Poster #51 - From Past to Present: Examining the Effects of Historical Racialized Policies on Current-Day Neighborhood-Level Outcomes

• In Event: Saturday Poster Luncheon

Abstract

A growing body of research on the effects of historical U.S. federal urban planning policies underscores the persistent legacy of legally sanctioned discrimination against marginalized and underserved communities in the U.S. We refer to these policies as “racialized” due to the deep-rooted nature of structural racism, which has resulted in the creation and institutionalization of laws and policies that systematically disadvantage minoritized racial and ethnic groups. Redlining and urban renewal exacerbated inequity in the distribution of socioeconomic resources (e.g., education, employment, and income) and health-promoting resources (e.g., access to clean air, greenspace, and healthy food environments) that impact the health and well-being of communities. We used historical and contemporary data to build on evidence of how structural racism affects the trajectory of neighborhoods over time.

The sample comprised six cities from the Multi-Ethnic Study of Atherosclerosis. We used shapefiles from Mapping Inequality to identify areas affected by racialized policies: 1) redlining and 2) “urban renewal”. We overlaid the shapefiles with U.S. Census boundaries. We estimated mean census tract characteristics for each decennial census year from 1940-2010, overall and by exposure to each policy, both policies, and neither policy. We assessed the associations between these policies and neighborhood characteristics (share of Black residents and median household income) and neighborhood food environment (a food swamp score, subtracting density of healthy food venues from less healthy) using generalized estimating equations and generalized linear models, respectively.

Neighborhoods that experienced redlining only (N=1,844 of 5,148) maintained a higher share of Black residents, compared to those that experienced urban renewal only or neither exposure. Neighborhoods exposed to both policies (N=121) had a higher proportion of Black residents and lower median household income for much of the observation period. Neighborhoods exposed to urban renewal only (N=30) had a lower proportion of Black residents and higher median household income. Compared to neighborhoods that experienced neither exposure, neighborhoods that experienced urban renewal only, redlining only, and both policies had relatively higher food swamp scores.

Our findings for places that experienced redlining—either alone or in combination with urban renewal are consistent with previous literature showing lasting detrimental associations of these historical policies. Our findings for urban renewal in places that did not also experience redlining indicate different trajectories of outcomes, more similar to places that experienced neither policy, which deserves further study.

Author

• Pamela Bonsu, University of Washington
  Presenting Author