Geography 50AC Final Review
Proposition 13
"people's initiative to limit property taxation". suburbs voted "yes", because they worried about high taxes. Yes campaign led by real estate associations.
Polanco Redevelopment Act (1990)
A California law allowing cities to sue previous land owners for the contamination of land (through factory waste, leadin soil, etc.). Emeryville used this act to fund the cleanup of many post-industrial brownfields before their redevelopment.
Home Owners' Loan Corporation (HOLC)
A New Deal program that provided money to restructure mortgages and used systematic appraisals to map out the security of an area for a loan repayment --redlining. Contributed to racialization by reflecting local cities biases and privileging whites for mortgages
Criminalization
A combination of racialization and systematic economic injustice that disproportionately affects black Americans, especially clear in the incarceration rates of black americans v. other americans
Uneven metropolitan development
A disparity in investment between urban and suburban areas. In the post war era suburbs were the location where most investment occurred but as cities become more desirable investment is gradually shifting unto them. Intertwined with current gentrification/suburbanization of poverty as well as past black power politics/tax revolts.
Tax increment financing
A financing system for redevelopment agencies that freezes property taxes collected and puts the extra revenue into RDAs
"Tax Revolt"
A movement to lower or eliminate taxes. California's Proposition 13, which rolled back property taxes, capped future increases for present owners, and required that all tax measures have a two-thirds majority in the legislature, was the result of one such revolt, inspiring similar movements across the country.
Chavez Ravine
A neighborhood that was home to 300+ chicano families that were forcefully displaced as the Housing Authority of LA planned to build public housing but turned out as the Dodger Stadium in a redevelopment project
Suburbanization of Poverty
A phenomenon in which low income residents leave historically impoverished inner cities to historically exclusive suburbs as property value and investment shifts from the latter to the former. A process which happens in conjunction with gentrification. Includes the relocation of Housing Choice Vouchers (affordable housing subsidies) to suburbs like the cities of Carquinez.
Proposition 14
A proposition to repeal the Rumford Fair Housing Act in California which passes in 1964. This was later overturned by the supreme court.
Blight
A purposefully vague definition of urban property that is inhabitable. Developers used this definition to pick area to develop area, forcing residents out essentially red lineing parts of the city. (feel free to add to this def.)
Oakland 10K Initiative
A redevelopment project started by mayor Jerry Brown which aimed to revitalize Oakland's downtown area by pulling in 10k new residents of the "creative class." The city government seduced developers with tax breaks and subsidies, essentially assuming the risk if the property did not garner ~12% income.
San Leandro
A suburb of Oakland which historically was majority white and had deed restrictions. Also the site of the suburbanization of industry with the location of an auto manufacturer there.
mass incarceration
A term used to describe a situation in which a very high proportion of people are held in prisons. It has been used to describe developments in the American criminal justice system over the past 30 years.
West San Gabriel Valley
A valley that lies in the "east of east" of Los Angeles, that's developed into a suburban chinatown, where two different worlds are combined into a "Chin- Mexican", cosmopolitan one.
Contract workers
A worker who works under a contract for an employer for a specific amount of time and rate of pay and is not salaried or tenured. They therefore usually lack the rights of full time workers and aren't unionized
Redevelopment project area
After an area has been termed as "blighted" by redevelopment agencies, they had the authority to use the area for redevelopment projects
Federal-Aid Highway Act (1956)
Allocated funds to build and interstate highway system in the US, which increased car sales and helped integrate suburbs
Acorn Project (1959)
An urban renewal project encompassing a vast portion of West Oakland (the demographic composition of the area was about 80% African American and 20% Latinx) which resulted in the clearing of 50 blocks and the displacement of thousands. Later would be the site of public housing, though much later than needed.
Redevelopment agency (RDA)
CIty agencies that use the powers of eminent domain to assemble large plots of land for redevelopment by use of the Polanco Redevelopment Act, often issuing debt to fund the projects by giving developers large subsidies in an attempt to "revitalize" a given area.
