Everything is (not) Going According to a Plan: The Impact of Redlining on Socioeconomic and Politic Differentiation of Chicago

Abstract

This article addresses the question of the continuing influence of the policy of redlining (dividing the city into quarters based on the risks of issuing mortgages), carried out in the 19301950s, on the racial, socioeconomic and electoral differentiation of Chicago. This city was chosen because the theoretical models of the researchers of the Chicago School of Sociology were developed using it as an example, and on the basis of which political decisions were made about the division—in fact, the segregation—of the city. Hoyt played a leading role in the implementation of these theoretical views. Within his model, permanent segregation by race was considered a logical consequence of the market economy, and not only did not need to be fought, but should have been fixed in planning decisions if this would lead to an increase in economic efficiency. Consequently, the Chicago area was divided into four categories: A (“the best” neighborhoods), B (“still desirable”), C (“definitely declining”), D (“hazardous”). As valuations fell, the likelihood of a mortgage (or refinancing an existing problem mortgage), the main form of supporting demand in the housing market after the Great Depression, also decreased. In “hazardous” areas, this probability was zero. This study checked whether racial and socioeconomic differentiation obeys the logic set by the redlining policy, and whether this logic has implications for the last presidential election. For this, the DardenKamel composite socioeconomic index was calculated and the racial composition was analyzed in the context of the types of quarters identified in 1935. The results of the 2020 presidential election were also analyzed. As a result, Chicago was found to be differentiated differently than the redlining pattern suggested. The growth of the population of two racial groups, practically unrepresented in the 1930s–1950s (Hispanics and Asian Americans), has strongly altered this pattern and disrupted the racial status quo.