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June 14, 2004Earlier this week, my father asked me to return a couple books and cds to the library, and when I stepped outside, I realized that in my time away from home, the lightning bugs had come out. It was awesome. All these tiny glowy abdomens floating around in my front yard. Mmm... summer. "It appears that male fireflies' flashing patterns are mating signals -- females seem to prefer the most rapidly flashing males." Rapidly flashing males... swooooon.At the library, I noticed a policeman sitting in the lobby at a desk that looked like a permanent installation, a permanent addition to the library. I also tripped on a huge rug, causing a full half of it to fold over itself, and exclaimed, "Oh my!" At once, the following thought passed through my head: "I am so old and uncool." About ten minutes later, I stopped by the neighborhood Giant grocery store to find two cops chillin out front like it was their JOB. What's up with the police force round these parts? I know, I know, there is that occasional scuffle between two kids vying for valedictorian status who threaten to slice each other up their respective library cards. Seriously though... The changes going on in Columbia’s community are of interest to my family, mostly to my parents, and not because of their children. Slav will be a senior next year, so the only issue of safety will rear its head when he gets his driver’s license. My mom is more concerned about declining property values and the changing population, especially how these changes will affect her business as a self-employed piano teacher. Our home is in a fantastic location for a piano teacher. Good schools mean good students. Comfortably middle to upper middle class families mean parents who have enough money to send their kids through the Piano Conservatory. Recently, my mother has been considering moving to a newer area of Columbia because she feels that our area, Owen Brown, is “getting worse.” The Baltimore Sun published a piece about crime in Columbia back in Nov 2000. Apparently in the spring of 2000, “Residents in several neighborhoods in Owen Brown Village demanded a greater police presence for the second year in a row." Howard County Police Chief G. Wayne Livesay claimed that "it only appears that criminal activity increased during the 1990s because the department instituted zero-tolerance policing and 'caught more' criminals." A little background. Columbia's founder, the late James W. Rouse. “launched Columbia in 1967 with an ideal to build an ‘open community’ where people from diverse backgrounds could live and work together, regardless of race or income. His was one of the few new communities in the nation where middle-class African-Americans and society's poor were welcomed. He called it ‘The Next America.’” I discovered a series of articles by Gady A. Epstein in The Sun on the topic of change in Columbia. (Along with the series comes a little graphic showing the frequency of police calls made per resident from 1997-June 2000.) The series consists of three parts: I Two cities emerge in Rouse's Columbia The big story here is that Columbia seems to be splitting into two parts: -the wealthier portion with “a diverse population, strong schools, escalating property values… and little crime” -the older villages (including Owen Brown, my neighborhood) with “rising crime, stagnating property values, increasing concentrations of lower-income families and faltering school test scores” that some in town lump together “with a disparaging whisper as ‘Inner Columbia.’” For some reason (dun dun duuuun), many affluent families are leaving the old neighborhoods in search of new areas with better schools and less crime. Christina Lazdins, a Swedish-born homemaker and mother of three, moved to a wealthier part of Columbia. She says, “I know that I didn't want to be part of some sort of trend dragging people out of a good area, because obviously friends started asking and coming out and saying, 'Boy maybe we should consider this, too,’” Lazdins is one of the many residents who care about the ultimate fate of Columbia's diversity, but not enough to keep them from moving. After all, who is willing to put their children’s education at risk for the sake of keeping an old neighborhood racially and economically diverse? Nobody I know. Al Steinbach, the son of a New York cab driver, a 47-year-old husband and father of two, recently moved to one of the newest villages after seeing violent fights on his street. While whites from the Bronx started moving during the 1960s due to the growing black population, Steinbach believes that “now it’s more of a economic and social difference as opposed to a racial difference” that’s pushing out mostly white, affluent families out of the older villages. The migration of many whites like Lazdins and Steinbach causes higher concentrations of less affluent, lower-income residents, and minorities, creating not only economic but racial segregation. Rouse, Columbia’s late founder, “took great pains to avoid the racial segregation of cities like Baltimore” by monitoring home sales and sometimes quietly steered “African-American homebuyers away from certain streets to avoid creating all-black neighborhoods.” He also urged that many low-income African-Americans be mixed up with whites throughout subsidized rental housing buildings. Rouse spread apartment complexes and townhouses through the town’s village to avoid creating a large downtown area. Some, like Steinbach, believe that subsidized housing should not be mixed with private homes. In short, “some worry that the town is beginning to segregate itself.” In the second article of the series, Gary Orfield, co-director of the Harvard Civil Rights Project, explains that the problems Columbia is facing now appeared in Chicago and Detroit 50 years ago. He believes that if you don’t have policies to offset the kinds of migration trends happening in Columbia right now, you get racial and economic segregation that together create “classic inner-city-type school problems.” Orfield also says that Columbia isn’t close to developing an inner-city problem, but this is a period of transition that is “a crucial moment in it’s young history.” Why is the problem of economic and racial segregation emerging now? Perhaps Columbia is simply becoming less “elite.” In this case, elite has to mean “upper class white.” It seems like we have a couple trends occurring simultaneously in some areas: 1. Influx of non-white population. 2. Influx of lower-income population. 3. Drooping test scores. 1.Influx of non-white population. Here, you can find the MD State Dept of Education report on enrollment of students in Howard County (not only Columbia) public schools by ethnicity. From 1993-2003, populations changed as follows (roughly): American Indian / Alaskan Native – tripled Asian / Pacific Islander – doubled African American – doubled White – up by 20% Hispanic – quadrupled Looks like the non-white population in Howard County is indeed growing at a much faster rate than the white population. 2. Influx of lower-income population. The US Census Bureau gives statistics for Howard County (not just Columbia): Income and Poverty Status in 1989-1990 and Profile of Selected Economic Characteristics 2000. From 1989-1999, number of households in following income brackets changed as follows (roughly): Less than $10,000 – down by 6% $10,000-$14,999 – down by 14% $15,000-$24,999 – down by 9% $25,000-$34,999 – down by 18% $35,000-$49,999 – down by 17% $50,000-$74,999 – up by 2% $75,000-$99,999 – up by 41% $100,000-$149,999 – up by 187% $150,000 or more – up by 447% Median household increased by 36%. The population increased by 31%. Looks like household incomes are only going up. Watch those higher in come brackets grow. Ooo-wee. Note: -The 1989 table splits the “Less than $10,000” into two categories: “Less than $5,000” and “$5,000-$9,999.” -The 1999 table splits up the “$150,000 and up” into two categories: “$150,000-$199,999” and “$200,000 or more.” 3. Drooping test scores. Keep reading… II Drooping test scores spur school exodus In the older villages, the number of children from lower-income families has soared because many middle to upper-middle class families have moved out of those areas. This is supported by facts like the following: at two elementary schools in older villages, “the free and reduced-price lunch population more than doubled, to more than 50% each” from 1992-1997. The owners of single-family homes stayed and grew older, but in the apartments and townhouses, new families moved in. When those older owners sold their homes, they were passed over by affluent families. Instead, less well-off families and childless couples moved in. Enrollment in surrounding elementary schools dropped, and the schools expanded their boundaries to include more apartments and townhouses. Simultaneously, more poor and immigrant families began moving into the apartments for the same reason my family moved here: the “rare suburban combination of affordability and convenience to good schools.” "Some affluent families began noticing the socioeconomic changes in the schools - and the low test scores that tend to track with poverty," and they began moving. “For nervous parents, the easiest way to find the "better" schools was to look for the school districts that served few or no apartments. The elementary schools deemed most successful in Columbia are in neighborhoods of single-family detached homes without apartments." Some families didn’t move. Instead, they took advantage of Howard County’s open-enrollment transfer policy. The policy is designed for exceptional cases (ie another school is much closer to the parent’s work place). What tends to happen is mostly white families transfer their kids to schools with better test scores. David Rusk, a social scientist and author of Baltimore Unbound, takes out race as a factor. His research has shown strong correlations between text scores and subsidized lunches in several regions of the country. "Tell me the percentage of kids on free and reduced-price lunch and I'll tell you the MSPAP record for the school.” But race is inextricably linked with poverty in many Columbia schools as well as others around the country. Former superintendent of Howard County schools