percent of Hispanic loan applicants were rejected compared with 18.5 percent of white loan applicants. Test audits conducted in two-dozen large metropolitan areas found that black testers seeking to rent apartments faced discrimination by landlords 53 percent of the time, while black testers seeking to buy a home faced discriminatory treatment by real estate persons 59 percent of the time. A similar pattern occurred for Hispanic testers.
The Legacy of Racial Redlining
Studies over the past three decades clearly document the relationship between redlining and disinvestment decisions and neighborhood decline. Redlining accelerates the flight of full-service banks, food stores, restaurants, and other shopping centers from inner-city neighborhoods. In their place, inner city neighborhoods are left with check-cashing stations, pawnshops, storefront grocery stores, liquor stores, and fast-food operations-all well buttoned up with wire mesh and bulletproof glass.
Insurance redlining also kills neighborhoods. Insurance redlining practices hurt many inner city home and business owners. Insurance companies routinely charge homeowners in mostly black urban neighborhoods higher premiums than they charge their suburban customers. Overall, the black and Latino testers were discriminated against 53 percent of the time in such areas as coverage and premium rates. The discrimination rate ranged from 32 percent in Memphis to 83 percent in Chicago.
Urban Revitalization without Gentrification
Every decade or so people "rediscover" the city and close-in neighborhoods. Successive waves of urban revitalization programs have resulted in "urban removal" of large numbers of renters, poor, and black residents, resulting in gentrification. Gentrification refers to the tearing down of housing and buildings that accommodate the poor, usually blacks, and building of new, upscale housing and other amenities in their place that cater to a new group, usually white, middle class residents. Gentrification is a back-to-the-city movement of capital.
Neighborhood revitalization initiatives that minimize "gentrification" pressures and displacement of incumbent residents should be undertaken. In-fill development should be encouraged in place of uncontrolled sprawl. In-fill and higher density development will improve infrastructure efficiency by taking advantage of existing capacity; save costs for roads and utilities; require less automobile dependence; reduce auto emissions; improve air quality; locate closer to stores, schools, work and other activities; and provide access to pedestrian-friendly communities with sidewalks. Urban redevelopment should be based on use value instead of exchange value. Public space should be planned in the general welfare of all residents, regardless of race, income, national origin, or gender.
Representatives from government, media, small businesses, large corporations, utilities, transportation, unions, universities, and even some neighborhood associations are the chief constituents and boosters of the growth machine. Moreover, the causes and consequences of gentrification are closely linked with the processes of suburbanization, urban abandonment, disinvestments by corporations and government, declining schools, and race and class stratification.
People of color and lower-income residents should be given opportunities to revitalize their own neighborhoods. Public-private joint ventures can also provide economic opportunities for wealth creation and community services for local residents, including jobs and housing linkage programs. New efforts are needed to develop, monitor, and enforce Fair Share Housing, institute Community Land Trusts and land banking that could be used for developments from parks to housing.
EJRC LAUNCHES NATIONAL FAIR GROWTH INITIATIVE
It is doubtful that a vision of smart growth and a sustainable urban America can be achieved without addressing race and social equity, especially in the nation's central cities and metropolitan regions where poor people and people of color are concentrated. As a follow-up to the successful Suburban Sprawl Research Project and the Atlanta Transportation Equity Project, the EJRC is undertaking a National Initiative on Race, Equity and Smart Growth. This national initiative is designed to explore social equity as local solutions are sought to address such issues as affordable housing, predatory lending, community economic development, poverty, transportation equity, regional transit, access to jobs, redlining, gentrification, schools, land use, brownfields, and other regional and metropolitan growth issues.
The target audience for this national initiative is mainly environmental justice groups (i.e., using the People of Color Environmental Groups Directory 2000 as a base), historically black colleges and universities (HBCUs)/minority institutions (MIs), churches, community based organizations, civil rights groups, housing advocacy groups, transportation equity organizations, professional associations, legal groups, community development corporations, business associations, bankers, and health care providers.
