SAN DIEGO (KGTV) – Local community activists put together a report that shows what they’re calling the roadmap to racial inequality, basing it on housing data from the 1930s.
On Thursday morning, members of the community used red paint to outline zoning lines of the streets of Kensington. The lines were a physical representation of what happened after the Great Depression under the order of President Franklin D. Roosevelt.
Ricardo Flores, executive director of Local Initiatives Support Corporation, said, “The very benign use of zoning actually created segregation this day. It says if you can buy 7,000 square feet of land then you can live in this neighborhood.”
Flores’ group and other organizations took to the streets to promote the data.
“Today, in this day and age, you can ask a high school kid, ‘Where do black and brown people live?’ You ask any adult, ‘Where do black and brown people live? How do they know that? How is it so embedded in us?” said Flores.
The activists hope to get support from San Diego officials and a promise in changing the way housing decisions are made.
Flores said, “They should look at that parcel of land and allow them to be subdivided, sold, or build on it and rent it out.”
