Urban Renewal and Minority Displacement in College Park, MD

Throughout US history, many urban renewal/revitalization projects – infrastructural redevelopment in impoverished or decaying areas of cities such as gentrification or highway development – have been used as tools for segregation by displacing previous minority residents. This is a common occurrence which has shaped and continues to shape racial geographic divides in the US. As a result of urban renewal efforts, cohesive minority communities are often tarnished or obliterated.

 

While the most prevalent examples of harmful urban development occurred decades ago, their impacts leave traces – and shackles – on millions of US citizens: racism and segregation are enforced, supported, and prolonged by the very bricks around us. When a minority community is upended, their housing and community buildings are replaced by accommodations for more affluent members of society, and housing becomes an issue of utmost concern.

 

Like many cities and towns in the US, College Park, MD is plagued by harmful past urban renewal projects. The Lakeland District of College Park was a tight knit, thriving Black community during an age of segregation. With many single-family homes, local businesses, community buildings, and a high school, Lakeland was a hub for Black Americans in DC-adjacent suburbs. In the 1970s, a federally funded renewal project to address flooding in the area led to the destruction of two-thirds of the district’s homes and community buildings, displacing residents and failing to provide suitable housing after construction was finished. The traditions and culture of the community were lost in the process. As College Park receives two billion dollars in investments for revitalizing the town, it’s imperative that we find ways of developing impoverished areas without harming or excluding the original residents.