NRPA, August 24, 2023, Overcoming Barriers To Park Equity
Redlining affected not only the demographics of neighborhoods by dictating who could get loans, but also it largely influenced the investment in infrastructure made in those areas. Real estate is about location, location, location, right? Well, if the right location largely dictates the value of your house, and the value of your house dictates your property taxes, and property tax is the major government funding vehicle, it’s easy to see how areas rated green would have better schools, roads and — parks.
Well, according to the National Community Reinvestment Coalition, three out of four of the redlined neighborhoods in the 1930s are still low-to-moderate income today, and 65 percent are still majority minority, while 91 percent of areas classified as “best” remain middle- to upper-income today, with 85 percent of them still predominantly white.
