The Politics of Community Development Block Grants

• In Event: Distributive Politics, Inequality, and Representation in Urban Politics

Abstract

For decades, Community Development Block Grants (CDBGs) have been one of the major sources of funding for low-income individuals and neighborhoods in cities across the US. Although city officials are tasked with using these funds to support community development and eliminate blight in the neediest neighborhoods, existing research suggests that political considerations shape the distribution of CDBG funds (e.g. Rich 1993). Using new data on over a decade of CDBG activities in Chicago and Los Angeles obtained via public records requests, we geocode expenditures to the precinct level and merge this information with data on city council election returns and neighborhood demographic information. This allows us to examine the extent to which electoral dynamics skew the allocation of CDBG spending both across and within city council districts after adjusting for neighborhood demand. This paper contributes to a long line of research on community development and federal aid to cities and demonstrates that studying distributional choices at the precinct level can reveal important inequalities within electoral districts.

Authors

• Brian T. Hamel, University of North Texas

• Julia Payson, UCLA