Historical redlining and cardiovascular health: The Multi-Ethnic Study of Atherosclerosis

We investigated historical redlining, a government-sanctioned discriminatory policy, in relation to cardiovascular health (CVH) and whether associations were modified by present-day neighborhood physical and social environments. Data included 4,779 participants (mean age 62 y; SD = 10) from the baseline sample of the Multi-Ethnic Study of Atherosclerosis (MESA; 2000 to 2002). Ideal CVH was a summary measure of ideal levels of seven CVH risk factors based on established criteria (blood pressure, fasting glucose, cholesterol, body mass index, diet, physical activity, and smoking). We assigned MESA participants’ neighborhoods to one of four grades (A: best, B: still desirable, C: declining, and D: hazardous) using the 1930s federal Home Owners’ Loan Corporation (HOLC) maps, which guided decisions regarding mortgage financing. Two-level hierarchical linear and logistic models, with a random intercept to account for participants nested within neighborhoods (i.e., census tracts) were used to assess associations within racial/ethnic subgroups (non-Hispanic White, non-Hispanic Black, Hispanic, and non-Hispanic Chinese). We found that Black adults who lived in historically redlined areas had a 0.82 (95% CI −1.54, −0.10) lower CVH score compared to those residing in grade A (best) neighborhoods, in a given neighborhood and adjusting for confounders. We also found that as the current neighborhood social environment improved the association between HOLC score and ideal CVH weakened (P < 0.10). There were no associations between HOLC grade and CVH measures or effect modification by current neighborhood conditions for any other racial/ethnic group. Results suggest that historical redlining has an enduring impact on cardiovascular risk among Black adults in the United States.

The Effects of the 1930s HOLC “Redlining” Maps

This study uses a boundary design and propensity score methods to study the effects of the 1930s-era Home Owners Loan Corporation (HOLC) “redlining” maps on the long-run trajectories of urban neighborhoods. The maps led to reduced home ownership rates, house values, and rents and increased racial segregation in later decades. A comparison on either side of a city-level population cutoff that determined whether maps were drawn finds broadly similar conclusions. These results suggest the HOLC maps had meaningful and lasting effects on the development of urban neighborhoods through reduced credit access and subsequent disinvestment. (JEL G21, J15, N32, N42, N92, R23, R31)

Long-term Deadly Impacts of Redlining: An examination of people killed by police in American cities

How does structural racism influence where people are killed during encounters with police? We analyzed geo-located incidents of fatal encounters with police that occurred between 2000-2020 in Census tracts that received a classification by the Home Owners Loan Corporation (HOLC) during the 1930’s. After adjusting for population, 53 of the 100 most deadly Census tracts analyzed in this study were rated as “D” zones, contemporarily referred to as “redlined” areas. 38 are in “C” zones, 8 are “B” zones and only 1 is an “A” zone. Hierarchical Bayesian Negative Binomial models of all tracts estimate incidents of fatal encounters with police are highest in formerly redlined areas, and are 66% more likely than in zones that received the more favorable “A” rating. Contemporary demographic and economic conditions in Census tracts also predict the incidence of fatal encounters with the police, but the effect of historic HOLC classification remains after taking these factors into account. The estimates of fatal encounters converge across zone classifications only in areas with high proportions of Black residents or residents in in poverty (&gt;60% or &gt;30% respectively). These findings augment the literature on the lasting effect of redlined communities in the United States and provides evidence of structural biases in policing rooted in historical segregation policies.

Tabulating HOLC Area Description Sheet Data

In the 1930s, the Home Owners’ Loan Corporation (HOLC) oversaw a massive federal program that graded thousands of urban neighborhoods. The precise aims of this infamous program are still disputed, but the grading criteria were almost certainly devised to convey the level of risk each area posed to property investors. The Digital Scholarship Lab at the University of Richmond has graciously digitized the maps and field notes produced by the HOLC and have made them freely available to the public. While these “redlining” maps have received considerable academic and media attention, the field notes used to assign risk grades—available for most cities in their “area description sheets”—remain virtually unusable for most multi-city analyses. Addressing this problem, I convert three of the most consequential variables from the description sheets for 129 cities into an accessible and analyzable tabular format. These include the average building age, Black population percentage, and “foreign-born” population percentage. In addition, I organize the description sheets into three semi-compatible tables, assisting future researchers incorporate other HOLC field note variables into their projects.

Examining the Associations Between Neighborhood Socioeconomic Status and the Potential Distribution of Four Urban Ecosystem Services in Rochester, NY

As populations and the total area of impervious surfaces continue to grow in developed areas, planners and policy makers must consider how local ecological resources can be utilized to meet the needs and develop climate resilient and sustainable cities. Urban green spaces (UGS) have been identified as critical resources in improving the climate resiliency of cities and the quality of life for residents through the urban ecosystem services (UES) that they provide. However, certain communities within cities do not have uniform access to these UGS, and this may be due to historical legacies (i.e. redlining) and/or contemporary practices (i.e. urban planning). Therefore, we sought to determine if the supply of UES throughout the city of Rochester, NY is inequitably distributed. We assessed UES using geospatial analysis and literature-based coefficients to measure ecosystem services. We also assessed the distribution of socioeconomic status (SES), including contemporary demographic information (population density, household median income, homeownership percentages, race percentages, and median property value) and historic neighborhood assessment grades assigned by the HomeOwners Loan Corporation (HOLC), throughout the city. By looking at these two sets of data together, we considered the social-ecological conditions and spatial patterns throughout the city to determine if the supply of UES is correlated with SES distribution. We found that there are statistically significant positive correlations between the production of UES in block groups and the SES indicator homeownership percentages, and negative correlations with the percentage of the population that is Black and lower HOLC grades. Furthermore, clusters of block groups with significantly high levels of social need for urban greening projects and a low production of UES were found primarily in the city’s downtown area and the neighborhoods directly surrounding it. This information provides a useful framework for city planners and policy makers to identify where UGS development needs to be prioritized as well how the supply of UES in the city is inequitably distributed.

