Transcript Transportation Equity

Transportation Equity
a tale of two cities
Definition
Racism: the “socially organized set of
attitudes, ideas and practices that deny
African Americans and other people of
color the dignity, opportunities,
freedoms, and rewards that this nation
offers to white Americans.”
The Campaign for Transportation Equity
• Disparate outcomes (impact) in planning,
operation, and maintenance of
infrastructure development and transit
services
• Inequalities that exacerbate racial disparity
include:
– the isolation of communities
– inequitable distribution of pollution and
3 Analytical Categories
1. Procedural Inequity: Asks whether decisions
about infrastructure and transit services made
in a democratic way? Are the rules applied
equally?
2. Geographic Inequity: Asks whether
transportation systems disproportionately favor
one community or region over another?
3. Social Inequity: Asks whether the benefits and
MLK
“Urban transit systems in most
American cities [are] a genuine
civil rights issue because the
layout of rapid-transit systems
determines the accessibility of
jobs to the black community. If
transit…could be laid out so as to
provide an opportunity for poor
people to get to meaningful
Federal Laws
• Executive Order 12898: Federal Actions to
Address Environmental Justice in Minority
Populations and Low-Income Populations
(1994)
• Title VI of Civil Rights Act of 1964
• National Environmental Policy Act of 1969
• Federal Aid Highway Act of 1970
Some Tactics for Challenging Transportation
Racism
• Research: “Follow the money” Who gets the
money for transportation? How “invested” are
politicians in construction?
• Process: Speaking out and demanding to
participate in decision-making processes about
the spending of public money
• Legal action: Filing lawsuits against state and
local government to challenge decision-making
processes and disparate impact
• Mass transportation first built for suburbs
•Roland Park and North Baltimore
•Restrictive Covenants & Residential Zoning created segregated
neighborhoods
Segregated
Neighborhoods
• 1910: Baltimore invents residential
zoning for racial segregation
• 1913: City introduces restrictive
covenants prohibiting African Americans
(& others) from owning or occupying
homes in particular neighborhoods
Strategy
& Tactics
Defeated de jure residential segregation through
• Litigation: Appealed to federal courts
• Decision based Property Rights,
not on 14th Amendment
City responded with de facto segregation using zoning
Public Transportation
“Streetcar Suburbs”
Permitted escape from the industrial
city for a “fleeting taste of the
country”
North Baltimore areas
Brookland and Garrett Park for D.C.
people
Inner city residents also made
weekend trips
Residential Zoning
• Coincided with commercial sale
of automobiles
• 1918 Annexation of Balto.
County land tripled city’s size
• Master Plan 1923 “to classify the
population and to segregate the
classes according to their stations
in life”
Black Baltimore
• African Americans confined to “ring of blight”
• WPA projects tore down but did not replace housing
• By 1950: 225,000 living in area built for 100,000
1971 Subway Plan
Anne Arundel opposition to
subway plan
• Concerns about “undesirable
elements”
• knick-named “LOOT rail”
The Racial Politics of Transportation and Transit
“In cities and
metropolitan
regions across the
country,
inadequate or
nonexistent
suburban transit
serves as invisible
‘Keep out’ signs
Metro 2006
Subway continues to favor Northern
and NW suburban passengers at
the expense of eastern and SW
passengers
Ridership figures:
Subway: 12.4 million
Public transit total: 92 million
Transit Riders
League
• Formed 1999 for more and better transit
services in Baltimore
• Both an adversary and ally of Maryland
Transit Administration
• Won two issue campaigns:
–FairBox Reform: changing the formula
required for “profit”
Washington, D.C.
• No Home Rule
– No elected representation
– Treated at testing grounds by Congress
– Transportation determined by Business
– Government needs