Economic inequality is a pre-existing condition. And just like in the rest of the country, a history of housing discrimination and redlining policies has burdened San Diego with decades of mounting inequities that can still be seen and felt more than 80 years later.
Less than 20 miles apart, the 1938 redlining policy presented two vastly different lending practices that have shaped our socioeconomic reality decades later.
- La Jolla: “Residents embrace nearly all types of professions and are all white. No threat of foreign infiltration. Homes are well maintained.”
- Logan Heights: “Racial concentration of colored fraternity. Homes show only slight degree of pride of ownership and are on the average negligently maintained.”
Scroll over the map below to visualize how redlining policies set in 1938 still impact where people live and what they earn, today.
Today, San Diego is a majority-minority region, meaning no single race or ethnic group makes up more than 50% of the total population. It is a much larger, smarter, and more diverse region than it was 80 or 90 years ago, but we are still segregated. That is the legacy of deliberate investment in some parts of our county, and deliberate disinvestment in others. So, as we talk about getting this economic recovery right, we must address the ways in which communities of color and small businesses are most impacted. It’s no coincidence the above map mirrors that of COVID-19 impacts.