Author Archives: Beth Haines

  1. Legacies of Redlining: Online Resources

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    The Legacies of Redlining: Preservation and Development is a series of roundtables presented in partnership with AIANY Planning & Urban Design Committee, AIANY Historic Buildings Committee, and the Historic Districts Council, and part of Open House New York’s multi-year program series Building Capital: The Value of Place.

    We have compiled a list of maps, reports, exhibitions, and other online resources about the historical context and continued effects of redlining in New York City on economic development, investment, urban renewal, housing, historic preservation, and cultural heritage preservation initiatives past and present. The list will be updated as the series continues. This is intended to be a starting point rather than an exhaustive guide, and we encourage you to seek out and engage with materials beyond this list.

    Maps

    • The University of Richmond’s Mapping Inequality project has digitized the 1930s Home Owners’ Loan Corporation neighborhood maps and made them available for download.
    • This map created by the NYC Landmarks Preservation Commission displays all designated Individual, Interior and Scenic Landmarks, as well as Historic Districts, in all five boroughs. 
    • The Department of City Planning maintains a map of NYC’s zoning and land use with a number of interactive elements and overlays including historic districts, environmental designations, transit zones, and mandatory inclusionary housing areas.

    Scholarship

    Case Studies

    Manhattan

    Staten Island

    • Melissa Checker’s paper, Green is the New Brown: “Old School Toxics” and Environmental Gentrification on a New York City Waterfront (2015), explores the competing priorities and initiatives undertaken by the Bloomberg administration, local residents, and environmental activists in Staten Island’s North Shore in the years leading up to Hurricane Sandy in 2012.
    • Patrick Nugent’s paper, The Urban Environmental Order: Planning & Politics on Staten Island, 1945-1984 (PhD diss. George Washington University, 2016), tracks the shift in planning priorities from densification and diversification to ecological renewal and conservation during those years. This study was the winner of the John Reps Dissertation Prize given by the American Society for City and Regional Planning History in 2017.
    • Patrick Nugent also wrote a follow-up paper, “From the Richmond Parkway to the Staten Island Greenbelt: The Rise of Ecological Zoning in New York City.” Journal of Planning History, Vol. 16 No. 2, pp. 139-161 (2017). This article is free to read via the New York Public Library’s research catalog (library card login required).
    • Jeffrey Kroessler studied the history and results of the Lindsay administration’s attempt to implement a master plan for South Richmond in his article “The Limits of Liberal Planning: The Lindsay Administration’s Failed Plan to Control Development on Staten Island.” Journal of Planning History, Vol. 16, No. 4, pp. 263-284 (2017). This article is free to read via the New York Public Library’s research catalog (library card login required).
    • Helen Mahan’s article, “Fulfilling the Promise of ‘Parks to People’ in a Changing Environment: The Gateway National Recreation Area Experience” (The George Wright Forum, Vol. 32, No. 1, pp. 51-58 (2015)) discusses the park’s approach to preservation of its historic structures before and after Hurricane Sandy and changes to federal policies on recovery funding. This article is free to read via JSTOR (library card login required).
    • The U.S. Geological Survey’s 2005 Coastal Vulnerability Assessment of Gateway National Recreation Area to Sea-Level Rise is a prescient analysis of flood impacts in Staten Island and Queens.

    NYC Data Analysis

    Legacies of Redlining: Preservation and Development Series

    Last updated July 12, 2024.