Cinching the Sunbelt: The Socioeconomic and Environmental Legacies of Redlining in the American Southwest

Abstract

Redlining was a segregatory lending practice instituted by the United States federal government during the New Deal. Although redlining is now illegal, it laid a foundation for disparities that are still present today. A growing body of research has linked redlining to disparities in health, socioeconomics and the environment. This study builds on this body of research within the context of historical redlining in the Sunbelt. The selection of Sunbelt cities, including Los Angeles (CA), Fresno (CA), San Jose (CA) and Phoenix (AZ), also recognizes the relevance of water scarcities, as the areas selected for this study experience persistent drought. As such, this study investigates the poorly studied topic of surface water equity within drought-affected areas. Finally, this study seeks to determine the interplay between socioeconomic factors and the environment in redlined cities using statistical methods. The data selected to capture socioeconomics in the study cities were housing prices (as determined by Zillow Zestimates), composition of zoning codes, and racial demographics. The data selected to investigate the environment were the amount of green and blue space, determined by the Normalized Difference Vegetation Index (NDVI) and the mapping of residential surface water (i.e. pools and fountains), respectively. Overall, this study has provided statistical evidence that disparities still remain in socioeconomics and the amount of blue and green spaces within historically redlined Sunbelt cities, however, more work is needed to fully understand the interplay between these two topics, as well as to establish solutions for an equitable future.