Class/racial conflict, intolerance, and distortions in urban form: Lessons for sustainability from the Detroit region

In this qualitative analysis into the equity conditions of urban sustainability, an examination is presented into the complexity of one particular aspect of intra-generational equity, racial and class discrimination and its role in distorting urban form and in generating resource inefficient and environmentally destructive human activity patterns. The article, therefore, focuses on the role of discrimination itself in encouraging ecological degradation. The Detroit region shows that racial and class conflicts can facilitate the shaping of the urban built environment as one population sub-group, largely white and upper-income, attempts to distance itself from another sub-group that is largely black, lower income, and considered a threat. The outcome is not only disinvestment and decline in the urban core, but also excessive suburbanization, as whites seek homogenous urban environments and use space to increase the distance between themselves and the black population. The study shows that the lack of cooperation and tolerance across ethnic/racial and class subgroups facilitates inefficient low-density and scattered developments, and excessive degradation of natural ecological systems.