Connectivity is the measurement of how easily one can travel in and out of a place. Connectivity is what makes a commute to work, or a simple trip to the grocery store, possible. A state can have one thousand fancy trains. But, if you have no car, none of those trains stop in your town, and there are no bus stops either, you’re not going anywhere. Conversely, your hometown could be the most well-connected and transit- friendly town on the planet. But, if the job you want is in a town where there is no transit, you cannot get to work.
Read MoreNewark’s story is one that has been told and retold. Once a bustling industrial power and an engine of the middle class, in recent decades the city has been wounded by racial strife, suburban flight, and industrial abandonment. From a high in 1948 of nearly half a million, Newark’s population today has plummeted to 277, 540. The intersection of Broad St. and Market St., once the busiest retail nexus in the country, is now a shadow of its former self. More than a quarter of Newark’s people are in poverty, and its black population is hypersegregated from its white population …
Read MoreINTRODUCTION: In 1875, New Jersey’s legislature and citizenry committed themselves constitutionally to a “thorough and efficient system of free public schools for the instruction of all the children in the State between the ages of five and eighteen years.”
The fact that this education clause was placed in the Taxation and Finance article of the state’s constitution and imposed responsibility on the legislature to provide for the “maintenance and support” of the statewide public education system made clear that funding was considered a key part of the state’s responsibility. Yet, it has taken more than 40 years of litigation, still ongoing, in the state courts to assure that New Jersey’s poorest urban school districts have adequate funding to try to meet their weighty educational obligations.
Read MoreEXECUTIVE SUMMARY: New Jersey has a curious status regarding school desegregation. It has had the nation’s most venerable and strongest state law prohibiting racially segregated schooling and requiring racial balance in the schools whenever feasible. Yet, it simultaneously has had one of the worst records of racially imbalanced schools.
In 1881, a New Jersey statute was enacted that prohibited segregated schooling based on race, one of the very first such laws in the nation.1 In 1947, New Jersey adopted a state constitutional provision that specifically prohibited segregation in the public schools.2 It is the only state with such an explicit provision. Connecticut’s state constitution, the next strongest, bars “segregation or discrimination in the exercise or enjoyment of his or her civil or political rights,” but it does not specify the public schools.
Read MoreEducation attainment in the United States has a direct causal link with economic success. In 2012, the plurality of unemployed persons is represented by those with less than a high school diploma; higher level of education has an undeniable negative correlation with unemployment. Furthermore, those with little or no educational attainment who are employed find themselves making wages significantly less than those with a higher level. An individual’s level of educational attainment, therefore, has a direct correlation with his monetary earning, and distance away from …
Read MoreSoon after the initial shock of largest hurricane to ever hit the Jersey Shore began to dissipate, scholars, reporters and advocates began to look deeper at the implications of the disaster. Like Hurricane Katrina, Hurricane Sandy exposed fundamental inequities in our society that resulted in frightening racial and economic disparities between those devastated by the storm, and those less affected. We learned from Hurricane Katrina that “outsiders who wonder why residents ‘chose’ housing susceptible to flooding disregard the legacy of laws and hostility that excluded …
Read MoreSince 1975, the Mount Laurel doctrine has required that New Jersey municipalities provide their fair share of the regional need for low and moderate-income housing. Yet despite this landmark decision, New Jersey is still one of the top ten most racially and economically segregated states. In this paper, I will provide a working definition of exclusionary zoning in the both the economic and racial contexts. I will argue that despite the powerful efforts of the judiciary to position New Jersey’s at the forefront of inclusionary land use policy, the practice of exclusionary zoning …
Read MoreABSTRACT: The poor often behave in less capable ways, which can further perpetuate poverty. We hypothesize that poverty directly impedes cognitive function and present two studies that test this hypothesis. First, we experimentally induced thoughts about finances and found that this reduces cognitive performance among poor but not in well-off participants. Second, we examined the cognitive function of farmers over the planting cycle. We found that the same farmer shows diminished cognitive performance before harvest, when poor, as compared with after harvest, when rich. This cannot be explained by differences in time available, nutrition, or work effort. Nor can it be explained with stress: Although farmers do show more stress before harvest, that does not account for diminished cognitive performance. Instead, it appears that poverty itself reduces cognitive capacity. We suggest that this is because poverty-related concerns consume mental resources, leaving less for other tasks. These data provide a previously unexamined perspective and help explain a spectrum of behaviors among the poor. We discuss some implications for poverty policy.
Read MoreABSTRACT: This paper develops a framework to study the effects of tax expenditures on intergenerational mobility using spatial variation in tax expenditures across the United States. We measure intergenerational mobility at the local (census commuting zone) level based on the correlation between parents’ and children’s earnings. We show that the level of local tax expenditures (as a percentage of AGI) is positively correlated with intergenerational mobility and that this correlation is robust to introducing controls for local area characteristics. To understand the mechanisms driving this correlation, we analyze the largest tax expenditures in greater detail. We find that the level and the progressivity of state income taxes are positively correlated with intergenerational mobility. Mortgage interest deductions are also positively related to intergenerational mobility. Finally, we find significant positive correlations between state EITC policy and intergenerational mobility. We conclude by discussing other applications of this methodology to evaluate the net benefits of tax expenditures.
Read MoreBackground/Context: At the close of the first decade of the 21st century, the intersection of race, geography and opportunity is increasingly referred to as spatial racism. School quality and resources, municipal services, employment opportunities, accessibility of transportation, exposure to pollution, and tax rates all vary dramatically across a network of invisible boundary lines that carve up U.S. metro areas into racially and socioeconomically distinctive spaces.
