The location of the MIRA incinerator in Hartford’s South End neighborhood, disproportionately impacting residents of color, aligns with a broader history of racially discriminatory urban development both locally and throughout the US, known as redlining. Redlining, a practice that systematically denied financial services to residents of certain areas based on race and ethnicity, has significantly influenced the socio-economic and environmental landscape of American cities, including Hartford (Rothstein, 2017). Understanding the historical context of redlining and its impacts is crucial to contextualize environmental injustices faced by low-income communities of color in Hartford today.
In the 1930s, during the Great Depression, the federal government established the Home Owners’ Loan Corporation (HOLC) to steady the housing market (McGann, 2014). HOLC created “Residential Security Maps” to assess the risk associated with mortgage lending in various neighborhoods. Areas were color-coded: green for “best,” blue for “still desirable,” yellow for “definitely declining,” and red for “hazardous” (Nelson, 2023). Predominantly Black neighborhoods were often marked as “red” areas, not due to their economic value, but instead because of residents’ race, labeling Black residents as a risk factor for investment. This practice institutionalized racial segregation and economic decline for BIPOC communities in cities like Hartford.
During the Great Migration, spanning from the early 20th century to the 1970s, millions of African Americans moved from the rural South to urban areas in the North and West, seeking economic opportunities and refuge from Jim Crow laws (McBroom, 2020; National Archives, 2021). Cities like Hartford experienced significant demographic shifts as their Black populations increased. However, these new residents encountered racism, including redlining and systemic practices of exclusionary housing policies and discriminatory lending practices, that pushed them to disinvested and under-resourced neighborhoods (Dougherty, 2021).
Redlining maps actively shaped the path of segregated urban development. By categorizing areas based on racial makeup, redlining maps took investment away from minority communities, leading to systematic divestment (McBroom 2020). In the city of Hartford, Black neighborhoods were excluded from home loans, business investments, and infrastructure improvements, establishing poverty and limiting upward mobility. Through redlining, a stigmatization was created about Black neighborhoods, and combined with white flight, further worsened disinvestment in these communities, as resources and investment followed the white populations (Daly, 2023).
The legacy of redlining is evident in many aspects of Hartford’s urban life: housing markets suffer lower property values and opportunities to generate wealth, and housing quality declines, contributing to increased crime and policing. Most critically, these neighborhoods face environmental and health disparities, such as higher exposure to pollutants and limited access to green spaces, resulting in elevated rates of diseases and health issues (Bullard, 2000). The correlation between historically redlined neighborhoods and environmental injustice is clear. In Hartford, many communities of color are situated near the MIRA incinerator, leading to disproportionate exposure to environmental hazards (Chambers, 2007). The placement is not a coincidence but a direct outcome of policies that have marginalized these communities, prioritizing industrial development over the health and well-being of residents (Mitchell, 2020). Waste incinerators have extremely complex, multi-stakeholder histories that shape environmental inequalities, perpetuating the disproportional impacts of pollution (Bullard, 2000; Pellow, 2000).
Addressing the enduring effects of redlining in Hartford requires comprehensive strategies that acknowledge historical injustices and aim to redress them. The practice of redlining has left a mark on Hartford’s low-income communities and communities of color, fostering economic disempowerment and environmental injustices and enabling the operation of the MIRA incinerator despite demonstrable harm for neighboring residents. Understanding this history, along with the health and environmental impacts of waste incinerators, is important to developing informed policies and initiatives that create equitable and healthy urban environments for all residents.