Restrictive covenants / deed restrictions
Contractual obligations tied to property which forbade the owner to sell to certain groups, especially those non-white and sometimes Jewish. The pretense for their existence was the stability of property values but the root of it was racism.
"Urban decline" (3 Ds)
Disinvestment, Demographic Shift, Devaluation (of downtown).
No-fault evictions
Evictions that are a result of factors outside of a tenants control. Landlords use the Ellis Act, owner move ins, the excuse of demolition for new buildings, buyouts, soft evictions (threats and scare tactics). Evictions made at no fault of the tenants, usually in order to make more money off the property
Japanese-American internment
Executive order 9066 moved Japanese Americans to internment camps outside of the Pacific Military zone due to fear of Japanese espionage. Part of the historic & geographic processes of racialization in California.
The New Deal
FDRs policy of economic recovery from the depression-- Included: active government interference in finance (SEC, FDIC), public works projects, alphabet agencies, and more
Black Panther Party (BPP)
Founded in Oakland California this group aimed to see improved change in their city through black power. They provided schools, breakfast programs, and newspapers to city residents creating a greater sense of community. However fear of the arming of blacks hurt the organization their head members were killed by the police and misrepresented in the media.
Exide technologies
From Pulido: knowingly didn't comply with environmental regulations in LA; pushed negative externalities of pollution onto the overwhelmingly poor, immigrant, community that lived in the surrounding area. Considered an example of white privilege by Poulido
Sand Hill Road
Ground zero for international venture capital, a street located in Menlo Park/Silicon Valley. A hub of angel investors and financiers as well as "patient capital" (a form of venture capital that relies of 'unicorns' and immense wealth)
"Rent Plantation"
Housing for the low-wage, Mexican labor force run by absentee landlords. It was describes as "total cash economy" that targeted blue collar workers, many "illegal" w/out credit lines. Therefore, landlords extracted money from vulnerable people by increasing rents. (very dense living spaces)
White privilege
How White people benefit from being white. In terms of suburban whiteness this includes redlining, higher property values, lower taxes created by exclusion, and eventually the perpetuation of privilege through inheritance (especially pre-1960s gains made by whites).
Black Power
In the context of the black panther party, it was self determination and economic equality. It was practical revolutionary activity, ie "survival programs" - community empowerment
"The prison boom"
Increasing prison populations overcrowding system beginning in the 1980s, caused by stricter crime legislation (anti-drug and three strikes laws) leading to higher incarceration rates. Funded by lease revenue bonds (not requiring public approval) and encouraged by powerful correction officer unions. These developments have posited prisons as a system of racialized inequality.
Federal Housing Administration (FHA)
Insured long-term mortgage loans made by private lenders for home construction and sales. Used discriminatory HOLC maps to inform decisions about financing.
Displacement
Involuntary removal of residents from their homes or communities, usually by a dominant class or demographic. ex) displacement of Latino community as a consequence of gentrification.
Free Breakfast Program
Members of the Black Panther Party provided free breakfast to children in schools, indirectly threatened the government by depicting the party in a non-hostile light.
Industrial suburbanization
Movement of industrial centers from the city to the suburbs; allowed industries to maximize property value and minimize taxes. also known as "de industrialization"
Suburban cosmopolitanism
Multi-ethic suburbs like the WSGV where people have an identity that is both non-white and non-minority, that is inclusive and non-conformist-- unlike the white suburbs of the 1950s.
New Urbanism
New design principles for urban areas that includes walkability, mixed use for space, and public social spaces. Cheng argues the East side of LA and WSGV should be the model for New Urbanism, and that it is unacknowledged. Gentrification often includes new urbanism, and it can also be a response to sustainability and creation of vibrant urban communities.
Environmental racism
Nonwhite people are disproportionately exposed to environmental hazards, including pollution and natural disasters.