Purpose/Objective/Research Question/Focus of Study:This analysis explores how district boundary lines and school desegregation policy have impacted metropolitan school and housing integration levels over the past two decades.
Read MoreIn response to requests from State, State-funded, and Entitlement jurisdictions, the Department of Housing and Urban Development (HUD) has developed this Fair Housing Planning Guide. Many of you requested information on fulfilling the fair housing requirements of the Consolidated Plan and Community Development Block Grant (CDBG) Regulations. (The Consolidated Plan Regulation uses the term “affirmatively furthering fair housing” and the CDBG Regulation uses the term “fair housing planning.” This Guide uses “fair housing planning” to refer to the affirmative obligations of both regulations.)
This Guide is written to provide you with information on how to conduct an Analysis of Impediments to Fair Housing Choice (AI), undertake activities to correct the identified impediments, and the types of documentary records to be maintained. This Guide should be used by State, State-funded, and Entitlement jurisdictions along with applicable HUD regulations pertaining to fair housing.
Read MoreThis paper will demonstrate how variations in historical development patterns in the Borough of Paramus and the City of Garfield have resulted in striking differences in terms of the economic and educational opportunities currently afforded the residents of each. Part I will consist of an Equity Audit highlighting the differences in life outcomes between the residents of these municipalities. Part II, Opportunity Factors, will discuss how disparities in wealth and the socioeconomic segregation of schoolchildren affect opportunity in each community. Part III, Remedies, …
Read MoreWhile New Jersey is one of the United States’ most populous states, it is simultaneously one of its wealthiest. In other respects, however, New Jersey closely mirrors the overall demographic make-up of the United States, specifically in terms of race. When looking at New Jersey on a more micro and municipal level the state is equally illustrative of insidious problems plaguing the country as a whole, most notably the inequitable and disharmonious way in which wealth and race statistics are consolidated and segregated across New Jersey’s 566 municipalities, due in …
Read MoreThe New Jersey Constitution states that, “[t]he Legislature shall provide for the maintenance and support of a thorough and efficient system of free public schools for the instruction of all the children in the State between the ages of five and eighteen years.” Although it has been about four decades since the first New Jersey decision that determined that relying solely on local property taxes was an unconstitutional way to fund public education, at-risk districts in New Jersey are still inadequate in comparison to their more affluent counterparts.
Read MoreThe change in median household income between 2009 and 2011. To ensure accuracy for smaller geographies like municipalities, the annual figures are actually five-year averages. For example, the data for 2011 is an average of data from 2007-2011. Click on a municipality to the median income for each year and the change. Explore the interactive map here.
Read MoreGrowing concerns about wealth inequality and the expanding racial wealth gap have in recent years become central to the debate over whether our nation is on a sustainable economic path. This report provides critical new information about what has fueled the racial wealth gap and points to policy approaches that will set our country in a more equitable and prosperous direction.
New research shows the dramatic gap in household wealth that now exists along racial lines in the United States cannot be attributed to personal ambition and behavioral choices, but rather reflects policies and institutional practices that create different opportunities for whites and African-Americans. So powerful are these government policies and institutional practices that for typical families, a $1 increase in average income over the 25-year study period generates just $0.69 in additional wealth for an African-American household compared with $5.19 for a white household. Part of this equation results from black households having fewer opportunities to grow their savings beyond what needed for emergencies.
Read MoreSUMMARY: Title VIII of the Civil Rights Act of 1968, as amended (Fair Housing Act or Act), prohibits discrimination in the sale, rental, or financing of dwellings and in other housing-related activities on the basis of race, color, religion, sex, disability, familial status, or national origin.1 HUD, which is statutorily charged with the authority and responsibility for interpreting and enforcing the Fair Housing Act and with the power to make rules implementing the Act, has long interpreted the Act to prohibit practices with an unjustified discriminatory effect, regardless of whether there was an intent to discriminate. The eleven federal courts of appeals that have ruled on this issue agree with this interpretation. While HUD and every federal appellate court to have ruled on the issue have determined that liability under the Act may be established through proof of discriminatory effects, the statute itself does not specify a standard for proving a discriminatory effects violation. As a result, although HUD and courts are in agreement that practices with discriminatory effects may violate the Fair Housing Act, there has been some minor variation in the application of the discriminatory effects standard.
Read MoreABSTRACT: Combining statistical and ethnographic analyses, this article explores the prevalence and ramifications of eviction in the lives of the urban poor. A quantitative analysis of administrative and survey data finds that eviction is commonplace in inner-city black neighborhoods and that women from those neighborhoods are evicted at significantly higher rates than men. A qualitative analysis of ethnographic data based on fieldwork among evicted tenants and their landlords reveals multiple mechanisms propelling this discrepancy. In poor black neighborhoods, eviction is to women what incarceration is to men: a typical but severely consequential occurrence contributing to the reproduction of urban poverty.
Read MoreWhat is the ‘American Dream’? When asked that question, many may envision houses with white picket fences coupled with children, hardworking parents and let us not forget the dog. A quite modest picture is painted, however the question and its subsequent answer that will have the most consequence for the future of America revolves around who and not what. Who is able to achieve the ‘American Dream’? Is everyone afforded the same opportunity to achieve the ever so coveted ‘American Dream’? As we perform an equity analysis on cities and suburbs …
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This paper will compare the townships of Maplewood and Irvington, New Jersey. Although the towns share a geographic border, the difference between the two communities is considerable. In Part I, I survey the financial differences and fairly typical Census measurements. In Part II, I will review how opportunity for class mobility is present or not present in each community. For this analysis, I am looking at how concentrated poverty in Irvington restricts mobility as compared to Maplewood where such hyper-segregation and concentrations of poverty do not exist.
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