Fig. 1: Historical redlining in Los Angeles and its present population characteristics.
a Historic Home Owner Loan Corporation’s (HOLC) map of Los Angeles where the urban neighborhoods were categorized into four grades of perceived desirability: A-graded neighborhoods (considered 'Best' for investment; marked in green), B-graded neighborhoods (considered somewhat 'Desirable'; marked in blue), C-graded neighborhoods (considered 'Declining'; marked in orange) and D-graded neighborhoods (considered 'Hazardous'; marked in red). Census tract boundaries are based on 2020 shapefiles provided by the U.S. Census Bureau. b, c Contemporary Google Earth imagery of two contrasting neighborhoods, respectively: Pasadena, as an example of historically A-graded, and Boyle Heights, which was historically D-graded are shown. Note the substantial difference in access to green spaces between the two neighborhoods. d Racial and ethnic distribution in each HOLC grade based on 2020 U.S. Census tract data. Each tract is treated as an independent observational unit. The sample size of census tracts (n) in each of the HOLC grades are as follows: nA = 78, nB = 195, nC = 670, and nD = 377. Box plots show medians (center lines), inter-quartile ranges (boxes), 5th–95th percentiles (whiskers), and outliers (points).
