Category: _Secondary Research: Individual

Secondary Research / Katie Morrin

https://www.theatlantic.com/business/archive/2014/05/house-of-debt/371282/
In their book, House of Debt, Sufi and Mian provide evidence that it was the inequality in debt and the private sector going after low-income homes that caused the 2008 Financial Crisis.

https://www.forbes.com/sites/stevedenning/2011/11/22/5086/#674eaef5f92f
This article is pretty bias, but it recaps how it was the private sector and not the public sector who caused the Financial Crisis. It’s an article that challenges others who say it was the government that caused the recession to begin.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Z9EOna3g6BQ
An overview of what were the causes of the Great Recession by a channel called the Econphiles. The video helps put things in simple terms.

 

Secondary Research Individual // Heather Weyda

Source One

– Citation Information

Redeveloping Issues: Anti-gentrification organization says OTR redevelopment is leaving low- and middle-income people out

An article by City Beat from January 2014 discussing the efforts and reasons against the redevelopment projects in OTR, specifically those of 3CDC.

– Summary

A group in OTR called The People’s Coalition for Equality and Justice (TPCEJ) had formed in order to head an anti-redevelopment movement. They are concerned with the displacement of the poor and middle class minorities in order to benefit the incoming wealthy, white residents. They are not necessarily against the idea of redevelopment, but the current projects in Over-the-Rhine are more focused on building new luxury housing or niche bars rather than things that would actually benefit the existing community. The group feels as though they are more concerned with getting new people into OTR rather than help the current community. The group wants to fight for affordable housing, protections for renters, and rent control in an effort to keep people from being displaced from their homes. As organizations like 3CDC create more luxury apartments it drives up the rent of the surrounding neighborhood and makes it hard for the lower income and middle class families to keep up. One example of this displacement is the Anna Louis Inn where Western and Southern used legal attrition to move the building that housed women of low-incomes that have lived there since 1909 in order to create a new development. There was also the Metropole which was a building that housed hundreds of tenants. The building was displaced due to 3CDC and when they were sued they settled for a mere $80,000. 3CDC is the head organization of the redevelopment efforts and is a target for TPCEJ’s efforts. 3CDC claims that people “tend to over-romanticize what this neighborhood was” and they started doing “what development groups around the country do to bring back distressed neighborhoods affecting the rest of the city.” They say this was accomplished because they “Drove out criminal elements.” When approached about the lack of affordable housing for previous residents they claim that they have issues convincing officials the area is already “saturated with affordable housing, actually needed more.” They also bring up the renovation efforts of the Jimmy Heath House which was a building for lower-income residents. The renovation efforts managed to drive the rent up and made the building only affordable for people who made at least $25,000 a year, but a majority of the residents made $10,000 or less a year. Jenny Kessler, the treasurer of Cincinnatians for Progress, says the displacement is exaggerated and most of the buildings were already vacant. She makes the statement that she couldn’t afford rent as a middle-class resident in these new buildings and says she “I got lucky that I got in early.”

– Thesis

3CDC’s efforts to rehabilitate the area is more focused on bringing new people in and not helping the current community. Many of their efforts drive up rent for surrounding neighborhoods and cause people to be displaced from their homes.

 

Source Two

– Citation Information

Highest income-inequality tract in America is gentrifying

An article by McClatchy Newspapers in November 2011 about the income-inequality due to gentrification

– Summary

Between 2005 and 2009 Over-the-Rhine’s Tract 17 had the highest income inequality nationwide. The income breaks down as follows:

– 2/3s of Tract 17’s households earn less then $10,000 a           year

– 6% earn $25,000 to $49,999 a year

– 3% earn $100,000 to $149,999 a year

– 3% earn over $200,000 a year

– 60% of the residents are on food stamps

As of the time this article was written 3CDC had built 200 condos, 70 rental units, and 100,000 square feet of commercial space, but all of their efforts stop at the southern border of Tract 17. They do, however, claim that only 6 buildings were not abandoned or vandalized. The CEO of 3CDC goes as far as to say that “new homeowners, business owners and residents of the area were heroes for taking a chance on a crime- and drug-filled neighborhood that many had left for dead.”

– Thesis

The gentrification of OTR has only exacerbated the problem of income inequality. It has driven up the rent of the area while not making situations any better for the current residents.

Source Three

– Citation Information

Economics behind OTR’s Housing Bubble

An opinion piece written by David Hall in 2014 about the economics of Over-the-Rhine and its redevelopment.