Re-industrialization
Overlapping with loss of heavy industries, re-industrialization is the implementation of labor intensive jobs/sweat-shop motives such as furniture, food production and textiles. These blue collar jobs were leveraged from cheap labor forces consisting of Latinx immigrants
"Contract City" (Lakewood Plan)
Pre-planned cities contracted with the local government to receive public services, they implemented rigid spacial order which created a self contained environment with the primary goal of profit. Lakewood center was a large mall w/100 shops which enticed white middle and upper class families to move to the suburbs along with it's affordable bungalows.
Urban renewal
Program in which cities identify blighted inner-city neighborhoods, acquire the properties from private members, relocate the residents and businesses, clear the site, build new roads and utilities, and turn the land over to private developers.
"Slum clearance"
Razing "blighted" neighborhoods as a part of urban redevelopment and revitalization and to get rid of undesirable housing stock (also infer-ably what comes with it: high crime, disease, and low income residents).
Selective credit program
Result of New Deal housing policies in which federal funding was provided for private sector home financing options. The Home Owner's Loan Corporation created the modern mortgage, featuring systematic appraisal of properties. The Residential Security Map resulted in racial segregation. Mortgages were denied in certain neighborhoods, frequently due to racial demographics. Racial exclusion clauses were recommended by the federal government in order to protect property values.
Patient capital
The ability of venture capitalists to wait through (hence "patience") and fund the intial stages of startups where they do not yet produce any returns due to their enormous wealth and the hopes of finding a "Unicorn".
Silicon Valley
The center of the Bay Area tech startup scene and a source of massive amounts of venture capital. An irreplaceable (according to Walker) industrial clustering that has led to uniquely profitable tech inventions, spacial proximity has been key. Initially funded by DOD investments in early electronics technology paired with research institutions.
Gentrification
The economic reinvestment of a historically oppressed (dis-invested) area by large corporations that results in the displacement of non-white residents/low-income families. This is NOT an inevitable process, but rather a deliberate sequence of events motivated by profit.
"Practical revolutionary activity"
The everyday services provided by the BPP to support and create community in West Oakland. They provided for people's needs that local government did not
"Techies" (direct tech workers)
The highly paid workers employed by tech startups. They are most often programmers/software designers. They are encouraged to be "creative" to maximize productivity. They also contribute greatly to gentrification in the Bay Area.
Reverse migrations
The movement of upper-class citizens from the suburbs back into the cities for jobs/attractive living spaces that were being created as a result of gentrification.
Eminent domain
The power of a government to take property from their private owners (paying them the "market value") for redevelopment. A major facet of urban renewal projects.
Suburbanization
The process of population movement from within towns and cities to the rural-urban fringe.
new urban-industrial geography
The result of a combination of industrial restructuring, immigration, racialization, and suburban politics in the Los Angelos area
Redlining
The segregation of the real estate market through selective credit programs administered by HOLC and the FHA
Merchant builders
The use of mass production and large corporations in the building of cities. 10% of firms build 70% of homes. Malls have formed the centerpieces of suburbs- increasing revenues for the developers. Labor has been deskilled in the construction industry.
Cities of Carquinez (including Antioch)
These cities in the northeastern corner of the Bay Area were historically the site of lots of industry, now becoming bedroom communities and one of few lasting affordable areas. A major destination of those displaced from San Francisco, Oakland, and other formerly low income areas.
Black Panther Survival Programs
These were operated by party members under the slogan "survival pending revolution." In addition to feeding school children, the party started People's Free Food Programs, delivering groceries, and encouraging community members to vote.
National Housing Act (1949)
This act provided for the construction of 810,000 units of low-income housing accompanied by long-term rent subsidies.
"White flight"
Working and middle-class white people move away from racial-minority suburbs or inner-city neighborhoods to white suburbs and exurbs. There is not only a "push" that comes from their desire for racial homogeneity, but also a "pull" coming from FHA offering low loans.
