citymaus

A 2015 study by researchers at Harvard Business School found evidence of “widespread discrimination against African-American guests” by Airbnb hosts, and many black Twitter users have begun sharing their experiences of rejection on the short-term rental platform using the hashtag #AirbnbWhileBlack.

For many, Airbnb serves as a functional equivalent to a hotel, but the startup – and other similar internet marketplaces – exist in a grey area, potentially beyond the reach of the hard-won reforms of the civil rights movement.

“Even though the intent [of the law] is there,” Veena Dubal, a professor of law at the University of California, Hastings says, it’s difficult to make 20th century statutes apply to 21st century corporations, which use “creative corporate structuring to evade the law’s protections, so that you’re back in an exploitative place that existed before the laws were written.”

One solution to the legal quandary would be to consider Airbnb itself as a public accommodation, rather than as a conduit for two million individual public accommodations. The US attorney general could then bring an enforcement action against Airbnb under Title II, Leong says, or black Airbnb users could attempt to bring a class action suit against the company.

twitter/tinalabang

“Overall, we find widespread discrimination against African-American guests. Specifically, African-American guests received a positive response roughly 42% of the time, compared to roughly 50% for White guests. This 8 percentage point (roughly 16%) penalty for African-American guests is particularly noteworthy when compared to the discrimination-free setting of competing short-term accommodation platforms such as Expedia. The penalty is consistent with the racial gap found in contexts ranging from labor markets to online lending to classified ads to taxicabs.

“On the whole, we find that results are remarkably persistent. Both African-American and White hosts discriminate against African-American guests; both male and female hosts discriminate; both male and female African-American guests are discriminated against. Effects persist both for hosts that offer an entire property and for hosts who share the property with guests. Discrimination persists among experienced hosts, including those with multiple properties and those with many reviews. Discrimination persists and is of similar magnitude in high and low priced units, in diverse and homogeneous neighborhoods.”

read more: guardian, 06.05.16. the study: “Racial Discrimination in the Sharing Economy: Evidence from a Field Experiment.” 06.01.16 [PDF].

Alexander von Hoffman. 2009. Housing and Planning: A Century of Social Reform and Local Power. Journal of the American Planning Association, 75: 2, 231-244. (p.233, 234).

article going through the history of housing policy in the US—how social reform (ie. affordable housing) got defeated by local opposition, how parochial interests used zoning to keep out "undesireables".

"There is such a lack of diversity in cycling or in any sport that has an economic entry. Cycling, golf, tennis, swimming, you name it; if there’s an initial investment you’re going to have low numbers in diversity. Then you start to peel back the layers of why that is. It’s the bigger conversation and it’s what we’re starting to do here at Cascade Bicycle Club. The effort went from existing in the small Major Taylor program to existing throughout the whole organization. Now diversity and inclusion is one of our five values in our strategic vision.

When we started, the idea of doing the Seattle to Portland ride was just a whim that we threw in front of the students. The first year, we had nine students who were interested, but were also like, “Why would you want to ride your bike to Portland?” We told them it’s a cool experience, you challenge yourself physically and mentally, and you end up in Portland. Some of them had never been past SeaTac [Airport]. We put together a plan, just like a racing training plan. We’re going to go five miles. Then we’re going to go 10, then 15, then 40. This year we have almost 40 students doing STP.

The third phase grew from a debrief with the students. We asked them what they wanted to do next, what they like about bike club — they call the Major Taylor Project “bike club” on campus. They asked, “Can we use the bikes to raise money?” ... “Could the bike help me get into college? Could the bike help me find a job?”

One kid raised his hand and said, “I like doing the rides. But man, there are a lot of white people out there. It seems like when we go outside of our neighborhood people don’t look like us.”

I asked them if they knew why that is and they said no. Thank goodness one of our ride leaders does a lot of work with youth transformation and empowerment around race and equity. He broke down the redlining of the ’40s, ’50s, and ’60s, and the geographic differences. And he explored that out, asking the students what else they notice when they ride to [the whiter, more affluent neighborhoods of] Ballard or Redmond or Alki Beach. The students pointed out those communities have grocery stores, bike lanes, nice roads, libraries, Starbucks. Everyone has nice bikes."

read more: interview with Ed Ewing, director of diversity and inclusion for the Cascade Bicycle Club and co-founder of the Major Taylor Project, a program that uses cycling to empower underserved youth in the Seattle area. grist, 05.07.14.

old redlining maps overlaid on google maps. UNC T-RACES (Testbed for the Redlining Archives of California's Exclusionary Spaces) project recoded by Josh Begley.

via atlanticcities, 22.05.14: The Racist Housing Policy That Made Your Neighborhood. 