– Summary

Since 2010, the housing prices of Over-the-Rhine have shot up from $150,000 to $250,000. Since new housing in OTR is in short supply it is driving up rent due to high demand. 3CDC has taken advantage of this situation by upping prices by 10% to 12% per year. Hall estimates that the fair value of the housing should be $30,000 to $40,000 lower. 3CDC has stockpiled an estimate of around 300 to 500 units in order to drive up the pricing by creating more demand with less supply. If these units are not released in a responsible, steady manner then the housing bubble in OTR could pop. These actions hurt the surrounding community while driving up their own revenue. Its predicted that the home values in downtown Cincinnati will increase by 2% to 3% within the next year. The net income of 3CDC alone is thought to be worth $50–$100 million range and all of the profits are said to be poured back into new developments.

– Thesis

3CDC is a huge supplier of homes in OTR and have a stockpile of units. This withholding of supply increases the demand for housing which drives up the prices, not only for their homes but also surrounding neighborhoods. These actions are interesting considering they are an organization founded on helping the OTR community and rehabilitating the area, but it seems as though they are taking advantage of the situation.

Synthesis

While the redevelopment project in OTR is seen as a success and a model for rehabilitating communities, I would argue that they are not fixing the community, but trying to create a new one. These projects are focused on bringing new people in and not helping those who already live there. Many of these housing developments are even too expensive for middle class residents and seeing as a majority of OTR residents make $10,000 or less these developments are obviously not created to help them. The apartments also drive up rent in the surrounding areas causing residents to be displaced. At the head of these projects is the organization 3CDC who uses rhetoric such as saying they “Drove out criminal elements” and “new homeowners, business owners and residents of the area were heroes for taking a chance on a crime- and drug-filled neighborhood that many had left for dead.” There is no oversight of this organization because it is privately owned yet they act like a “shadow government.” This redevelopment of OTR is a delicate process that needs to be handled as such and 3CDC simply isn’t helping the community’s situation for current residents.

Secondary Research | Clara Fasce

Topic: Dispossession of Wealth

Subtopic: Retirement Funds

1: The State of American Retirement

This article takes a detailed look at the state of American retirement funds and provides solid evidence that there is a divide between social classes and their ability to have a comfortable retirement. This divide has only strengthened since the recession.

http://www.epi.org/publication/retirement-in-america/

2: 10 Ways the Recession Has Changed Retirement.

The recession has had a lasting impact on people age 50 and older. This demographic does not really have the ability to make up for the money that just vanished during the recession. They no longer have the ability to the lean on their homes as a portion of their net worth, which greatly depreciates their ability to live as comfortably.

https://money.usnews.com/money/blogs/planning-to-retire/2011/05/27/10-ways-the-recession-has-changed-retirement

3: Retirement Security After the Great Recession: Middle-Income and Middle-Aged Americans Feeling the Squeeze

This document was created by senator Bob Casy and  the Chairman’s Staff of the Joint Economic Committee. It provides an enlightening look behind how the wealth of middle and lower class American has since  evaporated and provides statistics illustrating these losses. A lot of Americans do not have a sufficient retirement fund saved up and are going to have to rely primarily on Social Security to support them throughout their retirement- which only allows them to live right above the poverty line.

https://www.jec.senate.gov/public/_cache/files/4bc4e022-4bc8-476c-a91a-268852d8ff0e/pensions-report—fact-checked-12-21-2-.pdf

Synthesis:

I discovered that the recession has had lasting impacts on the future of retirements- meaning that the average American is not going to be able to live a comfortably in their later years. This hardship is still being faced today- years after the recession. People living in the 50th percentile of income have seen a stagnation in their retirement funds and have not been able to recover the lost savings. The loss of retirements funds is not only a loss of wealth, but a permanent deprecation towards quality of life.

Secondary Research: Individual / Jen Hill

On the Ground: Camp Washington

1.Selling Points – Cincinnati Magazine

An article in Cincinnati magazine featuring neighborhoods right before the collapse: June 2007. This features a very quick glimpse into Camp Washington, characterizing it as “slow and steady,” with an “old world feel.” But homes are being rehabilitated and investors are taking interest. This article demonstrates the importance of community to revival.

2. City Data: Camp Washington

Camp Washington demographics compared to Cincinnati. Some statistics that stand out include the much lower population density compared to Cincinnati, much higher rates of residents with less than high school education attainment, and lower percentages of families.

3. https://www.trulia.com/OH/Cincinnati,5397,Camp_Washington/

Real estate website displaying information by neighborhood. This is a piece of statistical data that displays information on standards of living, including crime, transportation, food, affordability, stats, hazards, and traffic. Housing prices, restaurants and businesses, and population ages are especially helpful here.

Synthesis

Camp Washington is mostly a statistic online, and home of Camp Washington Chili and the American Sign Museum, which is housed in a historical landmark. On the internet, it appears as a ghost town, and in real life, many people ask, “Where is that?” These articles all convey a sense of hope for rehabilitation of this neighborhood that was once very populated with industry leaders’ factories. They help us understand that the population has a lower number, generally less educated, and living in a food desert, compared to the rest of the city.

