Effects of Redlining on the People of Wilmington, CA
My research topic is how the people and general health of Wilmington, CA (a neighborhood located in LA's harbor region, west of Long Beach) have been affected by the historical practice of redlining. Neighborhoods redlined in the 1940's still suffer from lack of sufficient investment and maintenance to this day, and Wilmington has become the site of poor air quality, a massive oil drilling operation, and a slew of health effects resulting from the abundance of atmospheric pollutants.
The HOLC utilized this tactic of redlining in the early years of the postwar economic boom of the 1940's to declare neighborhoods unsuitable for investment. Factors that influenced the desirability of an area included its ethnic diversity, income level, and potential likelihood to be exploited for its natural resources. We can trace numerous complex socioeconomic issues back to redlining in the twentieth century. Generational wealth, job opportunities, and even the over-policing of racially diverse neighborhoods; all have roots in how corporations determined the desirability of certain areas primarily due to race. For more than seven decades this practice has impacted the lives of millions of people.
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| Wilmington, CA is located approximately entirely within this square; conveniently where arguably the most dense concentration of oil wells in LA County is. |
I'm primarily relying on case studies and maps for my information. One of my sources (linked above) is actually public information from the GeoHub, a public platform managed by the city of Los Angeles that provides access to location based Open Data. I used a few different filters to create a map of LA County's oil wells and made note of the extremely high density in the Wilmington/Harbor area.
In conjunction with the previous source, I came across a study using a UCLA Health survey conducted in the communities of Wilmington and West Pico, a fairly wealthier area with stricter pollution restrictions. The survey consists of health questions and demographic questions for comparison against census data. Consistent with the map highlighting the density of Wilmington's oil wells, it found that its populace are at a higher risk of certain health conditions due to adverse air quality as a result of a high density of oil wells not present in other parts of Los Angeles.
Another source I'm using is an undergraduate research project from Purdue University
that compares an environmentally regulated area in Peru to the
relatively deregulated Wilmington. The study highlighted a notable
increase of particulate matter, specifically sulfur and nitrate, in
Wilmington's air while the city of Arequipa, Peru was significantly
lower in both of these pollutants. It came to the conclusion that
heavier regulations on fuel quality (of which Wilmington has very little
of, especially of its container ships) can reduce air pollution and
improve long-term urban population health.
Despite its obviousness, I believe it's important to give scientific, objective legitimacy to any claim I make. So to hammer home the dangers of fine-particulate air pollution, I used a more general study from the New England Journal of Medicine that aims to determine the relationship between exposure to fine-particulate matter and increased morbidity and mortality. It collected data through the EPA's Inhalable Particle Monitoring Network, cross referenced it with data from the U.S. Census to gather socioeconomic variables. It obviously, came to the conclusion that exposure to this particulate matter significantly contributes to lower life expectancy and higher risk of chronic illness in the United States.
While it is much more general than I aim to get with this project, this study validates the concern of Wilmington by proving it is not an isolated incident due to poor planning, but one symptom of a larger problem that plagues communities across America.
My research plan has taken a bit of a hit as I am still recovering from a decently terrible two-week bid with COVID-19 contracted from a family member who teaches at a daycare. I'm still suffering from a general difficulty maintaining focus on tasks and frequent bouts of nausea. Combined with the occasional pressure headaches that become exacerbated when I look at sources of light like screens, and a more focused dive into research is going to have to wait. However, I plan to incorporate more localized and historic research into my poster when I am in better health.
First off, I just wanna say that your blog post is organized really nicely. Everything is clear and concise, making it flow really well to me we the reader. Your argument about the relationship of racial discrimination and subsequent health issues resulting from intentional poor development standards is clear and very well thought out. Your graphics and descriptions are top notch, especially the one with data taken from GeoHub. That is just such a creative way to get map information about the region in question. To me the environmental questions and historical racial issues are all clear and relevant to the course.
ReplyDeleteYour sources are all really nice as well, going over various aspects of policy for the communities and the various negative environmental impacts of some of the industry. My only issue comes from the undergraduate research project from Purdue University comparing Wilmington to a region in Peru. If there is one thing I’ve learned from statistical gathering of data, it is that you have to explain why you chose to compare two specific areas and I don’t see that here aside from the areas are “relatively urban”. Thusly I am worried about the conclusions being skewed due to cherry-picking data. I have no doubt that many of the conclusions made about the comparisons are correct, but also when examining California versus Peru, there are monumental differences between them which could all muddy the waters in terms of statistical analysis. The source is detailed, it just has some oddities that would make me wary of it to an extent. Overall, really nice post!
At the first glance I could already predict that you have done extensive research on this topic. My prediction came out to be true. I truly believe that the people in low income places are the ones who suffer most from breathing in these toxic chemicals. Your resources are very interesting and I enjoy how you are attacking this from every angle. You are covering the politics, culture, socioeconomics and most importantly the environmental issues. Every issue that you touch on relates to what we discuss in our class meetings. A lot of environmental issues are caused by poor planning and it is an issue that needs to be discussed immediately. For example, controlling the smog in these cities is rather difficult because there are shops that pass vehicles for some extra cash. In the end, the smog will always stay and so will the toxic particulate matter. Overall, I enjoy this research topic and I cannot wait for it to be presented.
ReplyDeleteI am very sorry to hear about getting covid, I hope you and your family are doing better now! Covid is the worst and working in retail scares me everyday.
ReplyDeleteThis post is so good, you are so organized and obviously well knowledged on the topic. You put the obvious points in this as one of the first things we will see which is fantastic because it is giving us the historical aspect of it because of the year, the events and the proof of what had been happening and the environmental aspect of how those who had been living there would be effected by this. The health of the people is the most important and you did a really good job shining light on the topic and how it had effected them. Are you going to look into the before and after because I think that would be really good for this topic. The recovery of this will be very interesting.
Great Post!