Research Blog - Effects of Redlining on the People of Wilmington, CA
As more and more historical information becomes readily available to us, a trend that becomes apparent is the government's/corporations' readiness to subvert the development of lower-income and minority communities by any means available. The most significant instance of curbing development is "redlining," a process in which the Home Owners' Loan Corporation (HOLC) would assess the desirability and suitability of investment of neighborhoods across America. Future residential desirability was determined by factors such as ethnic diversity, income level, and potential likelihood for the land to be exploited for its natural resources. Neighborhoods with higher diversity would have their score reprimanded for the presence of ethnically heterogeneous populations, and a separate measurement of desirability existed specifically if African Americans resided in a neighborhood.
Wilmington, a neighborhood located in South Los Angeles, was a casualty in the HOLC's evaluation of neighborhoods across the country. Given the lowest "low red" grade possible due to the presence of ethnic diversity, lower average income, and a sizeable population of African Americans. As a result of this redlining, Wilmington and other neighborhoods across Los Angeles have suffered from poor public maintenance, lack of economic investment and opportunity, and a higher risk of health issues due to exposure to atmospheric pollutants, for more than seven decades.
Research Process
For my research, I primarily focused on finding case studies and maps that both accurately represent the pollution and health effects that have resulted from the historical redlining of the community. Because of Wilmington's relatively small size in comparison to other communities that have been affected by historical racism, I had difficulty finding many scholarly studies regarding Wilmington specifically. I ended up primarily with case studies that discussed broader issues regarding air quality and subsequent health issues in Los Angeles County. This initially felt like a serious limitation on my research, and I was concerned that in only being able to analyze Wilmington from a broader perspective would take away from the personal connection of the community. Eventually I turned to less scholarly sources in the forms of historical newspapers detailing the threat of Environmental Racism, as well as the Center for Climate Change & Health, an organization that provides human stories in the face of environmental injustices.
As far as visual sources go, there are two significant images that convey the condition of Wilmington. First are maps from studies, highlighting the region's air quality, the presence of atmospheric pollutants, as they help provide numerical evidence that the health issues affecting the community are likely a direct result of an increased presence of pollution. Second are pictures of Wilmington itself, highlighting how close a multitude of active sources of pollution are to the people of the community. This is what makes the neighborhood especially affected by pollution; most sources of atmospheric pollutants are within walking distance or a short car ride away from the residences of the community. Active oil refiners work day and night, while the Port of Long Beach (the second busiest container port in the United States) remains a source of low grade fuel emissions.
In relation to redlining and its dismissal of opportunity for millions, bias becomes a difficult topic. There's no guarantee that these places would have become economic utopias had they not been affected by the HOLC's practices, but we do know that places like Wilmington would almost certainly be in a better condition without redlining than with its existence. So while I wish to avoid framing redlining as the sole cause for the state of Wilmington and other communities, I cannot pretend that the lives of millions would not be noticeably improved without it.
Historical Analysis
In order to understand the historical significance behind Wilmington, this section of the project will be divided into three parts. The first will assess the environmental problems faced by the area, analyzing its issues with air pollution from overlapping sources. After assessing the challenges faced by Wilmington, the second portion will trace these issues back to the historical practice of redlining, and how that practice can be highlighted as a significant factor in the worsening of these issues over the last century. Finally and arguably the most important portion will be the human perspective on these issues from the residents of Wilmington themselves. To omit the voices of those directly affected by redlining and the ensuing environmental racism would make this project ultimately pointless, as research and statistics mean nothing next to the experiences of those whose lives we come to understand through these statistics.
The Problems
Wilmington, Los Angeles is considered especially hazardous in terms of pollution due to its exposure to overlapping sources of atmospheric pollutants. The area directly hosts the Port of Long Beach, the second busiest container port in the United States. [1] Directly adjacent is the busiest port in the country, the Port of LA. Packed to the brim with thousands of shipping trucks and containers, these ports serve as consistently active sites for massive container ships to burn low grade fuel and dilute Wilmington's climate with extreme amounts of sulfate and nitrates.[2] In being a consistent supplier of pollutants in the atmosphere, the port has become increasingly congested as major shipping operations clog American ports, leading to a recent uptake in the burning of these fossil fuels. The close proximity of these ports as pictured exacerbates their threat to the air quality of the Wilmington area and beyond; whereas most areas are affected by sources of pollution runoff or "bleeding" into the wind, this community is extremely close to ground zero of many of these pollutions. The threat of the port's proximity is worsened by a lack of regulation surrounding the quality of cargo ship fuel. Studies have highlighted a strong correlation between deregulation of cargo fuel and the presence of atmospheric pollutants, using Wilmington as an example.[3] Without new legislation and regulation, the ports will continue to spew particles of nitrate and sulfate into the atmosphere.