Secondary Research: Individual / Munazza Aijaz

  1. “What happened to all those foreclosed homes?” by Adriene Hill.
  • The number of foreclosures has fallen since the recession, but the number of homes actually owned by the families that occupy them has not gone up. They’re at some of their lowest rates in 25 years
  • Foreclosed homes were taken up by investors and hedge funds who then rented them out
  • There are 12 million single family homes in the rental stock
  • Housing market has recovered, housing finance hasn’t

Thesis: The article skims over the actual financial crisis, but stresses that previously foreclosed homes have been taken up by investors to be rented out to people.

Hill, Adriene. “What happened to all those foreclosed homes?” Marketplace, Marketplace, 8 Mar. 2016. www.marketplace.org/2016/03/08/world/what-happened-all-those-foreclosed-homes.

2.“How the housing crisis left us more racially segregated” by Emily Badger

  • 10 million families lost their homes to foreclosures
  • The financial crisis also resulted in many migrations because families had to move when their homes were foreclosed
  •  Reversed recent progress that America has made on racial integration
  • Minorities were hit very hard by foreclosures
  • “Minorities who lost their homes moved to more distressed neighborhoods, while white homeowners who could leave appear to have been the first to pull out of places hit by foreclosure.”
  • As time passed, this pattern made neighborhoods more segregated than before the crisis
  • Foreclosure rates during the crisis were highest in the most racially integrated places
  • “The 10 million households that lost their homes dwarf the number that left the Great Plains during the Dust Bowl (that was about 2.5 million people).”

Thesis: The article brings to attention the migrations that occured during the 2007-2008 financial crisis. It argues that the crisis made America more segregated than it had been directly before the housing bubble popped.

Badger, Emily. “How the housing crisis left us more racially segregated.” The Washington Post, WP Company, 8 May 2015.  www.washingtonpost.com/news/wonk/wp/2015/05/08/how-the-housing-crisis-left-us-more-racially-segregated/?utm_term=.7bfb6729a9d2

3. “Picturing the Crisis” by Paul Reyes.

Thesis: Photographing the crisis was a challenge, but people accomplished it in different ways. The article then goes on to list several photo series and explains each concept.

Reyes, Paul. “Picturing the Crisis.” The New York Times, The New York Times, 12 Oct. 2010. opinionator.blogs.nytimes.com/2010/10/12/picturing-the-crisis/?mcubz=0

Synthesis: My secondary research helped to give me a more in depth idea of how foreclosures were a part of the financial collapse, and how they still impact us today. After the crisis, previously foreclosed homes were not purchased at the same rate that homes were before the bust. Instead, most of them became rentals. Families that were forced to leave their homes because of foreclosures did so in certain patterns, creating more racial segregation than what was present directly before the crash. It was interesting to see the eerie photographs of foreclosed homes. I now have a deeper sense of what  role foreclosures played in the crisis. The effects from foreclosures are lasting.

