November 15, 2005

Slighted in the suburbs

BY MONIFA THOMAS Staff Reporter

"Disadvantaged" hardly seems a word that would apply to people living in $200,000 homes with prize-worthy yards and sporty trucks and coupes tucked inside two-car garages.

Yet amid these hallmarks of prosperity hides a deeper truth: Middle-class and affluent blacks in the suburbs are concentrated in areas that provide fewer economic opportunities in terms of rising home values and access to good schools and jobs, making it harder for them to catch up, and keep up, financially with whites.

African Americans are moving to the suburbs in unprecedented numbers. But most choose communities that already have large black populations, rather than risk encountering discrimination or social isolation in a predominantly white environment.

"Where affordability isn't an issue, the legacy of discrimination and segregation really conditions people's housing decisions," says John Lukehart, executive director of the Leadership Council for Open Metropolitan Communities, a fair-housing group.

Consider Walter Harrington, a 38-year-old social worker who moved to Hazel Crest, a largely black south suburb, two years ago. Now, he's building a home in Lynwood, another majority-black suburb. Living in a community with fewer minorities didn't appeal to him, Harrington says, because it would likely mean being singled out as "the black neighbor."

"You want to go where you feel welcome, not where people see you and they lock their doors," he says.

In that respect, African Americans who gravitate toward predominantly black areas are no different from whites, Asian Americans and Hispanics who seek out neighbors with whom they share common ground.

But new research suggests that blacks in the suburbs pay the highest price to have a place of their own. A recent study by the Leadership Council ranked Chicago and its suburbs on factors such as the strength of the tax base, quality of schools and availability of employment. It found that 94 percent of blacks live in "low-opportunity" suburbs, compared with 44 percent of whites. In the south suburbs, even towns with largely though not majority-black populations -- including Flossmoor and Olympia Fields -- were found to offer fewer opportunities than are found in white communities with similar income levels.

Suburbs less segregated than city

Between 1990 and 2000, the number of black households with incomes of $35,000 or more in Chicago's suburbs grew from 27 percent to 40 percent, census data show.

Middle-class black families are becoming more of a presence in majority-white suburbs in DuPage, Will and Lake counties. But most of the growth in the last two decades has taken place just south of Chicago, in the area bounded by Interstate 57 and the Indiana border. More than half of all suburban blacks live in just 17 municipalities, almost all of which are in southern Cook County, according to a Chicago Urban League study. The near-west suburbs of Bellwood and Maywood also have black populations that top 80 percent.

Even so, Chicago's suburbs are less segregated than the city is.

And people like Ron and Alesha Henley are among those responsible for that. The Henleys, who are black, moved to the predominantly white west suburb of Addison seven years ago, after spending 10 years in the majority-black suburb of Country Club Hills. Their aim was to be closer to their jobs. But finding acceptance in an almost exclusively white neighborhood was an unexpected bonus.

"People stopped and said 'hi' the day we were moving in, and the neighbor across the street brought over cookies and a card," says Alesha Henley, who works as a marketing analyst for a travel business downtown. "You just don't know if people are going to be socially accepting of you until you get there, but I'm happy we picked the right place."

Political clout a plus

Eric and Tiffani Grant were looking to get the most house for their money when they moved from the city's South Shore neighborhood to Hazel Crest in 1989. The Grants now live with their three children in south suburban Flossmoor, which is 27 percent black.

"What we would have paid in the city for a condo, without parking and without a yard, was the same as what we paid for a house with a yard, a garage and the things we wanted for our family," Tiffani Grant says.

Eric Grant, a financial adviser for Polaris Wealth Management in Chicago, also preferred the south suburbs to comparable areas with fewer minorities. He wanted his children to see that black success is attainable.

"When you get a chance to see it, it becomes a reality," he says.

Having strength in numbers politically is another reason some African Americans choose to live in largely black towns.

"You're not going to have the same kind of political clout to elect reps or run for office in Barrington as you would in the south suburbs, where you can elect a Jesse Jackson Jr.," says Michael Bennett, an associate professor of sociology at DePaul University. "That could be interpreted as a deficit to integration."

Racial divide in home values 'infuriating'

If the benefits of living in these enclaves of black suburbia are undeniable, so are the disadvantages, experts say. Homes in the south and near-west suburbs where many blacks live appreciate in value more slowly than majority-white communities with similar median incomes.

Markham -- the south suburb that has seen the biggest increase in home values since 1994 -- saw its average sale price for a single-family home rise 78 percent, well ahead of inflation. Over the same period, largely white suburbs such as Kenilworth, Elmhurst, Wilmette and South Elgin have seen triple-digit gains in home values. Of those, South Elgin has the largest percentage of African Americans -- 2.6 percent.

And home values in predominantly black suburbs are lower to begin with. Housing markets that depend on buyers from a limited segment of the population, such as the black middle class, "have slower-rising home values than communities with a stronger, broader demand," says John Logan, a sociology professor at Brown University who has studied racial segregation for 35 years.

Glenn Jackson, of Matteson, says the racial divide in home values is "infuriating."

"Those homes out in Bourbonnais and all those places are no better than mine," says Jackson, who owns a three-bedroom house in the sprawling Butterfield Place subdivision. "It's all because of what people perceive."

