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June 9, 2003
Co-sponsored by
The Civil Rights Project, the Lawyers Committee for Civil Rights
Under Law, the Center
for Community Change, and the Brookings Institution's Center
on Urban and Metropolitan Policy
On June 9, 2003, The Civil Rights Project at Harvard
University (CRP), the Lawyers Committee for Civil Rights Under
Law (LCCRUL), the Center for Community Change, and the Brookings
Institution’s Center on Urban and Metropolitan Policy co-sponsored
a conference on transportation equity.
Transportation equity and environmental
justice for people of color are concerns that have been at the
periphery of
the debate pertaining to the reauthorization
of TEA-21. Our goal
was to come together to better understand the opportunities that
the reauthorization affords for strengthening provisions to address
inequities that minorities and low-income communities experience
and for providing much needed funding for research in this area.
Our aim was to review the
current state of research in this area and its policy implications.
All of our organizations are deeply concerned about
the disparities and the segregative effects of transportation
policies on minority communities. Unfortunately, very little transportation
policy, research, or advocacy has focused on the effects of transportation
policies on minority communities. Most civil rights organizations
have only focused on minority business programs and affirmative
action, and most researchers have not adequately addressed race-related
effects.
This convening was designed for a small
group of researchers, policy analysts, and
civil rights advocates for the purposes of:
beginning a dialogue between the advocacy and academic communities
on these issues;
reviewing existing research to determine its usefulness in informing
advocates and policy makers which problems to attack and which
policy solutions to seek; and
identifying the critical research gaps that currently exist.
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I. WELCOME, PURPOSE, AND GOALS OF ROUNDTABLE
Christopher Edley Jr., The Civil Rights
Project
Barbara Arnwine, Lawyers Committee for Civil Rights
II. OVERVIEW:
TRANSPORATION EQUITY
What does existing research tell us about the
effect of transportation policies on minorities?· What is
the current state of TEA-21 reauthorization?· What are strategies
advocates have pursued to address inequities in transportation?
Presenters: Tom
Sanchez, Metropolitan Institute at Virginia Tech
Rich Stolz, Center
for Community Change
III. TRANSLATING TO
POLICY: WHAT DO EXISTING RESEARCH AND ADVOCATES’ EXPERIENCES
SUGGEST FOR PUBLIC POLICY?
In this session, we discussed the public policy implications
of existing research and the experience of advocates and identified
successful
and potential policy solutions that should inform the TEA-21 reauthorization
that would address the inequitable effects of transportation policies
on minorities. We asked Roundtable participants to offer concrete
ideas in the areas of land use, spatial mismatch, health effects,
and economic effects such as the costs of different modes of transportation
and minority hiring and contracting in construction.For each set
of ideas proposed, we discussed how these policies could be
implemented at a national and at a regional or local level and
what they imply
for future research.
Moderators: Christopher
Edley Jr., The Civil Rights Project and Bruce Katz, The Brookings
Institution
IV. TRANSLATING TO POLICY,
CONTINUED
In this session, we continued our discussion from the previous
session and explored the additional areas of the role of MPOs, and
public participation in transportation planning, accountability and
performance measures.
Moderators: Christopher
Edley, Jr. and Barbara Arnwine
V. ANSWERING THE UNKNOWN:
DEVELOPING A RESEARCH AGENDA
What should a research agenda that would explore inequities arising
from current transportation policies and move policy discussions
toward more racially equitable transportation policies look like?
What are the 2-3 research priorities for the transportation equity
agenda?
Moderator: Gary
Orfield, The Civil Rights Project
VI. NEXT STEPS
Christopher Edley, Jr. and Rich Stolz
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