To learn more about the EJRC's Sprawl/Smart Growth programs see http://www.ejrc.cau.edu.
WE SPEAK FOR OURSELVES
People of color and the poor are often underrepresented in the decision-making arena that affects their quality of life and their livelihood. One need only attend a meeting, forum, conference, or summit on smart growth to see this scenario play out in living color. With few exceptions, smart growth meetings are generally white and dominated by environmental and business elites. They often mirror the "WHOM" (we have one minority) scenario. It is not enough to have people of color speaking on smart growth; people of color groups, organizations, institutions, and associations need to have parity at the table. The smart growth stakes are too high to allow surrogates to speak for and act on behalf of people of color. People of color represent nearly one-third of the nation's population. Their population share is even higher in the nation's large cities and metropolitan areas. The fate of many of our metropolitan regions is intricately tied to how the issues of race and social equity are handled. The EJRC and its allies recently released a policy paper, Race, Equity and Smart Growth: Why People of Color Must Speak for Themselves, that addresses these issues. The paper can be viewed at http://www.ejrc.cau.edu/raceequitysmartgrowth.htm
Atlanta's Transit Agency Hit with Discrimination Complaint
Atlanta, GA, December 1, 2000 - On Thursday, a coalition of eleven black Atlanta organizations filed an administrative complaint with the U.S. Department of Transportation on behalf of their minority and disabled members. The groups, whose members form the core of the two-year old Metropolitan Atlanta Transportation Equity Coalition or MATEC, are charging MARTA with racial discrimination under Title VI of the Civil Rights Act of 1964. They also cite the Metropolitan Atlanta Rapid Transit Authority (MARTA) for failing to comply with the federally mandated Americans with Disability Act (ADA). The complainants include a broad array of groups, including some well known civil rights organizations (SCLC, NAACP, and Rainbow/PUSH Coalition), neighborhood organizations (Rebel Forest Neighborhood Task Force, Campbellton Road Coalition, Second Chance Community Services, Inc.), a disabled persons advocacy group (Santa Fe Villas Tenant's Association), an environmental organization (Center for Environmental Public Awareness), a youth group (Youth Task Force), and a labor union that represents MARTA drivers (Amalgamated Transit Union Local 732).
The coalition alleges that MARTA's service delivery to minority communities is not up to par with the services provided to white communities. They point out that a disproportionate number of the MARTA's overcrowded bus lines are located in minority communities, and minority communities do not receive a proportionate share of clean compressed natural gas (CNG) buses and bus shelters. They also contend that MARTA rail stations located in minority neighborhoods are poorly maintained and fewer amenities are provided in comparison to those located in white communities. Additionally, inadequate security is provided at the MARTA rail stations serving minority riders. Also, Latino riders are not provided Spanish language translation services to permit participation in public meetings sponsored by the MARTA.
The coalition insists that MARTA's decision to raise its fares will have a negative, disproportionate, and discriminatory effect on the system's largely minority (over 75 percent of MARTA's riders are African American), transit-dependent riders, and will cause them irreparable harm. On June 19, 2000 the MARTA board approved a $307 million operating budget that raised its one-way cash fare from $1.50 to $1.75-a 16.7 percent increase. The weekly transit pass jumps from $12 to $13 (an 8.3 percent increase); monthly passes increase from $45 to $52.50 (a 16.7 percent increase); and half-price senior citizens fares from 75 cents to 85 cents (a 13.3 percent increase). The fare hike is scheduled for January 1, 2001.
The groups also contest MARTA's need to raise its fares. They cite independent studies conducted by transportation experts at Clark Atlanta University's Environmental Justice Resource Center. For over nine months, the coalition and its allies have pleaded with the MARTA board not to raise its fares at a time when its ridership is showing an upward trend. Ridership increased more than 5 percent over last year.
