The legacy of ‘redlining’. How earlier urban zoning reinforces racial segregation 

Nearly a century before George Floyd’s fatal encounter with police at a Minneapolis intersection, a federal agency warned that the area located just a few blocks to the west had declined due to the “infiltration of negroes and Asiatics”. It was marked red on agency maps, designating it hazardous for investment.

Explicit “redlining” as was applied by the Home Owners’ Loan Corporation (HOLC) in the 1930s may no longer be legal, but its reinforcement of racial segregation and disparity has had enduring consequences. A report published last month found that the practice remains a major factor in the wealth gap between black and white families in the US, and that a homeowner in an area once redlined by the government has gained 52% less in personal wealth generated by property value increases over the past 40 years than a homeowner in an area with a better historical rating.

In Minneapolis and St. Paul, historical redlining and racial covenants contributed to the fact that only an estimated 25% of local African American families now own their own homes, compared with 78% of white families. In Birmingham, Alabama, “food deserts” lacking access to healthy options for black and Latino residents have been traced to redlining. The practice has contributed to a glaring difference in average life expectancy between people in largely African American central Detroit and those in its suburbs, and residents of redlined areas of California cities were found last year to be more than twice as likely as others to seek emergency room treatment for asthma.

Redlining’s consequences have led to calls for reparations. If it was once legal to hinder the ability of descendants of freed slaves to succeed economically alongside their fellow Americans by trapping them in distressed areas, the argument goes, aren’t they entitled to compensation now?

The World Economic Forum has created a visualization of redlining’s enduring legacy.

The excerpt below reflects HOLC designations for Minneapolis in the 1930s, with areas in red deemed “hazardous”, those in yellow “declining”, those in blue “still desirable”, and those in green “best”.

Below is a more recent view of Minneapolis from the visualization, based on census data. Many areas marked “hazardous” and “declining” in the 1930s remain populated largely by black people, represented here by green dots (white people are represented by blue dots, Asian or Pacific Islanders by red dots, and Hispanic or Latino people by yellow dots).

Efforts to desegregate the city’s public school system by having students attend outside of neighbourhoods divided along racial lines have waned recently, and some say poor and minority students are concentrated in schools that lack resources as a result.

Below is an excerpt showing the HOLC designations for Portland, Oregon in the 1930s. Again, areas in red were deemed “hazardous” for investment, those in yellow “declining”, those in blue “still desirable”, and areas in green were “best”. The agency noted that one redlined area, Lower Albina, contained “three-quarters of the negro population of the city.”

The excerpt below is a more a recent view of Portland based on census data. Many neighbourhoods in this mostly white city have been gentrified, partly because black people who owned homes in once-redlined areas could not get financial assistance to keep them. Black residents here are again represented by green dots, white people by blue dots, Asian or Pacific Islanders by red dots, and Hispanic or Latino people by yellow dots.

Redlining’s legacy has endured in other ways. A study published recently found a correlation between once-redlined areas in the US and those now suffering most from increasing summer heat; redlined areas of Portland were found to have the worst heat disparity.

For more context, here are links to further reading from the World Economic Forum’s Strategic Intelligence platform:

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