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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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