The groups cite MARTA's failure to arrive at real budget alternatives to the fare hike, such as considering charging for parking, raising the parking fee at its overnight lots, increasing advertising, and seeking funds from the state.
The coalition alleges that MARTA has denied disabled riders equal access to public buses, entitling them to relief under Title II of the Americans with Disabilities Act (ADA) and Section 504 of the Rehabilitation Act. Disabled riders have not been accommodated in a timely manner and are disadvantaged due to malfunctioning equipment. MARTA has allowed equipment with inoperable lifts to remain in service contrary to federal ADA regulations. Alternate transportation has not been provided promptly to persons who require lift equipment, necessitating several hours wait for lift-equipped buses. One of the major pieces of equipment in question is the lift-equipped buses. "MARTA's failure to address repeated complaints by the disabled regarding these issues has resulted in physical injuries, humiliation, emotional distress, and other injuries," stated Santa Fe Villas Tenant's Association president Flora Tommie.
For more information on the research conducted by the Environmental Justice Resource Center under its Atlanta Transportation Equity Project (ATEP), see the center's web site at http://www.ejrc.cau.edu or contact Dr. Robert D. Bullard, Director, Environmental Justice Resource Center at Clark Atlanta University, (404) 880-6911. The ATEP is supported by grants from the Turner Foundation, Ford Foundation, and Surdna Foundation.
MARTA TAPS BLACK TO HEAD TRANSIT AGENCY
Atlanta, GA, December 1, 2000 - On Thursday, the Metropolitan Atlanta Transit Authority (MARTA) board voted on its top three candidates for general manager. All three candidates are African Americans: Nathaniel Ford (Executive Vice President of Operations at MARTA); Robert Prince (GM at Massachusetts Bay Transit Authority), and Gordon Linton (former head of the Federal Transit Administration). The MARTA board selected Nathaniel Ford to run the $300 million transit agency.
Just two months ago, the Metropolitan Atlanta Transportation Equity Coalition (MATEC) presented a strong argument for MARTA to dismantle its "glass ceiling" hiring policy for African Americans. They pointed out that over the past three decades, all five of MARTA's general managers have been white males. African Americans make up 78 percent of MARTA's staff.
It is ironic that the same day the MARTA board selected its first African American general manager, MATEC, a coalition of eleven black Atlanta organizations, filed a discrimination complaint with the U.S. Department of Transportation on behalf of their minority and disabled members.
"I am pleased the MARTA board selected Mr. Ford as the new general manager. It looks like one of the first substantive issues he will have to address is the MATEC discrimination complaint," said Robert D. Bullard, who directs the Environmental Justice Resource Center at Clark Atlanta University. Bullard and his colleagues at the center have provided research and technical assistance to the MATEC groups over the past two years.
Citizens Summit on Livable Communities
On November 11, 2000, a group of environmental, neighborhood, housing, transportation, and civil rights organizations met at the Citizen's Summit on Livable Communities at Georgia State University. The goal of the summit presenters was to present best practices from around the nation on a range of issues, for example: traffic gridlock, tree loss, water pollution, lack of affordable housing, rising tax rates, and overcrowded schools. There were a host of workshops that addressed the following topics: regional coordination, paying for growth, school location, zoning practices, transportation and school equity, transit planning, watershed protection, greenspace conservation, and community-based decisionmaking. EJRC staffer Dr. Glenn S. Johnson gave a presentation in the Regional Development Forum: Impacts and Equity Workshop. The presentation provided reasons why people of color must become actively involved in the smart growth movement in Atlanta and across the United States. He called for smart growth plans and proposals to be comprehensive, fair, and address equity. Dr. Johnson also emphasized that broad coalitions should strive to implement neighborhood revitalization that minimizes gentrification and wholesale displacement of existing residents. It is important that people of color residents not only "speak for themselves" on smart growth issues but they must contribute to shaping smart growth policies.
