Lessons from the past by a man who lived it

Former 6th Circuit U.S. Court of Appeals Judge Nathaniel Jones

On Friday, October 29, I had the privilege of serving as keynote speaker for the conference titled “From Redlining to White Flight: The History of Housing Segregation & The Importance of Regionalism.” The conference was a partnership between the Michigan Roundtable for Diversity and Inclusion and Cooley Law School.

The purpose of the program was to educate attendees about past practices and decisions that have led to the segregated housing patterns that we see in metropolitan Detroit today.  One of historic turning points for the region was the 1974 case of Milliken v. Bradley. In that case, the U.S. Supreme Court struck down a plan for cross-district busing in metropolitan Detroit. The morning portion of the conference included a re-enactment of the Supreme Court oral arguments in Milliken v Bradley.

The cast of re-life justices who participated in the re-enactment included Michigan Supreme Court Chief Justice Marilyn Kelly, U.S. District Judges David Lawson and Denise Page Hood, 40^th District Court Judge Joseph Oster, and retired Sixth Circuit Court of Appeals Judge James L. Ryan. Attendees, comprised mostly of Cooley law students and high school students from Macomb and Oakland Counties and the City of Detroit, were able to sit in a crowded courtroom and experience the case as it was presented back in the early1970s. 

I attended the conference to talk about historical population and housing trends in Southeast Michigan. It is impossible to look at federal housing and transportation policies and the long-term effects of Milliken v. Bradley without having a deeper understanding of why metro Detroit remains so racially polarized. Housing redlining kept neighborhoods segregated, federal mortgage policies and the building of the freeways subsidized suburban sprawl, and the prohibition of forced busing encouraged white flight.   

During the conference, I was able to sit beside someone who fought in the trenches to insure that Detroit’s children had an opportunity to live in a diverse world—an opportunity that was squandered by the U.S. Supreme Court in the Milliken case. The person sitting next to me on the panel[1] was Nathaniel R. Jones, retired judge for the U.S. Sixth Circuit Court of Appeals and current Senior Counsel and Chief Diversity and Inclusion Officer for the firm Blank Rome LLP. 

His bio reads like a history of the Civil Rights Movement.  He started his career in Youngstown, Ohio in 1956 as executive director of its Employment Practices Commission.  In 1960, President Kennedy appointed him assistant U.S. Attorney for the Northern District of Ohio.  He went on to serve as deputy general counsel to the Kerner Commission on Civil Disorders which investigated the race riots that occurred across the country in 1967; general counsel of the NAACP, a position formerly held by Justice Thurgood Marshall; played an important role in furthering the abolition of apartheid in South Africa; and was consulted by the drafters of South Africa’s new constitution.

As general counsel for the NAACP, Judge Jones argued Milliken v. Bradley in front of the U.S. Supreme Court, and shared with the audience many little-known facts about the case and the participants – facts that will play a prominent role in his upcoming memoir.

Listening to Judge Jones, it is abundantly clear how Detroit’s past still profoundly influences us today. It was especially gratifying that young people were in the audience, people who will blaze our path to the future now armed with the lessons of the past. How fortunate we are to have people like Judge Jones to help show us the way.

 

 

[1] The other panel members brought a great deal of experience as well and included Clifford Shrupp, Executive Director (since its creation in 1977) of the Fair Housing Center of Metropolitan Detroit; Assistant U.S. Attorney and Chief of the Civil Rights Unit (in the Eastern District of Michigan) Judy Levy, and Elliott S. Hall, a Partner of Dykema Gossett and long time fixture in the Detroit legal community.

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While the funding didn’t arrive, the promise is still alive

Earlier this year, the U.S. Department of Education invited communities to apply for a grant from the Promise Neighborhoods Program.  Building off work done by Geoffrey Canada at the Harlem Children’s Zone, the Promise Neighborhoods Program was designed to provide funding to improve the educational and developmental outcomes of children in the nation’s most distressed communities. The funding could support efforts that:

• help leaders and members of the community understand the state of children in their neighborhoods;
• connect schools, families and the community to support children from the cradle through college to career;
• help agencies and programs work effectively together;
• help the public and private sectors work together to spread best practices beyond the pilot neighborhood; and
• institute a rigorous evaluation of the program.