Michael E Hickey explains, “Columbia’s decline is contributing to the schools and the schools are then contributing to Columbia’s decline.” Sounds like we’ve got a case of the vicious cycle here. Test scores drop, then (first) whites and (second) upper- and middle-class blacks leave, lower-income families move in, test scores drop… lower-income children = lower test scores lower-income children come from mostly minority families minority families bring lower test scores? “The unavoidable truth is that many of the very poor in these neighborhoods and schools are minorities.” That’s why many parents look at not only a school’s test scores but also demographics when choosing where to live in Columbia. So what looks to be a socioeconomic problem also becomes a racial problem. From the next part: Orfield, co-director of the Harvard Civil Rights Project, says of affluent families, "When they see rapid transition going on, either racially or in terms of poverty, they get scared. They all try to exit to protect themselves and the result is everybody loses." III Debate over decay in Rouse's Columbia This last article in the series summarizes a couple proposals to bring about change: -“End or curtail school transfers.” But, “It will be politically difficult to take away from parents the right to switch their child’s public school.” -Devote more resources ($$$) to schools with concentrations of children from low-income families. -“Make racial integration a goal in subsidized housing.” Leonard Vaughn, executive director of the Howard county Housing Commission says, “We don’t have that kind of control over the placement of people. We can encourage them to look in other neighborhoods, but if there’s no affordable housing in a particular district, it’s irrelevant.” -“Require developers to build affordable housing outside Columbia, and consider tearing down older apartment buildings.” David Rusk argues that spreading out lower-income families would benefit Columbia. -“Find a visionary leader for Columbia who can generate creative new ideas, and who can persuade local leaders and the public that attacking problems in older Columbia neighborhoods is essential to the health of the county.” Hmm... dubious. Not impossible, but doubtful. Rouse’s tendency (as explained in the first article) to monitor home sales in order to prevent segregation actually sounds like an unofficial policy to keep Columbia diverse. My question is: Should Columbia have such a policy of assigning families specific homes or areas to preserve racial and economic diversity? Who would be in charge of the decision, or would we use some sort of algorithm? High-income families might tolerate low-income families in the wealthier neighborhoods in a show of open-mindedness, but only until the low-income families start getting uncomfortably close to the majority. There is a limit to how far people are willing to go for the greater sake of the city. You might be able to plant low-income families (or forcefully “urge” them ) in a wealthier area, but it is highly unlikely that high-income families would take well to a suggestion that they move into an area where the majority is comprised of low-income families. Additionally, a homeowner has the right to want to live in an area where property values are increasing, where crime is low, and a parent has the right to want to live in an area where there are better schools. When it comes to race/ethnicity, it’s almost like walking into the cafeteria of my HS, plucking the 10 black kids out of their seats, and redistributing them throughout the 90 white kids for the sake of racial diversity. If they want to sit together, who are “you” to stop them? (I’ve been hearing a lot about the topic of self-segregation lately. Discussions have been fueled by the 50th anniversary of Brown v. Board – what has changed, what has not, and what have we learned in the latter half of this century about race in the US?) PS: Anybody who has seen both Columbia and a city like Baltimore or DC knows damn well that all this talk is extremely relative. Epstein compares older areas in Columbia to newer areas in Columbia, but the article does not take too much time to compare “Inner Columbia” to the real inner cities. No matter how much crime goes on in the little village of Owen Brown, it’s not nearly as serious as what’s happening in Balmore/DC. Of course, this doesn’t mean the county’s leaders shouldn’t take it seriously. I think it’s good that residents are taking notice of the changes going on because, as the warning goes in the article, cities like Detroit had Columbia-like problems years ago. All in all, when Money Magazine ranked the best places to live, the Hottest Towns in America, in the category of eastern towns with a population under 100,000, Columbia ranked a respectable 25th. Take a look at how Columbia compares to the rest of the US: Columbia stat US stat Avg home price $189,700 $218,875 Personal crime index* 33 100 Museums within 30-mi radius (thank you DC) 21 7.09 Superfund sites** 1 2.51 *Index based on 100 average; lower is better. **They note: "Fewer is better." |
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