The Washington Post, June 30, 2020: Minneapolis had progressive policies, but its economy still left Black families behind
The Twin Cities once drew Black families fleeing racism in the Jim Crow South, and with their combination of progressive policies and prosperity, regularly rank among the best places to live in America.
Taxes, for decades, have been redistributed from wealthy suburbs to poorer communities to combat inequality — an effort bolstered in recent years by raising state income taxes on the rich. The result: more money for schools, affordable housing and social services in lower-income neighborhoods.
But the prosperity fueled by the region’s Fortune 500 companies and progressive policies has not translated into economic equality. Instead, the wealth gap between Minneapolis’s largely White population and the city’s Black residents has deepened, producing some of the nation’s widest racial disparities in income, employment and homeownership. …
