Locally Undesirable Land Uses in Minority Neighborhoods: Disproportionate Siting or Market Dynamics?

The environmental justice movement contends that people of color and the poor are exposed to greater environmental risks than are whites and wealthier individuals.The movement charges that this disparity is due in part to racism and classism in the siting of environmental risks, the promulgation of environmental laws and regulations, the enforcement of environmental laws, and the attention given to the cleanup of polluted areas.'To support the first charge-that the siting of waste dumps, polluting factories, and other locally undesirable land uses (LULUs) has been .racistand classist-advocates for environmental justice have cited more than a dozen studies analyzing the relationship between neighborhoods' socioeconomic characteristics and the number of LULUs they host.The studies demonstrate that those neighborhoods in which LULUs are located have, on average, a higher percentage of racial minorities and are poorer than non-host communities. 2 That research does not, however, establish that the host communities were disproportionately minority or poor at the time the sites were selected.Most 1. See, e.g.,