River, Race, and Redlining: Racialized Wealth & Environmental Injustices Along the Mississippi River

Abstract

This paper examines the historical social and spatial dynamics that underlie urban environmental injustices along the Mississippi River. Focusing on three riverfront cities, Minneapolis, St. Paul and New Orleans, I have used the Home Owners’ Loan Corporation (HOLC)’s City Survey Area Description sheets (ADS) to investigate how real estate appraisers have interpreted the values of the Mississippi River for different demographics and how this has contributed to environmental injustice. In doing so, I analyze how the changing values of the river as either an environmental amenity or disamenity have shaped injustices. It is a mixed methods paper using qualitative and comparative spatial analyses. The dramatic changes in property values indicate signs of environmental gentrification in all three cities, but the causes are different. There are multiple policy implications of this research highlighted in the last section.