A 'Redlining' Bike Tour

Ann Dornfield reports on a new bike tour of the redlining that enabled the segregation the city of Seattle even after it passed an open housing ordinance in 1968.

The bike tour is the creation of Merlin Rainwater, who was inspired to bring the history of redlining to the mostly white audience that typically attends her guided bike tours after encountering several of the publicly available resources about redlining practices of the 20th century.

"…I thought, you know, this is information that really ought to be in Laurelhurst. It should be in Broadmoor," Rainwater said. "Because black people in the Central District, they know this history. It's the white folks in the segregated white parts of the city that need to know that there was a struggle for open housing in Seattle."

So far the bike tour has been very popular, according to the article. "Rainwater hopes people come away from the tour with the understanding that racial segregation was no accident," adds Dornfield.