Grant winners receive a one-year planning grant. In subsequent years, contingent on the availability of funds, the Department intends to conduct competitions for implementation grants, as well as competitions for new planning grants.

Seven of the 339 applications received by the Promise Neighborhoods Program came from Michigan. Data Driven Detroit served as a data resource three of our state’s applicants. Detroit’s Black Family Development applied to help transform the Osborn and Chadsey-Condon neighborhoods. Data Driven Detroit served as a data resource while City Connect Detroit assisted in the project coordination and proposal writing.

Data Driven Detroit also met with the team from Focus Hope which submitted a proposal for their neighborhood, and provided data support to an effort on the city’s east side.

On September 21, Secretary of Education Arne Duncan announced the 21 recipients who will share $10 million.  While no Detroit applicant was chosen to become a Promise Neighborhood, the Guidance Center in Southgate received $500,000 to work with the River Rouge School District.  We congratulate the Guidance Center and look forward to learning more about their effort over the next year.

Of course, Detroit feels a deep sense of disappointment at being passed over for a Promise Neighborhoods grant. But while working on the proposals, I was impressed by the dedication and sense of possibility that the communities generated as they imagined a new environment that’s supportive of children. During the proposal writing process, the message was clear among all of the Detroit applicants: the “promise” would move forward, with or without the grant.  

The Promise Neighborhoods Program has served as a key driver for discussions across the country.  The release of the documentary, “Waiting for Superman,” coupled with the “Education Nation”   series on NBC News this week, and the education conference in Washington, D.C., have served to raise the level of discussion around education at all levels. We must make sure that this week’s “buzz” does not fizzle but, rather, leads to a clarion call in Detroit, the region, the state and the nation, that educational reform must occur at all levels.

 

Hey, Baby, what’s happening?

When I was in Eastern Market over the Memorial Day weekend, it seemed like there were babies everywhere. But statistics show that fewer Michiganders are having children.  

The State of Michigan has just released 2008 data and the trend of decreasing births that began after 1990 is continuing. 

“Figure 1” shows Michigan’s birth numbers from 1990 to 2008.  Births peaked in 1990 at 153,080, the highest seen since the early 1970s. Between 1990 and 2008, births decreased 21 percent ( 11 percent since 2000).  Such a trend, combined with the continued net out-migration of the population, creates a double whammy for a state that is clamoring to retain its talent and its tax base.

Figure 1.  Michigan Births, 1990 – 2008

 

 

 

 

A recent release from the National Center for Health Statistics showed that Michigan had one of the lowest birth rates in the country – only the New England states, Pennsylvania and West Virginia had lower rates.

The decrease in births has been mirrored in Southeast Michigan.  While there is great variation across communities – many of which have seen their birth numbers grow—Wayne County and City of Detroit have trended downward.

Macomb County, which has seen continued in-migration and growth since 1990, experienced the smallest loss among Macomb County, Oakland County, out-Wayne County and Detroit – 7.6 percent since 1990; 6.1 percent since 2000.

Procreators in Oakland County have really been hit hard by the economic downturn.  Oakland County’s births dropped only 4 percent during the 1990′s. But since 2000, it has dropped 14.8 percent.  

Out-Wayne County’s drop has been less severe than that of Oakland County – most likely due to the increasing population of younger residents in growing communities such as Brownstown, Canton, Northville and Plymouth townships.   The drop in out-Wayne County’s births has been 15.4 percent since 1990 and 8.1 percent since 2000.

Figure 2.  Births in the Tri-County Area, 1990 – 2008

The drop in Detroit’s birth rate is largely due to population loss. The first time that Detroit’s births have fallen below the 12,000 mark reached in the early 20^th Century was in 2008 (11,774). That was less than half of the 1990 total of 24,129.  The loss since 2000 has been 26 percent.

What does decreasing births mean for the State and the region?  How does it affect school districts, tax revenue, business development, etc.?  We welcome your input.

D.C. Data Conference: A Meeting of the Minds

From May 12 -14, our staff attended the National Neighborhood Indicators Partnership (NNIP) bi-annual meeting in Washington, D.C. NNIP is a project of the Urban Institute that helps integrate neighborhood-level information systems with local policymakers and community leaders.

