Redviz - Grace Raper

What is Redlining?

Redlining was a discriminatory practice used by banks, insurance companies, and other institutions to deny or limit access to financial services and opportunities, such as loans and insurance, to people living in specific geographic areas based on their race or ethnicity.

The Home Owners' Loan Corporation (HOLC) was a federal agency established in 1933 to help homeowners refinance their mortgages during the Great Depression. As part of this effort, the HOLC created maps of urban areas across the United States and assigned grades to different neighborhoods based on their perceived investment risk.

These grades ranged from "A" to "D" and were color-coded, with "A" neighborhoods marked in green and "D" neighborhoods marked in red. While factors such as housing quality, property values, and poverty levels were taken into account, neighborhoods with higher minority populations were often rated poorly, regardless of their actual conditions.

These grades and color-codes became the basis for the practice of redlining, as banks and other lenders used these maps to justify denying loans or charging higher interest rates to people living in these neighborhoods, regardless of their creditworthiness. This made it more difficult for people from minority groups to buy homes, start businesses, and accumulate wealth, perpetuating cycles of poverty and inequality.

Redlining was officially outlawed by the Fair Housing Act of 1968 and the Community Reinvestment Act of 1977, but its legacy can still be felt today in the persistent wealth and income gaps between different racial and ethnic groups.

A Framework for Visualizing Modern Day Data in Historical Context:

The framework below is a web-based visualization that enables users to explore the relationship between historical redlining maps and current-day census data. The visualization is built using D3, a JavaScript library for creating dynamic data visualizations, which allows for the creation of interactive maps.

The visualization consists of two maps presented side by side. One of the maps contains the boundary lines of modern-day census tracts, while the other displays historical HOLC redlining maps that have been digitized and georeferenced to align with the modern-day map. Both maps have tooltips that display information about the highlighted location, such as data for each census tract or information about the HOLC rating. When the user hovers over each census tract, the corresponding area on the redlining map is highlighted, making it easy to visualize which HOLC grade (or grades, if multiple areas were covered) the census data aligns with.

Future improvements to this visualization could include creating more informative tooltips to display the census data, enabling filtering of census data by demographics, or providing multiple sets of built-in data for the user to explore.

Some Potential Applications:

Using this visualization framework, we can examine fields tracked by modern day census data in the context of historical HOLC charts in order to better analyze the lasting impacts of redlining on modern day neighborhoods. There are several fields in modern-day census data that could be impacted by the lasting effects of redlining. Some examples include:

Homeownership rates: Redlining denied many people, particularly people of color, the opportunity to own homes and build wealth. Examining homeownership rates in neighborhoods that were historically redlined can reveal whether the effects of this discrimination persist today.
Educational attainment: Redlining often occurred in neighborhoods with underfunded schools and limited resources, which could impact educational attainment. Examining education levels in neighborhoods that were historically redlined can reveal whether these effects continue to impact educational outcomes today.
Employment and income: Redlining could limit access to job opportunities and contribute to income inequality. Examining employment and income levels in neighborhoods that were historically redlined can reveal whether these effects persist today.
Health outcomes: Redlining could contribute to health disparities by limiting access to healthcare and healthy food options. Examining health outcomes in neighborhoods that were historically redlined can reveal whether these effects continue to impact health outcomes today.

Overall, examining modern-day census data in these and other fields can reveal the lasting impacts of redlining and provide insight into ongoing disparities and inequalities in our communities.