Report Finds Family Transportation Costs Highest in Sprawling Cities; Houston, Atlanta, Dallas rank highest
A new report from the Surface Transportation Policy Project and Center for Neighborhood Technology finds that sprawl drives up transportation costs for American families. The report, Driven to Spend, finds that the metro areas where transportation takes the biggest bite out of the household budget are Houston, Atlanta, Dallas, Miami and Detroit. It analyzes government data on consumer expenditures, ranking 28 major metro areas by the percentage of the family budget devoted to daily transportation costs. Heavy government investment in road infrastructure may be contributing to an increase in household transportation costs. The study recommends that governments invest in public transportation, walkable neighborhoods and bicycle facilities, stop investing in sprawl-inducing roadway projects in exurban areas, and that mortgage lenders take into account transportation expenses when counseling buyers and approving loans. The full report is posted at www.transact.org/Reports/driven/default.htm.
In a 1999 report entitled Sprawl Atlanta: Social Equity Dimensions of Uneven Growth and Development, researchers at Clark Atlanta University's Environmental Justice Resource Center placed race and class factors as major drivers behind Atlanta's sprawl problem. Sprawl Atlanta can be viewed at http://www.ejrc.cau.edu/sprlatlexcsum.html. The Brookings Institution Center on Urban and Metropolitan Policy report, Moving Beyond Sprawl: The Challenges of Metropolitan Atlanta, also point to the region's racial and economic divide. Released in March, 2000, the report's findings are: 1) there is a stark divide between northern, affluent parts of the Atlanta region and poorer, slow-growing southern areas; 2) the challenges of the northern and southern portions of the region are fundamentally connected; and 3) the Atlanta region can move beyond sprawl and embrace a wide range of solutions that address the problems faced by both sides of the region. The report can be viewed at http://www.brook.edu/urban/atlanta/race.htm. This past October, CNN aired an hour-long documentary on Democracy in America that briefly touched on the region's growing disparities. CNN.com writer Douglas S. Wood provides a more insightful account of the race and equity concerns. His article, "For a Growing Atlanta, Race Has Always Mattered," can be viewed on the CNN website at http://www.cnn.com/SPECIALS/2000/democracy/sprawl/stories/sprawl.race/index.html.
A new study from The Brookings Institution finds cities' share of metropolitan office space has diminished dramatically over the past two decades. In an analysis of office space in 13 of the nation's largest metropolitan commercial real estate markets, the study found that central cities' share of office space dropped from 74 percent in 1979 to 58 percent in 1999. The study, "Office Sprawl: "The Evolving Geography of Business," finds five metropolitan areas where the majority of metropolitan office space is found within the core central city (Houston, Dallas, Chicago, New York, and Denver) and five metropolitan areas with the majority of space in the suburbs (Philadelphia, Atlanta, Washington, DC, Miami, and Detroit). It also found three metropolitan areas (Boston, San Francisco, and Los Angeles) where the space was evenly divided between central cities and suburbs. Detroit had the highest percentage (69.5 percent) of office space outside the city. Atlanta was second with almost two-thirds of its 132 million square feet of space outside the city. This is a dramatic shift from two decades ago when over 43 percent of Atlanta's office space was in the city. Nearly an equal share of office space is found in traditional downtowns (38 percent) and "edgeless" cities that often extend over hundreds of square miles. They are generally not mixed use, pedestrian friendly or accessible by transit. The report and individual city data tables can be viewed on The Brookings Institution website at http://www.brook.edu/urban/officesprawl/report.htm.
