From Redlining to Reinvestment & Greenlining

Abstract

“Redlining” older places is a practice used to bias bank lending toward newer and likely “whiter” areas. The issue is given new life by recent attacks on laws created to reverse the practice. “Greenlining” implies reversing redlining and  sprawl, both aided by public disinvestment too, a framing used in “smart growth” and urban reinvestment policies. Demands for public accountability on disinvestment and racism is in ever-sharpening focus and is occurring as the U.S. faces the disruptions of a pandemic, climate change, and recession. The session will explore these aspects of “Greenlining.” This discussion is designed to be informed by and complement OAH 2021 Roundtable Discussion on “Racism, Redlining and the Reinvestment Movement” moderated by Beryl Satter.

Chair: Scott Bernstein
Scott Bernstein, Strategic Adviser, Price Institute on Ethnicity, Culture & the Modern Experience, Rutgers University-Newark; Founder and Emeritus President, Center for Neighborhood Technology; Board President American Council for an Energy Efficient Economy; founding board member Brookings Institution Urban & Metropolitan Center; Appointed Member, President's Council on Sustainable Development and White House Policy Dialogue on Reducing GHG Emissions

Panelist: Powell A. John
John A. Powell, Professor of Law, African American Studies and Ethnic Studies, Chancellor's Chair of Equity & Inclusion and Director, the Othering and Belonging Institute, U. of California at Berkeley, author of Racing to Justice: Transforming Our Conceptions of Self and Other to Build an Inclusive Society (Indiana U. Press 2015) and a member of the National Advisory Committee of SPARCC- Sustainable Prosperous and Resilient Communities Challenge 

Panelist: Julia Parzen
Julia Parzen, co-founder, Urban Sustainability Directors Network, co-founder and first CEO Working Assets Money Fund, co-author Credit Where Its Due: Development Banking for Communities (Temple U. Press 1990) , co-author The Guide to Greening Cities (Island Press 2013) 

Panelist: Toni Preckwinkle, Cook County
President of the Board, Cook County IL, former five-term member of the Chicago City Council representing the 4th Ward on the south side, former Executive Director of the Chicago Jobs Council, and taught history for 10 years in Chicago area high schools. She was active in the Housing Abandonment Prevention Task Force, which helped conceive of early warning systems for abandonment prevention, energy efficiency services to prevent displacement, and a sophisticated system for financing affordable housing adopted by Congress in the 1986 Tax Reform Act. Cook County is the second largest county in the U.S., and under her leadership has adopted innovative strategies to address environmental performance, industrial redevelopment, both transit oriented and cargo oriented development, and the beneficial re-use of land.

Panelist: Harriet Tregoning, New Mobility Organization Alliance
Director, New Mobility Organization Alliance, at the World Resources Institute Ross Center for Sustainable Cities; founding director USEPA Office of Smart Growth, State of MD Secretary of Smart Growth; Assistant Secretary for Community Planning and Development, HUD where she managed the first National Disaster Resilience Competition, and she served as Director of Planning for the District of Columbia under two mayors