The ZIP code that covers much of San Diego's City Heights neighborhood is seeing a higher rate of coronavirus cases than San Diego County, and it's a similar situation in Southeast San Diego.
These communities, that have larger Black and Hispanic populations than the region, are where the nearly century-old and now illegal practice of redlining occurred — when a government-backed body marked maps of predominantly minority communities in red and labeled them a poor financial investment.
Cheryl Anderson, director of the UC San Diego Center of Excellence in Health Promotion and Equity, said the poor health outcomes in these areas are not a coincidence.
“Black Americans, being essentially by policy forced to stay in one part of a community, and white Americans being encouraged and supported in staying in another part of the community, the start lines are different, and so you now have certain neighborhoods that by sheer structure and design, don't get resources," said Anderson, also the newly named dean of UCSD's school of public health.