1. Poverty, Inequality and Segregation in Boston
Matt Kaliner October 6, 2015 US 24: Reinventing and Remagining Boston

2. Post industrial crisis
-> Busing Crisis
Segregation,
Poverty,
Inequality,
Social Mobility

3. Poverty, Boston Style?

4. Poverty, Boston Style? 1994: US NewS and World Report on “THE WHITE UNDERCLASS”

7. (212/588 families in poverty)
(392/802)88

8. UNDERCLASS? Poverty, Chicago Style

9. UNDERCLASS… Poverty, Chicago Style

10. Wilson vs. Massey Debate Race, Poverty, and the Underclass
William Julius Wilson
Doug Massey

11. Wilson vs. Massey Debate Race, Poverty, and the Underclass
William Julius Wilson

12. Wilson vs. Massey Debate Race, Poverty, and the Underclass
1987: debate about poverty, violence, single motherhood, welfare reform, public housing
…the urban crisis.
Wilson:
Structural transformation of the inner city
Creates a new form of poverty

13. Wilson vs. Massey Debate Race, Poverty, and the Underclass
Structural transformation of the inner city
Creates a new form of poverty
What did African-American poverty look like in the 1950’s?
What changes in the 1960’s and 1970’s?

14. Wilson vs. Massey Debate Race, Poverty, and the Underclass
Structural transformation of the inner city
Creates a new form of poverty
Global economy:
Factories move to suburbs, overseas
Collapse in inner city, low skill employment

15. Wilson vs. Massey Debate Race, Poverty, and the Underclass
Structural transformation of the inner city
Creates a new form of poverty
Global economy:
Factories move to suburbs, overseas
Collapse in inner city, low skill employment
Spatial mismatch hypothesis
Jobs <-> workers

16. Wilson vs. Massey Debate Race, Poverty, and the Underclass
Structural transformation of the inner city
Creates a new form of poverty
Outmigration of the black middle class
Fair Housing Act of 1968
Depopulation
collapse of community institutions and organizations, and loss of community leaders

17. Wilson vs. Massey Debate Race, Poverty, and the Underclass
Structural transformation of the inner city
Creates a new form of poverty
Outmigration of the black middle class
Fair Housing Act of 1968
Depopulation
collapse of community institutions and organizations, and loss of community leaders
Social isolation of the urban poor

18. Wilson vs. Massey Debate Race, Poverty, and the Underclass
Social isolation of the urban poor
Concentration of poverty = living in a neighborhood (census tract) that is >40% poor.

19. Wilson vs. Massey Debate Race, Poverty, and the Underclass
Social isolation of the urban poor
Concentration of poverty = living in a neighborhood (census tract) that is >40% poor.
Question:
Why does your neighborhoods
poverty matter??

20. (212/588 families in poverty)
(392/802)88

21. Wilson vs. Massey Debate Race, Poverty, and the Underclass
Why does your neighborhoods poverty matter?
“Not only are children at risk because of the lack of informal social controls, they are also disadvantaged because the social interaction among neighbours tends to be confined to those whose skills, styles, orientations and habits are not as conductive to positive social outcomes (academic success, pro-social behavior, employment in the formal labor market, etc) as those in more stable neighborhoods. ( )

22. Wilson vs. Massey Debate Race, Poverty, and the Underclass
Why does your neighborhoods poverty matter?
“Although the close interaction among neighbors in such areas may be useful in devising strategies, disseminating information and developing styles of behavior that are helpful in a ghetto milieu (teaching children to avoid eye-to-eye contact with strangers and to develop a tough demeanour in the public sphere for self protection), they may be less effective in promoting the welfare of children in the society at large” (485)

23. Wilson vs. Massey Debate Race, Poverty, and the Underclass
Why does your neighborhoods poverty matter?
Concentration of poverty
-Ghetto-specific behavior.
-Codeswitching
-“Culture of Poverty”
-Soft skills

24. Wilson vs. Massey Debate Race, Poverty, and the Underclass
Doug Massey

25. Wilson vs. Massey Debate Race, Poverty, and the Underclass
Segregation:
The Missing Link

26. Wilson vs. Massey Debate Race, Poverty, and the Underclass
Segregation:
The Missing Link
How does segregation
matter?

27. Wilson vs. Massey Debate Race, Poverty, and the Underclass
Segregation:
The Missing Link
Interaction of poverty and race
Continued role of discrimination
Redlining
Blockbusting
Steering (by real estate agents)

29. Great Migration comes late to Boston

30. 1940

31. 1950

32. 1960

33. 1970

34. 1980

35. 1990

36. 2000

37. 2010

38. 2013

39. discrimination

40. Federal Home Owners’ Loan Corporation Maps (“Redlining Map)
those considered desirable for lending purposes — were outlined in blue and known as "Type A". These were typically affluent suburbs on the outskirts of cities. "Type B" neighborhoods were considered "Still Desirable", whereas older "Type C" neighborhoods were labeled "Declining" and outlined in yellow. "Type D" neighborhoods were outlined in red and were considered the most risky for mortgage support.

42. Blockbusting Real estate scare tactics
Hire African- American women to push strollers through white neighborhoods

43. Segregation
Dissimilarity index (D): the proportion of each group that would need to move to a new neighborhood to ensure racial balance across the city.
In 1880, 51% of African-Americans would need to move to ensure that all parts of Boston have same proportion of African-Americans.

44. Consistent but slow decline in segregation over the past 30 years.

45. Poverty

46. Poverty in Boston (BRA Report)
21.6% of Boston’s population lives in poverty.
This percentage has remained fairly consistent since 2000.
…the U.S. poverty rate is 15.9%
and the Massachusetts poverty rate is 11.9%.
College students:
Boston’s poverty rate decreases slightly when college students are excluded. Boston’s poverty rate, less college students, is 19%.
The poverty rate among Boston’s college student population is 28.2%.
48.6% of college students who are in poverty have children.
Immigration
The poverty rate for Boston’s native born and foreign born populations are relatively similar at 21% and 23.2% respectively.

47. Poverty by Race Poverty rates according to race: Hispanic 34.8%
Asian %
Black/African American 23%
White: %

48. Educational Attainment
Among Boston’s 25 and older population, poverty rates according to educational attainment are:
Less than a high school diploma: 32%
High school graduate and equivalency: 20.8%
Some college or Associate’s degree: %
Bachelor’s degree or higher: %

49. Current Trends: Suburbanization of Poverty
1990’s: Huge Decline in concentrated poverty
2000’s: Huge increase
1999, 2009??

54. Inequality

58. Mobility

62. “Across the country, the researchers found five factors associated with strong upward mobility: less segregation by income and race, lower levels of income inequality, better schools, lower rates of violent crime, and a larger share of two-parent households. In general, the effects of place are sharper for boys than for girls, and for lower-income children than for rich.”

65. Thursday
Ted Landsmark
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