Green Space, Income, and Race/Ethnicity in Connecticut
Connecticut Segregation and Green Space Access
Across the United States, communities face environmental injustice, an issue defined in part as “the unequal environmental protection and environmental quality provided through laws, regulations, governmental programs, enforcement, and policies.” Environmental injustice looks like minorities and lower income communities facing higher impact from environmental issues than wealthier, whiter areas. Examples of environmental injustice include people of color and low-income individuals being disproportionately exposed to flooding risks, air and water pollutants, and pollutant producers.
It has been determined that Connecticut is one of the most racially segregated states in the nation, so it is important to determine if communities are subject to environmental injustice. Racial segregation in Connecticut, while caused by a myriad of factors, is perpetuated by zoning policy. Individual municipalities create their own zoning policies which can be used to exclude certain groups from being able to afford moving to that area. Zoning regulations can make requirements for buildings’ size, placement, density, and the number of people who can live in a housing unit. Notably, requiring large minimum lot and building sizes makes them more expensive to build, purchase, and maintain. Costs can be further driven up when more acreage for multi-family homes is required. This both disincentivizes building multifamily homes and prevents denser affordable housing from being built. These homes are typically more economical and excluding them prevents lower income individuals and families from being able to afford living in that municipality. Some municipalities do not allow multi-family homes to be built and limit building occupancies. This harms non-traditional and multigenerational families who choose to live together by making it harder for them to find housing. In fact, more than two-thirds of Black and Latinx residents live in only 15 of Connecticut’s 169 towns and cities. So, in such a racially segregated state, is there environmental injustice? More specifically, is there a link between income, race/ethnicity, and green space access in Connecticut?
What are Connecticut Towns’ Income and Racial Characteristics?
A first step to understanding Connecticut’s connection to green space is getting to know its population. The median household income is $83,771 and the median percentage of people of color, defined here as all non-white populations, per town is 14.7%. Together, these statistics tell us that the average town in Connecticut is predominantly white and has a median household income above the national average of $70,784. It is notable that Connecticut towns have a broad range of population sizes from 785 to 148,654 people. Looking at towns with a population of people of color greater than 35%, we see that 50% of towns have a median household income of $60,819 or less. This change tells us that towns with higher concentrations of people of color typically have lower incomes. Throughout Connecticut, there are several towns that highlight this disparity. We can see in the maps below that Hartford has both the highest percentage of population as people of color at 85.3% and the state’s lowest median household income of $37,477. Similarly, Bridgeport is 81.7% people of color with a median income of $50,597 and New Haven is 71.3% people of color with a median income of $48,973. Conversely, Darien is the wealthiest town in the state with a median household income of $250,000 with only 15.2% of their population as people of color. Westport shows a similar demographic with 16.4% people of color and a median household income of $236,892.
Income and Race/Ethnicity Trends and Green Space
In this study green space is comprised of three categories from the University of Connecticut’s Center for Land Use Education and Research’s Land Cover Classes definitions. The first category is turf and grass which accounts for cultivated lawns typically found in residential areas, cemeteries, golf courses, and parks. The other two categories are Deciduous and Coniferous Forest which includes denser forests as well as populations in low density residential areas. Green space is described as the percent of a town made up of these three categories. Agricultural Field was not included in the green space designation because while it may be a significant part of the land use for rural areas, it does not contribute to accessible, recreational areas for the public. Excluding agricultural areas also removed the misrepresentation of rural areas as having more recreationally accessible green spaces.
How do race/ethnicity, income, and green space relate? Looking at the scatter plots related to race/ethnicity, income, and population, as median income increases, the percent people of color decreases sharply. Also, as population increases, so does the percentage of people of color. This means that larger towns and cities are predominantly people of color. This can also be seen in the map of people of color percentage by town.
These factors are highly correlated with green space. Based on the scatter plots related to green space, we can see green space percentage decreases as both population and percent people of color increase. However, green space percentage increases as median household income increases. Each of these correlations are statistically significant. This tells us that towns with lower incomes and with higher percentages people of color, will have a lower percentage of their town as green space. In fact, in the towns with greater than 35% of their population as people of color, their median green space percentage was 55.5% in comparison to the state median of 70.38%. Even after controlling for the association between median household income and green space, a higher percentage of people of color in a town was significantly associated with less green space.
Results
There is a clear connection between race/ethnicity, income, and green space distribution in Connecticut. We find that people of color have less access to green space, and consequently accessible outdoor recreation spaces, even after controlling for median household income. Environmental injustice and green space access is an issue with deep community impacts. Green spaces can filter air pollution, reduce noise, and replenish ground water by infiltrating rain. Moreover, it has been proven that spending two hours in nature per week has positive impacts on mental and physical well-being, reducing stress, anxiety, and depression. People of color and lower income communities in Connecticut are missing out on these benefits and face greater environmental risks as well as negative health impacts such as higher asthma and obesity rates. These findings leave room for further research into environmental injustice in Connecticut to see if there are disparities in health quality in areas with lower green space.
Community Efforts
Environmental injustice and green space access are serious problems already being addressed in Connecticut, both at the community and government levels.
One resource at the community level is Desegregate Connecticut, a non-profit working to raise awareness of discriminatory zoning and local planning. Their goal is to institute “a new vision for local and state land use policies that promotes economic growth, racial inclusivity, and environmental sustainability” using original research and grassroots organization. Citizens can get involved through virtual and in person events such as community rallies and walk audits which assess pedestrian accessibility and local land use in areas across Connecticut.
At the government level, Executive Order No.21-3 established the Connecticut Equity and Environmental Justice Advisory Council (CEEJAC) within the Connecticut Department of Energy and Environmental Protection (DEEP). The Council’s goal is “to advise the Commissioner of DEEP on current and historic environmental injustice, pollution reduction, energy equity, climate change mitigation and resiliency, health disparities, and racial inequity.” One initiative is to integrate environmental justice concerns into the policies, programs, and activities of DEEP to “improve the health and environment” in communities facing environmental injustices through permitting standards and processes, compliance and enforcement, and equitable program delivery among other areas. CEEJAC also aims to give voice to underrepresented communities so they can have meaningful involvement in the decision of whether to allow and/or limit facilities that “have the potential to increase environmental and public health stressors.” Most importantly, the Council aims to build relationships with other government agencies, local governments, and community leaders and organizations to work together to ameliorate environmental injustice in the state.
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