Why Johnny Can't Walk to School
Fewer than one in eight students walk or bike to school according to a recent report released by the National Trust for Historic Preservation. The report, Historic Neighborhood Schools in the Age of Sprawl: Why Johnny Can't Walk to School, focuses on the growing problems of school sprawl. The problems are fivefold: 1) acreage standards, 2) funding biases, 3) lack of coordination between community and the school planning bodies, 4) appropriated codes, and 5) poor public involvement. Rapid growth of mega-school sprawl on undeveloped land is replacing the traditional small, walkable community-centered schools. The construction of these large schools outside of the city promotes sprawl, while destroying the sense of community of those neighborhoods that have to bus their students to these schools. There are building codes that support new construction which are biased toward existing historic neighborhood schools. The National Trust recommends "smart codes" legislation that would encourage school renovations and provide safety for students in respective neighborhoods. This report consists of case studies that identifies critical threats to historic neighborhood schools and provide public policy recommendations for preserving these neighborhood schools. For information on the report see http://www/nationaltrust/main/frontline//pr_schools.htm.
Walking can be hazardous to your health. This is especially the case in the sprawling Sunbelt cities. The Surface Transportation Policy Project Mean Streets 2000 report identifies the "ten most dangerous large metro areas" for pedestrians. Tampa-St. Petersburg and Atlanta came in number one and two. The other top ten ranked metro areas included Miami-Ft. Lauderdale, Orlando, Jacksonville, Phoenix, West Palm Beach-Boca Raton, Memphis, Dallas-Ft. Worth, and New Orleans. The most dangerous streets tend to be in newer Southern and Western metro areas where cars rule and pedestrians take their lives into their hands. For each mile traveled, walking is 36 times more dangerous than driving and more than 300 times more dangerous than flying. Over 55 percent of pedestrian deaths occur on neighborhood streets. Children, elderly persons, people of color, and persons who live in the sprawling suburbs of the South and West are at special risk. Many of these streets are wide to accommodate high-speed traffic and often lack sidewalks or crosswalks. The states with the highest pedestrian death rates for children in 1997-1998 were South Carolina, Mississippi, Utah, North Carolina, Alabama, Arizona, Florida, Alaska, and Louisiana. The Mean Street 2000 report can be viewed at http://www.transact.org/Reports/ms2000/default.htm.
The pedestrian fatality rate in metro Atlanta has remained higher than the national rate. Over 300 pedestrians were killed in Cobb, DeKalb, Fulton, and Gwinnett Counties during 1994-1998. Rates varied by ethnicity. Rates for non-Hispanic blacks and Hispanics were two and six times greater, respectively, than for non-Hispanic whites. For example, individuals who walk across Atlanta's busy and expansive Buford Highway play a form of pedestrian "Russian roulette." Although people of color account for less than one third of the population in the region, they account for nearly two thirds of all the pedestrian fatalities in the region. Differences by race/ethnicity may be due in part to difference in walking patterns. National studies show that blacks and Latinos walk more than whites. The study is reported in Morbidity and Mortality Weekly Report, 48 (1999) and can be viewed at http://www.cdc.gov/epo/mmwr/preview/mmwrhtml/mm4828a1.htm.
New Book Tags Atlanta as Sprawl "Poster Child"
Researchers at the Environmental Justice Resource Center have penned a new book entitled Sprawl City: Race, Politics and Planning in Atlanta (Island Press, 2000). The book tags Atlanta as the sprawl "poster child." The book illuminates the rising class and racial divisions underlying uneven growth and development, and provides an important source of information for anyone concerned with these issues, including the growing environmental justice movement as well as planners, policy analysts, public officials, community leaders, and students of public policy, geography, planning, and related disciplines. Sprawl-fueled growth is widening the gap between the region's 'haves' and 'have nots' and is pushing people farther and farther apart geographically, politically, economically, and racially. The Turner Foundation funded research for the book. A team of social scientists, urban planners, educators, lawyers, and environmentalists report that many government policies - including housing, land use, energy, transportation, environmental, and education - have actually aided, and in some cases subsidized, urban sprawl.
