White Neighborhoods Have More Greenery, Fewer Dilapidated Buildings and Multi-Family Homes [bu.edu]

By Jillian McKoy, Boston University School of Public Health, January 19, 2023

Historic redlining and other racist policies have led to present-day racial and economic segregation and disinvestment in many cities across the United States. Research has shown how neighborhood characteristics and resources are associated with health disparities such as preterm birth and asthma, but most of these studies are limited in scale and overlook many aspects in a neighborhood that are difficult to measure, including dilapidated buildings and crosswalks.

Now, a new study led by the School of Public Health and the Center for Antiracist Research (CAR) at Boston University has utilized panorama digital technology through Google Street View (GSV) to identify these neighborhood characteristics on a national scale and shed light on how they contribute to racial and ethnic disparities in local resources and health outcomes across the US.

Published in the journal JAMA Network Open, the study found that predominantly White neighborhoods had better neighborhood conditions generally associated with good health, such as fewer neglected buildings and multi-family homes, and more greenery than neighborhoods with residents who were primarily Black, of other minority races, or of a variety of races and ethnicities.

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