Quoted from DemocraticVoiceOfReason

I'd rather have police officers patrolling a neighborhood by car and on foot rather than being tied down to a desk in an office --- even if it is a neighborhood based office.

Bottomline --  It is a COMPLETE LIE that there is no longer a police presence in Hamilton Hill.

Quoted from senders

it is also a complete lie that consolidation will fix it.....JOKE JOKE JOKE......

Quoted from rachel72

It is also wrong to use redlining as a tool for consolidation.

Quoted from senders

it is also a complete lie that consolidation will fix it.....JOKE JOKE JOKE......

Quoted from rachel72

It is also wrong to use redlining as a tool for consolidation.

Quoted from DemocraticVoiceOfReason

Actually - consolidation will mean fewer police officers tied to desk jobs and more police officers out on the street patrolling --- so consolidation WILL fix it.

Quoted from DemocraticVoiceOfReason

How is closing the office where traffic tickets are paid in any way connected with "redlining" ( which I doubt you even know what the term means)  ??????????????????????

Quoted from rachel72

Was trying to be nice here DV, but let's really call it for what it is.

Moving the City dept out of the Hill, taking Marcellas out of MP, maybe moving Pettas downtown. Taking the business and City presence out of certain neighborhoods within the City.

I'll call it for what it is, discrimination and segregation.

Feel better?

Quoted from DemocraticVoiceOfReason

Redlining is a very specific term --- as someone who lived in Detroit (and whose family lived and still lives in Detroit ... and owns property in Detroit)   I am very well aware of what the term redlining means ....     so when you used that term ------------- I was trying to make sure that you were aware of what you were accusing Metroplex and others of.    

Now -- if you had used a term like  "planned shrinkage" --- instead of "redlining"  --- then I believe you would be correctly describing what has been going on in the neighborhoods of Schenectady for about 40 years or so.

Quoted Text

red·lin·ing
   [red-lahy-ning] Show IPA

noun
a discriminatory practice by which banks, insurance companies, etc., refuse or limit loans, mortgages, insurance, etc., within specific geographic areas, especially inner-city neighborhoods.

Quoted Text

Definition: Redlining is against the law. It is a discriminatory practice, involving lenders which refuse to lend money or extend credit to borrowers in certain "struggling" areas of town. It is against the law to discriminate against borrowers based on race or income level, among other factors. Redlining became known as such because lenders would draw a red line around a neighborhood on a map, often targeting areas with a high concentration of minorities, and then refusing to lend in those areas because they considered the risk too high. Even though it is now against the law, some lenders today are still accused of redlining.

Quoted Text

Redlining Today

The federal Community Reinvestment Act of 1977 was designed to put an end to all redlining practices.  But has it?

HUD says insurers biased. Federal officials accuse insurance agencies of discriminating against Syracuse area African-Americans.

The New Redlining. Extensive U.S. News and World Report study finds poor Americans pay more than twice, on average, what residents of middle-class neighborhoods pay for property insurance.

Don't Let Banks Turn Their Backs on the Poor. Robert E. Rubin, Treasury secretary from 1995 to 1999, warns that steps are being taken towards a dismantling of the Community Reinvestment Act.

'Redlining' rules may be weakened. "Federal banking regulators in the Bush administration are poised to weaken the nation's primary law requiring small banks to serve low-income residents in their own back yards through housing investments and development projects.

America's Homeownership Gap.  A recent Harvard study finds that, "...mortgage lending discrimination forces many urban home seekers to move to the suburbs to pursue the dream of homeownership."

American Dream Denied: When the door is locked to buying a home.  A study of redlining by the Kansas City Star uncovered "discrimination with a smile."

Lending Data Sought.  To identify current redlining practices, local community group Syracuse United Neighbors (SUN) and Senator Charles Schumer back national legislation requiring that lenders disclose interest rates, fees and points for all loans they make.

Suit Alleges Predatory Lending. The FTC files a federal lawsuit in April, 2002 alleging predatory lending in Syracuse.

