Month: January 2021

Impacts of Redlining on Greenspace- January Updates to Anti-racism in the Outdoors

Every month updates are made to Anti-racism in the Outdoors an annotated bibliography including organizations, presentations articles books and resources related to anti-racism in the outdoors. Look for the highlighted “Newly added” resources each month.

This month’s highlights include several resources relate to ways in which discriminatory redlining policies instituted in the 1930’s across the country have contributed to ongoing disparities in community investment, greenspace access and tree cover, and climate change resilience.  Even today, these neighborhoods suffer from great swaths of impervious surfaces that leave residents at higher risk for flooding and heat exposure.  “In cities like Baltimore, Dallas, Denver, Miami, Portland and New York, neighborhoods that are poorer and have more residents of color can be 5 to 20 degrees Fahrenheit hotter in summer than wealthier, whiter parts of the same city.” (Plumber et al, 2020).

Redlining was a practice that designated neighborhoods by “grades” largely based on their perception of people who lived there whereby “A” areas were largely inhabited by white, wealthy people and “D” areas by lower-class white, black and immigrants. “Many of the beliefs that government assessors applied when creating the maps were entirely subjective, explicitly racist, and created or codified adverse conditions that still affect cities today ” (The lines that shape our cities, n.d.). These maps were then used by lenders to determine where financial investments should be made.  The result of disinvestment in these areas is in many cases still apparent in cities across the country.  Several of the resources highlighted this month provide interactive story-maps that guide the reader through historical background and current impacts of redlining in Richmond, Virginia, Montgomery Alabama, St Lois Missouri, and Fort Wayne, Indiana, and Richmond, Virginia.  Read more in The lines that shape our cities. (n.d.). ArcGIS StoryMaps. Retrieved January 26, 2021, from https://storymaps.arcgis.com/stories/0f58d49c566b486482b3e64e9e5f7ac9 and Plumer, B., Popovich, N., & Palmer, B. (2020, August 24). How Decades of Racist Housing Policy Left Neighborhoods Sweltering. The New York Times. https://www.nytimes.com/interactive/2020/08/24/climate/racism-redlining-cities-global-warming.html

Best Practices in Land Use and Economic Development Webinar – Wed Jan 20 – 3 pm ET

NACDEP WEBINAR WEDNESDAY SESSION TO LOOK AT BEST PRACTICES IN LAND USE AND ECONOMIC DEVELOPMENT

The New Year is here – and soon so will the next NACDEP Webinar Wednesday. The presentation for January is “Best Practices in Land Use and Economic Development – A Program for Municipal Accreditation.”

It will be presented by Laura Brown, an Associate Professor, Community & Economic Development Educator with the University of Connecticut Department of Extension and a Certified Economic Developer, and Kristen Gorski, the President of the Connecticut Economic Development Association and the Economic Development Coordinator for the Town of West Hartford, CT.

Best Practices in Land Use and Economic Development is an innovative community accreditation program in Connecticut developed to drive communities to pursue excellence in regulatory processes and recognize best practices. This session will highlight learning from the development and evaluation of the 2019 program pilot.

This webinar will be held Wednesday, January 20 at 3 p.m. EST (2 p.m. CST, 1 p.m. MST, 12 noon PST).

The Zoom link for the session is: https://psu.zoom.us/j/97441871544?pwd=M1dRMkdWQXpmM2FtMHE0QTgrNUlmQT09. (Dial in access is available at 301-715-8592 with the webinar ID of 974 4187 1544.)

The session will also be recorded and posted for later viewing.

Also, be sure to mark your calendar for the next webinar. Kenzie Johnston of Ohio State University will be the lead presenter for “Communicating our Message to Stakeholders” on February 17, 2021, at 3 p.m. EST. This series of webinars will be held on the third Wednesday of each month through April.