The other major source of Wilmington's diminished air quality is the presence of arguably the most intense concentration of oil fields in Los Angeles County.[4] Wilmington itself was built atop these oil deposits, and the neighborhood has developed simultaneously as oil drilling operations have expanded and embedded across the area. These oil refineries are as numerous as they are massive, leading to their presence a significant contributor to air pollution in Wilmington and the surrounding region. [5] This has created a similar phenomena to its ports, in which the area suffering from the pollution is ground zero for the source of pollution. Proximity is again a massive factor in the location of these oil refineries; an overwhelming majority of these towering operations are blocks away from residential areas.
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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. |
The Past
It is no coincidence that places like Wilmington are subject to a multitude of health problems resulting from pollution and very little regulation. The key relationship between these ethnically diverse communities that have been subject to the aforementioned issues is that their value in terms of property, desirability, and development has been damaged by the Home Owner's Loan Corporation's practice of redlining neighborhoods that did not conform to "adequate" racial homogeneity.[6] In doing so, neighborhoods like Wilmington suffered from a refusal of investment and inadequate conditions for generations. At the time, the process of redlining was reinforced by the general attitude of white supremacy in the 1940's, and as such investors were keen to divert their money elsewhere. This declaration of unsuitability for future investment held drastic consequences for these neighborhoods that remain prevalent today. The redlined districts of Wilmington, Lomita-Harbor, San Pedro, and Redondo and Hermosa Beach compose a large section Los Angeles where industrial development occurred simultaneously with residential development.[7]
The decisions made that have left communities such as Wilmington in the environmental and economic state they are were tactical enforcements of a white supremacist hierarchy that was legitimized by law until very recently in American history. This hierarchy has led to the degradation of the community's air quality and an abhorrently high amount of lung-based health issues when compared to higher-income areas.[8] Not only have they damaged the area's environmental quality, but the loss of investment and proper infrastructure beyond the maintenance of industrial works have left them hurting for opportunity. The curation of generational wealth, property value, and well-paying job opportunities are exceedingly rare or non-existent in Wilmington.[9] Redlining has dramatically harmed not only the climate of Wilmington, but its people.
The People
Statistics and research can only provide so much of a connection to these events. In trying to understand a historical and logistical perspective on the circumstances faced by Wilmington, one must look to the perspective of its people in order to have a proper perspective of their own. Outspoken community leaders have described their fight and anger amid the state of California's own dismissal of the environmental racism they face as a cost of economic growth. Many residents of Wilmington have described knowing a dramatic number of families suffering from health issues directly related to the close proximity of pollutants.[10] In the presence of overlapping sources of pollution at an extremely dangerous close range, the people of Wilmington face higher morbidity and mortality rates from exposure to toxic substances from these sources, as well as noticably shorter life expectancies.[11] Even in less severe cases, urban areas like Wilmington have abnormally high cases of asthma hospitalizations, with increasing severity among children and the elderly.[12]
The challenges faced by the people of Wilmington are not unique, but are symptoms of a larger problem that has irreparably affected the lives of millions over the previous century. Nor are they problems that are solvable over night. Even as the general population gradually becomes informed on these complex and systemic issues, change continues to be a slow process. And official policy change, despite how effective it could be, remains a complicated endeavor that is too hypothetical to rely on alone, especially among the current political climate amidst an uncertain pandemic. The most important and recognizable changes will always come from the ground-up, and only through the voices of those most affected by environmental racism will true strides be made towards a more progressive and equal California.[13]
Image Analysis
Images were primarily used throughout this project to help visualize and better understand the information surrounding Wilmington's battle with environmental racism and the lasting effects of the community's being declared undesirable almost eighty years ago. Graphs and maps were primarily used for comparative purposes, to show how other communities relatively unaffected by redlining (or those with stricter environmental regulations) do not face these same issues that Wilmington does. To understand that Wilmington has a high concentration of atmospheric pollution is unsurprising given the nature of California, but understanding that it has some of the worst examples of pollution and health issues among even a heavily polluted area of the country gives clarity and puts perspective on how in need of recognition this historical problem is. Photographs were meant to give the reader an impression of the everyday life of a Wilmington resident, and how frighteningly close very active and dangerous sources of pollution are to their homes specifically. In the case of this community, words were not enough to describe close proximity between residential neighborhoods and towering oil refineries. The scale of these sources of pollution are only properly depicted through these images, such as the oil towers that surround the city or the bustling cargo port that expels massive amounts of low-grade fuel into the area every day. Wilmington's ports and oil refineries also double as a source of visual pollution, which has been shown to have negative effects on general and mental health. In the end, visual sources were used to help contextualize the problems faced by Wilmington, as well as double down on their significance by helping the reader visualize the community's circumstances.
