Does My Neighborhood Determine My Future?

Housing policy in the United States has a long history of deepening segregation. Redlining, exclusionary lending, and targeted zoning laws have all played a role in isolating minority populations while simultaneously privileging white residents. Glad You Asked host Lee Adams wants to know how this happened, and what effect residential segregation has on your future.

0:00 Intro
1:48 Checking Zip Codes
3:08 Segregated By Design
8:32 Testing For Fair Housing
11:26 Downzoning
13:02 Property Values
16:10 Lead Poisoning
19:22 Wrap Up

[artv]

I'm 41 yrs old and grew up in a poor neighborhood in a crappy rental house. I'm the only kid of my age group from that neighborhood who went to college and graduated. I became an architect. By far the hardest part of my career was not totally breaking down when I got my first job in an architecture firm and visiting clients of upper middle income in their houses and saw how totally different other people's realities were from mine. Like life was just simple check off the boxes as you go kind of a game for them. It was impossible to relate to any of those people, even though they were all nice. At first it made my job beyond difficult, not being able to connect. I almost gave up at one point and joined the military (not that joining the army is giving up, but staying incredibly physically active would have kept my mind from thinking about my life situation). I stayed with it, but I'm still a renter and am still paying back student debt. However I recently begun to learn how to be happy for what I do have, which is a feat that I'm proud of.

[DustShining]

There is an old Chinese idiom "Mengmu Sanqian" which mentioned that Mencius lived near tombs and slaughterhouses when he was a child, and imitated killing pigs and crying tombs every day. His mother was deeply worried and decided to move near the school. Mencius also began to imitate the teachers and students in the school. In the end he became another great philosopher after Confucius.
I used to think that this was just an old-fashioned sentence. Now I'm so appreciate my parents for working so hard to create a good living environment for me! Thank you for making such an inspiring video!

[lf]

I grew up in the projects in the South Bronx. I was lucky to get a scholarship to college and ended up going to college in Italy where I stayed. But almost EVERYONE I grew up with in my neighborhood are either dead, in jail or some version of a single mother struggling to make ends meet stressed out. American black poverty is very meticulous social engineering.

[KoolBreeze]

I think people seriously under-estimate the impact of housing/neighborhood on economic mobility. Owning a home, or even being in a neighborhood with homeowners can have a large impact on ability to move up. When people support policies that concentrate poverty and low income individuals into one area, the outcome is rarely good.

[roninomalley]

In Brooklyn, she lives on the other side of Prospect Park. I lived in Park Slope, the blue neighborhood she was talking about. It was a white, wealthy, family neighborhood. She was talking about the same library I would go to as a kid, the same parks and playgrounds I would go to. It deeply saddens me that not everyone is given equal oppertunaties.

[user]

I'm so lucky to grow up in a good region with financially stable parents

[iamthirdyt]

I also grew up in northern Virginia, went to college in Boston, and now live in Chicago. I didn’t realize how few black people were in northern Virginia until I left. Getting out of your familiar environment can teach you more than books and school. Experience widens your outlook a lot.

[MiVidaBellisima]

Sadly there is a STRONG correlation between the neighborhood(s) you grew up in and the opportunities you have access to in life 😢

[gmerscf]

You guy already have lucky just because you already live in the United States, I'm from Mexico, now living in El salvador and the insecurity on those countries it's a big problems, when I was child I can't finish my studies not because I don't wanna do it, it was because the schools was in the territory of other Gangs, and if I walk (literally just walk) in that school, they will kill me.
I don't have plans of travel to United States or something like that, but just the country where you born it's a important factor.

[Luckydaturtle]

From my perspective, neighborhood can be more impactful than financial situation. My parents moved to an upper middle-class neighborhood (or it became more affluent over the years bc thats how the cali housing market works) in the San Gabriel after living most of their lives in the one most impoverished parts of Long Beach. Despite being the poorest person in most classrooms, I can definitely say that I would not be at the university of my caliber without the access to schools I have. The teachers paid for by neighborhood property taxes are passionate about their jobs and we had all the amenities/programs high school students desire. I'm in my last year of business school and in retrospect, I realize how lucky I truly am based off of zip code.

