We Get Letters: Who Would Have Thought “Red Lines” Could Do So Much Damage?

I’ve lived in Pasadena for many years and have often wondered why disparity in some Pasadena residential neighborhoods never seems to change.  Today, I am shining the light on the injustice called “redlining” not to bring a cloud to our great City but to expose it’s much more sinister “ripple effect.” History confirms that the deliberate and racist actions of the Pasadena Improvement Association, key Pasadena civic leaders and homeowners had and is still having a ripple effect on Pasadena residents, especially people of color.      

Want proof?  Just intersect and aggregate old Home Owners Loan Corporation (HOLC) and other redlining maps over more recent Pasadena neighborhood maps. Several University research teams did just that. Below are a few eye-opening results:

1. The north and southwest sections of Pasadena received a “D” fourth grade in the former redlining map.  Neighborhoods were classified based on factors such as “threat of infiltration of foreign-born, negro, or lower grade populations.”  A “D” grade neighborhood was considered to be in full decline and areas lenders should steer clear of as not worthy of investment.     
2. A recent median housing values map revealed that redlining neighborhoods formerly graded as “D” still have lower median housing values, on average, than other areas in Pasadena.  

Want more proof?  

Key Pasadena leaders and residents pushed and promoted the hate-filled lie that “when people of color move into a neighborhood occupied by white people the value of the surrounding property drops.”  This “lie” caught fire burning down Pasadena neighborhoods and residents of color’s lives.  The damaging ripple effect of this lie in Pasadena over the years:    

1. In the 50s, the Pasadena Chamber of Commerce aided the federal government in classifying the north and southwest sections of Pasadena as “blighted” despite the beautiful houses and thriving multi-cultural communities that lived in them. The blight designation paved the way for 210-freeway construction to plow through vibrant black-owned businesses on North Lincoln Avenue and beautiful homes in north and southwestern Pasadena owned by people of color.
2. By the late 60s an estimated 299 families were displaced by urban renewal projects in Pasadena, 91% of which were families of color. 
3. In 2022, north and southwest Pasadena struggle with issues of “retail redlining” where businesses avoid setting up shop in neighborhoods deemed undesirable.   

You ask me is there a way to make this ripple effect stop.  Excellent question.  It started with the ‘strategic’ hate-filled lie that people’s race brings down property values.  People who strategically lie do so when they think it will benefit them and give them an advantage. For decades, white Pasadena homeowners have disproportionately benefitted from higher property values as a direct result of this strategic lie.  

How do we stop this ripple effect – simply tell and expose the truth and hold Pasadena leaders who perpetuated the lie accountable for the resulting damage. Truth-telling builds trust and stronger relationships. 

What is the truth you ask?

Simply – a person’s race should not be factor for determining property values.

Who should be held responsible for the devastating social and economic damage from this lie?

Pasadena leaders who pushed the lie and directly profited from it by using “campaigns of racial segregation.” 

 Wilhelmina Robertson

Got something to say, email Managing Editor André Coleman, at andrec@pasadenanowmagazine.com