redlining

Liberty City was never just a neighborhood. It was a declaration. Platted in 1922 during the Florida Land Boom, the 80-acre community emerged when Black workers were building the city but had nowhere to live. Stretching between Northwest 62nd and 71st streets, it centered around Northwest 18th Avenue — then called Broadway.

Dozens of Palm Beach County-area officials and housing experts are taking a close look at a new study on the intersection of affordable housing and racial inequity, which found that discriminatory housing practices still exist that hurt Black residents — and the economy as a whole.

The Justice Department has secured a $9 million settlement with Ameris Bank over allegations it avoided underwriting mortgages in predominately Black and Latino communities in Jacksonville, Florida, and discouraged people there from getting home loans.

"We see a really clear association between how these maps were drawn in the '30s and the air pollution disparities today," says an author of a study on the effects of the discriminatory policy.

In Cleveland, as in other cities, a move for "tree equity" is bringing more trees to low-income neighborhoods that often lack them. It also helps neighborhoods stay cooler as the planet heats up.