Urban Planning Kills Black Americans

The segregation and systemic racism ingrained in the US historical urban planning initiatives is killing black people.

Photo by Unseen Histories on Unsplash

Over a century of discriminatory urban planning initiatives contribute to the excess Covid-19 mortality rates in Black communities. The spatial distribution of the economic activities, transportation, medical facilities, green space, fresh food, schools, and affordable housing developments in cities, perpetuates inequitable living standards, poor health, and low-income opportunities. Real estate investments further widen the income disparities via developing in White suburbs while ignoring and excluding the Black communities. The centralizing of wealth and activities in White neighborhoods, concentrates poverty in Black, as well as challenges accessibility to basic services. The health and financial disparities from the intentional urban planning initiatives segregating US cities in the 20th century, persists in the 21st, and the evidence appears in the Covid-19 mortality rates.

The St. Louis metropolitan area is the 6th most segregated city in the US with 98% of the Black population living in the north and Whites in the south. The average income increases by $30,000, university graduates by 60%, and median property value by $250,000 when crossing a major…