Secondary Research Individual // Chloe Hemingway

_____________________
// SOURCE 1 //
_Citation Information:
_Extracted Data:
  • “Hamilton County’s just-completed property reappraisal shows that the value of residential property climbed about 1.1% between 2013 and 2014, from $38.65 billion to 39.08 billion.”
    • Slower recovery than expectations, but good in comparison to 2011 when residential values decreased 10.5% from 2010 to 2011 and property owners lost $4.3 billion + in real estate value
  • “Among Cincinnati neighborhoods, OTR was the clear winner with a 25.7% increase in residential property values.”
  • “As housing prices rise in places like Over-the-Rhine, investors who want to live in the city are looking for deals in Price Hills and elsewhere.”
  • “The model for a successful turnaround is OTR.”
    • However, OTR has had a lot of outside help including the Cincinnati Development Corp., 3CDC, what with them contributing millions of dollars into OTR / its getting paid off with new business condos and apartments.
    • “Developer John Hueber has been building been building condos and single-family homes in OTR since 2008.”
      • Hueber states that he is not renegotiating on price and that price is take it or leave it; states how a couple years ago would’ve had to negotiate down but now don’t need to do that.  (condos range in price from $100,000 to $270,000)
    • “Even there the housing crisis slowed growth, but that’s no longer the case.”
_Thesis:
  • The article analyzes different effects of the financial market crisis of 2008 on a variety Cincinnati neighborhoods—most relevant to OTR, the article states that OTR was able to overcome the housing market crash of 2008 with the financial help from 3CDC.
_____________________
// SOURCE 2 //
_Citation Information:
_Extracted Data:
  • ULI Report Study Data
  • “The privately created nonprofit development corporation, Cincinnati Central City Development Corporation (3CDC) brought to Cincinnati what every community needs for its future: money, land control, and sophisticated deal-making capacity.” (p. 32)
  • “The creation of the $50 million Cincinnati New Market Fund allowed 3CDC to buy property within an area defined by a strategic vision and to partner with developers who shared the same goals.” (p. 33)
  • “The early restoration enhancements in Washington Park and Fountain Square, highly visible public spaces, declared that downtown and Over-the-Rhine were coming back.” (p. 33)
  • In July 2003, 3CDC was created with the mission to revamp the Fountain Square District, the Central Business District and Over-the-Rhine.
    • At that time there were 500 vacant buildings and 700 vacant lots in OTR. (p. 34)
  • Objectives of 3CDC “Create civic spaces, create high-density, mixed-use developments, preserve historic structures and improve streetscapes, create diverse, mixed-income neighborhoods supported by local business.” (p. 34)
  • Early in 2004, 3CDC invested $27m in private funds to buy 200 buildings and 170 vacant parcels centered in Washington Park.
    • They bought out “notorious bars and carryout liquor stores that were centers of crime and drug dealing” (p. 34)
  • “In its 11-year history, 3CDC has been involved in the following projects:
    • Restoring 144 buildings, including housing and street front commercial establishments
    • Constructing 50 new buildings
    • Adding 1,113 housing units (condos, apartments, and townhouses)
    • Providing 320 homeless shelter beds
    • Adding 156 hotel rooms
    • Creating 845,000 sq. ft. of commercial space
    • Adding 2,700 parking spaces
    • Revitalizing 10 acres of parks, including Washington Park and Fountain Square
    • Incentivizing millions of dollars in streetscape improvements” (p. 34)
  • “Since the creation of 3CDC, a total of $842 million of new money has been invested downtown and OTR, and over 2,500 jobs and 1,100 housing units have been created as a result. As part of the city’s return, the downtown and nearby neighborhoods are now generating substantially higher annual tax revenues.” (p. 35)
_Thesis:
  • ULI Report expands on why Over-the-Rhine is now a national model of public/private leadership by referencing the investments of 3CDC in “homeless shelters, historic cultural amenities, new housing hotels, and offices.”
_____________________
// SOURCE 3 // 
 _Citation Information:
_Extracted Data:
  • In 2006, the National Trust for Historic Preservation put the neighborhood on its list of Most Endangered Historic Places.
  • Today, OTR is home to many new urban professionals, setting up house in apartments and condos selling for $300,000+
  • “Restaurant start-ups and independent shopkeepers are investing in an increasing number of storefronts on the neighborhood’s main streets”
  • The pressure to save OTR was at its height in early 2000s (says Anastasia Milldam, vice president of communications for nonprofit Cincinnati City Center Development Corp (3CDC)
    • “Groups had been working for years to figure out how to salvage this neighborhood. There had been so much disinvestment over the decades, no single entity could really come in an change things.”
  • 3CDC = a real-estate development organization funded by Cincinnati’s most successful corporate businesses
  • Over the past 8 years the organization has spent $250 million+ in OTR renovating buildings
    • 42 new businesses have come to area as of 2012
  • Some of the popular spots that attract newcomers:
    • American Legacy Tours (offers 2-hour tours of OTR
    • The Symphony Hotel (1971 mansion across the street from Cincinnati Symphony and Opera’s Music Hall)
  • “The investment of 3CDC has been largely concentrated in the southern half of the neighborhood, the half closest to downtown. The northern half is home to more crime and more vacant buildings.”
  • “A federal lawsuit against the city park board alleges that several rules at Washington Park—which banned rummaging through trash and other activities—discriminate against the city’s homeless. (The rules were dropped last month, but the lawsuit continues.)”
  • “As with any urban-renewal projects there will be winners and losers. And I don’t meant to discount the stress of displacement that Cincinnati’s most vulnerable citizens may be experiencing. But from an outsider’s perspective—and no doubt many natives as well—the renovation of OTR is nothing short of amazing.”
_Thesis:
  • Susan Glasner’s article references the changes (such as new business developments within the area and the types of new residents the change has brought) Over-the-Rhine has undergone and presents these changes in a positive light in the form of facts, heavily praising and crediting the non-profit organization 3CDC for its investments in OTR to “improve” the neighborhood
_Synthesis:
  • After diving into a wide variety of source material research on the topic of Over-the-Rhine, I spotted a common thread of the nonprofit organization 3CDC throughout my research and its impact on the area and its development since the early 2000s. All three sources acknowledge the old state of OTR and how it has changed drastically in recent years due to 3CDC’s intervention into the housing market. Two of the three sources, the Urban Life Institute report and the Cleveland news opinion piece were heavily biased in favor of seeing 3CDC’s intervention in OTR in a completely positive light; sometimes even glossing over what OTR’s “gentrification” means for the lesser income residents. One of the three sources, the Cincinnati Enquirer article—which analyzed how Cincinnati neighborhoods recovered from the 2008 financial crisis—took a more neutral side and stated what role 3CDC had extreme increase in property value in OTR by referencing numbers and facts.
_____________________
_Supplementary / Extra Sources:
  • 3CDC.com
    • The Cincinnati Center City Development Corp. (3CDC) official corporation website detailing a complete list of all their real estate projects, news coverage, and annual progress reports.
    • https://www.3cdc.org/about-3cdc/

