{{short description|American politician}} {{Infobox academic | name = Myron Willard Orfield, Jr. | image = Myron Orfield at Sensible Land-Use Coalition.jpg | caption = Orfield speaks at the Sensible Land-Use Coalition in Minneapolis in 2014 | birth_date = July 27, 1961 | birth_place = Minneapolis, Minnesota, U.S. | occupation = Law Professor | education = University of Minnesota, Princeton University, University of Chicago Law School | notable_works = "Metropolitics: A Regional Agenda for Community and Stability", "American Metropolitics: The New Suburban Reality", "Region: Planning the Future of the Twin Cities" {{Infobox officeholder | state_house1 = Minnesota | district1 = 60B | prior_term1 = ''59B (1991-1993)'' | term_start1 = January 7, 1991 | term_end1 = December 31, 2000 | predecessor1 = Todd Otis | successor1 = Scott Dibble | state_senate = Minnesota | district = 60th | term_start = January 1, 2001 | term_end = January 5, 2003 | predecessor = Allan Spear | successor = Scott Dibble | party = Democratic (DFL) }} }} '''Myron Willard Orfield, Jr.'''<ref>{{cite web |title=Orfield, Jr., Myron Willard - Legislator Record - Minnesota Legislators Past & Present |url=https://www.lrl.mn.gov/legdb/fulldetail?ID=10494 |website=www.lrl.mn.gov |publisher=Minnesota Legislative Reference Library |access-date=12 March 2022}}</ref> (born July 27, 1961) is an American law professor at the University of Minnesota Law School, director of its Institute on Metropolitan Opportunity,<ref>{{cite web|last=Orfield|first=Myron|title=Minnesota Law School Faculty webpage|url=http://www.law.umn.edu/facultyprofiles/orfieldm.html|accessdate=2012-03-29}}</ref> and a former non-resident senior fellow at the Brookings Institution.<ref>{{cite web|last=Orfield|first=Myron|title=Brookings Institution Experts webpage|url=http://www.brookings.edu/experts/orfieldm.aspx|accessdate=2012-03-29}}</ref> He has been called "the most influential social demographer in America's burgeoning regional movement."<ref>{{cite web|last=Peirce|first=Neal|title=Suburbs New Anatomy: What 25 Regions Show|url=http://www.stateline.org/live/printable/story?contentId=14816|publisher=Stateline|accessdate=2012-03-29}}</ref> Orfield teaches and writes in the fields of civil rights, state and local government, state and local finance, land use, questions of regional governance, and the legislative process. He is known for developing a classification scheme for U.S. suburbs (based on stage of development, social stress and fiscal capacity), documenting suburban racial change and resegregation, and for developing innovative regional land use, public finance, and governmental reforms.<ref>{{cite journal |last=Wheeler |first=Stephen |title=American Metropolitics: The New Suburban Reality |url=http://escholarship.org/uc/item/4560g14j#page-3 |journal=Berkeley Planning Journal |doi=10.5070/BP316111517 |accessdate=2012-03-29}}</ref> He is a former member of the Minnesota Legislature, having served in both the state house (1991-2000) and senate (2001-2003)<ref>{{cite web|title=Minnesota Legislative Reference Librarywebsite|url=http://www.leg.state.mn.us/legdb/fulldetail.aspx?id=10494|accessdate=2012-03-29}}</ref> and is the younger brother of Gary Orfield,<ref name="StarTribune2">{{cite news |title=Myron W. Orfield |url=https://www.startribune.com/obituaries/detail/10494416 |work=Obituary |publisher=StarTribune |date=2007-10-30}}</ref> a political scientist at UCLA.
