Legacies of Redlining: Preservation and Development in Staten Island

Staten Island—NYC’s least populous borough and the only one not connected by subway—has long stood apart from the rest of New York City. The island’s geography and history shaped its 1930s redline maps in response to environmental degradation from industrial proximity driving neighborhood classification reinforcing racial segregation. This Staten Island-focused roundtable, part of the Legacies of Redlining: Preservation and Development series, will highlight local voices and case studies to provide historical and cultural context and discuss present-day preservation and development initiatives with particular consideration for environmental justice awareness and next-generation narratives of community identity. 

About the Legacies of Redlining: Preservation and Development Series:
Building on a launch event hosted in January 2023, this is a series of borough-based roundtable discussions intended to build capacity, share narratives, and develop a collective understanding of both historical parallels and preservation paradigm shifts happening now. The roundtables will identify interdisciplinary areas for tactical consideration and policy-based intervention and will set the stage for subsequent field visits in partnership with the Historic Districts Council and Open House New York's Building Capital: The Power of Place. Together, participants from across the program series events—including local experts and engaged professional practitioners will reconvene to develop a white paper, i.e. policy workshop.

In New York City and across the nation, redlining has left a seemingly indelible impact. Even after 90 years, neighborhoods labeled as "hazardous" by federal home lending policies in the 1930s still show physical scars from 1960s urban renewal demolitions and remain racially segregated, with high rates of poverty and chronic illness. While official policies of redlining may have ended with the passage of the Fair Housing Act (1968) and Community Reinvestment Act (1979), the disparities in homeownership rates, generational wealth, and provision of public services have persisted.

What has persisted, too, in many redlined neighborhoods are strong communities born of self-preservation, survivalist ingenuity, and cultural bonds—but these communities and places are at risk of dissolution, facing historical erasure as a result of renewed urban investment. What policies and structures can ensure development proceeds equitably, bringing economic resources to the people and organizations that have built and sustained vital, thriving communities in the face of neglect? Where Historic preservation has historically applied a narrow toolkit of landmarks and districting, traditionally used in prosperous neighborhoods to protect, build wealth, and prevent undesired change in the built environment, what roles can more expanded, inclusive, and engaging practices of preservation play in protecting or representing the historic and cultural assets of communities that have endured the legacies of redlining?