Sprawl City uses a multi-disciplinary approach to analyze and critique the emerging crisis resulting from urban sprawl in the ten-county Atlanta Metropolitan region. Contributors consider sprawl-related concerns as core environmental justice and civil rights issues. They examine institutional constraint issues that are embedded in urban sprawl, considering how government policies, including housing, education, and transportation policies, have aided and subsidized seperate but unequal development, segregated neighborhoods, and spatial layout of central cities and suburbs. The authors offer analysis of the causes and consequences of urban sprawl, and outline policy recommendations and an action agenda for coping with sprawl-related problems, both in Atlanta and around the country. For a detailed description of R.D. Bullard, G.S. Johnson, and A.O. Torres, Sprawl City: Race, Politics, and Planning in Atlanta (Island Press, 2000), ISBN: 1-55963-790-0) and the related article "Sprawl Cities" see the Island Press Eco-Compass website at http://www.islandpress.com/ecocompass/community/sprawl.html.
OTHER BOOKS
F. Kaid Benefield, Matthew D. Rami, and Donald D.T. Chen. Once There Were Greenfields: How Urban Sprawl is Undermining America's Environment, Economy and Social Fabric. Washington, DC: Natural Resources Defense Council and Surface Transportation Project, 1999. This book provides examples on how sprawl impacts our air, water, public health, and contributes to traffic congestion in urban areas. Contact Natural Resources Defense Council (202) 289-6868 or http://www.nrdc.org/publications/default.asp#legislation
David Bollier. How Smart Growth Can Stop Sprawl: A Fledging Citizen Movement Expands. A Briefing Guide for Funders. Washington, D.C.: Essential Books, 1998. This guide examines government policies that promote suburban sprawl and urban disinvestments as well as some political strategies to achieve smart growth alternatives. Contact Sprawl Watch Clearinghouse (202) 974-5133 or http://www.sprawlwatch.org/orderform.html
Myron Orfield. Metropolitics: A Regional Agenda for Community and Stability. Washington, D.C.: Brookings Institution Press, 1997. This book is about a highly detailed, experience-driven exploration of the politics of regional planning and governance in the Twin Cities, from the perspective of a practicing politician. Contact The Brookings Institution (202) 797-6000 or http://www.brookings.edu/pub/books%5Fnonasp/metro.htm
EJRC BOOKS
R.D. Bullard, J.E. Grigsby, and C. Lee, Residential Apartheid: The American Legacy. UCLA, 1994. This anthology includes chapters written mostly by people of color experts. The contributors tackle some hard issues such as racial discrimination, redlining, gentrification, displacement, community reinvestment, and enterprise zones.
R.D. Bullard, Unequal Protection: Environmental Justice and Communities of Color. Sierra Club Books, 1996. This book documents that all communities are not created equal. If a community happens to be poor, working class, or populated largely by people of color, it receives less protection.
R.D. Bullard, People of Color Environmental Groups Directory 2000. Flint, MI: Charles Stewart Mott Foundation, 2000. This directory lists 400 people of color, resource, and legal groups from 40 states, the District of Columbia, Puerto Rico, Canada, and Mexico. The directory includes resource groups and a wide range of technical, research, legal, education, and training support.
ARTICLES
Robert D. Bullard, Glenn S. Johnson, and Angel O. Torres. "Atlanta: Megasprawl," Forum: For Applied Research and Public Policy, Vol.14, No.3, Fall 1999. This article provides a comprehensive overview on how sprawl-driven construction projects such as low-density residential housing and strip malls have turned Atlanta into the fastest growing human development in history. Contact EJRC at (404) 880-6911 or http://forum.ra.utk.edu/fall99.atlanta.htm
Robert D. Bullard, Glenn S. Johnson, and Angel O. Torres, "The Routes of American Apartheid," Forum: For Applied Research and Public Policy, Vol. 15, No. 3, Fall 2000: 66-74. The authors discuss why some communities are still not "created equal" and how transportation polices impact people of color in America? Contact EJRC at (404) 880-6911 or ejrc@cau.edu.
