Connecticut Metropatterns A Regional Agenda for Community and Prosperity in Connecticut by Myron Orfield and Tom Luce, Ameregis, March 2003. Commissioned by the Office of Urban Affairs, Archdiocese of Hartford

Executive Summary

Connecticut is a wealthy state. In 1999, per capita income in the state was the nation’s highest, 10 percent greater than in the next-highest states, Massachusetts and New Jersey, and 37 percent higher than in the U.S. as a whole. Despite its overall wealth, the beauty of its landscape, the strength of its institutions and the rich history of its cities and towns, Connecticut is not immune from patterns of inequality and sprawl that are straining states across the nation.

Connecticut Metropatterns finds that the way the state is growing is hurting all communities—from the most impoverished to the most affluent.

Here are the report’s main findings:

Simple contrasts between cities, suburbs and rural areas are out of date.

· A growing number of small cities and older suburbs, home to nearly half of the state’s population, face significant and growing poverty with weak local tax bases. Their tax bases are 25 to 35 percent below average and poverty in schools is growing even more quickly in these places than in the major cities.

· Another group of outlying areas must cope with rapidly growing populations with lower-than-average tax bases that are also growing much more slowly than in the rest of the state.

· A large group of fast-growing, middle-class suburbs is struggling to provide the schools and infrastructure they need with just average resources.

· Only a small share of the population lives in affluent suburbs with sizeable tax bases and few social needs.

All types of communities are hurt by the way the state is growing.

· The state’s fiscal system pits local governments against one another in a competition for tax base. This competition needlessly undermines the character of local communities, wastes resources, discourages cooperation and increases fiscal disparities. In fact, the disparity between Connecticut’s low- and high-tax base communities increased by more than 50 percent during the 1990s.

· Geographic stratification concentrates the state’s poor in cities and towns with inadequate tax bases. Especially hard hit are Connecticut’s central cities. As a group, they must cope with poverty rates nearly three times the statewide average with local tax bases that are just 40 percent of average and growing slowly. In part due to subtle housing discrimination, Connecticut’s black and Latino residents are more likely than other groups to live in these struggling communities.

· Sprawling development threatens the state’s natural resources and farmland. The amount of land in urban or suburban uses increased more than eight times faster than population between 1970 and 2000.

All places would benefit from regional and statewide reforms.

· Cooperative land-use planning can strengthen communities and preserve the environment.

· Tax and state aid reforms can stabilize fiscally stressed schools, help communities pay for needed public services and reduce competition for tax base.

· Enhanced roles for state government, councils of government or other regional organizations can help solve regional problems while ensuring that all communities have a say in decision-making.

Change is possible.

Cooperative efforts like these can encourage environmentally sensitive development, reduce inequalities among communities, encourage regional economic-development efforts and expand the opportunities of the state’s most vulnerable residents. These endeavors are already in effect in various forms throughout the country, and have impassioned, thoughtful advocates in Connecticut.

Fifty-one organizations have joined together to form the CenterEdge Coalition to educate people of our state about these issues. To see the report, obtain a membership form, to request a speaker, or to join the speakers’ bureau Call 203.777.7279, or go to http://www.oua-adh.org/centerEdge_project.htm.