The conference was a welcome opportunity for Data Driven Detroit to network with other data organizations and share recent work, new ideas and community solutions.  We know that your eyes may have glazed over, and you would have had a hard time hiding your yawns. But for us, it was a rare opportunity to engage with folks that are truly interested in numbers, methodology, metadata, and how our work can help transform communities.

One of the highlights was a presentation from the U.S. Department of Housing and Urban Development (HUD) about its 2010-2015 Strategic Plan.  HUD Assistant Secretary for Policy Development and Research Raphael Bostic was present to review the five goals laid out in the plan: 1) Strengthen the Nation’s Housing Market to Bolster the Economy and Protect Consumers, 2) Meet the Need for Quality Affordable Rental Homes, 3) Utilize Housing as a Platform for Improving Quality of Life, 4) Build Inclusive and Sustainable Communities Free From Discrimination, and 5) Transform the Way HUD Does Business.

HUD Assistant Secretary Raphael Bostic

We were particularly intrigued by this statement in HUD’s executive summary about the importance of policy backed by good data:

In the last quarter century, a golden era of innovation was unlocked. This innovation, coupled with advances in tech­nology and management and the use of data and evidence-based policy, has helped create a New Business Model in places that have adapted to these changes, bringing a new accountability to the public sector. …We believe a new business model can unlock a much broader scale of transformation—both within HUD and more broadly with the potential to fundamentally change the way federal government works.

HUD wants to make more information available to their customers so that resources can be targeted. According to the plan, they are committed to “taking the holistic, cross-cutting view of community development required to make the biggest difference on the ground.”  Mr. Bostic, both during his presentation and after a question and answer session, left the data people gathered at the conference with a feeling of hope that somewhere behind the curtain, the culture is changing in D.C.

In a strange way, we were comforted by the fact that Detroit is not the only region wrestling with tough issues these days.  Many of our partners in states with manufacturing-based economies are also grappling with the effects of the decline of manufacturing in this country; many suffer from racial tensions similar to our own; most see the same urban-suburban disparities so characteristic of our metro area.

Still, they are rooting for Detroit to get back on its feet, and for our region to move forward.  We left D.C. with a renewed confidence that by sharing good information and forming evidence-based policies, the citizens of our region can find a way through our current challenges toward a brighter, more prosperous, equitable and sustainable future.

2009 MEAP: Public school reading scores outshine the charters

It has been said that a child learns to read up until third grade, after which he/she reads to learn. The ability to read at an early age is critical for academic success across all subjects in the years to come.

The State of Michigan recently released results from the Fall 2009 MEAP.  Table 1 presents a summary of the third grade reading results (the earliest grade tested) for the Detroit Area – Macomb, Oakland and Wayne Counties.  The results are tabulated across districts and presented as county totals.  The City of Detroit district is pulled out separately from Wayne County, and the remaining Wayne County districts are summarized.  In addition, public school districts have been tabulated separately from charter schools.

Table 1 presents results over the last five years so that trends can be readily identified.  Among the findings:

• The results were clear – all districts, both public and charter, experienced improvements in the percent of children reading at grade level over the last year. The percent of children not meeting standards dropped from 13.6% to 10.2% across the State of Michigan.  Those meeting standards increased from 86.4% to 89.8%.
• Macomb Public Schools, after two years of decreases, experienced an increase in the percentage of children meeting standards from 88.5% to 91.6%. For the first time, less than 1,000 third grade students could not read at grade level.
• Oakland Public Schools’ 2008-09 improvement was extended, and increased. The share of students testing at grade level grew from 91.2% to 93.6%. As was the case with Macomb, this was the first time that less than 1,000 third grade students could not read at grade level.
• Detroit Public School students showed the greatest improvement. By the 2008-09 school year, the percent of Detroit students that were reading at a third grade level had fallen from a high of 75.5% to 71.7%.  But in the 2009-10 school year, Detroit students rallied to 79.1 %, representing a 10.3 percent improvement.
• Out-Wayne County Public Schools also showed improvement after two successive years of losses. The Fall 2009 tests showed a grade level reading rate of 90.0 percent.  This was up from 86.0% in Fall 2008.
• The percent of tri-county public school students reading at a third-grade level increased from 85.8% to 89.8%.
• Charter schools continued to have significantly lower rates of students meeting reading standards than their public school counterparts (though DPS is still slightly lower than each of the county charter averages).
• Macomb charter schools produced a grade level reading rate of 80.0%, a marked increase from 76.2% in Fall 2008.
• Oakland Charter schools showed similar, though slightly less, improvement than did Macomb. Student grade level reading in Fall 2009 was 79.7%, up from 76.6% in Fall 2008.
• Wayne County charters (charters located in the City of Detroit were not pulled out separately) showed the largest improvement across the tri-county, as the grade level reading rate increased from 76.25 to 81.0 %.