Robert D. Bullard, "Taken for a Ride in Metro Atlanta," Orion Afield (Autumn 2000): 28-29. This article addresses how the Atlanta Transportation Equity Project (ATEP) which functions primarily in the areas of research, policy analysis, information clearinghouse, and technical assistance to communities and organizations, facilitated the establishment of a working group to challenge the Atlanta Regional Commission (ARC) for its failure to adequately address environmental justice in its $36 billion 25 year Regional Transportation Plan and its three year $1.9 billion Transportation Improvement Program (TIP). Contact EJRC at (404) 880-6911 or ejrc@cau.edu.
Sarah van Gelder. "Diverse, Green, Beautiful Cities." Yes! A Journal of Positive Futures, Summer 1999: 34-37. This is an interview with Carl Anthony at Urban Habitat Program in San Francisco, California where he talks in great length about the similarities among inner cities, blue-collar suburbanites, and environmentalists on issues of sprawl, gentrification, and coalition building. Contact Sarah van Gelder (206) 842-0216 or yes@futurenet.org. Can also contact Carl Anthony (415) 561-3334 or uhp@igc.apc.org
John A. Powell. "Achieving Racial Justice: What's Sprawl Got to Do With It?" Poverty &Race, Vol.8, No.5, 1999: 3-5. This article examines the connection between the negative consequences of sprawl and the critical limitations that sprawl and fragmentation have placed on the civil rights movement. . Contact Institute on Race & Poverty (612) 625-8071 or view at http://www1.umn.edu/irp/announce/PRRAC1999.htm
John A. Powell. "Race, Poverty and Urban Sprawl: Access to Opportunities Through Regional Strategies," Forum for Social Economics, Vol.28, No.2, 1999: 1-20. The author argues that evidence indicates that racialized concentrated poverty is both a case and product of sprawl and based on this relationship, concentrated poverty cannot be addressed without dealing with sprawl. Contact Institute on Race & Poverty (612) 625-8071 or irp@tc.umn.edu.
REPORTS
Carl Anthony. "Suburbs are Making Us Sick: Health Implications of Suburban Sprawl and Inner City Abandonment on Communities of Color." Environmental Justice Research Needs Report Series. Atlanta: Environmental Justice Resource Center. Contact EJRC (404) 880-6911 or http://www.ejrc.cau.edu/hscpapca.htm
The Brookings Institution Center on Urban and Metropolitan Policy. "Moving Beyond Sprawl: The Challenge for Metropolitan Atlanta." Washington, DC, 2000. This report examines the regional, civic, environmental, corporate, and political challenges that need to be addressed to reduce traffic congestion and improve air quality in Atlanta. Contact The Brookings Institution (202) 797-6139 or view report at http://www.brookings.edu/es/urban/Atlanta/toc.htm
Robert D. Bullard, Glenn S. Johnson, and Angel O. Torres. "Race, Equity, and Smart Growth: Why People of Color Must Speak for Themselves." Environmental Justice Resource Center, 2000. This report examines how race still underlies and interpenetrates with other factors in explaining the socio-spatial layout of most of our metropolitan regions, including quality of schools, location of job centers, housing patterns, streets and highway configuration, and commercial development. Contact EJRC (404) 880-6911 or http://www.ejrc.cau.edu/racequitysmartgrowth.htm
Don Chen "Greetings from Smart Growth America." Washington, DC: Smart Growth American, 2000. This report provides an overview of Americans' attitudes about growth, how smart growth provide the basic values, and making a difference in our lives, and recommendations for achieving polices and actions to ensure smarter growth in neighborhoods across America. Contact Don Chen (202) 974-5131 or view at http://www.smartgrowthamerica.com/Report/SG_chp1.pdf
Funders Network for Smart Growth and Livable Communities and Policy Link. 2000. "Smart Growth and Equity Learning Action Network, A Summary Report." This discussion paper focuses on key points, areas of agreement, program and policy ideas developed by the Smart Growth and Equity Learning Action Network for advancing equity within the Smart Growth Movement. Contact Heather McCulloch (510) 663-2333 or http://www.policyling.org
Natural Resources Defense Council. "Environmental Characteristics of Smart Growth Neighborhoods." Washington, D.C., 2000. This report is a comparison of three neighborhoods in metropolitan Sacramento, California and it recommends that developments located and designed in accordance with smart growth principles may hold several advantages over conventional ones. Contact F. Kaid Benefield (202) 289-6868 or view report at http://www.nrdc.org/cities/smartgrowth/char/exesum.esp
Websites
The Brookings Institution Center on Urban and Metropolitan Policy. http://www.brookings.edu/urban. The center has as its goal to shape a new generation of urban policies that will help build strong neighborhoods, cities, and metropolitan regions. The center works in partnership with academics, private and public sector leaders, and locally-elected officials to shape the national debate on the impact of government policies, private sector actions, and national trends on cities and their metropolitan areas.
