Perpetuating the Poverty of Place: Sustainable Community Development in Sacramento

• In Event: 530 - Regular Session. Urban Sociology: Infrastructure and the Environment

Abstract

During the last decade, California began an important period of public management that focuses on strengthening educational and environmental stewardship by revamping the manner in which public infrastructure investment was distributed to its regions and cities. This new wave of public investment policy places regional equity at the center of strategies intent on a (re)distribution of public funds and resources that benefit regions. But do all neighborhoods benefit equally from the state’s fiscal and environmental concerns? We look at public agencies and how they have implemented Sustainable Community Strategies in Sacramento under conditions of housing segregation during an era of fiscal austerity that has weakened their administrative capacity. Using the case of South Sacramento, we analyze data from historical archives, the U.S. Census, the California Department of Education, real estate information providers and area transportation planning agencies to show how neighborhood racial segregation preconditions public investment transactions and creates the conditions for shifting public resources away from neighborhoods that were traditionally excluded from participating in local economic development. We find that this new era of public investment policy has led to a wave of “capital shifting” that actually mirrors long-standing patterns of economic divestment in neighborhoods shaped by residential segregation. We fear this trend will likely continue to exacerbate rather than reduce inequality between neighborhoods within regions.

Authors

• Bruce D. Haynes, University of California-Davis

• Jesus Hernandez, University of California-Davis