 

A second trend that the data reveal is the decreasing public school population of 3^rd graders[1]^,[2] resulting from a combination of out-migration and decreasing births.  The number of 3^rd graders tested statewide (including both public and charter) decreased by 2,216, or 1.9 percent.  Macomb lost 314 3^rd grade students (3.2%) between 2008 and 2009 (when public and charter enrollments are combined), while Oakland lost 106 students (0.8%).  Both experienced decreases in public enrollment (3.6% and 0.8%, respectively), with very small changes in charter enrollment.

The number of Detroit Public School third graders taking the test has fallen by 2,142, or 23.7 percent, between Fall 2005 and Fall 2008.  Much has been written about decreasing enrollment in the district overall.  Such large decreases in the early grades provide strong evidence to support the general enrollment forecasts of a district that will drop to about 50,000 by 2015[3].

Table 1.  3rd Grade Reading MEAP Results

 

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[1] The numbers also reveal a movement from public to charter schools, as the population of charter school students increased significantly in Wayne, slightly in Oakland, and held steady in Macomb.

[2] The assumption must be made that the numbers are not affected by an increasing number of parents opting out of having their children tested.

[3] The City of Detroit is adding children through births, at a rate that has been dropping since 1990.  The forecast for attracting families with young children to the City in the near future is not there.  As a result, increased enrollment will only come through an increasing market share – attracting a higher percentage of current residents at each grade level.

A Poll With Promise: What one study says about our hope for the future

Detroit has become the poster-child for a 21^st Century, post-industrial region searching for a future. We are under the microscopes of the media, the federal government, the academic and research communities, national and local foundations, and ordinary residents.  While we don’t always take kindly to what others have to say about us, we need to separate the wheat from the chaff—there is often much to learn from criticism. 

Here’s one poll that contained a welcome surprise. A November 2009 poll was conducted by the (http://www.kff.org/kaiserpolls/8039.cfm) Washington Post, Kaiser Family Foundation and Harvard University revealed that “almost all residents of the main three-county metropolitan area of Detroit see their economy as in ruins.”

That’s hardly news, and frankly, feels a little like piling on. But here’s something else the poll found:

“A large majority of residents expect that things will get better, with 63 percent optimistic about the area’s future and the same percentage expecting their finances to improve over the next decade.”

That’s the kind of poll that we cling to around here. Good news is hard to come by. And yet…

How exactly will the region’s outlook improve over the next decade?  The same poll takes a hard look at a critical issue we must face before we can really be optimistic: the divide between Detroit and its suburbs.

The most disturbing finding (see Figure 1) was the fact that half of suburban respondents stated that they never come to the city – primarily because they have no reason to visit or because they fear crime (studies that this author began in 2004 have shown that downtown Detroit is safer than many suburban communities http://www.visitdetroit.com/images/stories/docs/2007realityvsperceptionscrimereport.pdf).   When asked whether their visits had increased or decreased over the last year, 39 percent reported a decrease, while only 12 percent reported an increase. 

While it is true that the City of Detroit lacks the presence of a regional shopping mall, big box chain stores or multi-screen cinema complexes – all magnets for visitors–where else can you go to match the offerings of the DIA, Detroit Science Center, African-American Museum and Detroit Historical Museum? We know that suburban residents will visit for that occasional sporting event – Tigers, Red Wings or Lions – but do they ever stay to explore Campus Martius, stroll the River Walk, visit the many exciting new restaurants and night spots?  We may not have big boxes, but we have a number of unique venues that should be visited – Avalon Bakery, Bureau of Urban Living, City Bird, Detroit Artists Market, and many others.  And, rather than taking the expressway in and out of the city, why not take a little time to explore the unique neighborhoods that Detroit provides – from Corktown to Morningside; from Palmer Woods to Indian Village; from Woodbridge to East English Village; from Rosedale Park to Lafayette Park; and many, many more.

