Breakout Group Summaries

Housing Facilitators: Nancy Denton, John Lukehart

Summary by Denton: We discussed two general topics: (1) If a neighborhood wants to integrate, what local strategies can they use? We discussed neighborhood organizations, testing programs, and joining with organizations in other neighborhoods to ensure broad access to housing in the region. (2) The role of the Minneapolis Public Housing Authority in public housing here, specifically, the Hollman v. Cisneros lawsuit.

Education Facilitators: john powell, Gary Orfield

Summary by Orfield: People wanted to discuss how we can talk about the future of our society and let that frame the educational issue. We talked about our society's turning away from children. We discussed the necessity for tolerating some friction in insisting on the importance of some of these goals. We discussed the lawsuit (by the NAACP against the Minnesota State Board of Education) and questions surrounding it: how to work with perceptions, goals, the media, and the children involved. We considered it important to stress how to think together as a society, rather than dividedly. In strategizing about this piece of litigation, we want to focus on a common vision for the future of the larger society as we work on developing arguments and articulating goals.

Government Facilitators: David Rusk, Charles Smith

Summary by Russ Adams : We discussed what forms of government promote regional equity and stability, and what forms of allocation of resources promote equitable distribution. Suggestions were that elected metro-wide representation might serve this need, but with the cautionary note that redesigning elective systems can leave some groups out of power. The fact, however, that we have seen African-American mayors elected in Denver, Charlotte, Seattle, and Minneapolis--cities without black electoral majorities--suggests that proportional representation is possible for a wide variety of regional interests. We spoke of making governments more receptive to diverse viewpoints, and of getting people of color into important functional subgroups such as planning boards. We also discussed the role of foundations, and how they might challenge themselves on strategies and their influences. Finally, we felt the need to emphasize that creating regional strategies will be a long-term project and process.

Community Development Corporations Facilitators: Roderick Mitchell, Avis Vidal combined with

Economic Development/Employment Facilitators: Ellen Burzynski, George Galster

Summary by Galster: We discussed three major areas: CDC problems, principles, and program suggestions. First we vented.

(1) Suburban sprawl frustrates all CDC activities.

(2) Inadequate quid pro quo extracted from business by local governments and cities are providing subsidies to those businesses without the businesses providing living wage jobs for the communities, child care support, or other critical elements.

(3) Old commercial buildings are currently arranged to discourage redevelopment.

(4) Communities of color are not capturing a fair share of county-wide dispersal capital and human development funding. Block grants will make this worse.

(5) Political and economic powers are unresponsive to these and other pressing concerns.

We suggested strategies.

(1) CDCs must garner regional resources to leverage their limited local resources.

(2) Sixties-style confrontational politics don't seem to work as well as building strategic alliances.

(3) Coalitions must be built around different issues where common ground can be found.

(4) Strategic alliances should be developed through a multidisciplinary approach.

(5) Local development efforts must focus on developing local competitive abilities, with a recognition that other sources of funding will remain inadequate.

Finally, recognizing that it is easier to call an egg rotten than to lay another, we formulated specific goals:

Local- Public and CDC participation in banks' efforts to comply with (get out of ) CRA initiatives.

Regional-CDCs build coalitions with inner-ring suburbs.

Multi-geographic area- Back-door approaches to political power. Reach around recalcitrant local politicians to higher ranking sympathetic politicians in other areas.

Wealth Creation: Facilitators: Tim Bates, Paul Hudson

Summary by Hudson: We enjoyed a small, very focused session. Much of the discussion was on the research Tim Bates is currently doing to compare the factors behind different levels of success in different racial/ethnic entrepreneurial groups. He is studying Korean and African-American small businesses, and has found great dissimilarity between the groups. The Korean business person typically brings a college education and resources built up through previous salaried employment to the enterprise. College-educated African Americans are, on the other hand, much less likely to start small businesses. This type of information improves our understanding of the actual dynamics at work, and helps to break down stereotypes. Kathleen Corley also spoke about entrepreneurship. I also would like to report that I find myself highly energized by this conference.

Land-Use Planning: Facilitators: Ken Greenberg, Hazel Johnson

Summary by Greenberg: We accepted the request by someone in the plenary session for a mission statement. The following is the result of our feverish efforts to complete the task in one short session.

Planning for the Livable City Region

It is generally an indicator of community health in an open and heterogeneous city region with choices when people of different ages, income levels, social, cultural, and ethnic backgrounds can live together throughout the region, when the whole place and whole community is valued by all, when the resultant pattern fosters diversity and interaction while celebrating the specific identities of different groups, and when this can be accomplished with an economy of means by using normal and natural community and market mechanisms.

• We believe that local and regional strategies can be expressions of progress toward common goals. A perception of contradictions is a failure to recognize the interconnectedness and value of all the political, social, and cultural subunits of the region.
• We believe that to ensure social equity, residential development and redevelopment must consider the impact on the region's social structure. One way to do this is to provide for a full range of housing choices by value and type in all communities. This will provide housing that meets the needs of those who work in the community, and the life cycle needs of its residents.
• We believe that establishing an urban growth boundary line helps define a metropolitan region and encourages us to focus our limited resources on a defined area. The boundary allows a focus on rebuilding the inner city, stabilizing declining neighborhoods and building more ethnically and economically diverse neighborhoods at the periphery of the region. For this to succeed, a much broader geographic planning framework is needed, to avoid sprawl which leapfrogs beyond the boundary.
• We believe it is necessary to share more equitably the regional tax base for the purposes of eliminating disparities in inter-city and inter-district fiscal capacity and service delivery (including, of course, education).
• We believe that an equitable regional planning policy must include the clean-up of existing abandoned industrial lots (designated brownfields). Priority for employment should be given to residents of the neighborhoods in which the brownfields are located. Part of the funding for the clean-up of the brownfields should be designated for job training in clean-up operations with a view to providing employment opportunities to these residents after the clean-up of the particular brownfield.

  We believe that it is necessary to erase the traditional hard boundaries between land uses to make it possible to more closely integrate uses of different types.