In this qualitative analysis into the equity conditions of urban sustainability, an examination is presented into the
complexity of one particular aspect of intra-generational equity, racial and class discrimination and its role in
distorting urban form and in generating resource inefficient and environmentally destructive human activity
patterns. The article, therefore, focuses on the role of discrimination itself in encouraging ecological degradation.
The Detroit region shows that racial and class conflicts can facilitate the shaping of the urban built environment as
one population sub-group, largely white and upper-income, attempts to distance itself from another sub-group
that is largely black, lower income, and considered a threat. The outcome is not only disinvestment and decline in
the urban core, but also excessive suburbanization, as whites seek homogenous urban environments and use
space to increase the distance between themselves and the black population. The study shows that the lack of
cooperation and tolerance across ethnic/racial and class subgroups facilitates inefficient low-density and
scattered developments, and excessive degradation of natural ecological systems.
While urban areas constitute some 2% of the Earth's land surface,
urban dwellers consume over 75% of the Earth resources depleted in
any year (Girardet, 2000). With most world resource stocks directed
to urban areas – which are the aggregation of global wealth – cities
are responsible for much of the global environmental degradation
(Vojnovic, 2013). Cities themselves, however, do not have significant
capacity in generating material resources, such as food and energy.
Cities also have little ability to absorb or recycle waste and to clean air
to any reusable extent, and they continue to discharge raw sewage
into surrounding bodies of water (USEPA, 2004). Urban inhabitants
rely on large natural areas beyond urban boundaries for resources and
environmental services to meet the basic necessities of urban systems;
leading Eugene Odum (1997, p. 290) to argue that cities are “parasites
on the biosphere”.
Considerable interest has been devoted to changing consumption
and development processes within cities, as evident with the global
discourse on urban sustainability. In the US, sustainability discussions
have focused particularly on the question of urban form. It is difficult
to argue that there is a generic American city, since the built environment
of high-density, pedestrian-oriented cities, like Boston, is very
different from the built environment of low-density, automobileoriented
cities, like Phoenix.However, over half the American population
lives in suburbs, with the rest split between urban and rural areas; a
settlement pattern that reveals the scale of US urban decentralization
(US Census Bureau, 2000).
These decentralized development patterns also have clear racial
and class imprints, white flight to the suburbs and the blackening of
inner-cities, as illustrated by Metropolitan Detroit (Darden et al.,
1987). Since the early-1970s, the majority of the US population
living in metropolitan areas lived in suburbs, and this majority was
overwhelmingly white. While the suburbs remain predominantly
white, the 2010 Census has shown growing racial and ethnic diversity.
In Metro Detroit, however, the racial divide has intensified. Some 83%
of the city of Detroit population is black (US Census Bureau, 2011).
In exploring the complexity of the inter- and intra-generational
equity requirements for advancing toward sustainability, we
analyze one particular aspect of intra-generational equity; the role
of discrimination – racial and class – in distorting urban form and
in generating resource inefficient human activities. Racial and class
conflicts shape urban form as one population sub-group, largely white
and upper-income, attempts to distance itself from another sub-group
that is largely black, lower income, and considered a threat. The
result is excessive suburbanization, as whites seek homogenous
urban environments and use space to increase the distance between
themselves and blacks, a decentralization process known aswhite flight
(Figs. 1–2). The resulting low-density and scattered developments
facilitate excessive degradation of natural ecological systems and
reduce regional economic performance and the overallwelfare of cities.
This article focuses on the role of racism, a variable seldom
considered in the sustainability discourse, in distorting housingmarkets
and urban form, suppressing advancement toward urban sustainability.
The analysis shows that racial and class discrimination contribute to ecological degradation, an underrepresented discussion in the
sustainability debate. It also reveals that socially equitable, resource
efficient, and environmentally benign outcomes can be achieved
simultaneously, stressing the importance of pursuing urban
sustainability.
After exploring the decentralization of Metropolitan Detroit, we
will examine the complex dimensions – natural environmental, built,
and socio-economic – of racial and class driven urban processes that
hinder sustainability.1 The study reinforces the inherent coupling
between inter- and intra-generational equities by illustrating that by
not pursuing intra-generational equity, in this context resolving racial
and class conflicts, communities encourage resource inefficiency and
environmental degradation, hindering inter-generational equity and
the pursuit of sustainability.
