**Table of Contents Contents 1ac – Mass Transit
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Economic OpportunityCurrent transportation policies exclude marginalized communities from good opportunity – creates isolation. Center for Social Inclusion 2006. (“Racism and Racial Discrimination in the U.S.: Federal Disinvestment in Opportunity for Marginalized Communities”. The Center for Social Inclusion is a national policy strategy organization that works to dismantle structural racial inequity and increase well-being for all. http://www.assetfunders.org/library/documents/CSIonUSandCERD.pdf) In all of the public spheres listed in Article 1, U.S. policies create conditions that disproportionately exclude marginalized communities and groups from enjoying fundamental freedoms and opportunities, such as good jobs and good schools. Some policies may be facially race-neutral but perpetuate the historic racial exclusion that is embedded in our institutions. Present-day federal transportation, housing, education and fiscal policies perpetuate the racial exclusion that was built into federal policies from the 1930s through 50s – policies that created middle-class White suburbs and poor, non-White inner-city neighborhoods. While the incomes and racial identities of cities and suburbs have been changing, people of color continue to be deeply isolated from opportunities. Poor people of color are much more likely than poor Whites to live in concentrated poverty neighborhoods that lack opportunities, like good jobs, good schools, and quality services. Concentrated poverty neighborhoods are neighborhoods where at least 20% (rural) or 40% (urban) of the population lives at or below the federal poverty level.3More than two-thirds of people living in concentrated urban poverty are Black or Latino, even though they are one-fourth of the US population.4 In rural America, half of poor rural Blacks and Native Americans live in concentrated poverty and 27% of all poor rural Latinos live in areas of high poverty.5 Gulf Coast states have high rates of concentrated poverty compared to the rest of the country (26% in Alabama, 41% in Louisiana, and 41% in Mississippi).6 More than 1 out of every 10 neighborhoods in New York City is a concentrated poverty neighborhood (248 total, or 11.2% of all neighborhoods) and these neighborhoods are predominately people of color (87.5% of these neighborhoods are over 80% non-White). Of the 923,113 people living in concentrated poverty in New York, 37.1% are Black and 49.7% Latino, compared to 8.4% White.7 (See Appendix A for a map of concentrated poverty in neighborhoods of color in New York City). o Very poor neighborhoods of color have far less to no jobs in their neighborhoods compared to other areas of the City. (See Appendix B for a map showing the relationship between concentrated poverty, neighborhoods of color, and location of jobs). Urban residents’ inaccessibility to jobs leads to low unemployment rates. Kling et al., 2006. (Jeffrey R. Kling is a senior fellow/deputy director at the Brookings Institution and the National Bureau of Economic Research. Kristin Turney has a Ph.D. from the University of Pennsylvania. Susan Clampet-Lundquist is an assistant professor at the Department of Sociology at the St. Joseph’s University. Kathryn Edin is a professor of public policy and management at Harvard University. Greg J. Duncan is a distinguished professor at the Department of Education at the University of California. 2006, “Neighborhood Effects on Barriers to Employment: Results from a Randomized Housing Mobility Experiment in Baltimore”, Project Muse http://muse.jhu.edu/journals/brookings-wharton_papers_on_urban_affairs/v2006/2006.1turney.html). Another structural explanation for labor market disparities between inner-city and suburban job seekers is Kain's (1968) spatial mismatch hypothesis, which argues that the spatial location of jobs vis-à-vis inner-city workers may account for their low employment rates. According to this line of reasoning, the suburbanization of jobs, when combined with increasing residential segregation by class, has exacerbated the employment problems of the urban poor. Similarly, Wilson (1987 and 1996) argues that the decline of manufacturing jobs has left inner-city neighborhoods bereft of employers, while the rise of service sector employment has occurred mainly in the suburbs. Thus [End Page 141] many urban residents have the education or experience to fill these jobs but not the means to get to them. Research has shown that urban residents also suffer from a lack of information about suburban job openings and experience greater levels of hiring discrimination in the suburbs than in the city. Civil RightsAccess to affordable transit options is vital to the civil rights of millions of people Leadership Conference Education Fund, WHERE WE NEED TO GO: A CIVIL RIGHTS ROADMAP FOR TRANSPORTATION EQUITY, 3—11, p. 8. The absence of affordable, accessible transportation options threatens the civil rights of millions of Americans. Past investment has disproportionately benefitted people in outlying areas, leaving many jobs out of reach for lowincome Americans, and forcing others to exhaust their budgets on transportation at the expense of other needs such as health care, housing, food, and education. Our transportation policy has also undermined the Americans with Disabilities Act’s promise of equal opportunity in transportation for people with disabilities, resulting in isolation from jobs, housing, health care, and education. Constituencies that are directly harmed by inequitable transportation policy have a stake in federal transportation policy decisions. Future transportation policy must promote accessible and equitable transit options, shift funds to communities that have been overlooked, end the cycle of sprawl that perpetuates poverty and inequality, ensure that job creation benefits all communities equally, promote affordable housing, and protect the civil rights of all. 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