Environment: Can the Suburbs Be Opened?

According to the U.S. Census Bureau, only 5% of black Americans live in the suburbs. Yet suburbia is where nearly 80% of the nation's new jobs are. During the 1960s, industries increasingly settled there, lured by the cheap land, low taxes, pleasant environment. But the blue-collar jobs they create remain inaccessible to blacks trapped in the inner cities. When the National Bureau of Standards left Washington to relocate in Gaithersburg, Md., for example, the total number of employees increased by 125. But black employment decreased by 73; blacks could not afford suburban housing...