Venture capital
a form of financing that is provided by firms or funds to small, early-stage, emerging startups that are deemed to have high growth potential, or which have demonstrated high growth
Contract manufacturing
a joint venture in which a company contracts with manufacturers in a foreign market to produce its product or provide its service. Most notable of such manufacturers is Foxconn, with over 9 million employees worldwide and worth $141 billion. Allows firms like Apple to keep an arms length distance from human and environmental exploitation scandals.
Serviceman's Readjustment Act of 1944 ("G.I. Bill")
a law that provided a range of benefits for returning World War II veterans. The bill played a significant role in creating housing in rural suburbs for whites. Was part of the pull to the suburbs.
Ellis Act (1986)
a loophole that allows landlords to evict residential tenants to "go out of the rental business". Landlords abused this by demolishing buildings to build pricey condominiums, retenant newly-vacated units at top-market rents, or resell buildings at much higher prices than they bought
Single Housing Unit (SHU)
a solitary confinement unit in prisons that prisoners are often put in for a variety of reasons ranging from disobedience to gang affiliation. It is a small room where prisoners can go days without talking or interacting with another person. It has been classified as a cruel and unusual punishment.
"Twitterlandia"
big corporations like twitter buy apartments and property and keep them vacant in order to gain money from tax breaks (causes displacement and evictions)
Single-use city
city existing solely for profitability and industry ex) Vernon, existing housing was bought out to reduce residents to optimize land use for industry. Large commuter to resident ratio
Urban entrepreneurialism
city government catering to private capital - low taxes/subsides/etc. Mainly in the context of the redevelopment agency and later with tech. New and increasingly active role of cities as private entrepreneurs, competing with other cities, assembling land, and offering tax breaks to attract investors.
"soft evictions"
in which tenants leave under the threat of a formal eviction but before the actual notice has been given
De-industrialization
loss of high wage manufacturing jobs (auto, tire, steel, etc), and a decrease in union memberships among workers
Residential Security Map
maps used by the FHA to ensure maximal value for richer communities by getting rid of minorities
The Great Migration
movement of over 300,000 African American from the rural south into Northern cities between 1914 and 1920
Rumford Fair Housing Act
passed in 1963 by the California Legislature to help end racial discrimination by property owners and landlords who refused to rent or sell their property to "colored" people.
De-skilling
replacing a skilled workforce with a semi skilled/unskilled that can be exploited and paid less. They are easily replaceable, especially with a giant pool of immigrants labor
Environmental justice
the fair treatment and meaningful involvement of all people regardless of race, color, national origin, or income with respect to the development, implementation, and enforcement of environmental laws, regulations, and policies.
Racialization
the formation of a new racial identity in which new ideological boundaries of difference are imposed upon a previously racially ambiguous group
intersectionality
the interconnected nature of social categorizations such as race, class, and gender as they apply to a given individual or group, regarded as creating overlapping and interdependent systems of discrimination or disadvantage.
Works Progress Administration (WPA)
the largest and most ambitious American New Deal agency, employing millions of people (mostly unskilled men) to carry out public works projects, including the construction of public buildings and roads.
Prop184 (3 Strikes Law, 1994)
the law requires, among other things, a minimum sentence of 25 years to life for 3x repeat offenders with multiple prior serious or violent felony convictions.
Re-segregation
the physical separation of racial and ethnic groups reappearing after a period of relative integration
Service sector
the sector of the economy that supports new higher income industries and includes janitors, gardeners, and other blue collar workers. Gentrification has led to wage "bifurcation" (lower wages relative to what new industries pay) for this sector of the economy
Sogorea Te' Land Trust
urban land trust founded in 2012 with the goals of returning traditionally Chochenyo and Karkin lands in the San Francisco Bay Area to indigenous stewardship and cultivating more active, reciprocal relationships with the land.