The evidence is overwhelming –a successful region requires a successful central city. Those areas that are growing economically across the country have shared regional visions that are structured around cities that are attractive to all segments of the population.  They are regions that, through successful public transportation and planning, have strong central business districts and facilitate the movement of city residents to employment in the suburbs, and vice versa.  How will we be able to develop a shared vision around Detroit when so many people are unconvinced that Detroit matters?

It is only through increased interaction that we can begin to break down the barriers – racial, socioeconomic and geographic – that have held us back for so long.

We need your thoughts.  How do we encourage increased cross-boundary traffic?

RIGHT START: MATERNAL AND INFANT WELL-BEING IN DETROIT

When it comes to a healthy start for all children in Detroit, I don’t want to talk about teens or unwed mothers. I want to talk about babies starting out life with a real disadvantage–and what we’re going to do about it.  

This month, Data Driven Detroit released a ground-breaking study –”Right Start in Detroit 2009: Maternal and Infant Well-Being in the City of Detroit, 2000-2007.” We worked with the Detroit Department of Health and Wellness Promotion to look at birth statistics by neighborhood–something that has never been done before in the city. What we found is that maternal and infant well-being varies vastly from neighborhood to neighborhood.

In Palmer Woods, only 10 percent of births are to teen mothers. In the Winterhalter subcommunity, nearly one in three babies is born to a teenager. The Vernor and Chadsey-Condon subcommunities have the highest shares of mothers without high school diplomas. And despite an overall decrease in the Detroit birth rate between 2000 and 2007, the Chadsey-Condon and Jeffries subcommunities have both registered an increase in the same period.

Our study really shows that place matters. Where you live can affect how you start out in life, and it can profoundly affect your ability to thrive for years to come. 

Getting public policy off to a Right Start 

The policy implications are clear. We would be smart to target our thinly-stretched resources directly at the problem we are trying to address.If five communities have 24 percent or more births to teens–Osborn (24 percent), St. Jean (25 percent), Conner (25 percent), Burbank (26 percent) and Winterhalter (27 percent)-then perhaps those communities should be getting the lion’s share of our prevention, education and maternal health care services. That’s why good, accurate research is key to developing effective public policy that makes real change to the lives of those who live in Detroit. 

Which brings me to my second point. One study is not enough to answer critical questions about mother-child outcomes in Detroit. We know that in the Conner subcommunity, nearly half of the infants received inadequate prenatal care. What the study does not reveal is why. Is there a lack of health care institutions in the area? Do the mothers lack health insurance? Is there a cultural mistrust of doctors? Are there language or educational barriers? Are cigarettes and liquor more available in the community than fresh fruits and vegetables? 

Data Driven Detroit’s report has been well-received in the media. It’s my hope that it’s not only a “Right Start” for the mothers and children in Detroit, but it marks a right start for the use of data to inform public policy as well.  To find out the results for your neighborhood, click on the links below:

Airport
Bagley
Belle Isle
Boynton
Brightmoor
Brooks
Burbank
Central
Cerveny
Chadsey-Condon
Chene
Cody-Rouge
Conner
Denby
Downtown
Durfee
Evergreen
Finney
Grandmont
Greenfield
Harmony Village
Jeffries
Kettering-Butzel
Mack
Mackenzie
McNichols
Osborn
Palmer Park
Pembroke
Pershing
Redford
Rosa Parks
Rosedale Park
St Jean
State Fair-Nolan
Tireman
University
Vernor
Winterhalter

Fat Chance: The numbers bear out the First Lady’s call for fitness

First Lady Michelle Obama targets childhood obesity

 

I’m a data guru, not a diet expert. But since First Lady Michelle Obama launched her “Let’s Move” initiative to address childhood obesity, I decided to see what the numbers have to say about America’s fitness. I looked into my crystal ball, which, for us data geeks, is the Statistical Abstract of the United States. It’s been published annually since 1878, and is chock full of information, ranging from “accidents” to “zinc.” 