Few FHA loans go to minorities, study says.  Study finds that, in the City of Syracuse, 1% percent of recent FHA loans went to predominantly minority neighborhoods while 78% went to white neighborhoods.

Quoted Text

The term “redlining” is used to refer to the conscious denial of financial services to people in particular neighborhoods. Redlining played a major role in housing bias in the United States well through the 1970s, and some people argue that the practice persists, although it is much more subtle than it used to be. As you might imagine, redlining hurts communities and the people who live in them, creating ghettos where people cannot buy homes, take out loans, or get insurance, and it typically affects low-income and minority neighborhoods.

This word references the fact that financial institutions used to literally draw red lines around neighborhoods they did not want to get involved with. Many cities around the United States were broken up into sectors in the early 20th century, with institutions indicating that newer, whiter neighborhoods should receive more financial support than older, minority neighborhoods. Some historians feel that redlining created the urban ghettos which exist today in many American cities.

One classic example of redlining is mortgage discrimination. Historically, people trying to buy homes in a redlined neighborhood might find their requests denied, even if they provided ample evidence to indicate that they were financially responsible people capable of undertaking the obligations which come with a mortgage. In addition, redlining also made it hard for people to get small business loans and other loans which could have been used to improve their communities.

Quoted Text

Redlining
Report on Redlining (cover), 1975  
Redlining is the practice of arbitrarily denying or limiting financial services to specific neighborhoods, generally because its residents are people of color or are poor. While discriminatory practices existed in the banking and insurance industries well before the 1930s, the New Deal's Home Owners' Loan Corporation (HOLC) instituted a redlining policy by developing color-coded maps of American cities that used racial criteria to categorize lending and insurance risks. New, affluent, racially homogeneous housing areas received green lines while black and poor white neighborhoods were often circumscribed by red lines denoting their undesirability. Banks and insurers soon adopted the HOLC's maps and practices to guide lending and underwriting decisions. Further, the Federal Housing Administration, created in 1934, also used the HOLC's methods to assess locations for federally insured new housing construction.

Like other forms of discrimination, redlining had pernicious and damaging effects. Without bank loans and insurance, redlined areas lacked the capital essential for investment and redevelopment. As a result, after World War II, suburban areas received preference for residential investment at the expense of poor and minority neighborhoods in cities like Chicago. The relative lack of investment in new housing, rehabilitation, and home improvement contributed significantly to the decline of older urban neighborhoods and compounded Chicago's decline in relation to its suburbs.

Redlining's negative effects remained largely unrecognized by policymakers until the mid-1960s. Banking practices were the first to receive congressional scrutiny. The Fair Housing Act of 1968 prohibited housing discrimination and the Home Mortgage Disclosure Act of 1975 required the release of data on bank lending. Unsatisfied by the practical results of these laws, community activists in Chicago spearheaded further reform, leading the nation in identifying and addressing the redlining issue. In the early 1970s, the Citizens Action Program, a crossracial group of community leaders from the South Side, developed a strategy of “greenlining” by asking residents to deposit savings only in banks that pledged to reinvest funds in urban communities. Chicago organizers were also instrumental in lobbying Congress to pass the Community Reinvestment Act of 1977 (CRA), which required banks to lend in areas from which they accepted deposits. The law had limited effect until the National Training and Information Center in Chicago, led by Gale Cincotta, put public pressure on Chicago banks to lend to distressed neighborhoods. Cincotta's group successfully negotiated $173 million in CRA agreements from three major downtown banks in 1984, settlements that served as models for other cities.

The extent of progress in ending redlining in the insurance industry remains an ongoing debate. In 1968, the President's National Advisory Panel on Insurance in Riot-Affected Areas found that insurance underwriting manuals explicitly instructed agents to use racial data in determining risk. While states passed laws prohibiting insurance redlining, federal legislation has never directly addressed the issue. Court cases, however, have forced change in both the banking and insurance industries. In the 1990s, prominent banks and insurance firms have settled several major lawsuits, agreeing to change their business practices to remove discriminatory policies and procedures.

D. Bradford Hunt