Municipal boundary lines perpetuate racial and class segregation
Evidence
What is less obvious is that these local boundary lines, very often, are purely artificial; they perpetuate racial and class segregation. The federal government, to its discredit, once discouraged integration in public housing, in mortgage policy, and in other ways. These policies were eventually outlawed, but lines drawn around certain areas contin ued to preserve residential segregation. The social and economic disadvantages between these racially identified spaces become compounded because local entities tax their own people, and spend for their benefit. And those invisible boundary lines—along with zoning policies and land use policies that keep out the poor—serve to preserve the “cul ture” and “ambience” of the place, and exclude “undesirables” from the town. — Lawrence M. Friedman and Grant M. Hayden, American Law, 1349
Categorization
- XREF: Connects to environmental justice and land/place threads across the polyad. — connects to: Municipal borders are legal creations, not natural features — Lawrence M. Friedman and Grant M. Hayden, American Law: An Introduction, 1347; Hidden legal structures quietly lock in existing social and economic conditions — Lawrence M. Friedman and Grant M. Hayden, American Law: An Introduction, 1340; Fair Housing Act can reach municipal zoning decisions harming communities of color (+16 more)
- ADDENDUM: Directly relevant to the trees-as-infrastructure article’s point that land-use structures shape who benefits from place.
Broader Connections
- Political segregation mirrors residential segregation along party and racial lines
#corroborates(0.88) — David Theo Goldberg, The Threat of Race, 469 - Residential segregation is central to reproducing social inequality
#corroborates(0.87) — David Theo Goldberg, John Solomos, A Companion to Racial and Ethnic Studies, 2433 - Racialized structures distribute resources and access by race
#expands(0.82) — David Theo Goldberg, John Solomos, A Companion to Racial and Ethnic Studies, 1828 - Black suburbanization replicated city racial divides along compass axes
#exemplifies(0.80) — Kevin M. Kruse, White Flight, 588 - Spatial segregation operates at fine grain, not just neighborhoods and suburbs
#expands(0.78) — Lyn H. Lofland, World of Strangers_ Order and Action in…, 356 - Racially patterned residential preferences reproduce segregation without overt racism
#corroborates(0.75) — David Theo Goldberg, The Threat of Race, 1783 - Geographic segregation itself compounds and makes visible the indignity of exclusion
#expands(0.75) — Cristian Tileagă, The Nature of Prejudice, 75