“LULUs” sounds like a funny word, but the health burdens tied to LULUs are no laughing matter. Locally unwanted land uses (LULUs) – industrial sites, highways, power plants and waste facilities – are essential to how cities function. However, living close to them can also mean greater exposure to pollution, excessive noise and other environmental stressors.
A large body of research links these kinds of exposures to a wide range of health concerns. Air pollution is associated with millions of premature deaths globally each year alone and is tied to heart and lung disease, especially in communities located near industrial activity and heavy traffic. Researchers are also increasingly documenting links between environmental conditions and mental health.
Long-term exposure to air pollution has been associated with depression and anxiety, while environmental noise from traffic and industrial infrastructure have been linked to stress and anxiety symptoms. More broadly, environmental pollution is now understood to affect a person’s physical and mental well-being, with evidence linking it to cognitive decline, psychological distress and worsening mental health over time.
The health burdens of LULUs are not distributed evenly. Decades of environmental justice research have shown that those patterns reflect long-standing inequalities in political power, land use decision-making and access to resources.
One of the clearest historical frameworks for understanding these patterns is residential segregation and its relationship to redlining. From the 1930s until the 1960s, the federal government graded neighborhoods based in part on race and ethnicity, with many Black and immigrant communities being redlined – or labeled as high-risk for investment. Redlining did not create segregation on its own, but it formalized and reinforced patterns of disinvestment that shaped neighborhoods.
A growing body of research finds that neighborhoods with a history of redlining also tend to have higher concentrations of environmental burdens, including industrial land uses, heavily trafficked transportation arteries and other LULUs. These same neighborhoods often continue to face socioeconomic disadvantages and elevated exposure to environmental stressors. A recent study conducted by researchers at the University of Michigan, the Ohio State University and the National Community Reinvestment Coalition (NCRC) reflects these broader patterns in Chicago.
“We found that neighborhoods with higher levels of historical redlining also tended to have greater concentrations of certain LULUs, especially industrial land uses, vacant land or construction sites,” said University of Michigan lead researcher Dr. Liang Chen.
These neighborhoods also tended to report higher levels of self-rated poor mental health. In our analysis, industrial land, construction sites and vacant land were especially important in understanding how redlining, neighborhood conditions and mental health are patterned together across the city.
These findings suggest that the geography of LULUs today overlaps closely with the geography of historical housing discrimination defined by redlining. In Chicago, as in many US cities, neighborhoods that suffered decades of disinvestment continue to bear heavier environmental burdens and worse health outcomes. This illustrates how the legacies of segregation and land use continue to shape mental health outcomes today.
Addressing these patterns requires intentional policy action. Tools such as the Community Reinvestment Act (CRA) can help by encouraging investment in historically underserved neighborhoods, supporting affordable housing, community facilities and redevelopment efforts that improve neighborhood conditions and expand access to resources that promote community health.
Bruce C. Mitchell, PhD. is the Principal Researcher with NCRC’s Research team.
Photo credit: Chait Goli via Pexels.
