Inadequate transportation heightens unemployment

Thursday, December 10, 1998

Inadequate transportation heightens unemployment

STUDY: Minorities lack access to low-skill jobs in white urban
areas;

government projects address issue

By Brian Fishman

Daily Bruin Contributor

Even with today’s booming economy, the streets of major American
cities are poverty-stricken. And Professor Michael Stoll thinks he
knows why.

Stoll, a UCLA policy studies professor, recently found that
minorities living in the inner-city have trouble getting to
suburban-based, low-skill jobs because they do not have adequate
transportation.

As a result, inner-city unemployment rates are high due to the
lack of public transportation, which minorities rely on more than
whites

"Most of the low-skill jobs are located in the white suburbs,"
Stoll said. "But there is no public transportation. This is
important because African Americans and Latinos own cars less often
than whites."

He noted that the space between suburbs (which are populated
mostly by whites) and the inner cities (which have high minority
populations) is prohibitive to commuting.

"We find that jobs – low and moderate skilled – are in the
suburbs, especially white ones. Low-wage workers can’t get to the
suburbs," Stoll argues.

While white suburbs account for nearly 70 percent of the
low-skill job offerings in metropolitan areas, about 40 percent of
the least educated people live in these areas.

Meanwhile, minority-populated inner-cities contain 15.6 percent
of the least educated people, but only 10.2 percent of the
low-skilled jobs.

This "spatial mismatch" problem can be found in Los Angeles,
though not to the same extent as in other cities, said Stoll.

Researchers consider Los Angeles an anomaly because it does not
have a defined urban heart like other cities, and because it is
much more diverse, Stoll explained.

Because of these differences, the spatial job concentration
trend Stoll found elsewhere is also prevalent in Los Angeles, but
to a lesser degree. "African Americans and Latinos are still in
East Los Angeles, but the jobs are outside those areas," he
said.

Stoll’s data comes from the Multi-City Study of Urban Inequality
(MCSUI) for Atlanta, Boston, Detroit and the Los Angeles
metropolitan areas.

The MCSUI was an accomplishment in itself, Stoll said.

"We asked people where they (were) looking for work and how they
would get there," Stoll explained. "Not just whether they are
looking for work."

He cross-checked these data with surveys given to over 1,000
employers in each of the metropolitan areas.

Firms were quizzed about the last employee they hired and
requirements they had for their workers.

The firms were then geo-coded. Stoll mapped both racial patterns
within metropolitan areas and where people were being hired.

Government agencies are, however, not standing idly by.

For example, the "Bridges to Work" program provides
transportation for inner-city workers to suburban workplaces.

In addition, studies such as "Moving to Opportunity" (MTO) works
to move minorities out of inner-cities into more integrated
neighborhoods.

MTO, which was established by the Housing Authority of Los
Angeles, issues vouchers to two groups of minority families willing
to spend 30 percent of their income on housing, said Tom Honore,
senior community builder and coordinator for the Department of
Housing and Urban Development (HUD).

HUD covers the remaining rent costs for families that move into
higher-income neighborhoods, Honore said.

The first group to resettle is a control group. These
individuals are left to their own devices, while the experimental
group is given assistance settling in new neighborhoods.

"We give them any kind of service that would get them acclimated
to their new area," said Dawnette Gilkey, MTO program coordinator
for the Los Angeles area.

"The goal is to determine which group fares better," Honore
said.

Currently, 420 vouchers have been issued and 38 remain to be
claimed, Gilkey said.

But it can be difficult to successfully integrate neighborhoods,
Stoll explained.

According to what he calls the "tipping hypothesis," if a
neighborhood becomes 30 percent African American, within 10 years
it will become over 80 percent African American. When a
neighborhood becomes 30 percent African American, whites start
moving out and African Americans move in.

Stoll’s research, however, is not limited to spatial mismatch.
He is also tackling the question of racial discrimination in hiring
and the effects of social networks on unemployment. Stoll found
evidence that hiring discrimination is more prevalent in white
suburbs – where most low-skill jobs can be found.

"Even after controlling for skill level, we still find
discrimination in certain areas and positions," Stoll said.

Stoll is hopeful his research will have an effect on policy.

"I’ll take this to various government agencies and show them
what needs to be done," he concluded.

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