Using census data for Chicago's suburbs, Logan determined that African Americans with household incomes topping $60,000 were more likely to have neighbors in poverty than whites with household incomes below $30,000.

"It's not at all what people would expect to be the payoff of a higher income," says Logan, who sees this as evidence that real estate brokers still steer prospective home buyers to certain neighborhoods based on race, despite laws that ban such practices.

In addition, state crime statistics show that, although crime rates are falling in most of the south and near-west suburban communities African Americans are moving to, it still tends to be higher than in white areas. The difference is primarily in the number of property crimes.

Still, as far as Jacquelyn Tolliver is concerned, the suburbs have lived up to their reputation as a refuge from crime. A single mother, Tolliver moved to Hazel Crest to get her daughter away from the drug dealing and prostitution near their home in the city, in Armour Square.

"I know anything can happen at any time, but it's not the same as it was where we were before," says Tolliver, sitting outside her home in the upscale Dynasty Lakes subdivision. "I have peace of mind to be out here at 2 a.m. walking my dogs."

'Schools out here are terrible'

Blacks who leave the city in search of better schools have found mixed results. While public schools in Flossmoor and Olympia Fields, for instance, routinely exceed state testing standards, the elementary and high schools serving west suburban Maywood and Markham, Hazel Crest and other south suburbs don't fare as well.

Michael and Drusilla Brewer, of Matteson, enrolled their two sons in a Catholic school because they weren't impressed with the low test scores and even-lower expectations in the neighborhood schools they visited.

"There's definitely an issue in the school system out here," Brewer says. "In the city and suburbia, it's almost like a day-care system."

The Brewers, more affluent than middle-class, can afford the $8,000 a year they pay for their sons to attend a Catholic school. Others, like James Williams of Harvey, don't have that option.

"The schools out here are terrible," says Williams, 34, who works as a cook at a Denny's restaurant in Hickory Hills. "I'm paying all this money [in taxes], but my kids aren't getting a good education."

'Domino effect' on tax base

With school funding based on property taxes, the south and near-west suburbs are at a disadvantage, says Lukehart, of the Leadership Council for Open Metropolitan Communities.

"The issue here isn't who's residing in a community, per se," he says. "It's the behavior of public and private investors. As communities change racially, it's been the case that private investment tends to withdraw, which has sort of a domino effect in terms of the tax base."

Lower property values and a lower tax base mean less money for the public schools and for other municipal services.

The result: Homeowners in black suburbs face higher tax rates than those in more-affluent, largely white suburbs, Cook County tax figures show. Steep taxes also deter business owners from setting up shop in predominantly black areas when they can pay lower rates elsewhere.

Jacquelyn Tolliver has seen the tax bill on her home jump from $3,600 to $8,000 in 10 years. She says some of her neighbors are paying thousands more.

"It's ridiculous to pay $2,000 for a mortgage and $12,000 in taxes," she says. "Hazel Crest just doesn't have enough going on to offset the taxes."

Payday loan stores vs. Starbucks

Walter Harrington says he sees the difference in amenities offered to residents of largely black suburbs vs. white towns every time he travels to Tinley Park and Villa Park for work.

"It's kinda like the water fountains under 'separate but equal,' " Harrington says. "Yes, we both have water fountains, but if you look at the quality of the white water fountain vs. the black one, it isn't the same."

In largely black Country Club Hills -- where the median household income is about $57,700 -- hair-care shops, payday loan stores and True Value hardware occupy aging strip malls. It's easy to find fast-food places, harder to spot a sit-down restaurant. A sign outside announces that a large furniture store is going out of business.

Head from there to predominantly white Homewood, where the median income is about the same. But Homewood has two Starbuckses and a Caribou Coffee, two video stores and an array of chain and family restaurants for its 19,500 residents.

Wal-Mart is scheduled to open a store in Country Club Hills next fall. Snagging such big-name retailers in black areas, though, is a hard sell, says Wanda Comein, spokeswoman for the village government. "Every store we get in Country Club Hills, we have to work twice as hard as everyone else," Comein says.

She says business owners are foolish not to come there, to target the middle- and upper-income blacks living in the south suburbs.

"Businesses need to understand that . . . there is money in minority communities, and there are opportunities to put stores in minority communities that can succeed," she says.

Michael Brewer agrees. "There are people around here with household incomes in excess of $90,000, and you want people like that to be able to shop in their community," the Matteson resident says. "We shouldn't have to run to Orland Park or Aurora."

Representatives of Starbucks, like other retailers, would not talk about how they pick new locations, but development manager Rick Lauer says meeting consumer demand is the key factor.

"Starbucks will continue with our expansion plans by opening up stores where our customers want and expect us to be," says Lauer, citing the company's recent partnership with Johnson Development Corp. to increase the number of stores in ethnically diverse areas.

'The experience here is terrific'

In heavily black south suburbs, there are some signs of economic revitalization. In Matteson, for instance, the Lincoln Mall is set to undergo a $45 million face-lift that will include new anchor stores, restaurants and a movie theater. And you can find a Panera Bread, a Linens 'N Things and a Borders bookstore near the mall.

It might not be as much as he'd find in predominantly white towns in the north or west suburbs, says Eric Grant, the financial adviser from Flossmoor. But he likes where he lives.

"They've got more amenities and less crime, but the experience here is terrific," says Grant. "I found exactly what I was looking for."