As home to nine Fortune 500 companies, and new investment in neighborhoods such as Over-The-Rhine, Cincinnati is poised for an economic renaissance. But not all residents are benefiting from this recovery. Persistent racial and gender inequities are preventing many residents, particularly women of color, from thriving. This profile illustrates how disparities in income, housing, educational attainment, and many other areas are costing the Cincinnati region billions of dollars in potential economic growth each year. In addition, the accompanying policy brief offers a series of recommendations designed to close some of these gaps. They were developed by PolicyLink and the Program for Environmental and Regional Equity (PERE) at USC, in partnership with the Greater Cincinnati Foundation, Interact for Health, the United Way of Greater Cincinnati, and with support from the Robert Wood Johnson Foundation. Read the profile, policy brief, and fact sheet, and see the press release.

Albuquerque is a growing, majority people-of-color city that is becoming even more diverse as communities of color drive the city’s growth. Embracing this rising diversity as an asset and addressing persistent racial and economic inequities is critical to the city’s prosperity. We estimate that the Albuquerque metro economy would have been $11 billion larger in 2015 absent its racial inequities in income. This profile, produced with the support of the W.K. Kellogg Foundation, was released in partnership with the City of Albuquerque and New Mexico Voices for Children, and will serve as a guide for the city’s new Office of Equity and Inclusion to set its racial and economic equity agenda. Read the profile and one-page summary.

Media: Mayor Discusses Equity Profile (KRQU TV News), ABQ Releases Report on Racial Diversity (Albuquerque Journal)

This profile analyzes the state of health equity and inclusive growth in the Sacramento region, and the accompanying policy brief, Health Equity Now: Toward an All-In Sacramento, summarizes the data and presents recommendations to advance health equity and inclusive growth. They were created by PolicyLink and the Program for Environmental and Regional Equity (PERE) in partnership with the Healthy Sacramento Coalition, whose broader vision is to eliminate health inequities in Sacramento. This equity analysis was developed with the support of the Robert Wood Johnson Foundation. Read the profile and policy brief.

Media: Sick Stats: New Report Says Lack of Action on Community Health is Costing Sacramento (NewsReview.com)

The Competitive Advantage of Racial Equity, and the accompanying op-ed in Fortune, both produced in partnership with FSG. It is our aspiration that these business strategies will complement the push, from outside and inside corporations, for more fair and equitable operations.

The report goes beyond the essential ingredient of workforce diversity, as a means for business to address past and continuing discrimination while improving their competitiveness, to challenge the corporate sector to affirmatively advance racial equity through its products, services, and public policy positions.

Find all related material for The Corporate Racial Equity Advantage

ArtPlace commissioned Transportation for America (T4A) to write and produce a rigorous national examination of creative placemaking in the transportation planning process. This resource identifies ways that transportation professionals can integrate artists to deliver transportation projects more smoothly, improve safety, and build community support. This field scan explores seven of the most pressing challenges facing the transportation sector today and identifies how arts and cultural strategies can contribute to solutions.

In 2015, 78 percent of America’s seniors were white while 49 percent of the nation’s youth were people of color — a phenomenon that we call the racial generation gap. To the extent that racial divides result in predominantly white seniors choosing not to invest in a more racially diverse young population, this could hamstring the development of the next generation of workers and leaders. This research brief examines the growth of the racial generation gap and its effect on per-child k-12 education spending. We find that every percentage-point increase in the racial generation gap is associated with a decrease in state and local per-child education spending of around 1.5 percent. This adds up in places that have seen a lot of demographic change. For example, Nevada’s spending could be about $2,600 more per student if there was no racial generation gap. Given this relationship, it is critical to ensure equitable school funding, direct investments in youth, and build multi-generational coalitions for change. Download the BRIEF or DATA.

Las Cruces, New Mexico is already 63 percent people of color; growth and transformation in the city has been driven mostly by an increase in the Latino population. By growing good jobs, connecting younger generations with older ones, integrating immigrants into the economy, building communities of opportunity, and ensuring educational and career pathways, the city can secure a bright future for the city and region. This equity analysis was developed with the support of the W.K. Kellogg Foundation. Read the profile.

The diversity of the nine-county San Francisco Bay Area region is a tremendous economic asset – if people of color are fully included as workers, entrepreneurs, and innovators. Equitable growth is the path to sustained economic prosperity. In fact, closing racial gaps in income would boost the regional economy by more than $200 billion. The 2017 Nine-County Bay Area Equity Profile complements an initial five-county profile released two years ago and recently updated. Read the profile.

The five-county San Francisco Bay Area region is already a majority people-of-color region, and communities of color will continue to drive growth and change into the foreseeable future. While the Bay Area economy is booming, rising inequality, stagnant wages, and persistent racial inequities place its long-term economic future at risk. In fact, closing racial gaps in income would boost the regional economy by nearly $138 billion. This is an update to an initial profile released two years ago. It was developed to assist The San Francisco Foundation in integrating equity throughout its grantmaking. Read the profile.

Read the 2015 summary (web version/download PDF) and the full profile (web version/download PDF). 

Media: Study Finds S.F.’s Ethnic Diversity Dwindling (SF Chronicle), A Startling Map of How Much Whiter San Francisco Will Be in 2040 (CityLab), S.F. Could Be Much Whiter in 25 Years, While the Rest of Region Gets More Diverse (KQED News), Study Shows San Francisco Getting Less Diverse (KGO 810 News), San Francisco Poised to be "Whitest County" in Bay Area (NBC Bay Area), SF Is on Track to Be the Whitest County in the Region (SF Curbed)