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In the late 1930s, the Federal Housing Administration (FHA) used a process called redlining to section off districts in an attempt to signal the level of risk to lenders. Consequently, lenders felt justified in turning away non-white borrowers, effectively leading to segregated communities. This practice carried on through the mid-1960s, after which some communities underwent socio-demographic transformations due to gentrification, urban renewal, and deindustrialization, amongst other things. This paper analyzes the current demographic trends in Boston, Detroit, and Los Angeles to determine to what extent the resulting segregation from redlining practices has persisted. Redlining and census data from 1930 and 2020 were obtained and analyzed in order to compare the racial demographics over time. White vs. non-white population in redline districts in 1930 versus 2020 were compared in each of these cities. Whereas percent change between white majority and non-white minority provides a demographic trend over time, a local spatial autocorrelation (LISA) analysis helped to identify dense areas of minority population. Lastly, the index dissimilarity, interaction, and isolation were used to better expose persistent levels of segregation. This research provides one example of how historical GIS analysis can be done using diverse datasets to show spatio-temporal patterns of importance to ongoing issues of social justice and inequality. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Despite the tangible and documented impact race plays in questions of housing, employment, education, and health, discourses of antiracialism perpetuate the idea race—and by extension, racism—is no longer a relevant marker of disparity. In this alleged “post race” context, how do news accounts cover stories on urban crisis and renewal? This article takes up scholarly calls to develop “conceptual tools” that may enable critical scholars to explore how racism continues undercover in the 21st century. I argue for the importance of exploring how strategic forgetting operates in conjunction with the familiar and formulaic frame of personalization to erase or evade the continued presence of structured, systemic racism in the (re)construction/renewal of city spaces. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]