Redlining in Atlanta
Comparing present inequality to the past's discriminatory policy
When it comes to racial inequity, redlining has become a top-of-mind topic for policymakers and community advocates . Given the strong tie between homeownership and wealth , the history of exclusion caused by redlining offers a tangible way of understanding and potentially rectifying present-day inequities. Furthermore, a body of evidence shows that the ill effects of redlining have long-lasting effects. Researchers from the Chicago Fed, for instance, found that the practice had a causal effect on income, living in a high-poverty area, and credit scores .
Need a quick brush up on the local picture? Check out Axios Atlanta's recent summation of the program and its local effects.
Maps throughout this story are fully interactive. You can click on any location to see more data details.
Contemporary Circumstances
Let's start by considering Atlanta's current spatial inequities and segregation. By almost any measure, there is a stark difference between communities to our north and communities to our south.
Here, we are looking at the most basic way of considering our differences. The map to the right shows the dominant race/ethnicity in the city's neighborhood statistical areas * in 2019. The strength of shading indicates the degree to which a particular group dominates a neighborhood.
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Data Note: Neighborhood Statistical Areas are based on the city's official neighborhoods but often cluster them in order to create geographies suitable for statistical operations. Use the NSA tab on Neighborhood Nexus' Atlanta Neighborhood Data Dashboard to see what neighborhoods comprise each statistical area.
Differences between our neighborhoods to the north and south do not end there, however. The set of maps that follow offer a glimpse into the relationship between place and prosperity in Atlanta.
Here, we're taking a look at unemployment rates in 2019...
... Now we're looking at poverty, which offers more variation than the previous map. However, it still shows a clear north-south divide...
... And here's median income. In this map, we do see a heartening counterpoint to our tale of stark disparity, and we can also see that the southside is not resource-starved.
Still, it's important to note that, income-wise, the best-off neighborhoods to the south have the same median income as the least well-off neighborhoods to the north of the city.
To be clear, there is zero reason why the distribution of prosperity and poverty should follow our race map so closely. But they do, and this is where examining past policies can help us understand today's spatial divide.
Relationship to Redlining
The map below shows the neighborhoods HOLC deemed best, acceptable and uninsurable against current City of Atlanta neighborhood statistical areas. HOLC data comes the University of Richmond's Digital Scholarship Lab by way of ESRI's Living Atlas .
The upcoming series of swipe maps allow comparisons between redlining and the neighborhood indicators we previously considered. While imperfect, there are undeniable similarities in the spatial patterns.
Contemporary Homeownership
In other work, the Chicago Fed established that redlining had long-term effects on homeownership rates and home value. The following set of swipe maps takes a look at these indicators alongside our historical redlining.
Here, we're looking at which neighborhoods have higher rates of homeowners versus renters. We can see that large swaths of redlined neighborhoods today still see higher rates of renters, though the neighborhoods surrounding and to the south of DeKalb Avenue do not follow that pattern. This is also an area that our previous map showed as predominantly Non-Hispanic White.
Here, we're looking at median home value from the 2015 to 2019 American Community Survey rolling averages. colors representing quantiles are designed to mimic redlining, such that the Census tracts comprising the lowest 25% of values are red, and the highest are green. This color ramp has been used to examine lasting effect from redlining. We recognize that low home values do not indicate that neighborhoods are hazardous, as the redlining map calls them.
Neighborhood Change
Throughout the maps, we've seen relationships between redlining, race and neighborhood indicators. But we've also seen some inconsistencies, especially along the DeKalb Avenue area. The following series of swipe maps show neighborhood change between 2000 and 2019 alongside the redlining maps.
We'll start by looking at the most basic change measure: Percent change in total population. Here, we can see that many neighborhoods where the past and present don't collide to quite the same degree have also seen increases in population.
Many of the neighborhoods escaping redlining's long-term effects, especially along the DeKalb Avenue area, have seen an increase in shares of occupied housing units. This is not the only trait they share...
... A lot of them have also seen a jump in median income...
... An increase in the rate of residents with higher education degrees...
... And in the final, most classic local indicator of gentrification, they've also seen a larger increase in Non-Hispanic White residents than other groups in neighborhoods. This is especially in the case of neighborhoods with predominantly Non-Hispanic Black residents.
When looking at neighborhood change, it becomes difficult to escape the idea that the areas moving out of the redlining cycle are doing so because of gentrification rather than efforts to improve circumstances for their longstanding populations.
Beyond the Redline
While redlining is the hot topic, it's far from the only policy that created spaces of disinvestment (or divestment, depending on how you look at it). Let's not forget that Atlanta was firmly part of Jim Crow South , and our dividing line remains clear in current data. Infrastructure, most visibly the highway system , was used to create literal dividing lines between our neighborhoods. Even our public housing projects were a source of segregation. Urban renewal , which led to structures such as the Civic Center, targeted Black neighborhoods and quite literally erased them . Nationally (and regionally), neighborhood covenants and " sundown towns " also played a role in the spatial squeeze of Black Americans.
Explore it all in one place
The mapping application below brings all the data together. Use the pop-out icon to see it in a separate web browser. Once you click to interact, you can turn different layers on or off to compare, or use the swipe widget in the upper left of the map to directly compare data.
If you have clicked to interact, you'll need to scroll outside of the application to get to the "About the Data" section.
ArcGIS Web Application