== Education == Orfield was born in Minneapolis, Minnesota. He graduated ''summa cum laude'' from the University of Minnesota, was a graduate student at Princeton University, and has a J.D. from the University of Chicago, where he was a member of the University of Chicago Law Review. Following law school, he clerked for the United States Court of Appeals for the 8th Circuit and then returned to the University of Chicago Law School as a Research Associate and Bradley Fellow at the Center for Studies in Criminal Justice.<ref>[https://www.lrl.mn.gov/legdb/fulldetail?ID=10494 Minnesota Legislators: Past & Present-Myron Willard Orfield, Jr.]</ref>
== Political career == In 1990, Orfield was elected as a Democrat to the Minnesota House of Representatives, where he served five terms, and to the Minnesota Senate in 2000, where he served one term. There he was the architect of a series of important changes in land use, fair housing, and school and local government aid programs. Orfield was the co-author (with Tim Pawlenty) of the Metropolitan Reorganization Act of 1994,<ref>{{cite news |last=Dornfeld|first=Steve|title=House GOP Floats Plan to Restructure Regional Planning|url=http://www.minnpost.com/cityscape/2012/03/house-gop-floats-plan-restructure-regional-planning|publisher=MinnPost|accessdate=2012-03-29}}</ref> which transformed the Twin Cities Metropolitan Council into the nation's most powerful regional government.<ref>{{cite book|last=Ross|first=Catherine|title=Megaregions: Planning for Global Competitiveness|year=2009|publisher=Island Press|location=Washington|isbn=978-1-59726-585-0|pages=250–279}}</ref> His first book, ''Metropolitics: A Regional Agenda for Community and Stability'',<ref>{{Cite book|last=Orfield, Myron.|title=Metropolitics : a regional agenda for community and stability|date=1997|publisher=Brookings Institution Press|isbn=0-8157-6640-8|location=Washington, D.C.|oclc=35750460}}</ref> a study of local government structure and demographics, relates to these efforts.<ref>{{cite web|last=Orfield|first=Myron|title=Metropolitics: A Regional Agenda for Community and Stability|url=http://www.brookings.edu/press/Books/1997/metrop.aspx|publisher=Brookings Institution and Lincoln Institute for Land Policy|accessdate=2012-03-29}}</ref>
== Scholarship == For over a decade, Orfield has been president of Ameregis, a national regional research firm undertaking studies involving the legal, demographic and land use profiles of various American metropolitan areas. His second book, ''American Metropolitics: The New Suburban Reality'',<ref>{{Cite book|last=Orfield|first=Myron|url=http://www.jstor.org/stable/10.7864/j.ctvc16s44|title=American Metropolitics: The New Suburban Reality|date=2002|publisher=Brookings Institution Press|isbn=978-0-8157-0248-1|jstor=10.7864/j.ctvc16s44 }}</ref> is a compilation of his work involving the nation's 25 largest regions.<ref>{{cite web|last=Orfield|first=Myron|title=American Metropolitics: The New Suburban Reality|url=http://www.brookings.edu/press/Books/2002/american_metropolitics.aspx|publisher=Brookings Institution|accessdate=2012-03-29}}</ref> His most recent book, Region: Planning the Future of the Twin Cities (U of M Press, 2010), co-authored with Thomas Luce, director of research at the Institute on Race and Poverty, examines the successes and failures of the Twin Cities Metropolitan Council's regional planning and policy work and includes recommendations for responsible, environmentally sound urban and suburban planning.<ref>{{cite web|last=Orfield|first=Myron|title=Region: Planning the Future of the Twin Cities|url=http://www.upress.umn.edu/book-division/books/region|publisher=University of Minnesota Press|accessdate=2012-03-29}}</ref>
== References == {{Reflist}} ==External links== *{{C-SPAN}}
{{Authority control}}
{{DEFAULTSORT:Orfield, Myron}} <!--- Categories ---> Category:University of Minnesota alumni Category:University of Minnesota Law School faculty Category:1961 births Category:Living people Category:Lawyers from Minneapolis Category:Politicians from Minneapolis Category:Democratic Party members of the Minnesota House of Representatives Category:Democratic Party Minnesota state senators Category:21st-century members of the Minnesota Legislature