Race and Gender in Issues in Neighborhood and Residential Design

---

• Objectives
• Historical Background
• Trends
• Case Studies

• Summary of Issue
• Case Studies

• General Solutions

BIBLIOGRAPHY

• Books & Periodicals
• Web Addresses

Urban Ghetto:

• Consistently high unemployment
• Low median income
• Low median house values (and therefore, lower net worth)
• Lower high school test scores
• Higher percentage of single-parent families and births to un-wed mothers
• Higher instance of substance abuse
• Higher crime and delinquency rate
• High number of homeless 
• Racial isolation from other groups of people
• Lack of basic services – garbage, street repair, utilities, police, fire, etc.
• Lack of commercial development

“White Flight” accelerating in the wake of the urban race riots of the 1960’s in many cities.

Even with increasing black suburbanization, most American suburbs remain almost entirely white.

Studies of the present racial attitudes have found that whites are far less accepting of equal treatment when it comes to the private domains of life.

Whites’ belief that an African American presence in their neighborhood will inevitably result in the depreciation of property values remain an enduring myth.  (Keating)

Ghettos are often filled with shelters, clinics, sewage treatment plants, and incinerators  -  facilities that wealthier white neighborhoods don’t want.

Few whites are willing to accept even a minimal black presence in their neighborhoods.

75% of whites feel that blacks have as good a chance as whites at obtaining housing they can afford.

Racially isolated communities have been created through racism techniques that include physical harassment and attack by potential neighbors, racial steering and blockbusting by real estate agents, and redlining by federal agencies, mortgage lenders, and insurance companies.  (Thomas)