ENVIRONMENTAL COSTS AND CONSEQUENCES OF SPRAWL. IN SPRAWL CITY. RACE, POLITICS, AND PLANNING IN ATLANTA

The environmental quality in urban areas results from a host of factors, including the distribution of wealth, patterns of racial and economic discrimination, redlining, housing and real estate practices, location of industry, and differential enforcement of land use and environmental regulations. The imbalance between residential amenities and land uses assigned to central cities and suburbs cannot be explained by class factors alone. The ability of an individual to escape a health-threatening physical environment is usually related to affluence. However, racial barriers complicate this process for many African Americans. Most African Americans live in neighborhoods where they are in the majority. Residential segregation decreases for most racial and ethnic groups with additional education, income, and occupational status. However, this scenario does not hold true for most African Americans. African Americans, no matter what their educational or occupational achievement or income level, or subjected to more rigid segregation and are exposed to higher crime rates, less effective educational or occupational achievement or income level, are subjected to more rigid segregation and are exposed to higher crime rates, less effective educational systems, higher mortality risks, more dilapidated surroundings, and greater environmental threats because of their race. Institutionalized discrimination plays a prominent role in sorting people into residential neighborhoods, land uses, and environmental quality. The developments of spatially differentiated metropolitan areas where African Americans are segregated from other Americans have resulted from governmental policies and marketing practices of the housing industry and lending institutions.