Local policymaking and concentrated poverty: the case of Buffalo, New York

Abstract Concentrated poverty has been the subject of extensive debate among urban scholars in recent years. Several different variables have been examined in analyses of concentrated poverty, but the impacts of local policy making have not been given much attention. This article examines the role of local policymaking in the creation of concentrated poverty in the US city of Buffalo since the 1930s. Through an examination of local policy making in public housing, redevelopment and education, as well as a discussion of open housing and interstate highway construction, the paper documents how local policies have shaped residential and institutional segregation, and therefore the concentrated poverty that results. This perspective stands as an alternative to existing explanations that focus on macro-economic change, while it builds on explanations that focus on the role of residential segregation. Although local governments are clearly constrained in their ability to deal with poverty, the article concludes with policy suggestions to address this problem.