Secondary Research: Individual / Emma Siewny

Secondary Research

1.  “Cities Can Sue Big Banks Over Effects Of Discriminatory Practices, Supreme Court Says.”

Chappell, Bill. “Cities Can Sue Big Banks Over Effects Of Discriminatory Practices, Supreme Court Says.” NPR, NPR, 1 May 2017, www.npr.org/sections/the two-way/2017/05/01/526413560/cities-can-sue-big-banks-over-effects-of-discriminatory-practices-supreme-court.

National Public Radio is an American privately and publicly funded non-profit membership media organization that serves as a national syndicator to a network of 900 public radio stations in the United States.

 What? NPR article stating that the Supreme Court decided that cites can sue big banks over effects of discriminatory practices.

Who’s involved? NPR’s reporter Bill Chappell, the City of Miami, Wells Fargo, Bank of America, the Supreme Court

When? The article was written May 1, 2017 at 2:56 PM

Where? This happened in Miami, FL

Important Points/Data:

-Because of discriminatory and predatory lending practices causing economic harm to the city, under the Fair Housing Act, the Supreme Court decided that the City of Miami can sue large banks like Wells Fargo and Bank of America in a 5-3 vote.

-Here’s the tricky part: “But the justices said that to win damages, the city must prove a direct link to the revenue loss and increased costs, and that is an extremely high bar to clear,” says NPR’S Nina Totenburg. Overall, opposing views argue that the direct link that is drawn between the revenue loss and the increased costs is a very thin line.

-In particular, Miami is accusing those companies of targeting African-American and Latinos with being the victims of these predatory lending practices from 2004 to 2012. Those lending practices led to foreclosures and vacancies in minority neighborhoods, which in turn lead to crippling property values and tax revenues, and putting a burden on the city to service blighted and unsafe properties. Overall, this slowed down the city’s racial integration process as a whole.

-This ruling by the Supreme Court came two years after the Supreme Court decided that “claims of racial discrimination in housing cases shouldn’t be limited by questions of intent.”

-This case was argued against in lower courts as not being in the City’s favor, because they viewed the city’s damages as “foreseeable.” The Supreme Court said that the lower courts were wrong in that they “erred in holding that foreseeability is sufficient to establish proximate cause under the FHA.”

-Although this article was less data/statistical based and more informative, I think that it will be very useful for our research – not to mention the fact of how recently this case was, and how large of a scale it is – a city suing several very large banks. I think it will be interesting to continue to see how it unfolds in the future, and if the City of Miami ends up going through with the case, now that they have the legal clearance.

Thesis Statement:

Because of the discriminatory and predatory lending practices by Wells Fargo and Bank of America from 2004-2012, under the Fair Housing Act, the Supreme Court ruled in a 5-3 vote in May of this year that the City of Miami is, indeed allowed to sue the banks for the economic harm and slowed racial progress they caused the city because of the unfair lending practices that occurred to people of different races, primarily Hispanic and African American.

  1. “GAO Study: Segregation worsening in U.S. schools”

Toppo, USA TODAY Greg. “GAO Study: Segregation Worsening in U.S. Schools.” USA Today, Gannett Satellite Information Network, 17 May 2016, www.usatoday.com/story/news/2016/05/17/gao-study-segregation-worsening-us-schools/84508438/.

USA TODAY is a multi-platform news and information media company. Founded in 1982, its mission is to serve as a forum for better understanding and unity to help make the USA truly one nation.

 What? Report with data showing that segregation in US schools is only worsening

Who’s involved? USA Today’s Greg Toppo reporting, GAO, and schools

When? Last May is when it was written

Where? USA

Important Points/Data:

-This report was requested by Congress in May of 2014, being that it was the 60th anniversary of Brown vs. Board of Education. The results were released last year, May 17th, 2016.

– The U.S. Government Accountability Office (GAO) investigators found that from 2000-2014, both the percentage of K-12 public schools in high-poverty and the percentage of  schools that are comprised of mostly African-American or Hispanic students rose significantly The increase went from 7,009 schools to 15,089 schools.

-This is a 9 percent to 16 percent increase of segregated schools in America.