The freewheeling opportunity associated with 20th-century California was not available to black residents, and that exclusion reverberates in our neighborhoods and communities today.

Where it gets interesting, though—and the reason we’re writing this article—is a paragraph Cole wrote which stated the following: “The only rule to living here is to find where to go and not to go. The places I am going to take you on a tour through will label me as ‘bougie’ by Oakland standards, but I don’t think there is anything elitist about coming home in one piece. So stay out of East Oakland and West Oakland. That doesn’t sound like it leaves much, but it does. Trust me, my friends have been violently mugged in East Oakland and had the same house robbed three times in West Oakland. But be my guest if you want to go to either for ‘cool points.’”

Hold on. Full stop. Let’s back up. Did KQED’s blogger just tell recent SF transplants to avoid three-quarters of the city on general principle? Yup.

Radio personality, journalist, and webmaster Davey-D took the media outlet to task with a lengthy Facebook post, in which he admonished KQED, “you guys should be ashamed of yourselves for allowing such a disparaging article that bashes on our city and its hard working residents…I guess with small minded, bigoted attitudes like the ones displayed in your article you should definitely stay out of West and East Oakland and the town in general… Middle finger to you guys for allowing that article to be published.” Davey’s post generated more than 50 comments, most of which expressed similar sentiments.

...While the incident certainly caused embarrassment throughout KQED’s Potrero St. headquarters, “we’re actually very grateful” that it happened, Lupetin insisted. “We’ve learned a tremendous amount from the feedback” from community members and subscribers, he added, noting that many KQED staffers live in Oakland. “When you make a mistake,” he said, “you need to learn from that. We take it very seriously.”

read more: oaklandlocal, 22.11.13.

comment by Johanna Workman:

the perception (that is based on actual crime rates but then blown up by negative media) that oakland is dangerous is pervasive. 

i do have friends who are scared of setting foot in the Town ask, Isn't Oakland dangerous? and among friends who are fellow oaklanders, we can semi-joke on July 4th, "Not sure if fireworks.. or gunshots".

when introducing newbie friends to oakland, i sort of agree that west and east oakland are probably the most crime-ridden parts of town, but add in that shootings can occur anywhere. and recently in north oakland, lots of inattentive people have been getting their iphones stolen. (which probably doesn't allay their fears.. haha.. until I take them to a local bar and they relax a bit and can feel the awesome, chill vibe that emanates in oakland.)

it is a pretty general "principle" to "avoid" east and west oakland, unless you live there, of course. but then don't just blatantly dismiss those areas! most people would want to introduce their friends to the best spots and give a good impression of their city, and that's understandable. but you could later go explore east and west oakland instead continuing to suffocate yourself in your little white person bubble. 

there's so much rich history in oakland, especially in west oakland. to just pretend three-quarters of the city doesn't exist is offensive. I totally stand with Davey-D's comment: If you just want to hold tight to your negative perceptions (that may be false) and not try to learn and understand people who are different from yourself, GTFO of Oakland—don't come here at all!

No There There: Race, Class, and Political Community in Oakland. by Chris Rhomberg.

Challenged by Ku Klux Klan action in the '20s, labor protests culminating in a general strike in the '40s, and the rise of the civil rights and black power struggles of the '60s, Oakland, California, seems to encapsulate in one city the broad and varied sweep of urban social movements in twentieth-century America. Taking Oakland as a case study of urban politics and society in the United States, Chris Rhomberg examines the city's successive episodes of popular insurgency for what they can tell us about critical discontinuities in the American experience of urban political community.

buy on amazon.

found at the PSU urban center library. added to my reading list.

sfgate, 07.10.13.

The photography exhibition and panel discussion on West Oakland gentrification is set for 5 p.m. Oct. 26 at De Fremery Park, 16th and Adeline streets, Oakland. Here. Before. Art from a contested space.

RIDE: In Living Color.

help fund the documentary on indiegogo.

The California Hotel was a popular venue for acclaimed recording artist like James Brown, Ray Charles and Billie Holiday. Photo courtesy of EBALDC.

oaklandnorth, 26.07.12.

yay! another restored building in Oakland! 

this is that building that you'd pass by all the time on the freeway from SF/north to Hayward east/south (580 south). so sad how freeways devastate communities.

now if San Diego would get its shit together and clean up that building on C st. by Fourth already. (...the homelessness problem would start getting solved, and along with a repaving around the trolley tracks on C st., that "downtown" area would start looking nice.)