White Flight and Suburbanization

White Flight and Suburbanization

Suburb pictures; cars and houses

This is an image of teenager standing by a car in a suburb, taken in 1968. This image represents underlying themes and context for white flight and suburban growth in Omaha. Sanitary Improvement Districts are generally accredited with urban development (Todd et al., 1975), and this growth westward historically was only affordable for the white and wealthy residents with ability to commute to the cities to work (Strand, 2017). The previous page titled “Sanitary and Improvement Districts” provides vital context for understanding the westward growth of Omaha. SIDs and the Homeowner’s Loan Corporation helped spur white flight and suburbanization in western Omaha, leaving black communities stranded in the inner city; further contributing to urban segregation. The HOLC reinforced existing racial and economic disparities, directing resources away from certain neighborhoods, and towards others. As a result, only those who could afford to take advantage of the SID urban plans were able to distance themselves from “toxic” areas in eastern Omaha.
Literature has identified four factors that primarily fueled suburban development- automobile transportation, which goes hand and hand with transportation systems and the interstate system, federally backed mortgages, policies for low-density residential development, and the post-war baby boom, leading to a sharp increase in housing demand (Strand, 2017). Federally backed mortgages contributed to western white suburban development in Omaha, as the agency which decided mortgages systemically disfavored “bad” or “hazardous” neighborhoods, which were predominantly black (Strand, 2017). When analyzing the Homeowners Loan Corporation (HOLC) map of Omaha, it clearly identifies “good” neighborhoods, and “bad” neighborhoods for loans (Strand, 2017). The green, or “best” neighborhoods were predominantly white neighborhoods, located out west and predominantly white, and the mostly black neighborhoods were identified as “hazardous” (Strand, 2017). Green neighborhoods were given favorable loans, and red or otherwise “bad” neighborhoods were denied favorable loans. This allowed white residents to move to the suburbs or SIDs, and prevented black residents from doing the same. White residents had the financial ability to move to the suburbs and SIDs, out of the toxic pathways of industrial lead exposure, while black and minority populations were left to live in these “hazardous” neighborhoods in the inner city.
Omaha is not alone in this issue, multiple urban areas in the United States have experiences similar experiences to Omaha. The racial disparities that resulted from suburban growth nationally between the 1940s and 60s coincided with declining employment opportunities for African Americans in northern cities, like Chicago and Detroit (Logan et al., 2023). Literature indicates that Omaha is not the only city that experiences segregation reinforcement due to the HOLC. Other cities experienced black neighborhoods being targeting by the HOLC as “high risk,” depriving them of credit and constructing the upgrade of older housing, reinforcing lending decisions which motivate white residents to desert disfavored neighborhoods, encouraging white flight to newer, white dominant communities (Logan, 2023). This redlining exacerbated segregation (Logan, 2023).
In summary, the HOLC enabled white flight to SIDs and suburbs of Omaha, furthering the structural, systemic, and discriminatory urban growth of the city. While the HOLC is not an urban planning agency in itself, its actions further prevented equal access to urban planning policies, like SIDs, that allowed westward migration away from toxic exposures associated with lead.

Paskach, Robert

The Durham Museum

The Durham Museum

1968

Eva Brucciani

Image; Still Image

Original Format: 35mm black and white film roll

Still Image

Original Format: 35mm black and white film roll

Original Format: 35mm black and white film roll