Shaker Heights manages its racial housing patterns the way companies manage inventory.

Water officials say they are not sure what treatment systems would work for the rugged terrain and odd housing patterns.

Yet that city's racial housing patterns are themselves related to local history of segregated schools.

But given segregated housing patterns, that might mean the end of integration.

What the Yonkers case has done, many experts say, is to raise profound questions about American housing patterns.

Into the 1970s, these were widely regarded as the city's "black schools", with defacto segregation based on residential housing patterns.

Palm Beach County, however, is no longer alone in taking aim at segregated housing patterns.

This means that the schools' racial composition will continue to be governed by segregated housing patterns.

The Yonkers dispute is one of several legal cases that are likely to alter racial and economic housing patterns in the suburbs.

Neighborhoods were selected because of past bias incidents or discriminatory housing patterns, officials said.