-75 to 100 percent of the students at these schools were either Hispanic or Black, and eligible for reduced/free lunch (how they knew if the child was in poverty)

-Not only are the numbers of the increase shocking, but it was discovered that these schools offer disproportionately fewer math, science, and college prep courses, and had much higher rates of students that were held back/expelled/suspended. So sad

-I agree with U.S. Rep John Conyers, in his reaction to the horrifying results: “There simply can be no excuse for allowing educational apartheid in the 21st century.”

Thesis Statement:

Upon the 60th anniversary of the landmark Supreme Court decision Brown v. Board of Education, Congress requested that the GAO conduct a study of the current state of desegregation in our nation’s schools. The results of this study were quite surprising – they showed that the number of schools that are racially segregated has increased dramatically since the year 2000. Further, it showed that these schools offered fewer college prep courses, and had higher levels of students who were did not complete their high school education, or were suspended or expelled. These alarming findings indicate that schools are not complying with laws requiring desegregation, and the result is schools that are not optimally helping the students that they exist to serve.

3. “The Desegregation and Resegregation of Charlotte’s Schools”

 Smith, Clint. “The Desegregation and Resegregation of Charlotte’s Schools.” The New Yorker, The New Yorker, 3 October 2016, www.newyorker.com/news/news-desk/the-desegregation-and-resegregation-of-charlottes-schools.

The New Yorker is a weekly magazine offering a signature mix of reporting and commentary on politics, international affairs, popular culture and the arts, science and technology, and business, along with fiction, poetry, humor, and cartoons.

 What? Charlotte, NC public schools are now being re-segregated

Who’s Involved? Clint Smith, New York Times Author, Charlotte, North Carolina, and their schools

When? Current – article written last year

Where? Charlotte, North Carolina, USA

– in 1954, the Supreme Court ruled in Brown v. Board of Education that segregated schools are unconstitutional, and mandated that schools across the country be integrated. It took years to accomplish this goal.

-Charlotte, N.C. was slow to desegregate their schools, until 1969 lawsuit filed by the NAACP (on behalf of a family whose son was denied admission to an integrated school) ultimately went to the Supreme Court. Their ruling ordered the implementation of a busing program, which served to make Charlotte a “case study in integration”.  Districts across the South modeled their integration plans on Charlotte, and by 1984, the city considered their fully-integrated schools as their proudest achievement.

-The successful program lasted for nearly 30 years, until another lawsuit claimed that a student’s white status prevented her from being admitted to a magnet school. The anti-busing judge ordered the schools to cease using race in school assignments, ending mandatory busing.

-The result: schools that had been integrated and high achieving returned to being stratified by race & income. Neighborhoods became more segregated.

-Research has shown that students in integrated schools (whether white, black, wealthy, poor) are ALL more likely to benefit academically, as well as having greater levels of intergroup friendships and less racial fears and stereotypes. In addition, studies show that when schools re-segregate, the most qualified teachers tend to transfer, ensuring less qualified teaches in the segregated schools.

-School desegregation is associated with higher graduation rates, employability, and earnings, as well as decreased rates of incarceration.

-Schools are the single largest means of reducing inequality in our country, and due to re-segregation, we are making the choice to return to the social stratification of our past.

Thesis Statement:

After years of being a model for the benefits of integrated schools, Charlotte, N.C.’s public schools are now re-segregated, which has resulted in lower graduation rates, employability, and earnings among their African-American students, as well as higher levels of incarceration for these students.  The choice to return to this model will serve to heighten racial tensions, and will ultimately reverse decades of progress toward racial equality.

Synthesis:

These three articles serve as examples of different ways that the practice of racial discrimination is harmful to the African-American community, as well as our communities as a whole. The first article, about how Miami, Florida was granted the green light by the Supreme Court to sue two major banks for damages under the Fair Housing Act, explains that the banks’ practice of discriminatory and predatory lending practices not only caused harm to minority customers, but also led to foreclosures and vacancies, which reduced tax revenues for the city. This, in turn, created a burden on the city. The other two articles examine the effects of a national trend toward re-segregating schools. The article about the study commissioned by the Congress cited specific ways in which this trend has created inferior outcomes for minority students. The third article, also about re-segregation, chronicles events in Charlotte, North Carolina, once a shining example of the positive effects of desegregation. A school system that once prided itself on improved outcomes for ALL students as a result of desegregation now finds itself returning to a situation in which there is stratification and a return to neighborhood schools that contain the “haves” and the “have nots”, which in turn is creating poor outcomes for students who formerly had a dramatically improved chance of upward mobility. The effect of racial discrimination is detrimental to all of us, whether it be through lending practices or through school segregation, and should be thoughtfully addressed by the court system in this country.

