MarketPlace: April 16, 2020, How Redlining Continues to Shape Our Economy
One thing we know for certain about the COVID-19 crisis is that the pain will not be shared equally. Wealth can determine everything from the quality of healthcare people can access to how well they can ride out a job loss. And inequality is baked into the system.
On a recent morning before social distancing measures took effect, Nathan Connolly visited the exhibit at Impact Hub Baltimore, a social justice-oriented co-working space and incubator. As young people chatted over coffee and worked on their laptops, Connolly stood examining an old street map of Baltimore.
The map was created in 1937 by the Home Owners Loan Corporation, a federal agency set up as part of the New Deal to refinance mortgages at risk of default and foreclosure because of the Great Depression.
Areas colored green were considered the safest places to invest, followed by blue, then yellow.
“There’s a separate entry, kind of an up or down, yes or no, on every single area description form, 5-D, that just says ‘Negro, yes or no,’” Connolly said. “The answer to that question would determine, oftentimes, what a neighborhood’s value would be.”
