Hofstra professor speaks on intersection of race, place and health––

Dr. Martine Hackett speaks to Hofstra students and staff on the impact of zoning on Nassau County’s school districts. // Photo courtesy of Moriah Sukhlal

The Center for “Race,” Culture and Social Justice, hosted its monthly Center for “Race” Colloquia Series on March 16. Guest presenter Martine Hackett, associate professor of population health, discussed her project, “Where Do You Draw the Line? The Story of Race, The Suburbs and Public Health.” Hackett’s research focused on the intersection between race, place and health.

 Hackett reminded attendees that in the Spring of 2020, New York City was the epicenter of the COVID-19 pandemic. To avoid the spread of disease, many of New York’s wealthiest residents left to seek safety and space in the suburbs. As a result, “the net migration from the city increased by an estimated 130,000 from March,” Hackett said. 

 This migration was a part of “a pattern that existed for hundreds of years: leaving dense urban areas for the clean air, open space and healing properties of nature,” according to Hackett. She proposed that residents not only crossed a physical line between the city and the suburbs, but also a physiological and psychological line as well. 

 Hackett stated that "segregating” those who were sick from the healthy would stop the spread of COVID-19. 

 The lines between the city and the suburbs are parallels to lines between “low resourced and high resourced communities, between homeowners and renters [and] between school districts,”  Hackett said. “[To]protect those within from the dangers of those on the other side.” 

 Hackett explained that one of the causes behind these disparities is the persistence of Euclidean zoning in the twentieth century. She stated that the zoning laws established by the Village of Euclid v. Ambler Realty Co. case “continue to protect the health, safety and welfare of the general public by separating residential [property] from industrial uses.” 

 Additionally, zoning laws have protected against multifamily housing since it “was considered to be something that interfered with health because it prevented the circulation of air [and] sunshine,” Hackett said. This restriction on single-family homes became an indirect issue of race as the laws would later promote a new public health theory.

 The theory, called racialized land use calculus, “describes certain groups of people, particular tenants and racial minorities as a threat to the health and stability of neighborhoods,” Hackett said. 

 According to Hackett, redlining also played a significant role in impacting public health. The basis of redlining was developed from a manual the Federal Housing Administration published in 1936. “Where are the places that are probably good risks, and where are the places that are considered to be bad risks,” read the manual. 

 Redlining impacts health outcomes because bad risk neighborhoods have “fewer trees and more asphalt, [creating] hotter neighborhoods,” Hackett said. “Communities that are a majority people of color and low income are exposed to greater concentration and more types of chemicals in the air ... due to their proximity [to] local sources of pollution.”

 “The consequence of drawing lines around primarily white communities and separating from communities of color are reflected in [school] district lines,” Hackett said. She noted that redlining has created “neighborhoods that have hoarded opportunities.” 

 Students who attended Hackett’s lecture shared their personal experiences and stated that the disparity in school opportunities was seen in their high schools. 

“[This] was very clear with sports,” said Miguel Giral, a junior exercise physiology major. Giral said that during his experience on his high school soccer team, there was a clear distinction in resources provided to schools and the biases at games. He said that during those times his team would travel to the wealthier schools when competing. “They’d have athletic training staff and coaches,” Giral said. “We’d have one coach with no athletic training staff, no manager and all our resources were slim to none.” 

 “There’s definitely a neighborhood that is prioritized, and it's not Hempstead,” stated Oyinda Adebo, a first-year doctoral student of applied organizational psychology. Adebo said that she believes Garden City is given priority over Hempstead. 

“The highest number of COVID-19 cases and deaths overwhelmingly happened to residents and communities of color here in Nassau County,” Hackett said. “[This] says that suburban places are not healthy for everyone.”