ABSTRACT
This chapter discusses on structural forces, patterns of historical settlement, and individual decisions result in barriers to equal access to opportunity to at least some degree in most places. The significant disparity exists in the experiences of place for members of different racial groups. The spatial mismatch of jobs and residence, combined with high levels of racial segregation, contribute strongly to the concentration of poverty in cities, and it is concentrated poverty that is strongly associated with high rates of crime, unwed pregnancy, poor schools, and business failures. Whether one consider the spatial mismatch of jobs and housing, access to schools, or degree of environmental justice, the discussion necessarily begins with the extent to which people of different races live among or apart from one another. It focuses on regions work in part to the extent that they facilitate the mingling of people of different backgrounds and fail in part to the extent to which they facilitate their separation.
