Join us on The Public Good. This week we speak with Anna Blatto, Research Associate at PPG and author of PPG report “A City Divided: A Brief History of Segregation in Buffalo.”
 
The heartbreaking tragedy at the Tops on Jefferson on May 14 reminds us of the decades of historical disinvestment and the impacts of generational segregation in Buffalo's Black communities.

From the report: “Buffalo-Niagara is one of the most racially segregated metropolitan regions in the nation. While racial segregation has declined slightly in recent years, economic segregation has increased, resulting in neighborhood conditions growing worse – not better – for most people of color in the region. Segregation imposes a wide range of costs on people of color, impairing their health, education, job access, and wealth. Individuals living in segregated neighborhoods tend to have less access to services that allow adequate standards of living, and their economic mobility is severely impaired.”

On the show, Anna discusses policies and practices that caused the segregation we see today. She also the impacts of segregation on Buffalo’s Black communities and other communities of color when it comes to job access, poverty, health, housing, criminal justice, and more. Finally she goes over the importance of the Tops on Jefferson as one of the only major full-service grocery stores on the East Side and what may happen going forward.