[TheBurtDude]

Youtube allowed me to leave a very rural town in Alabama called Vance. It had 500 people when I moved there in 98 for my dad's new job at the only Mercedes Benz factory in America. From small city life in Oxford Alabama to a still very rural place of now 1500. I fell in love with those people, they made me want better for myself and that's why I chose Youtube as a career. Been at it for over 10 years now and am now living in Dallas Texas after living in multiple states for my career. I am now a father thanks to my beautiful lady and I have an amazing stepson too! Crazy where hope can take you.

[adityanragudaran]

"America, land of opportunity"
Some terms may apply

[feyokki]

You guys should do a video on growing up in small rural (especially Southern) areas vs. suburban and metropolitan areas.

[Luboman]

This is true of immigrants too. My parents won the visa lottery and came from Guatemala with their family (which included me). We ended up in one of the best counties in the U.S. with regards to public education, Montgomery County in Maryland, right outside D.C. And all because this was where we had our only family in the U.S.--my mom's second cousin removed. Otherwise my parents would've settled in a far more impoverished community, possibly in L.A., Houston or NYC. McLean is in Fairfax County, which is another really great county with a fabulous public school system. In any case, I had incredible experiences with regards to my public education. I was set for life. I only learned that Guatemalan immigrants didn't have these opportunities when I went away to a very elite college in New England. That's where I met two other Guatemalan immigrant children, struggling mightily with the academics and social dynamics of the place. I was having an easy time integrating. Why? Because they came from poor communities and deprived public schools in East L.A. To them this college was very alien, and alienating. I was used to the students in this college, to what the academic expectations were, so it wasn't much of a cultural shock to me. It was only then that I realized how lucky I was, just like the reporter at the beginning of this video. That I had won the geographic lottery.

[iamthirdyt]

I grew up in northern Virginia and now live in Chicago. There are neighborhoods in Chicago that Uber drivers don’t even dare to go during the daytime. I’m glad the Chicago Public Schools give opportunities for children anywhere to go to good schools where kids test in with somewhat of an affirmative action (lower cutoff scores for poorer neighborhoods). HOWEVER, children in some poor neighborhoods have to travel for like an hour to go to these schools, so many give up that opportunity. In addition, a lot of people in the poorer neighborhoods don’t even consider sending their children to better schools. In contrast, when I lived in northern Virginia I went to a magnet high school where some students willingly take two hour bus rides to attend school everyday (that’s four hours per day). There are so many hurdles that perpetuate the inequality. I hope we keep heading in the right direction.

[Og_blvkstvh]

The short answer is yes, you have to not only be determined, skilled, smart and Have the right people around you but you also have to be extremely lucky. So many people who are all of the above still don’t make it out of their circumstances.. kids on the honor roll with great attendance and all the extra curriculars that it would take to get into a prestigious university get gunned down everyday. Chance is the biggest factor that matters in regards to you making out of the community you were born into.

[brandonf.]

Redlining was so underhanded that it moved the people out of less desirable areas in order to make them desirable.

[CaraMarie]

I still remember the first time I went to Manhattan after moving to NYC. I was in the 10th grade and went to a class trip to see a court case and I remembered wondering where i was. It was so different from the Bronx. Everything was clean and the people looked so different from me. Thankfully for me, the Bronx is in NYC so i had access to things like the summer bridge program and the jumpstart program and then ASAP in college but other states (or the rest of ny) aren't as generous with the opportunities for low income households.

[joshwingart]

I'm really glad you answered. You guys and gals presented this information so well that I feel like it could help bridge the communication gap to the people who deny the issues exist. Thank you for putting this together, and I'm really looking forward to the next chance I get to have this conversation with somebody.

[MP_mafia]

So many defacto forms of inequality. People who reduce life outcomes to personality traits are clowning. So many other problematic aspects of urban planning.