Facially-neutral rezoning displaces black residents into blight and industrial exposure

Evidence

In addition to discriminatory real estate and lending practices and “white flight,” a variety of facially neutral rules and decisions add to the creation and maintenance of racially identified, and subordinate, neighborhoods. For instance, the MIT economist Yale Rabin has demonstrated that, in communities across the country, many residential neighborhoods composed of people of color have been re-zoned as industrial by white planning boards, a process Rabin calls “expulsive zoning.” While these zoning decisions are not made with reference to race, their impact, given racial segregation, has profound racial implications. As Rabin explains, “[b]ecause it appears that [the re-zoned] areas were mainly black, and because whites who may have been similarly displaced were not subject to racially determined limitations in seeking alternative housing, the adverse impacts of expulsive zoning on blacks were far more severe and included, in addition to accelerated blight, increases in overcrowding and racial segregation.” — Luke W. Cole and Sheila R. Foster, From the Ground Up, 349 (#corroborates, via linked claim)

Yale Rabin’s studies of historical zoning decisions have documented numerous instances where stable African American residential communities were “down-zoned” to industrial status by biased decision makers, allowing inappropriate land uses near residents and ruining the social fabric of the neighborhoods. Rabin found that local zoning bodies in the early part of the century routinely zoned as “industrial” many residential African American communities, even as they zoned as “residential” similar white areas. These zoning practices permitted the intrusion of disruptive, incompatible uses and generally undermined the character, quality, and stability of the black residential areas. Such “expulsive zoning,” as Rabin calls it, permanently alters the character of a neighborhood, often depressing property values and causing community blight. The lower property values and the zoning status are then easily invoked as “neutral” criteria upon which siting decisions are made. — Luke W. Cole and Sheila R. Foster, From the Ground Up, 362 (#expands, via linked claim)

Categorization

• XREF: connects to: Fair Housing Act can reach municipal zoning decisions harming communities of color; Facially neutral industrial rezoning disproportionately displaced black neighborhoods — Luke W. Cole and Sheila R. Foster, From the Ground Up: Environmental…, 349; Early zoning bodies deliberately down-zoned black neighborhoods to industrial status — Luke W. Cole and Sheila R. Foster, From the Ground Up: Environmental…, 362

Related

• Facially neutral industrial rezoning disproportionately displaced black neighborhoods (similarity 0.97)
• Early zoning bodies deliberately down-zoned black neighborhoods to industrial status (similarity 0.93)
• Fair Housing Act can reach municipal zoning decisions harming communities of color (similarity 0.82)

Broader Connections

• Facially neutral industrial rezoning disproportionately displaced black neighborhoods #corroborates (1.00) — Luke W. Cole and Sheila R. Foster, From the Ground Up, 349
• Early zoning bodies deliberately down-zoned black neighborhoods to industrial status #expands (0.80) — Luke W. Cole and Sheila R. Foster, From the Ground Up, 362