Detroit's suburbanization has been driven by technological
innovations, reduced energy prices, increased incomes, consumer
preferences, and policy. Racial and class conflicts in the region –
accommodated by municipal fragmentation and minimal interjurisdictional
cooperation – have also accelerated suburbanization.
The decaying core, however, has facilitated a decline in the
competitiveness of the region. Like a perfect storm, the combination
of variables facilitating suburbanization has produced a unique regional structure, with extreme decentralization and inner-city
decline, facilitating a highly resource-inefficient urban form.
Low-density suburbanization is generally explained as a rational
outcome of market forces, shaped by consumer preferences (Bowman
and Thompson, 2009; Gordon and Richardson, 1997). While preferences
inevitably do shape citybuilding processes, discrimination in the housing
market remains critical in driving urban decentralization, resource
consumption, and ecosystem degradation. Despite its significance,
discrimination as a variable facilitating resource-use and environmental
degradation is seldom discussed in the sustainability or wider ecology
literature.
Excessive suburbanization, driven by racial and socio-economic
conflicts, exacerbates both socio-economic and environmental pressures.
This inherent coupling between social and environmental processes
reinforces the pursuit of equity among existing generations – including
addressing discrimination and oppression – as a pre-condition for
achieving equity between generations and promoting sustainability.
Within this context, the article advances an approach for defining
sustainability policies. Since sustainability initiatives focus on the
coupling of socio-economic and environmental processes, they need
to simultaneously promote intra- and inter-generational equities, that
is, advance both equity and efficiency. For instance, limiting state
finances that favor infrastructure investment in newer suburbs at the
expense of older cities would curtail suburbanization and resourceuse,
while also ending infrastructure financing disproportionately
favoring upper-income groups. Similarly,more compact developments,
by using less land and infrastructure, could reduce house prices – if
developers pass some cost-savings to homebuyers – facilitating more
affordable housing and less resource-use. In a context where little is
known about the mechanisms for designing sustainability policies,
this is a legitimate starting-point, pursuing policies that simultaneously
promote intra- and inter-generational equities.
The US experience shows that depending on political interest,
local and state governments have taken different positions on
suburbanization. Some regions have been active in curtailing inefficient
decentralization, while other local and state governments have little
interest in such policies. In Michigan, it is perhaps the extreme racial
and class conflicts that have limited policies curtailing suburbanization.
If the Detroit region does pursue greater compactness and urban
revitalization, it must be understood that due to the supra-durable
nature of urban form, any change in the built environment will be a
long-term process. It took over six decades to produce this dispersed
metropolis, and it will likely take longer to produce a more compact
region.
In Detroit, an important issuewill also be the integration of any new
population with the existing black community. Recently, cities across
America have been celebrating a new urban renaissance. Detroit has
also been attempting to engage in such revival efforts. A consistent
theme with these revival initiatives has been the esthetic necessary to
attract wealthier populations back into the city. Celebrated projects in
Detroit, such as the Merchant Row Lofts, are similarly marketed to
upper-income groups. In this celebration of urban, however, there has
been little interest focused on marginalized populations (Podagrosi
and Vojnovic, 2008; Podagrosi et al., 2011). The poor and minorities
are not part of this new urban celebration. If the rebuilding of Detroit
is achieved by merely removing the poor and minorities from one
neighborhood and concentrating them in another, these initiatives
will do nothing to advance sustainability.
Ultimately, the Detroit region needs a paradigmshift fromracial and
class conflicts to racial and class cooperation. In addition, addressing
social and racial inequities and pursuing regional compactness will
not enable Detroit to achieve sustainability. This will simply be a step
to alleviate critical socio-economic and environmental stresses in the
region. It will enable advancement toward sustainability by generating
non-trivial improvements in social welfare and environmental wellbeing.
Socio-economic and environmental advantages would be
realized if Detroit could achieve a profile (in terms of land, energy,
and material use) similar to its neighbor Chicago. However, without
the pursuit of basic intra-generational equity – committing to racially
and socially just societies – inter-generational inequities, and excessive
ecological degradation, will persist and the Detroit region will continue
to move away from the sustainability condition.