The Real Limits of Imaginary Lines

Place, Health, and the Problem with/of Census Tracts

Shelterforce, May 7, 2018

---

Excerpt

“…My daily ‘place’ was actually daily places, and they weren’t defined or bounded by imaginary lines, but by real experiences and exposures that were shaped by social and economic policies, practices, and processes. Practices that police certain communities differently—leading to a federal consent decree to manage the local police department. Policies that limit investment in low-income communities, rendering swaths of the city so-called ‘food deserts’ with little to no public transportation. And processes that displace public housing residents to refashion their homes as college dorms and exclude them from city ‘comprehensive plan’ discussions…”