ADVANCING HEALTHY COMMUNITIES REDLINING, ALCOHOL, AND THE PATTERN OF WHERE THINGS ARE

By David R. Shorey, East County Program Manager, Institute for Public Strategies

Photo left via Creative Commons

February 11, 2022 (San Diego’s East County) - In 1933, the federal government established the Home Owners’ Loan Corporation (HOLC), a program set up as part of the New Deal, intending to address the large number of home loans in default because of the Great Depression and to also expand opportunities for buying homes. Between 1935 and 1940, the HOLC created a series of color-coded maps that it stated was for the purpose of identifying creditworthiness and mortgage security risk. While assessing risk is understandable, the maps and the investments they guided, created a system of inequity and institutional racism that is still affecting poor and minority communities today.

The maps and their accompanying narrative descriptions specifically identified areas where racial and ethnic minorities and poor populations lived as “hazardous” to investment, and more affluent communities as being the most desirable. The specific process became known as “redlining” and directly affected investments for banks, credit, insurance and healthcare.

Photo right via Creative Commons

National Public Radio did a detailed profile of redlining. The Mapping Inequality Project created a map of the U.S. showing how redlining was applied in communities across the country. Dr. John Finn, a geography professor, created a map specific to San Diego County and the rest of Southern California as part of his Living Together/Living Apart Project at Christopher Newport University in Virginia, where he is chair of the Department of Sociology, Social Work and Anthropology.

Lingering Effects of Redlining

Today, 86 years after the creation of the original maps, we can see the consequence that redlining continues to have in the form of the lack of public infrastructure, food accessibility, walkability, and bad living conditions in many neighborhoods. One of the most visible effects of redlining is the overconcentration of liquor stores, cannabis retailers and other adult-oriented businesses in minority or low-income neighborhoods.

Photo, left via Creative Commons

In East County, redlining’s history is less defined, but what is obvious is that the conditions created by redlining have produced the same results here. Communities with lower incomes and higher minority populations have higher concentrations of alcohol retailers.

In Lemon Grove, where poverty levels and the minority population are high, we see areas that are significantly over-concentrated with alcohol retailers. One part of the city is 800% over-concentrated in terms of state standards. That’s why I appeared before the Lemon Grove Planning Commission and City Council when they were considering granting a request to sell alcohol by a neighborhood market that was surrounded by alcohol retailers on Broadway. My message was simple: Adding additional alcohol retailers will not improve the health and safety of the community.

Similarly, I participated in a community meeting put on by the Santee Planning Department, which focused on the environmental justice element of the city’s general plan. While participating in that, I noticed a correlation between the location of alcohol retailers and lower-income, disadvantaged communities and environmental justice areas with more diversity.

Liquorlining

Photo, right via Creative Commons

Alcohol outlet density is a public health problem. Sometimes referred to as “liquorlining,” high densities of liquor stores in low income and/or minority communities relative to surrounding areas are associated with crime and public health issues, which may in turn drive away supermarkets, grocery stores, and other retail outlets, contributing to low levels of economic development and food deserts in some cases. Nonwhites face higher concentrations of liquor stores than do Whites. This pattern can be seen in some neighborhoods in El Cajon, Spring Valley, Lakeside, La Presa, and Casa de Oro. The City of El Cajon has taken measures to combat overconcentration of alcohol by instituting a “deemed approved ordinance” and requiring a conditional use permit when granting licenses for the sale of alcohol for off-site consumption.

With the proliferation of cannabis retailers in East County, this concept can also be used to prevent the overconcentration of both legal and illegal dispensaries. This is not a suggestion to eliminate alcohol and cannabis altogether. It’s a clarion call to urge our elected officials, civic leaders and business owners to be smart, safe and fair when determining where these adult-oriented businesses should be located.

Raising Redlining Awareness

The legacy of redlining and similar practices are becoming more apparent, in great part to the incredible academic work that is being done around the country. The point is not to shame or blame, but to raise awareness of what Dr. Finn says are the “patterns of where things are. Where things are is almost never an accident. There are reasons for where things are, and the patterns of some things relate to the patterns of other things.”

With this increased awareness, we can then break those patterns and work collectively to improve health, increase economic conditions, and create an environment that allows for everyone, regardless of race, ethnicity, and socioeconomic background to have the same chance to achieve the best lives for themselves and their families.

IPS works alongside communities to build power, challenge systems of inequity, protect health and improve quality of life. IPS has a vision for safe, secure, vibrant and healthy communities where everyone can thrive. To find out more about IPS East County, follow us at: https://www.facebook.com/IPSEastCounty or by clicking on the links to our social media platforms: IPS East County Facebook, IPS East County Twitter, East County Youth Coalition Instagram.