Conclusion
Despite its occurrence so long ago, redlining has significantly damaged the livelihoods of people across America on the basis of their ethnicity alone. We can trace numerous complex socioeconomic issues back to their roots in redlining after the postwar economic boom of the 1940's. The opportunity to establish and curate generational wealth, the most significant factor in determining the economic class a family holds for decades, is squandered as property value and investment opportunities disappeared with a declaration of unsuitability from the Home Owner's Loan Corporation. Job opportunities are simultaneously squandered as sources of gainful employment choose not to place their facilities in low-income areas, creating cycles of poverty among too many people of color that have persisted since World War II. As the opportunity for a living wage abandons these areas, education becomes a lesser concern than one's own survival among harsh living situations. Education becomes an afterthought to survival, leading to crime and further poverty. These problems are all viciously connected in a cycle that has consumed communities across California for generations.
Wilmington is not an isolated incident, but one symptom of a larger problem that has irreversibly altered the lives of millions of human beings across a significant portion of American history. The concerns of its residents have not arisen recently in time due to poor planning or their own actions. They come from a multilayered issue of systematic racism that has intricately disabled the economic and social opportunities of millions of people of color. Failure to recognize this problem has resulted in poverty and suffering on those with ultimately little control over their situation for almost eighty years. Only by recognizing and developing solutions to the issues brought about so long ago by redlining, can California begin to work towards equity and equality.
Bibliography
Andrade, Anakaren, Tony Carrera, Francisca Martinez, Lizet Pantoja, Margaret Rubens, and Eric Zerecero. Urban Oil Drilling and Community Health: Results from a UCLA Health Survey. Los Angeles, CA: UCLA, 2018.
Badger, Emily. “How Redlining's Racist Effects Lasted for Decades.” The New York Times. The New York Times, August 24, 2017. https://www.nytimes.com/2017/08/24/upshot/how-redlinings-racist-effects-lasted-for-decades.html.
Barboza, Tony. “Southern California's Most Toxic Polluters Will Pay More under Air Board's Fee Hike.” Los Angeles Times. Los Angeles Times, June 7, 2019. https://www.latimes.com/local/lanow/la-me-toxic-pollution-fees-20190607-story.html.
Bullard, Robert D. “The Threat of Environmental Racism .” Natural Resources & Environment , 1993, 23. https://doi.org/https://www.jstor.org/stable/40923229 .
“CalEnviroScreen 1.0.” oehha.ca.gov. OEHHA, April 23, 2013. https://oehha.ca.gov/calenviroscreen/report-general-info/calenviroscreen-10.
Census. “Wilmington.” Los Angeles Times. Los Angeles Department of City Planning, 2000. http://maps.latimes.com/neighborhoods/neighborhood/wilmington/.
de Prado Bert, Paula, Elisabet Mae Henderson Mercader, Jesus Pujol, Jordi Sunyer, and Marion Mortamais. “The Effects of Air Pollution on the Brain: a Review of Studies Interfacing Environmental Epidemiology and Neuroimaging.” Current environmental health reports. Springer International Publishing, September 2018. https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pmc/articles/PMC6132565/.
Delamater, Paul L., Andrew O. Finley, and Sudipto Banerjee. “An Analysis of Asthma Hospitalizations, Air Pollution, and Weather Conditions in Los Angeles County, California.” Science of The Total Environment. Elsevier, April 2, 2012. https://www.sciencedirect.com/science/article/abs/pii/S0048969712001908.
Evans, Paul. “Big Polluters: One Massive Container Ship Equals 50 Million Cars.” New Atlas, April 23, 2009. https://newatlas.com/shipping-pollution/11526/.
Eidt, Jack. “On Living with Threats from Refineries, Ports, and Freeways.” WilderUtopia, September 19, 2020. https://www.wilderutopia.com/health/jesse-marquez-public-preparedness-for-threats-from-refineries-ports-and-freeways/.
Gross, Terry. “A 'Forgotten History' Of How The U.S. Government Segregated America.” NPR. NPR, May 3, 2017. https://www.npr.org/2017/05/03/526655831/a-forgotten-history-of-how-the-u-s-government-segregated-america.
Hardman, Jesse. “A New Generation of Activists, Born next to an Oil Refinery.” High Country News – Know the West, March 7, 2018. https://www.hcn.org/articles/pollution-a-new-generation-of-activists-born-next-to-an-oil-refinery.
