Seattle Exhibit Grapples With Redlining Past and Present

A creative exhibit highlights how redlining and racist exclusion persist today.

1 minute read

March 26, 2019, 9:00 AM PDT

By Elana Eden


Planning Commission in World's Fair office, 1958

Seattle Municipal Archives / Flickr

In 1968, when the federal Fair Housing Act banned racial discrimination in housing, the city of Seattle passed its own Open Housing Act. For the 50th anniversary of those victories, the Wing Luke Museum of the Asian Pacific Experience has launched an exhibit that will eventually anchor a trail of commemorative sites from the International District through the Central District.

The exhibit celebrates community leaders who fought discrimination in the built environment and beyond—like the Jackson Street Community Council, the Seattle Chapter of the Congress of Racial Equality, and the Gang of Four, which included current King County Councilmember Larry Gossett. And it highlights how similar struggles over civil rights and place-based discrimination manifest today.

"Seattle is particularly rife with racially restrictive covenants, some even still in place today," Annie Lloyd explains in Curbed, pointing to present-day housing deeds that prohibit non-white ownership. In addition to explicitly racist practices, Lloyd notes, working-class communities of color now face gentrifying investment patterns that threaten to push them out of the very neighborhoods formed partly in response to redlining.

The exhibit is free and public, and extends through February 2020.

Thursday, March 7, 2019 in Curbed Seattle

View down New York City alleyway at nighttime

Red Cities, Blue Cities, and Crime

Homicides rose across the nation in 2020 and 2021. But did they rise equally in all cities, or was the situation worse in some than in others?

March 12, 2023 - Michael Lewyn

babyt Boomer Homeowners

The Shifting Boomer Bulge: More Bad News for America’s Housing Crisis?

In the first of a two-part series, PlaceMakers’ Ben Brown interviews housing guru Arthur C. Nelson on the sweeping demographic changes complicating the housing market.

March 12, 2023 - PlaceShakers and NewsMakers

Yellow on black "Expect Delays" traffic sign

A Serious Critique of Congestion Costs and Induced Vehicle Travel Impacts

Some highway advocates continue to claim that roadway expansions are justified to reduce traffic congestion. That's not what the research shows. It's time to stop obsessing over congestion and instead strive for efficient accessibility.

March 14, 2023 - Todd Litman

Black and blue bags of trash piled on a New York City sidewalk

New York Garbage ‘Containerization’ Pilot Not Replicable at Scale

The city’s sanitation department says the program, while successful on one block, would be too difficult and expensive to implement citywide.

5 minutes ago - StreetsBlog NYC

Washington D.C. Protest

IPCC Report: The World Is Running Out of Time on Climate Change

The planet is not doing enough to reduce greenhouse gas emissions, according to a recent report published by the United Nations’ International Panel on Climate Change (IPCC).

March 20 - International Panel on Climate Change

A view of the Boise skyline, across tress int he foreground. The state capitol is visible amongst other office buildings.

Skyline-Defining High-Rise Potentially Coming to Boise

A rendering making the rounds in Boise depicts a 40-story apartment building that would be taller than all other buildings in one of the fastest growing cities in the United States.

March 20 - Boise Dev

Urban Design for Planners 1: Software Tools

This six-course series explores essential urban design concepts using open source software and equips planners with the tools they need to participate fully in the urban design process.

Planning for Universal Design

Learn the tools for implementing Universal Design in planning regulations.