Memorandum

To: David Martin, Planning Director, City of Santa Monica

From: Mercedes Stroeve, Graduate student, USC Sol Price
Date: March 24, 2022

Subject: The disparate impact and segregation resulting from past planning decisions

This memorandum addresses the unconstitutional practice of racial segregation by US city

planners. Cities such as Santa Monica, California have participated in this unjust history, thus
city planners have an obligation to remedy these harms to ensure all people have an equal
opportunity to city goods and services. Below, I provide; a historical overview of segregation led
by planners, the motive behind segregation, the tools used to exclude people of color, the
perpetuated impacts, and the recommendations for desegregation. Quotes and recommendations
are sourced from the book Segregation by Design: Local Politics and Inequality in American
Cities by Jessica Trounstine.

History of Segregation
Following the US Civil War era, racial segregation became institutionalized through the Jim
Crow laws. Upheld by government officials and executed by city planners, these laws prohibited
people of color from accessing the same space, goods, and services as white people. Through
land-use zoning and regulation, planners determine where things can and cannot be developed.
Planners also manage public services, including but not limited to sewage, utilities, roads, and
public spaces. This ability to shape cities and communities allowed planners to limit economic
opportunities for people of color and diminish their quality of life.

In 1917, the US Supreme Court ruled that racial zoning, allowing only white people to inhabit an
area or neighborhood, was unconstitutional. This concerned white property owners who felt the
presence of black neighbors would threaten their property value. The pressure was placed on
government officials to protect property value, the primary tax revenue for municipalities. This
led to a “color-blind” language within land-use regulation that would make these actions go
undetected. This included restricting multi-family housing and public housing in single-family
housing neighborhoods. Planners were assured this was a strong tactic because of the disparate
standards for black individuals to receive home loans. For black communities already living
within the single-family housing neighborhood, other displacement tactics were used such as
highway placement to create division between community groups and slum clearance to move
people out of the area.

Santa Monica
In 1940, Santa Monica was uniquely diverse for a suburban city, specifically the Pico and Ocean
Park neighborhoods. The community had a thriving black-run business center as well as quick

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access to one of the few beaches open to African Americans. Today, Santa Monica is a white
majority city that lacks diversity. This is due to planning practices such as urban renewal and
freeway construction following World War II. These efforts displaced thousands of Black
residents from the 1950s to the 1970s.

Tools for Segregation

“The preferences for separation have changed in form, but not intent over time.” The tools used
by planners to segregate races include; exclusionary zoning, urban renewal, and highway
development.

Exclusionary Zoning
City planners used exclusionary zoning to keep multi-family and public housing out of
prominently white single-family housing neighborhoods. Sometimes planners went as far as to
limit or exclude public transportation in these areas. This prevented people of color from
accessing these neighborhoods. The problem with not accessing these neighborhoods was that
people of color could not obtain the opportunities for good schools, amenities, and employment
that the area provided. White property owners also sought to isolate their tax revenue to just their
neighborhood or city to create more exclusive private services as opposed to contributing to
public goods.

Urban Renewal
Urban renewal stemmed from the 1937 Wagner-Steagall Housing Act, which sought to “provide
financial assistance to the States and political subdivisions thereof for the elimination of unsafe
and unsanitary housing conditions, for the eradication of slums, for the provision of decent, safe,
and sanitary dwellings for families of low income, and for the reduction of unemployment and
the stimulation of business activity.” Planners utilized this grant funding to tear down
minority-occupied housing to create the ideal white neighborhood and move minority
communities to dilapidated areas with less city investment.

Highway Development
In the era following WWII, the nation sought to create a grand road network of highways and
freeways to connect cities and states. This public works effort allowed planners to invoke the
power of eminent domain, the government's right to take away private property for public use.
The placement of highways and freeways were often put on top of communities of color that
were in proximity of white communities. This forced people away from their homes and
businesses and relocated to new underfunded areas.

Impact of Segregation
Racial segregation allows governments and planners to group people of color in areas of the city
with minimal investment and unequal access to public goods. The remaining investment has

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gone towards white property owners' wants and needs. This tied social mobility to place,
specifically a place that people of color could not access. Generation after generation, people of
color and their descendants have faced barriers to building equity, obtaining good education, and
accessing good jobs in order to move up in society. Over time, the harmful perception was
developed that “residential segregation was a matter of economics and individual choice,” and
not an outcome of public policy and city planning. However, this type of segregation does not
manifest naturally, it is designed with intentionality.

Remedy for Segregation

The book Segregation by Design: Local Politics and Inequality in American Cities by Jessica
Trounstine offers recommendations for government action on all levels to desegregate
communities.

Lessons from School Finance Reform

School finance reform is an example of reducing inequalities in public goods. The “finance
equalization policies have focused not on the gap in funding between advantaged and
disadvantaged districts, but rather on ensuring a minimum adequate level of funding for all
districts.” This practice of setting a minimum for funding support has the potential to equalize
access to a range of local public goods. Eventually, it could evolve into a centralization of public
goods financing that can divvy up funding equitably.

Yes in My Backyard
A grassroots campaign in San Francisco called YIMBY (Yes-in-My-Backyard), engages with
government officials and residents on how to go about increasing development through higher
density zoning and the integration of housing types. YIMBY is the antithesis of NIMBY
(no-in-my-backyard), the acronym for white property owners that fought against public housing
and other low-income services going into their neighborhood. YIMBY also seeks to address the
concerns of property owners who fight to protect their investments. Recommendations include;
1. “reducing federal tax subsidies for owner-occupied housing” in order to “curtail
homeowner demands for exclusivity”, and
2. “creating a market for home-value insurance, thereby protecting owners from declines in
their property values and (potentially) making them more open to land uses that do not
maintain exclusivity.”

Political Will
To obtain desegregation and the equalization of public goods, marginalized communities and
their allies will need to create immense political pressure. This is a tall ask for people of color
who have continuously been silenced for more than a century. Thus, it is up to those in power
with decision-making authority such as government officials and city planners to become allies

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to these communities, provide a platform for marginalized individuals to share their insight, and
push government institutions to create these changes.

Conclusion
Segregation is a product of political design. Thus, it is the responsibility of the government to
right these wrongs. “What is clear is that if we do nothing about this design, politics will
continue to polarize, and inequality in wealth, education, safety, and well-being will continue to
worsen.” I ask that you consider these recommendations for your city and begin the hard work of
desegregation so that people of all backgrounds may have an equal opportunity to prosper in
your community.