Secondary Individual Research / Sarah Row

N/A “About Cincinnati, OH (Camp Washington). NeighborhoodScout, Neighborhood Scout, 2017, https://www.neighborhoodscout.com/oh/cincinnati/camp-washington

About Cincinnati, OH (Camp Washington)

Thesis:

Camp Washington has a variety of people living within it in three-deckers, duplexes, old Victorian homes cut up into apartments most people living here did not live here five years ago being a diverse community.

Data:

  • Camp Washington median real estate price is $80,994
  • The average rental price in Camp Washington is currently $821
  • Rents here are currently lower in price than 67.5% of Ohio neighborhoods.
  • The current real estate vacancy rate here is 21.9%
  • There are more incarcerated people living here than 99.1% of neighborhoods in the U.S.
  • 3% of the real estate here are small 2, 3, or 4 unit apartment buildings
  • 2% of the residential real estate here was built from 1939 or earlier
  • 0% of this neighborhood’s residents have French Canadian ancestry
  • This neighborhood has a higher rate of childhood poverty than 75.0% of U.S. neighborhoods
  • Camp Washington neighborhood, 30.1% of the working population is employed in manufacturing and laborer occupations

 

N/A “Camp Washington.” Point2homes, Point2homes, 2014, https://www.point2homes.com/US/Neighborhood/OH/Hamilton-County/Cincinnati/Camp-Washington-Demographics.html

Camp Washington

Thesis:

Camp Washington is an area in Cincinnati with a population of 21,439 the employment numbers show a pretty even difference between Blue collar jobs versus white collar jobs with a crime rate above national average.

Data:

  • Non family households in Camp Washington 46.9%
  • Family households in Camp Washington 53.1%
  • 9% of residents have never been married
  • 9% of the population are females
  • 1% of the population are males
  • 9% are Blue Collar occupations
  • 1% are White Collar occupations

 

Camp Washington Community Board office “About Us, Camp Washington.” Camp-Washington, Camp-Washington, 2016, http://camp-washington.org/about-us/

About Us, Camp Washington

Thesis:

Camp Washington is an up and coming area in Cincinnati with attractions like the sign museum and Camp Washington Chili it is also a great place to consider buying a home and setting up a business a lot of artists are moving in as the spaces here are cheap and accessible.

Data:

  • Spaces here are cheap, accessible to expressways, and, the safest neighborhood in District 5
  • For young folks priced out of Northside and OTR, Camp Washington is a great place to consider buying a home and setting up a business
  • During the U.S.-Mexican War Camp Washington was an important military location, training five-thousand, five-hundred and thirty-six soldiers who went to war
  • There are Several historic businesses here, including, Queen City Sausage, Reliable Casts, Osborne Coinage (the largest private mint in the world), Kao USA, Inc., Meyer Tool
  • Camp Washington Chili is a Smithsonian Museum icon
  • The American Sign Museum offers visitors a unique perspective of the history of signs

 

Overall Synthesis:

Camp Washington is an up and coming area in Cincinnati. It has struggled for years with crime and trying to bring life back to the area. It has become a more focused art community with the sign museum, different art exhibits and the new industrial lofts. The data and research found supports all of these claims. However there is data proving there are still unacceptable things happening in the neighborhood. Considering there are more incarcerated people living there than 99.1% of neighborhoods in the U.S. Despite this Camp Washington is trying to bring life back into the area.

Secondary Research: Individual / Em Meurer

Source 1

Badger, Emily. “Redlining: Still a Thing.” The Washington Post, WP Company, 28 May 2015, www.washingtonpost.com/news/wonk/wp/2015/05/28/evidence-that-banks-still-deny-black-borrowers-just-as-they-did-50-years-ago/?utm_term=.c6487435c8c2

Thesis

Although the Fair Housing Act outlawed redlining and other discriminatory housing practices in 1968, the tactics that made redlining as devastating as is originally was were still in place during 2008-2010.

Summary

Because redlining is technically illegal, some banks have kept the system in place by utilizing different tactics targeting minority groups, such as offering predatory loans and by redlining retail. Redlining retail cuts off these neighborhoods from access to better food, healthcare, and economic growth. Banks were shown to have deliberately denied people from loans who qualified for them. The Department of Housing and Urban Development is still investigating banks that were doing this because they believe that people who qualify for mortgages with the same qualifications as white homeowners should have the same accessibility. The consequences of redlining in the 1940s and 50s still impact families of those people denied loans today, so efforts are being made now to avoid the impact of not being able to afford homeownership on future generations.

