Redlining and Trees

The observation that the redlining imposed on American cities in the 1930s affects tree cover now is more and more widely appreciated.  This terrific piece in National Geographic includes a fantastic video about the topic.  Worth a read!

The piece also explores how to examine cities for the places of the haves and the have-nots, using the "transect," a walk along a boulevard that cuts across the neighborhoods.  Fascinating photos!

Bloomberg News/CityLab collaboration produced a superb report on the redevelopment of the Lower Hill District in Pittsburgh, a pivot point for the future of the historic African American neighborhood of The Hill -- famous as the setting of August Wilson's 10-play cycle.  My favorite line -- the project overall will be $1 billion dollars -- $50 million is slated to go to the residents of The Hill, who have suffered decades of displacement and disinvestment.  The developer said, "I think that's more than fair."  It's slightly better than the $15 million that was being bandied around by some developers who talked to me a couple of years ago.  But FAIR???? Have they completely ignored the news????  Did they visit The Hill????

In order to see this in your own city, you might find the article on "map twins" interesting -- a Chicago project to introduce people who have the same house number but live on different "sides" of the north-side divide of Madison Street.  It would be an interesting project to replicate, if your city has a nice long transect that cuts through a variety of neighborhoods. 

Some advice on building a healthy society by the leading American epidemiologist Dr. Sandro Galea, dean of Boston University School of Public Health.  At the heart of his advice: fairness.  

Why does redlining endure?

This morning I went with Molly Kaufman and Sarah Kirshen to a very interesting panel discussion on the legacy of redlining. Held at Columbia University's School of Journalism, the panel featured a diverse group of experts from history, journalism, research and community advocacy. Redlining, started in the 1930s during a major banking crisis, was supposed to protect investment by improving the assessment of risk. Instead of strengthening the whole city, redlining created new layers of division with cities. It did this by endorsing a preferential system that gave neighborhoods with new buildings and white people the best ratings and those with black people and old buildings the worst ratings. It provided real fuel for the fire of fear that black people would ruin the neighborhood. As the presence of one black person did affect the rating, the fear of losing one's assets had some basis in reality. Though there have been efforts to get rid of redlining, it was clear from this morning's presentations that it is alive and well and continuing to ruin our economy. Its imprint defines the subprime lending crisis, as well as all the mainstream lending taking place in this period of recovery. While this morning's talks were informative, I was left wondering what we do about a practice that was wrong-headed in 1937 yet continues to drive the American economy in 2010.

In the evening I went to Pratt Institute for a book signing by Ned Kaufman for his book about historic preservation, Race, Place and Story. In his remarks, he said that about 90% of what should be preserved gets lost, and about 10% gets saved. It struck me as really ironic that the one thing we should get rid of -- redlining -- is very much with us, while what we should be saving -- our historic buildings and built environment -- is rapidly being lost. If we could just reverse those two, we'd be in great shape. Perhaps the way to begin is to consider that there is a relationship between the two, as indeed from the spatial perspective, there is.

Just Design for the Main Street of Syracuse

During my visit to Syracuse on the 14th and 15th of April, I had a chance to visit the downtown area, around S. Salina Street. There are lots of people working in the area and passing through, but not enough to fill the space or support a lively commercial presence. I was wondering about this as I walked around. I noticed three problems that I have seen addressed in other places, and to good effect.

The first problem was emptiness -- there are a lot of parking lots around downtown Syracuse, and a very large public plaza which is good for summer festivals but contributes to the void at this time of year. Filling in some of the spaces would help to make the place more viable. In an earlier post I talked about Tom Low's sprawl repair: that would be a good tactic in Syracuse. Additionally, urban renewal and highway construction have created voids between downtown and the neighborhoods and the reconnection of downtown with the surrounding areas would be a great blessing. Some of this reconnection has started by telling Professor Kendall Phillips leads a public memory project, and at the Public Memory site you can hear the wonderful stories of the old 15th Ward..

Second, the area was redlined in the 1930s, and the uneven development continues, and contributes to a sense of class and race divisions that make the area unstable. Making it more open would do much to improve the stability of the area. Syracuse University has started a "connective corridor" to connect the university to the city. I am not convinced that "corridor" is the right metaphor to count redlining in spirit or form: time will tell.

Third, the area lacked trees and green. Syracuse has a short growing season, so evergreens would be very helpful for the streetscape. I saw a wonderful art project on the quad at the University of Syracuse in which a tree was dressed in a crocheted gown, and made it very colorful. This is a creative solution to the problem of a late spring.

Design that springs from justice has the potential to reknit this wonderful city and unleash its creative potential.