The Status Quo We Inherited
How Raleigh and Durham are undoing a legacy of exclusion by embracing housing and urban growth
For decades, the Triangle’s status quo was built on exclusion.
Over the past half-century, the region has experienced steady but unequal growth. The very shape of the Triangle reflects it: our dispersed, multi-centric city fabric is the result of policies that have selectively left communities behind.
It began with racial zoning. Then came racial covenants and the spread of single family zoning, reinforced by redlining insurance maps. Later, urban renewal purposefully targeted and destroyed denser multi-family mixed-use parts of both Raleigh and Durham. The preservation movement that formed in reaction to urban renewal, often led by well-meaning white progressives who became the first wave of gentrifiers, ended up adding more layers of restriction. Over time, these policies and overlays have accumulated and combined to lock in a single-family legacy under the banners of preservation and small town values.
Author Jerusalem Demsas has…
