The Production of Local Inequality: Race and Land Use in American Cities

• In Event: The American Political Economy in Comparative Perspective

Abstract

In postwar America, suburban communities grew exponentially. With this growth came an increase in race and class segregation between cities and a concomitant increase in inequality. In this chapter, I argue that suburban governments have played a fundamental role in driving changing patterns of segregation through their control over land use. First, I show that segregation patterns have changed over time. Then, I show that metropolitan areas with strict land use control in the suburbs witness a higher level of segregation between cities. In the final section of the chapter, I show that communities with more high socio-economic status residents receive a disproportionate share of municipal spending. The insulation of privilege and the fragmentation of local governance has resulted in profound inequalities in access to public goods and enormous barriers to correcting them.

Author

• Jessica Luce Trounstine, University of California, Merced