Hoover, Bode, "Analyzing the Effect of Air Pollution Regulations on Aerosol Concentrations in Urban Areas" (2019). Purdue Undergraduate Research Conference. 25. https://docs.lib.purdue.edu/purc/2019/Posters/25, n.d.
Jana, Milan Kumar, and Tanaya De. "Visual pollution can have a deep degrading effect on urban and suburban community: a study in few places of Bengal, India, with special reference to unorganized billboards." European Scientific Journal (2015)., n.d.
Kinney, Patrick L., and Halûk Özkaynak. “Associations of Daily Mortality and Air Pollution in Los Angeles County.” Environmental Research. Academic Press, May 4, 2005. https://www.sciencedirect.com/science/article/abs/pii/S0013935105800945.
Marquez, Jesse. “Fighting for Environmental Justice in the Diesel Death Zone.” Center for Climate Change and Health, June 6, 2015. https://climatehealthconnect.org/stories/fighting-for-environmental-justice-in-the-diesel-death-zone/.
Nelson, Robert K, LaDale Winling, Justin Madron, and Richard Marciano. “Mapping Inequality.” Digital Scholarship Lab. Accessed March 17, 2021. https://dsl.richmond.edu/panorama/redlining/#loc=5/48.078/-127.793&text=about.
Pope, C. Arden, Majid Ezzati, and Douglas W. Dockery. “Fine-Particulate Air Pollution and Life Expectancy in the United States.” New England Journal of Medicine 360, no. 4 (January 22, 2009): 376–86. https://doi.org/10.1056/nejmsa0805646.
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Footnotes
[1] Port Technology International Team. “Long Beach Looks to the Future after TEU Drop.” Port Technology International, January 23, 2020. https://www.porttechnology.org/news/long-beach- looks-to-the-future-after-teu-drop/.
[2] Evans, Paul. “Big Polluters: One Massive Container Ship Equals 50 Million Cars.” New Atlas, April 23, 2009. https://newatlas.com/shipping-pollution/11526/.
[3] Hoover, Bode, "Analyzing the Effect of Air Pollution Regulations on Aerosol Concentrations in Urban Areas" (2019). Purdue Undergraduate Research Conference. 25. https://docs.lib.purdue.edu/purc/2019/Posters/25, n.d.
[5] “CalEnviroScreen 1.0.” oehha.ca.gov. OEHHA, April 23, 2013. https://oehha.ca.gov/calenviroscreen/report-general-info/calenviroscreen-10.
[6] Gross, Terry. “A 'Forgotten History' Of How The U.S. Government Segregated America.” NPR. NPR, May 3, 2017. https://www.npr.org/2017/05/03/526655831/a-forgotten-history-of-how-the-u-s-government-segregated-america.
[7] Nelson, Robert K, LaDale Winling, Justin Madron, and Richard Marciano. “Mapping Inequality.” Digital Scholarship Lab. Accessed March 17, 2021. https://dsl.richmond.edu/panorama/redlining/#loc=5/48.078/-127.793.
[8] Kinney, Patrick L., and Halûk Özkaynak. “Associations of Daily Mortality and Air Pollution in Los Angeles County.” Environmental Research. Academic Press, May 4, 2005. https://www.sciencedirect.com/science/article/abs/pii/S0013935105800945.
[9] Badger, Emily. “How Redlining's Racist Effects Lasted for Decades.” The New York Times. The New York Times, August 24, 2017. https://www.nytimes.com/2017/08/24/upshot/how-redlinings-racist-effects-lasted-for-decades.html.
[10] Marquez, Jesse. “Fighting for Environmental Justice in the Diesel Death Zone.” Center for Climate Change and Health, June 6, 2015. https://climatehealthconnect.org/stories/fighting-for-environmental-justice-in-the-diesel-death-zone/.
[11] Pope, C. Arden, Majid Ezzati, and Douglas W. Dockery. “Fine-Particulate Air Pollution and Life Expectancy in the United States.” New England Journal of Medicine 360, no. 4 (January 22, 2009): 376–86. https://doi.org/10.1056/nejmsa0805646.
[12] Delamater, Paul L., Andrew O. Finley, and Sudipto Banerjee. “An Analysis
of Asthma Hospitalizations, Air Pollution, and Weather Conditions in
Los Angeles County, California.” Science of The Total Environment.
Elsevier, April 2, 2012.
https://www.sciencedirect.com/science/article/abs/pii/S0048969712001908.
[13] Hardman, Jesse. “A New Generation of Activists, Born next to an Oil Refinery.” High Country News – Know the West, March 7, 2018. https://www.hcn.org/articles/pollution-a-new-generation-of-activists-born-next-to-an-oil-refinery
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