LINK: Wallingford
Team: Ari, Christine, Michelle, Tristin & Sidney
The success of redlining can be seen in Wallingford. Though racial restrictive covenants that barred people of color from purchasing homes are not frequently found for Wallingford properties, redlining was still socially enforced. In 1960, only 27 African Americans lived in Wallingford AND Fremont, compared to over 21,000 White people according to Census Data. Effective redlining and white home-owner influence in zoning decisions prevented the white flight that necessarily precedes disinvestment of a neighborhood. This made Wallingford less susceptible to neighborhood gentrification, though they have experienced the rising cost of living with the rest of Seattle leading to some displacement. White homeowners continue to have an outsized influence in neighborhood zoning, where the debate has shifted to downzoning as well as advocating for historic designations of some areas. If these sections are successfully down-zoned and the recommended sections given historic district status, developers will face increasing obstacles to building multi-family homes going forward.