Neighborhood Councils as Antidote to Minority Political Marginalization?

In many of America’s major cities, a sense of hopelessness and cynicism discourages political participation, especially by members of minority groups.  Disengagement, in turn, undermines accountability and facilitates corruption, which exacerbates public cynicism. 

How can the vicious circle be broken?  In a new paper on SSRN, Matt Parlow argues that neighborhood councils — “new substructures of local government that aim to involve citizens in the decision- and policy-making processes” — have the potential to raise the engagement level of minority citizens with local government.  He uses Detroit to illustate the problems of local government corruption and minority political marginalization in American cities, while pointing to Los Angeles as an example of a city that has had some recent success with neighborhood councils. 

Continue ReadingNeighborhood Councils as Antidote to Minority Political Marginalization?

Milwaukee’s Residential Segregation – It’s Not Simply Black and White

The Milwaukee metropolitan area is taking what seems to be its annual beating in the media because of its racially segregated housing patterns.  According to a new report from the Brookings Institution based on 2005-09 census data, the City of Milwaukee and the surrounding area including Milwaukee, Ozaukee, Washington and Waukesha Counties is virtually tied for first  (or last!) with Detroit and New York City for the highest degree of black-white residential segregation.  A second study conducted by John Logan of Brown University ranked Milwaukee second in residential segregation by race to only the New York City metropolitan area.  Newark, Detroit, and Chicago were next on Logan’s list.

To what extent are the troubling rankings and the patterns to which they point truly based on race?  American racism is hardly dead and buried, but in our society race often obscures the equally pernicious workings of socioeconomic class inequality. 

Continue ReadingMilwaukee’s Residential Segregation – It’s Not Simply Black and White

Racial Disparities and Risk Assessment

Bernard Harcourt (University of Chicago) has an interesting new paper entitled “Risk as a Proxy for Race.”  (A copy is available here on SSRN.)  Harcourt is responding to progressive arguments in favor of tying prison release to risk assessment:

An increasing chorus argues, today, that risk-assessment instruments are a politically feasible method to redress our problem of mass incarceration and reduce prison populations.  The argument, in essence, is that prediction tools can identify low-risk offenders for release and thereby protect correctional authorities from the political whiplash of early release.

Harcourt’s concern is that risk-based early release opportunities will disproportionately benefit white inmates and thereby exacerbate racial disparities in the prison population.  He points out, “[R]isk today has collapsed into prior criminal history, and prior criminal history has become a proxy for race.” 

Continue ReadingRacial Disparities and Risk Assessment