The research reported here examines the neighborhood distribution of park and library services in Houston. The analysis reveals that inequalities in distribution on the basis of race and wealth are dispersed rather than cumulative. The distribution of park acreage and facilities is equal while the location pattern is skewed in the direction of low income neighborhoods. The distribution of library resources favors upper income neighbor hoods, while the spatial distribution of branch libraries advantages black and other low income areas. Distributional decisions are made on the basis of bureaucratic rules and appear to be little affected by explicit racial and socioeconomic criteria. However, these rules may have distributional consequences.
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