‘Snob zoning’ is racial housing segregation by another name

[IM2]

This is what is called a policy. And it is racist. It does not mention race but as it's designed it purposely limits opportunities for those who are not white based on race.

‘Snob zoning’ is racial housing segregation by another name

By Elizabeth Winkler September 25, 2017

It’s no secret that Americans live in divided spaces. The country’s cities and suburbs are segregated by race and socioeconomic status. These divides are often assumed to be a result of economics — as poor and rich families alike pick neighborhoods they can afford — and of personal choice, as Americans seek to live near people with whom they have more in common.

There’s a more sinister force at work, however. In many places, economic and racial segregation goes beyond market forces or personal choices. That segregation is buttressed by local laws and ordinances that effectively exclude or discourage poor and working-class people from moving into certain communities, keeping those areas primarily the domain of the white and wealthy.

Across the country, American communities employ “snob zoning” policies that forbid builders from constructing apartment buildings or impose minimum residential lot requirements. They are often presented as driven by concerns that building smaller units could change the character of a community. Some ordinances even exclude modest single-family homes in the name of preserving a neighborhood’s “aesthetic uniformity.” Such rules effectively impose a price floor for the cost of housing, making it impossible for people who live below a certain means to afford them, a recent report by the Century Foundation explains.

[Millions of poor families could benefit from housing aid Trump wants to cut]

The policies are widespread in cities and suburbs across the country, the result of a century of social engineering by federal and local governments. But a survey by the Brookings Institution found they are particularly popular in the Northeast and Midwest. Towns with the most stringent rules tend to have lower density and be wealthier than those with less regulation, according to researchers at the Wharton School at the University of Pennsylvania.

The laws do not specifically mention race, but because African Americans and Latinos have on average far less wealth and income than white people, the laws do tend to drive people of color out and keep neighborhoods more uniformly white. That’s in keeping with the racist history of “snob zoning.”

Analysis | ‘Snob zoning’ is racial housing segregation by another name

This how whites have always played with the law and you all know it. So like I say, gaslighting doesn't work here.

Why are you worrying about other peoples communities? Fix your own community before you complain about others.

Shut up and fix yours. Yours is the problem. Your community is the one that creates policies such as what is being discussed ibn this thread.