Skip to content

Abstract Search

Primary Submission Category: Non-health institutions (business, political, education systems)

From Past to Present: Examining the Effects of Historical Racialized Policies on Current-Day Neighborhood-Level Outcomes

Authors:  Jessica Jones-Smith, Deven Hamilton, Anjum Hajat, Phil Hurvitz, Yeeli Mui, Julia Wolfson, Keshia Pollack Porter, Kelsey Crawford, Hameenat Adekoya, Jana Hirsch,

Presenting Author: Pamela Bonsu*

Background. A growing body of research on the effects of historical U.S. federal housing and urban planning policies underscores the persistent legacy of legally sanctioned discrimination. We used historical and contemporary data to build on evidence of how structural racism affects the trajectory of neighborhoods over time.

Methods. The sample comprised six cities from the Multi-Ethnic Study of Atherosclerosis. We used shapefiles from Mapping Inequality to identify areas affected by racialized policies: 1) redlining and 2) “urban renewal”. We overlaid the shapefiles with U.S. Census boundaries. We estimated mean census tract characteristics for each decennial census year from 1940-2010, overall and by exposure to each policy, both policies, and neither policy. We assessed the associations between these policies and neighborhood characteristics (share of Black residents and median household income) and neighborhood food environment (a food swamp score, subtracting density of healthy food venues from less healthy) using generalized estimating equations and generalized linear models respectively.

Results. Neighborhoods  that experienced redlining only (N=1,844 of 5,148) maintained a higher share of Black residents, compared to those that experienced urban renewal only or neither exposure. Neighborhoods exposed to both policies (N=121) had a higher proportion of Black residents and lower median household income for much of the observation period. Neighborhoods exposed to urban renewal only (N=30) had a lower proportion of Black residents and higher median household income. Compared to neighborhoods that experienced neither exposure, neighborhoods that experienced urban renewal only, redlining only, and both policies had relatively higher food swamp scores.

Conclusion. Disparate findings for urban renewal suggest further research is needed to examine the long-term effects of intersecting historical racialized policies.