7 Last Things #2: a few final thoughts about Atlanta as I retire the ATL Urbanist blog after 5 and a half years.While doing research for blog posts over the years, I’ve looked at a lot of mapped demographic data about Atlanta. The most striking images I’ve come across in that time are the ones that show the divided concentrations of races and economic classes throughout the city. This division is something that has come to concern me more and more in recent years, and I wonder if it’s an issue that we talk about, as a city, as often as we should.There are certainly Atlanta neighborhoods where diversity can be found. In the area around Woodruff Park where we live, you can’t walk four blocks on a busy afternoon without passing a variety of people who represent different cultures, races, and age and economic groups. But research tells us that this is not the norm for the city at large, where separations by race and economic class are stark – and they carry a significant impact. Say it with me: we are segregated. It’s an actual thing that’s happening. The top half of the image below, from a 1980s newspaper article, shows the way that majority-black neighborhoods were concentrated in distinct sections of Atlanta at the start of that decade. The bottom half matches those sections with residents who seldom received mortgages from banks or savings and loans from 1981-86. High quality mortgages were reserved for residents of the majority-white neighborhoods.When you look at this division of populations in Atlanta from many years ago (along with the discrimination in home loans), you might shrug it off with a sigh and think “well, that’s the way things were back then, during a period that was not that far removed from the segregation era.” That was then, but this is now, right? Maybe not. Here are some maps from an Atlanta Regional Commission report that show how sharply divided the geography of the city has been within the past few years. The geography of race and poverty match up in a clearly visible way.While it’s true that some level of geographic segregation is found in every U.S. city, it would be wrong to say that Atlanta’s divide is average. We’ve got it bad. Using a statistical measure called a “diversity index,” with data from a Brown University study of census tracts, this recent study finds the City of Atlanta to be the second-most racially segregated city in the U.S. And though geographic segregation isn’t mentioned in the report, one can’t help but assume that it plays a part in the fact that a recent Brookings study found that Atlanta has the biggest gap between rich and poor people in the country. Racial division and economic inequality are both startlingly high in Atlanta.The negative effects of this division are undeniableSo what’s wrong with this picture? Is there any real down side to having these spatially divided communities in Atlanta? Let’s look at some of the negative effects of segregation by race and class. First off, there’s the psychological effect. An excellent piece in the Washington Post titled “Rich people, surrounded by other rich people, think the U.S. is richer than it really is“ explores the ways in which these physical separations can trick residents of solidly-affluent communities into thinking their culture is more prevalent than it is. According to the article, a report published in a psychology journal found that people living in those bubbles of affluence have a skewed view of the existence of poverty in their own cities, and it gives them a diminished opinion of public programs for the poor. It’s easy to imagine why they might make this mistake: If you look around you and see few poor people — on the street, in your child’s classroom, at the grocery store — you may think poverty is pretty rare.Then there’s the economic-ladder effect. A recent piece in Creative Loafing reported that “an estimated 80 percent of black children in Atlanta live in high-poverty neighborhoods…versus 43 percent of Latino kids and only 6 percent of white ones.” It’s no wonder then that a 2013 study found that a child raised in poverty in metro Atlanta has “only a 4 percent chance of making it to the top of the income scale, worse than any other major American metro area.”In addition to hurting their ability to rise in economic class, kids experience a string of other negative impacts when growing up in communities of poverty. Someone in Atlanta who thinks about and works with this reality is Bee Nguyen. The founder of a local nonprofit that works with underserved teen girls, she’s put together a series of forums titled What We Talk About When We Talk About Race that explore relations between races. She knows that our spatial separations play a part in inequality.Referring to the east-west interstate that has historically served as a physical barrier between black and white Atlanta, Nguyen recently told me that “There’s a great education disparity between north of I-20 and south of I-20.” She says that the negative side of geographic segregation has an educational component.  “When you have failing schools, the neighborhood itself is not thriving. In conjunction with the schools you have food deserts a higher crime rate and lower access to health care.”Finally, while segregation is hurting Atlanta’s kids, it could also end up hurting our budgets, by making the entire region feel a pinch when it comes to federal support. This year, the Obama Administration announced changes in the way federal housing money will be distributed. Metropolitan areas will have to measure segregation and move toward solutions in order to get the money. How did we get here? Will things ever change?To gain a better understanding of the source of our geographic divide, I turned to Race and the Shaping of Twentieth-Century Atlanta by Ronald Bayor. It’s a fascinating read and I highly recommend it. The book is far-ranging, but the things that interested me most were details of government-enforced segregation through zoning, and discriminatory housing practices that made it difficult or impossible for many blacks to find quality mortgages – while at the same time maintaining the dominance of white affluence in some neighborhoods. With fifteen years between today and the book’s 2000 publication, I reached out to the author to get a few thoughts on changes in Atlanta since then and also on the way these issues have been framed in recent years (income inequality, affordable housing, and gentrification are currently hot topics in both the national media and in local neighborhood meetings).Here are Ron Bayor’s responses to my questions:————-In the last couple of years, studies have found Atlanta to have very low economic mobility and very high income inequality. It’s a troubling mix. While geography can’t be blamed for both of those problems, do you think that it’s possible that the geographic segregation in Atlanta along lines of race and class has contributed to this lingering (and by some measures, worsening) economic divide? BAYOR: “There is little doubt that class, now more than race, affects Atlanta’s economic problems. The jobs are still found in the suburbs, and the inability for poor people in the inner city, without cars or access to mass transit, to get to those jobs remains a long-term issue. “Rather than investing in an expansion of MARTA or some other form of mass transit, the money is going to business-oriented spending: for example, sports stadiums, that do little for the economic growth of the neighborhoods they are in. I think particularly of the new Falcons stadium.”The subject of housing segregation has been getting a lot of attention recently, both politically and in the media. There’s a growing focus on the goal of promoting racially integrated neighborhoods. Given Atlanta’s unique history of housing practices and its own fight for racial equality, do you think that the city is in a better or worse position when it comes to making progress with better integrating neighborhoods?BAYOR: “There definitely is progress in integrating neighborhoods but not to the level expected when Atlanta moved away from legal segregation. The city’s neighborhoods and schools remain largely segregated. Some of this segregation is due to bank mortgage policies and to real estate salespeople directing whites and blacks to different areas. “On the plus side is the movement of middle class blacks into market rate housing in the city where they live with middle class whites. On the negative side is the suburban segregation as in south Dekalb, the continuation of racially and economically segregated areas in the city, and the lack of government attention to those neighborhoods both economically and politically. “This situation is not unique to Atlanta and is evident in many cities north and south. The failure of Atlanta’s government to improve economically English Avenue and Vine City in general over many administrations is an example of neglect that perpetuates economic and racial segregation.”————-With this issue, the home of Martin Luther King, Jr. should lead, not lagThe discrimination that informed Atlanta’s current geographic divide was both intentional and multifaceted. The solutions that remedy the lingering effects of this divide will likewise need to be intentional and multifaceted. The issue is incredibly complex and can be painful to talk about. But in a city with a rich history of protest against discrimination and segregation, I think it’s right that we should be able to talk about it.Surely the home of Martin Luther King, Jr. shouldn’t be a leader in segregation and its ills. Wouldn’t it be more appropriate for Atlantans to be national leaders when it comes to addressing this difficult topic with compassion and with wisdom?One place to start might be a recognition of those times when we come together in a diverse group. Riding MARTA during the week day commute; shopping at Your Dekalb Farmer’s Market, the Curb Market; attending sports events – these are examples of places where we can be in the company of Atlanta’s full range of demographic communities.And while recognizing the diversity in those places and experiences, also question the things that set us apart from each other as residents in our less diverse neighborhoods. Is it “good schools”? (That’s a tricky issue that often divides us along class lines, as school rankings are often a reflection of levels of affluence.) Is it home values? Perceived safety concerns? An effort to gain political clout for a specific community? Question all of these things, Atlanta, and talk about our segregation with a clear knowledge of current conditions, a concern for the future, and a recognition of the past. EDITED TO ADD: For some info on the way that the divided geography of class and race in Atlanta affects public health, see this recent post of mine.