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Our goal in this paper is to examine whether there are similar patterns in the distribution of tree canopy by Home Owners’ Loan Corporation (HOLC) graded neighborhoods across 37 cities. A pre-print of the paper can be found here: https://osf.io/preprints/socarxiv/97zcs This data packages contains: 1. City-specific file geodatabases with features classes of the HOLC polygons obtained from the Mapping Inequality Project https://dsl.richmond.edu/panorama/redlining/, and tables summarizing tree canopy, and in some cases other land cover classes. 2. An *.R script that replicates all of the analyses, graphs, and tables in the paper. Other double checks, exploratory, and miscellaneous outputs are created by the script too as a bonus. Everything in the paper can be done with the script; additional work outputs are also created. 3. A *.csv file containing city, the HOLC grade, and the percent tree canopy cover. This can be used to create the main findings of the paper and this flat file is provided as an alternative to running the R script to extract information from the geodatabases, combine, and analyze them. The intention is that this file is more widely accessible; the underlying information is the same. 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 remains 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.
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Redlining, greenlining: Discourses of race and nature in Home Owners Loan Corporation neighborhood appraisals
Studies drawing correlations between Home Owners Loan Corporation “redlining” maps and present-day environmental outcomes have raised public attention about the role of systemic racial discrimination in producing uneven outcomes in the urban environment. In this analysis, we draw on a novel data source—narrative descriptions of neighborhood characteristics included in the area descriptions that accompanied City Survey maps—to explore the mechanisms that historically link HOLC maps and disparate environmental quality. Focusing on nine mid-sized cities in the Midwest, we draw on a combined inductive and deductive coding approach to consider how perceived urban environmental quality and neighborhood racial demographics shaped assessments of neighborhood value and risk. In doing so, we illustrate the ways in which nature, class, and race were already coupled at the time of the HOLC City Survey. The area descriptions in the HOLC City Survey illustrate the ways in which this coupling became codified and reinforced over time through housing and environmental policies, the impacts of which we still struggle to disrupt today.
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- Award ID(s):
- 2045382
- PAR ID:
- 10515652
- Publisher / Repository:
- SAGE Publications
- Date Published:
- Journal Name:
- Environment and Planning F
- ISSN:
- 2634-9825
- Format(s):
- Medium: X
- Sponsoring Org:
- National Science Foundation
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Abstract 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.more » « less
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