Metro and Regional Inequalities

Research in this section focuses attention on the structure of economic and social opportunities created by the intersection of metropolitan and regional housing, education, transportation, growth, workforce and other policies, all within a context of often dramatic demographic changes.

Racial Segregation and Educational Outcomes in Metropolitan Boston

Boston’s disastrous failure to achieve peaceful desegregation of its schools three decades ago, particularly the mob violence at South Boston High School, and the transition of the Boston schools to overwhelmingly white enrollment, are commonly seen as areas why the region need not think about patterns of school segregation--nothing can be done about it. This thinking ignores the better experiences of many other cities and also the METCO program that is intact and still in high demand.

The Color of Money in Greater Boston: Patterns of Mortgage Lending and Residential Segregation at the Beginning of the New Century

The findings of this paper underline the need for “modernization” of Community Reinvestment Act (CRA), which now applies only to banks and covers only lending in areas where the banks have branches. In the Boston NECTA during the 2000-2002 period, 70% of home-purchase lending was done by out-of-state banks or by mortgage companies not affiliated with Massachusetts banks. These lenders, not covered by CRA, perform significantly worse than covered lenders in lending to borrowers and neighborhoods of color. Pending Massachusetts legislation would bring the state’s CRA into line with the transformed nature of the mortgage lending industry by imposing CRA-type obligations and evaluations on all types of mortgage lenders. This could make a significant contribution to reducing the current racial/ethnic disparities in mortgage lending that are documented in this paper.

More than Money: The Spatial Mismatch Between Where Homeowners of Color in Metro Boston Can Afford to Live and Where They Actually Reside

Few people argue that segregation is purely a result of market forces, or that it is due entirely to discrimination. Most recognize that the answer must lie somewhere in between. Policy efforts must focus on removing any remnants of discriminatory practices, and must also find ways to attract and retain populations of color in communities that are affordable to but devoid of households of color.

Beyond Poverty: Race and Concentrated-Poverty Neighborhoods in Metro Boston

Metropolitan Boston needs a serious discussion about racial equity. The region is in the midst of a period of rapid racial change but there is a widespread perception that either nothing needs to be done explicitly about race, or nothing can be done because of failures in the city of Boston in the past. Many people think that issues of discrimination have been solved and that everyone now has an equal chance.

Segregation in Neighborhoods and Schools: Impacts on Minority Children in the Boston Region

Nearly 30 years after a court ordered Boston’s city schools to desegregate (1974), school segregation continues to be a major obstacle to equal opportunity for minority children in the Boston metropolis. The issues are national in scope, but in Boston we see especially clearly how limited are the impacts of policies that are only implemented within city boundaries. Blacks and Hispanics are unusually concentrated in the City of Boston and a handful of older outlying towns and cities, while residential suburbs where most whites live hardly share in the growing ethnic and racial diversity of the region.

Moving to Equity: Addressing Inequitable Effects of Transportation Policies on Minorities

A joint report of The Civil Rights Project and the Center for Community Change that identifies surface transportation policies’ inequitable effects.

Integrating Neighborhoods, Segregating Schools: The Retreat from School Desegregation, 1990 - 2000

Paper prepared for the conference on the Resegregation of Southern Schools.