Report Links Zoning and Land Use to Structural Racism

A new report from the Puget Sound Regional Council (PSRC) connects single-family zoning to structural racism in the region, reports Shaun Kuo in The Urbanist.

Unlike previous studies of the issue, Kuo notes, the Legacy of Structural Racism Interactive Report “provides a high-level overview and collection of resources on this history of structural racism in the Puget Sound region. It is also authored by a government agency that is key to the long-range land use, transportation, and economic planning of the Puget Sound region and is empowered with the distribution of federal funding.”

The report outlines the region’s history dating back to the 1700s, highlighting the removal of Native Americans, the expulsion of Chinese people, and other racially motivated events in the area’s history up to and including 20th century redlining and its lingering modern-day effects.

“This report does much to pair the historic suppression of nonwhite wealth building with the retention of land use policies that increase the cost of homeownership. It demonstrates the legacy of these practices in the massive wealth gap between White and Black households, wherein for every dollar a White family has, a Black family has a little more than 10 cents.”

The report also notes the impact of highway construction on primarily poor and non-white neighborhoods. “PSRC’s report discusses how whiter and wealthier neighborhoods like Mercer Island were able to get highway lids and public parks to mitigate highway construction. Meanwhile, neighborhoods like the Chinatown-International District were denied mitigation.”

See Kuo’s article for more details and a link to the full report.