Mapping and making gangland: A legacy of redlining and enjoining gang neighbourhoods in Los Angeles

We provide an example of how race- and place-based legacies of disinvestment initiated by New Deal Era redlining regimes under the auspices of the Home Owners’ Loan Corporation (HOLC) were followed by decades of anti-gang over-policing tactics at the scale of the neighbourhood. We show how HOLC-mediated and mapped redlining has sustained community disinvestment and stigmatisation wrought by unjust and racist social policy seen to this day in contemporary geographies of gang abatement in the form of mapped gang injunction ‘safety zones’. As we illustrate with the use of two case studies from Los Angeles – in South-Central LA and LA’s San Fernando Valley – it is overwhelmingly redlined neighbourhoods that have remained marginalised, becoming civilly enjoined ‘gang’ neighbourhoods faced with oppressive anti-gang policing tactics over the past few decades.

Residential housing segregation and urban tree canopy in 37 US Cities

Redlining was a racially discriminatory housing policy established by the federal government’s Home Owners’ Loan Corporation (HOLC) during the 1930s. For decades, redlining limited access to homeownership and wealth creation among racial minorities, contributing to a host of adverse social outcomes, including high unemployment, poverty, and residential vacancy, that persist today. While the multigenerational socioeconomic impacts of redlining are increasingly understood, the impacts on urban environments and ecosystems remain unclear. To begin to address this gap, we investigated how the HOLC policy administered 80 years ago may relate to present-day tree canopy at the neighborhood level. Urban trees provide many ecosystem services, mitigate the urban heat island effect, and may improve quality of life in cities. In our prior research in Baltimore, MD, we discovered that redlining policy influenced the location and allocation of trees and parks. Our analysis of 37 metropolitan areas here shows that areas formerly graded D, which were mostly inhabited by racial and ethnic minorities, have on average ~23% tree canopy cover today. Areas formerly graded A, characterized by U.S.-born white populations living in newer housing stock, had nearly twice as much tree canopy (~43%). Results are consistent across small and large metropolitan regions. The ranking system used by Home Owners’ Loan Corporation to assess loan risk in the 1930s parallels the rank order of average percent tree canopy cover today.

Abstract P873: Structural Racism in Columbus, Ohio Associated With Stroke Prevalence

Introduction: Racial disparities exist in stroke and stroke outcomes. However, the fundamental cause for these disparities are not biological differences, but structural racism. Using the Home Owners’ Loan Corporation (HOLC) ‘redlining’ scores, as indicator of structural lending practices from middle of the last century, we hypothesize that census tracts with high historic redlining are associated with higher stroke prevalence. Methods: Weighted historic redlining scores (HRS) were calculated using the proportion of 1930s HOLC residential security grades contained within 2010 census tract boundaries of Columbus, Ohio. Stroke prevalence (adults >=18) was obtained at the census tract-level from the CDC’s 500 Cities Project. Sociodemographic factors, as measured by census tract level information (American Community Survey 2014-2018), were considered mediators in the causal association between historic redlining (measured in 1936) and stroke prevalence (measured in 2017) and were not controlled for in regression analysis. The functional form of the association was non-linear, so stroke prevalence within quartiles of the HRS were compared using linear regression instead of a continuous score. Results: Higher HRS, representing greater redlining, were associated with greater prevalence of stroke when comparing the highest to the lowest quartile of HRS (Figure). Census tracts in the highest quartile of HRS had 1.48% higher stroke prevalence compared to those in the lowest quartile (95% CI: 0.23-2.74). No other interquartile differences were observed. Conclusions: Historic redlining practices are a form of structural racism that established geographic systems of disadvantage and consequently, poor health outcomes. Our findings demonstrate disparate stroke prevalence by degree of historic redlining in census tracts across Columbus, Ohio. While ecologic, this study demonstrates the need to acknowledge that racism, not race, drive stroke disparities.

Institutional approaches of the Federal Republic of Germany to post-conflict recovery, stabilization and development programs implementation

The article studies practical approaches of the Federal Republic of Germany to the implementation of post-conflict recovery, stabilization and development programs. Noted that Germany is actively pursuing unilateral and joint programs for global sustainable development or specialized programs in different parts of the world. This good performance became possible due to a new German methodological approach based on complex and flexible usage of diplomacy, development policy and security measures. The well build institutional system under coordination of the Federal Foreign Office and the Federal Ministry for Economic Cooperation and Development is able to fulfill difficult tasks successfully. This point is illustrated by practical experience of the German Agency for International Cooperation, the Reconstruction Loan Corporation and the German Civil Peace Service. The article concludes that Germany achieved significant results in post-conflict recovery, stabilization and development activities because of bringing together efforts of different actors.