Metropolitan growth and federal policies over the past half-century have had a highly negative impact on the poor of the central cities in the United States. Specifically, the African-American community (as well as other minority populations) has largely felt the brunt of metropolitan growth and federal policies.
As cities have grown, and suburban development has pushed city limits outward, the middle class has been drawn out of the city center. Both the black and white middle class have been drawn to the suburbs, leaving the city centers that are literally crowded with poor minorities. In short, urban sprawl has resulted in great concentrations of poverty-stricken African-Americans in the city centre.
The District of Columbia and Baltimore City are excellent examples of once thriving central cities that are now primarily areas that house the nation's poor African-American communities. In 1950, the District of Columbia had 802,000 residents, who accounted for close to 55% of the entire metropolitan areas one and a half million residents. However, by the time 1996 had rolled around the District of Columbia's 543,000 residents only made up less than 12% of the 4.6 million residents in the entire metropolitan area.
Baltimore City has a similar story. In 1950 it had almost 950,000 residents, with 71% of its region's 1.3 million residents. In 1996, its 675,000 residents are close to 27% of the Baltimore region's...
The District of Columbia has about 30% of Washington's poor, while Baltimore City houses 60% of the metro area's poor. Remarkably, 85% of the metro area poor are African-American.
The math tells the story succinctly: not only are America's inner cities shrinking, they have come to house the poor, and the poor are largely African-American in composition. As such, metropolitan sprawl has had a highly negative effect on the poor of the inner cities of the United States. Given that most of the poor in metropolitan areas are African-American, it is African-Americans who have shouldered most of the brunt of the monster that is metropolitan sprawl.
Federal policies have also played a large role over the past half-century in the negative impact on the poor of the central cities in the United States. Specifically, the African-American community (as well as other minority populations) have largely borne the burden of federal policies.
Astonishing, until the 1960's, the Suburban America was built for middle-class whites. Until the 1960s, for example, the Federal Housing Administration would only insure mortgages in neighbourhoods that were not highly racially mixed. Further, the Federal Housing Administration had a strong…