What I found was tons of information about how our nation tips the scales: 

• Out of our total population of Americans 18 years and over, 32.9%  are overweight  and 32.6% are obese
• 60% of 18-44 year olds are above a healthy weight (30.3% obese)
• 73% of 45-64 year olds are above a healthy weight (38.4% obese)
• 74% of 65-74 year olds are above a healthy weight (34.8% obese)
• White females are the only race/ethnic/gender group to have an unhealthy weight below 70% 

You can’t turn on the TV without seeing an ad for a weight loss pill, a new foolproof diet or a gadget that makes you lose weight even while eating. But we all know that the main contributors to weight gain or loss are exercise and food intake.  How do we shape up when it comes to those factors? 

People tend to put themselves in a good light when asked about exercise. Still, when we look at the National Health Interview Survey, there’s still a problem. 

• 39% of all adults report “no leisure time physical activity”
• 34% (18-44 years); 39% (45-64 years); 48% (65-74 years)
• Exercise increases as educational attainment increases.  Sixty-four percent of those without a high school degree report “no leisure time physical activity.” Among high school graduates, 47 % report no activity, 35 % of those with some college or an associate degree and 23 % of those with at least an undergraduate degree report no activity. 

If the First Lady wants to end obesity, she’s got her work cut out for her far into the future. Based on responses from high school students in the Youth Risk Behavior Survey, only about a third met “currently recommended levels of physical activity.”  However, 25% used computers 3 or more hours a day and 35% watched 3 or more hours of television a day.  When you add phone calls, texting, etc., who has time for exercise? 

Finally, we look at our food intake over the years.  

• Per capita consumption of red meat has dropped from 126 pounds in 1980 to 111 pounds in 2007
• Per capita consumption of carbonated soft drinks has increased from 33.6 gallons in 1980 to 48.8 gallons  in 2007
• Per capita consumption of milk has dropped from 27.9 gallons in 1980 to 22.0 gallons in 2007
• Per capita consumption of cheese has increased from 17.5  pounds in 1980 to 32.7  pounds in 2007
• Per capita consumption of total fat has increased from 56.9 pounds in 1980 to 84.9 pounds in 2007

 I guess you don’t have to be a Data Guru to see that, unless things change drastically, there’s a fat chance that the overall health of Americans will improve anytime soon.

How do We Develop Neighborhoods of Opportunity?

 

A significant impediment to this re-invigoration is the widespread and systemic inequity plaguing marginalized populations and communities. Communities of color, particularly African-American communities, are more and more isolated from the essential opportunity structures needed to succeed and thrive in the 21st century global society.  Such isolation, caused by factors such as divestment, job sprawl, and far less-than-adequate public transit systems, have resulted in a 28.9 percent unemployment rate in Detroit¹ and increasing socio-economic gaps.

Geography, race, and poverty are intertwined in the Detroit region: poverty and place work together in a systematic way, fueling racial disparities and isolating communities of color from opportunity. Geographic, social, and racial disparities are more than just indicators of isolation for marginalized populations. These disparities play a significant role in undermining the future for all residents of the Detroit region and the state of Michigan. Acknowledging and addressing these inequities is a critical step to assure a functioning democratic society and prepare the region for its future.

Housing provides more than just shelter. Housing, depending on its location, can be either a conduit or an impediment to opportunity. Housing is the primary conduit to accessing opportunity and building wealth and economic stability in the U.S.  Housing location is the critical leverage point to determining access to education, employment, childcare, and health care or in determining the likelihood of developing assets/wealth through home equity.

Take a moment and think about neighborhood conditions throughout the city of Detroit and the tri-county area (if you have not traveled extensively around the metro area, you should take the opportunity).  Think about the housing, the presence or absence of services, and realize that the case can be easily made – where you live often determines how long you live.  Fifty years of social science research has demonstrated that racially isolated and economically poor neighborhoods restrict employment options for young people, contribute to poor health, expose children to extremely high rates of crime and violence, and house some of the least-performing schools. Neighborhoods powerfully shape residents’ access to social, political, and economic opportunities and resources.

john a. powell, who spell his name with capital letters, directs Ohio State's Kirwan Institute for the Study of Race and Ethnicity

Battered by challenging economic conditions, a national housing crisis and the continued decline of the once-robust manufacturing sector, the Detroit region, and the state as a whole, must find innovative ways to capitalize on the assets and redirect its course to be competitive in the 21st Century.

