NYT: air pollution and racist housing policy
Dear friends,
In the wake of the Great Depression of the 1930s, the U.S. government rated neighborhoods in hundreds of cities as part of efforts to subsidize mortgages and stave off foreclosures. Black and immigrant areas were typically rated as the riskiest places to lend, and not coincidentally. The surveyors often used starkly racist language — “colored infiltration” and the like — in assessing neighborhoods’ prospects.
Our story in today’s paper looks at a new study that found that these “redlined” neighborhoods were still breathing dirtier air than better-rated areas, eight decades later. The ratings themselves didn’t create the disparities. But the study’s findings highlight how long they can persist, even as policies change and cities grow.
https://www.nytimes.com/2022/03/09/climate/redlining-racism-air-pollution.html
Ray