Editing Built environment (section)

==== Housing and segregation ====
Features in the built environment present physical barriers which constitute the boundaries between [[Neighbourhood|neighborhoods]].<ref>{{Cite journal|last=Kramer|first=Rory|date=2017|title=Defensible Spaces in Philadelphia: Exploring Neighborhood Boundaries Through Spatial Analysis|journal=RSF: The Russell Sage Foundation Journal of the Social Sciences|volume=3|issue=2|pages=81–101|doi=10.7758/rsf.2017.3.2.04|jstor=10.7758/rsf.2017.3.2.04|s2cid=149167954|issn=2377-8253|doi-access=free}}</ref> Roads and [[Rail transport|railways]], for instance, play a large role in how people can feasibly navigate their environment.<ref name=":4">Roberto, Elizabeth and Jackelyn Hwang. 2017. "Barriers to Integration: Physical Boundaries and the Spatial Structure of Residential Segregation." Working paper, Cornell University, Ithaca, NY.</ref> This can result in the isolation of certain communities from various resources and from each other.<ref name=":4" /> The placement of roads, highways, and sidewalks also determines what access people have to jobs and childcare close to home, especially in areas where most people do not own vehicles. Walkability directly influences community, so the way a neighborhood is built affects the outcomes and opportunities of the community that lives there.<ref name=":7">{{Cite news |last=Pando |first=Patricia |date=2011 |title=In the Nickel, Houston's Fifth Ward |work=Houston History Magazine |url=https://houstonhistorymagazine.org/wp-content/uploads/2011/07/Fifth-Ward.pdf}}</ref> Even less physically imposing features, such as [[Building design|architectural design]], can distinguish the boundaries between communities and decrease movement across neighborhood lines.<ref>{{Cite book|last=Small|first=Mario Luis|url=http://dx.doi.org/10.7208/chicago/9780226762937.001.0001|title=Villa Victoria|date=2004|publisher=University of Chicago Press|doi=10.7208/chicago/9780226762937.001.0001|isbn=978-0-226-76292-0}}</ref>

The segregation of communities is significant because the qualities of any given space directly impact the [[Well-being|wellbeing]] of the people who live and work there.<ref name=":1" /> [[George Galster]] and [[Patrick Sharkey]] refer to this variation in geographic context as "spatial opportunity structure", and claim that the built environment influences socioeconomic outcomes and general welfare.<ref name=":1" /> For instance, the history of redlining and housing segregation means that there is less green space in many Black and Hispanic neighborhoods. Access to parks and green space has been proven to be good for mental health which puts these communities at a disadvantage.<ref name=":5" /> The historical segregation has contributed to environmental injustice, as these neighborhoods suffer from hotter summers since urban asphalt absorbs more heat than trees and grass.<ref name=":6">{{Cite news |last1=Plumer |first1=Brad |last2=Popovich |first2=Nadja |last3=Palmer |first3=Brian |date=2020-08-24 |title=How Decades of Racist Housing Policy Left Neighborhoods Sweltering |language=en-US |work=The New York Times |url=https://www.nytimes.com/interactive/2020/08/24/climate/racism-redlining-cities-global-warming.html |access-date=2021-03-29 |issn=0362-4331}}</ref> The effects of spatial segregation initiatives in the built environment, such as redlining in the 1930s and 1940s, are long lasting. The inability to feasibly move from forcibly economically depressed areas into more prosperous ones creates fiscal disadvantages that are passed down generationally.<ref>{{Cite journal|last1=Aaronson|first1=Daniel|last2=Hartley|first2=Daniel|last3=Mazumder|first3=Bhashkar|date=November 2021|title=The Effects of the 1930s HOLC "Redlining" Maps|url=https://www.aeaweb.org/articles?id=10.1257/pol.20190414|journal=American Economic Journal: Economic Policy|language=en|volume=13|issue=4|pages=355–392|doi=10.1257/pol.20190414|s2cid=204505153|issn=1945-7731|hdl=10419/200568|hdl-access=free}}</ref> With proper public education access tied to the economic prosperity of a neighborhood, many formerly redlined areas continue to lack educational opportunities for residents and, thus, job and higher-income opportunities are limited.<ref>{{Cite book|last=Case|first=Anne|title=Deaths of Despair and the Future of Capitalism|publisher=The Princeton University Press|year=2020|isbn=9780691190785|location=Princeton, NJ|language=English}}</ref>