 

 

In January 2009, the Michigan Roundtable for Diversity and Inclusion sponsored a conference entitled “Opportunity for All: Inequity, Linked Fate and Social Justice in Michigan.”  The keynote speaker was john a. powell (no CAPS), a Detroit native who now directs the Kirwan Institute at Ohio State².   Rather than begin the dialogue about race with a picture of ethnic trends, racial gaps and segregation measures, john’s approach is to lay out “opportunity” in a geographic context and, once clear distinctions as to geographic inequities across regional neighborhoods have been described and internalized, introduce race to understand how opportunity and race interact.

One of my key themes, when offered the opportunity to speak of the demographic trends that shaped our region, is the effect of federal actions post-World War II on the city and its populations of color. Federal subsidies for suburban housing and transportation made it economical for middle-class families to leave the city. Because early housing policy often prohibited integrated neighborhoods through lending restrictions and racially restrictive covenants, it was mostly Whites who left and built equity in new neighborhoods. As central cities lost significant population, jobs followed. The loss of tax revenue resulted in increased tax rates for municipal services for those who were least able to shoulder them. Funds for maintenance and repair of existing infrastructure waned³ as money went to subsidizing further suburban and exurban development. This is not a sustainable model for a region whose population in 2008 was 200,000 less than it was 38 years before.

The Detroit region suffers some of the worst racial segregation in its housing and schools in the nation. Analysis of trends in segregation during recent decades indicates that these trends have improved slightly, but generally the region has remained extremely segregated by race in its neighborhoods and its classrooms.  As persons of color, particularly African Americans, have increased their presence in the suburbs substantially since the early 1990s, leading to increasing representation in suburban school districts⁴, segregation in school systems, particularly at the individual school level, appears to be increasing.

The Kirwan Institute analyzed the characteristics of communities across the region by conducting an “opportunity mapping” analysis. This opportunity mapping analysis looked at a number of indicators of opportunity and community conditions for neighborhoods throughout the Detroit region. This technique of measuring educational opportunities, economic opportunities, and other neighborhood and housing challenges (like concentrated neighborhood poverty, vacant property, or crime), resulted in a comprehensive evaluation of the region’s best and most challenged neighborhoods. The findings:

•    The African-American community is highly concentrated in low opportunity areas.
•    While only 36% of the total population lived in the region’s low opportunity neighborhoods (which represent two-fifths of the neighborhoods in the region), 90% of the African-American population (or nine of ten African Americans) were found in low opportunity neighborhoods.
•    Only 19% of Whites lived in low opportunity communities.
•    While more than 43% of the region’s total population lived in high opportunity neighborhoods, less than 4% of the African American population lived in these communities.
•    More than half of the Latino population is concentrated in low opportunity communities.

The Detroit region must be a place where everyone – regardless of age, race, ethnicity, sexual orientation, etc. – must have the opportunity to thrive. This is not only a moral imperative but an economic imperative as well.  Regional success occurs where diversity of opportunity exists. We must all pay attention to these troubling indicators of inequality and opportunity isolation which plague the city, region, and state. 

There are a number of organizations and initiatives in the region working toward the same goal⁵.  Data Driven Detroit is working with many of those groups around issues of social equity and funders are recognizing the need to apply a ‘social equity lens’ in their grantmaking activities.  Data Driven Detroit will be working with john powell and others at Kirwan, along with many local partners, to develop the “neighborhoods of opportunity” methodology for updating the data and measuring our progress.

It is only by addressing these challenges directly can we build a society that is sustainable, equitable, and allows all residents access to the levers of opportunity critical to succeeding in our 21st century society. 

 
¹ This is the “official” unemployment rate and does not account for those who are no longer looking for a job.  In addition, employment is counted as any paid work during the week in survey.  As a result, a 40-50% unemployment (and underemployment) for African Americans in the city is more likely the case.