 

Source 2

Camera, Lauren. “More Than 60 Years After Brown v. Board of Education, School Segregation Still Exists.” Https://Www.usnews.com/News/Articles/2016-05-17/after-Brown-v-Board-of-Education-School-Segregation-Still-Exists, U.S. News and World Report, 17 May 2016, www.usnews.com/news/articles/2016-05-17/after-brown-v-board-of-education-school-segregation-still-exists

Thesis

A study conducted by the Government Office of Accountability found that there was a correlation between the economic status of a school district and the academic achievements of students. This study also found that these high-poverty schools had a higher concentration of black and latinx students.

Summary

The GOA study utilized free lunch programs in key public school districts to assess the poverty level of the students. The study found that in the studied schools, 75 to 100 percent of the students were both in a minority group and living in poverty. These schools, in comparison to other public schools, had fewer STEM classes and disproportionally high percentages of students held back, suspended, or expelled. According to the study, there is a link between poverty and academic standing, and minority students are often the ones attending these schools. Because preventing racial discrimination is the responsibility of the Departments of Justice and Education, there are efforts to increase the diversity in these schools; however, the school districts have trouble putting this into effect and end up rejecting minority students from “diverse” magnet programs. The study recommends that the Department of Education review civil rights studies annually; however, this doesn’t happen often.

 

Source 3:

Lowrey, Annie. “Wealth Gap Among Races Has Widened Since Recession.” The New York Times, The New York Times, 28 Apr. 2013, www.nytimes.com/2013/04/29/business/racial-wealth-gap-widened-during-recession.html?mcubz=0.

Thesis

Because the events of the 2008 recession disproportionally impacted black and Hispanic families, recovery has been even harder for them: increasing the average wealth gap between these two groups and white people even further.

Summary

A study done by the Urban Institute found that the 2008 recession and housing crisis disproportionally impacted minority families. As of 2010, and for 30 years before then, white families made about twice the income of black and Hispanic families, and they were already far ahead in material wealth based on home ownership and other data. As a result of subprime and predatory loans being offered to minorities more than whites, the money that they had accumulated in their home ownership and in savings seemed to vanish, and the safety net that they had created for themselves financially went with it, while white families often had money that they could dip into to pull themselves out of the crisis. The wealth gap widened even more, a long-standing issue that minorities face as a result of systematic racism. Although some argue that they may be able to “turn the situation around,” poverty is hard to escape because having less money often means a lower quality of education and increased workload and stress needed to get out of that situation. Several solutions have been proposed to break this repeating cycle of intergenerational poverty, but spokespeople for the NAACP aren’t hopeful that any of them will ever be put into effect.

 

Synthesis Statement

As many of us know, America has a major race problem that began as a result of slavery and has lasted well into the present day, despite the civil rights movement and federal acts that prohibit discrimination. Ever since redlining became a practice in the 1940s, segregation in city planning by preventing loans to minority and poor populations and forcing them to move to less desirable parts of town.

Although this practice was eventually outlawed in 1968, some banks kept the system in place by utilizing different tactics targeting minority groups, such as offering predatory loans and by redlining retail, the cycle of geographic poverty was already in place and hard for these groups to remove themselves from.  This has caused a racial wealth disparity, which only widened after the recession as African Americans were hit especially hard.

Because these areas that were originally redlined have a majority black and latinx population that are also living in poverty, there is a lower academic success rate and a higher rate of suspension and expulsion. Lacking a good educational foundation and a means of pursuing higher education, the intergenerational poverty that disproportionately affects minorities continues, even 10 years after the recession hit this population the hardest.

Secondary Individual Research | Samantha Wells

Source 1: Friday Interview: Barney Frank on Congress, the Crash, Why Huntsman Is Like Dorothy in Oz

Congressman Barney Frank defends his actions as a legislator during the years leading up to the financial crisis, and calls out a lack of responsible regulation and a glut of predatory lending by private sector non-banks and the main factors that led to the crisis.

Source 2: Hey, Barney Frank: The Government Did Cause the Housing Crisis

A response to the interview in source 1. Points out the non-regulatory failures of government housing policies in the years leading up to the crisis and draws attention to their influence in the normalization and systematization of non-prime loan market.

Source 3: How Government Failure Caused the Great Recession

Discusses increased Federal activity in the housing market and how that leads to artificially drastic booms and busts. Looks back at history long before the 2008 crisis and draws comparisons as well as contrasts.

Synthesis:

After reading from these, as well as other sources, it becomes apparent to me that the debate is not over what cause the market crash, but how all parties involved failed to prevent it. Sub prime and other non prime loans in great abundance caused the crash, nearly all analysis comes to that conclusion. The question, however, remains as to where the massive influx of these low-quality loans came from. Arguments blame government influence, Wall Street greed, outstandingly poor regulation, and the lack of foresight and responsibility on the part of the borrowers, but in the end the key is determining which factors are abnormal, and thus drove a regular downturn of the market into a crash and a recession.