The Costs of Connecticut’s Segregation

Segregation hurts all of us. Land use policies that cause segregation raise not only moral questions, but social, economic, and environmental ones. What are the consequences, perhaps unintended, of Connecticut’s land use laws?

Socioeconomic Consequences

Racially segregated areas have much larger income gaps by race. Racial minorities often inhabit neighborhoods without sufficient access to grocery stores, child care, and vital health services.  These consequences reverberate across generations, as children who grow up in low-income, segregated neighborhoods make less money and pursue higher education at lower rates than those who grow up in integrated neighborhoods.  

With a variety of housing types, we can instead attract and retain a racially and economically diverse community that we want to live in, complete with seniors, families, and young talent that businesses depend upon. Neighborhoods with a greater variety of housing types not only enjoy greater economic resilience, but also facilitate aging-in-place and decrease traffic congestion.

Environmental Consequences

Although land use policy aims to restructure our environment to protect human lives while meeting various needs, the development wrought so far has failed to ensure racial and socioeconomic equity.  Through the placement of industrial zones, local planning tends to locate hazardous waste sites and fracking sites near predominantly non-white communities.  Such zoning, along with more lax regulations around these communities, results in much higher exposure to particulate matter and volatile organic compounds among people of color. Consequently, asthma rates are twice as high among black children than among white children.

Additionally, the urban heat island effect, which causes more fatalities than any other extreme weather event in the United States, is far more prevalent in minority neighborhoods. In fact, a recent study shows that neighborhoods that were redlined by the Home Owners' Loan Corporation were significantly warmer than non-redlined neighborhoods in 94% of surveyed cities, including New Britain, Stamford, East Hartford, and New Haven.

Land use policy has also caused the proliferation of sprawl and its detrimental environmental effects for communities across Connecticut.  When lower density zones are combined with a limited variety of uses, as is common throughout the state, land use policy results in more vehicle miles traveled (VMT), which increases smog and greenhouse gas emissions.  The effects of carbon emissions disproportionately affect low-income and minority communities.  In 2017, Connecticut had higher VMT per capita than nine states, including New Jersey and California, despite being the fourth most densely populated, likely as a result of our low-density single-use zoning.

Our proposals focus housing around transit stations and commercial corridors to decrease our reliance on cars and their impact on carbon emissions. Additionally, we encourage gentle density in already developed areas to decrease sprawl into our forests and farmland. Our proposed reforms promote a cleaner environment, and subsequently safer and more equitable communities.