² John taught a class in the fall 2009 on structural racism at the Wayne State Law School.

³ SEMCOG has recently released a report identifying regional infrastructure needs over the  next 25 years that dwarf anticipated resources.  We will need to make regional choices as to where we concentrate our funds. 

⁴ Open enrollment across county boundaries has also facilitated this growth.

⁵ OneD has begun to document these efforts on its website through its issue area of Race Relations.

The Census is Coming! The Census is Coming!

The census is coming! Make sure you're counted!

When the first U.S. census was conducted in 1790, cries of undercount were heard across the land. Surely there were more than about 4 million residents in the new nation!  

Ever since, the Census Bureau has made an effort to conduct an accurate count of every person¹ residing in the United States every ten years.  All residents of the United States must be counted, including people of all ages, races, ethnic groups, citizens and non-citizens.

The U.S. Constitution (Article I, Section 2) mandates this headcount to determine each state’s Congressional representation. The count also determined the taxes each state paid the government.

The census has taken on a wide variety of uses since then.  The numbers affect funding for states and local governments, determine governmental representation at all levels, influence business investment and help inform decision makers about how the community is changing – information that is crucial to many planning decisions, such as where to provide services for the elderly, where to build new roads and schools, or where to locate job training centers.

In the past, most households received a short-form questionnaire, while one household in six received a long form that contained additional questions and provided more detailed socioeconomic information about the population.  The 2010 Census will be a short-form only census and will count all residents living in the United States as well as ask for name, sex, age, date of birth, race, ethnicity, relationship and housing tenure – taking just minutes to complete. More detailed socioeconomic information is now collected through the American Community Survey (ACS), which provides current data every year, rather than once every 10 years².
 
Census data directly affect how more than $400 billion per year in federal and state funding is allocated to communities for neighborhood improvements, public health, education, transportation and much more. That’s more than $4 trillion over a 10-year period.

With the state and local news dominated by stories of DEFICIT and RECEIVERSHIP, we cannot afford to sit idly by and hope that the Census Bureau, through its employees and media buys, will provide Michigan and all its local governments with an accurate count.  As is the case with elections…

IF YOU DON’T PARTICIPATE IN THE PROCESS, YOU HAVE NO RIGHT TO COMPLAIN ABOUT THE RESULTS!

Census Day – April 1, 2010– is almost upon us.  There is a great deal to do to get the word out throughout our state and time is passing.  We are the only state to have experienced population loss each of the last four years.  The Detroit region has also suffered losses this decade and the City of Detroit has continued, although at a much lower rate, its 50+ year out-migration flow. 

We must be ready and willing to do everything we can to make sure everyone is counted.  We must reach out to the disenfranchised – numbers that have grown exponentially due to unemployment, foreclosures, etc. – and let them know that their participation may result in increased funding for their support³.  We must help new immigrants understand that completing a census form will not harm them in any way.

The Census Bureau has created a variety of programs and materials for getting the word out.  On the government side, the Bureau encourages and supports the creation of Complete Count Committees.  The Census Education Project (my favorite) creates curriculum materials for students and teachers across the K-12 spectrum.  Promotional materials have been produced in a wide variety of languages for use in ethnic communities across the country.

The staff at the Data Driven Detroit (D3) is ready to assist in any way we can.  We recognize the importance of complete and accurate data and want to make sure that Detroit, the region, and all of Michigan do everything they can to make that happen.  We are an official partner with the Census Bureau, are providing technical support to the City of Detroit, serve on the advisory committee for the Michigan Nonprofit Association’s 2010 Census Project, and “talk census” wherever and whenever we can.

An inaccurate census will only hurt the city and the region’s ability to go forward.  There are no do-overs, and whining about an undercount will not change the results.

To take liberties with a tag line for Detroit Public Schools, ‘I get it….do you?’ “

1 The history of the census shows that though every person was to be “counted,” not everyone always counted equally.
 
² Results from the 2008 American Community Survey will be released on September 22.  This release will cover all states, as well as counties and communities with populations of 65,000 or more.

³ The Michigan Nonprofit Association has launched a targeted effort to bring nonprofits to the table to understand the critical role they play in reaching their clients and constituents.