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Chapter 10. Race, Location and Accessto Employment in Buffalo, N.Y.
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C Ch ha ap pt te er r 1 10 0 Race, Location and Access to Employment in Buffalo, N.Y. IBIPO JOHNSTON-ANUMONWO AND SELIMA SULTANA Differences in the residential, employment, and household characteristics of African Americans and European Americans as well as racial differences in the journey to work are well documented. There are manystudies about the commuting behavior of non-whites, but the specific impact of the exodus of jobs to suburban locations on African American men and women who live in inner cities is still widely debated. An earlier study of Buffalo, N.Y. which, examined racial differences in commuting focused only on women (Johnston-Anumonwo, 1995); and in a follow-up study, men were included in the analysis (Johnston-Anumonwo, 1997). The purpose of the present study then is to examine the question of racial differences in locational access to jobs in Buffalo, N.Y. by presenting new data for the year 2000. The study retains the critical inquiry on whether suburban employment imposes longer commute times on African Americans than on European Americans. The results strongly complement those for 1990 and also 1980 by highlighting the fact that many African American men and women continue to endure relativelylong commutes to get to work in spite of transportation, locational, and socioeconomic hindrances. Following a review of the background literature of the journey to work for African Americans, a brief description of the study area and data is provided, and then the findings are presented followed by the conclusions reached. THE JOURNEY TO WORK FOR AFRICAN AMERICANS Inquiries about racial disparities in employment accessibility are central to the spatial mismatch hypothesis (Kain, 1968). When it was first proposed in the 1960s, the hypothesis emphasized that employment opportunities are expanding in suburban locations, but because of continuing segregation of blacks in inner cities, there exists a spatial mismatch, such that black inner-city residents face difficulties in reaching the growing job opportunities in suburbs (see Holzer, 1991; Kain, 1992; McLafferty and Preston, 1997; Ihlanfeldt and Sjoquist, 1998; and Preston and McLafferty , 1999 for some comprehensive reviews). There has been little change in the residential segregation of blacks between 1960s and now (Darden, 1990; Denton, 1994; Massey and Hajnal, 1995), and this is true for Erie CountyNew York (with Buffalo as its central city). A sharp pattern of disproportionate representation of Blacks in the central city prevails in Erie County. Erie County was 7 percent black in 1960 and 10.1 percent black in 1980 with 94.7 percent and 92.4 percent of the black population respectively living in the central city in both time periods (U.S. Dept. of Commerce, 1963; 1983). By the year 2000, the county was 13 percent black (U.S. Census Bureau, 2004 — Quick Facts), and the 2000 census tract map of the residential distribution of blacks in the Countydisplays persistent central city concentration and limited suburban presence. Early research on the effect of the exodus of jobs to suburban locations on the workplace accessibilityof inner city African Americans rarely included female workers even though African American women have historically had high levels of labor force participation. There are now more studies that have investigated spatial mismatch concerns and commuting constraints of women (e.g., Sultana, 2003; Thompson, 1997; McLafferty and Preston, 1992; Johns- 120 Ibipo Johnston-Anumonwo and Selima Sultana ton-Anumonwo, 2000). The available studies on the journey to work of female workers highlight two key trends. First, black women have longer travel times than white women. Second, unlike white women who typically have shorter commutes than white men, the journey-to-work time of black women is generally as long as those of Black men (McLafferty and Preston, 1991, 1992 and 1996). For example, McLafferty and Preston (1991) report that in 1980, African American women in metropolitan New York spend 10 minutes longer on the average for their home-towork trip than European American women. Many early studies reported longer commuting times for African American men than European American men as well (e.g., Greytak, 1974; Ellwood, 1986). The research finding that being black is associated with longer work-trip times can readily be attributed to racial differences in the use of a private automobile, but racial differences in other locational and socioeconomic variables that are known to affect journey-towork time are also relevant. Holzer et al. (1994) found less automobile ownership among central city residents and greater reliance on public transportation. Blacks are affected more than whites...