Center for Community Change. http://www.communitychange.org. The Center for Community Change has launched the Transportation Equity Network at the University of Toledo Urban Affairs Center. The monitoring project is designed to determine whether Metropolitan Planning Organizations or MPOs are taking into account environmental justice and civil rights in their decision making.
Conservation Law Foundation. http://www.clf.org. The Conservation Law Foundation works to solve the environmental problems that threaten the people, natural resources and communities of New England. CLF's advocates use law, economics and science to design and implement strategies that conserve natural resources, promote public health, and promote vital communities in our region. Founded in 1966, the CLF is a nonprofit member-supported organization.
Deep South Center for Environmental Justice. http://www.xula.edu/dscej. The Deep South Center for Environmental Justice (DSCEJ) was founded in 1992 in collaboration with community environmental groups and other universities within the region to address environmental justice issues. The DSCEJ provides opportunities for communities, scientific researchers, and decision makers to collaborate on programs and projects that promote the rights of all people to be free from environmental harm as it impacts health, jobs, housing, education, and a general quality of life.
Environmental Justice Resource Center. http://www.ejrc.cau.edu The Environmental Justice Resource Center (EJRC) at Clark Atlanta University was founded in 1994 to serve as a research, policy, and information clearing house on issues related to environmental justice, race and the environment, civil rights, facility siting, land use planning, brownfields, transportation equity, suburban sprawl, and smart growth. The center is multi-disciplinary in its focus and approach. It serves as a bridge among the social and behavioral sciences, natural and physical sciences, engineering, management, and legal disciplines to solve environmental problems.
ABOUT THE EJRC
The Environmental Justice Resource Center (EJRC) at Clark Atlanta University was formed in 1994 to serve as a research, policy, and information clearinghouse on issues related to environmental justice, race and the environment, civil rights, facility siting, land use planning, brownfields, transportation equity, suburban sprawl, and Smart Growth. The overall goal of the center is to assist, support, train, and educate people of color students, professionals, and grassroots community leaders with the goal of facilitating their inclusion into the mainstream of environmental decision-making. The center is multi-disciplinary in its focus and approach. It serves as a bridge among the social and behavioral sciences, natural and physical sciences, engineering, management, and legal disciplines to solve environmental problems. The center's programs build on the work that its staff has been engaged in for over two decades.
Transportation Equity is published four times a year by the Environmental Justice Resource Center at Clark Atlanta University, 223 James P. Brawley Drive, Atlanta, GA 30314, (404) 880-6911, fax: (404) 880-6909, E-mail: ejrc@cau.edu, Web site: www.ejrc.cau.edu.
Transportation Equity is a newsletter of the Atlanta Transportation Equity Project. Editor, Robert D. Bullard. Editorial Staff: Marie Green, Glenn S. Johnson, Ruth Neal, Angel O. Torres, and Chad G. Johnson. We welcome the submission of short articles, notices of publications, videos, conferences, and other announcements. Copyright 2000 by the Environmental Justice Resource Center at Clark Atlanta University. [All rights reserved.]