Historic discrimination in the process of siting and constructing physical infrastructure has sacrificed the Black communities that bear the costs associated with new roads, power lines, and sewage plants while receiving few of the benefits. This Essay advances a "community equity" framework to recognize and protect the sources of value that people hold in their communities. This approach looks beyond the traditional domains of civil rights and land use law. Instead, it embraces analogies in public nuisance and common law torts doctrines as mechanisms for recognizing community harms above and beyond the aggregate of individual claims.
Housing
We gratefully acknowledge the research of Jonathan Herczeg, New York University Law School Class of 2008, whose unpublished paper on the history of New York City’s 1961 zoning resolution provided us with valuable background on the politics of New York’s zoning.
Thanks for comments from participants in the Symposium, Reassessing the State and Local Government Toolkit at The University of Chicago Law School and a faculty workshop at New York University School of Law.
We thank Amnon Lehavi, Lior Strahilevitz, participants in The University of Chicago Law School’s Symposium, Reassessing the State and Local Government Toolkit, and participants in the 2009 Property Works in Progress conference held at the University of Colorado School of Law for helpful comments and questions on this project. Prisca Kim and Eric Singer provided excellent research assistance.
Many thanks to Lee Fennell, Susan Koniak, Adam Levitin, Claire Priest, Julie Roin, and Jacob Sagi.
In April 1968, when Congress for the first time enacted a broad fair housing law in the United States, the degree of housing segregation experienced by African Americans was staggering.
I am grateful to Brian An, David Armor, David Card, Sheryll Cashin, Erwin Chemerinsky, Chris Elmendorf, Reynolds Farley, Lee Fennell, Jeremy Fiel, Jim Greiner, Matthew Hall, Rick Hasen, Aziz Huq, John Iceland, Ellen Katz, Douglas Massey, Martha Minow, Martha Nussbaum, Rick Pildes, Alex Polikoff, Eric Posner, Sean Reardon, Florence Roisman, Daria Roithmayr, James Ryan, Richard Sander, Robert Schwemm, Stacy Seicshnaydre, Michael Seidman, Genevieve Siegel-Hawley, Lior Strahilevitz, and David Strauss for their helpful comments. My thanks also to the workshop participants at the University of Chicago, where I presented an earlier version of the Article. I am pleased as well to acknowledge the support of the Robert Helman Law and Public Policy Fund.
Volumes
- Volume 92.8December2025
- Volume 92.7November2025
- Volume 92.6October2025
- Volume 92.5September2025
- Volume 92.4June2025
- Volume 92.3May2025
- Volume 92.2March2025
- Volume 92.1January2025
- Volume 91.8December2024
- Volume 91.7November2024
- Volume 91.6October2024
- Volume 91.5September2024
- Volume 91.4June2024
- Volume 91.3May2024
- Volume 91.2March2024
- Volume 91.1January2024
- Volume 90.8December2023
- Volume 90.7November2023
- Volume 90.6October2023
- Volume 90.5September2023
- Volume 90.4June2023
- Volume 90.3May2023
- Volume 90.2March2023
- Volume 90.1January2023
- Volume 89.8December2022
- Volume 89.7November2022
- Volume 89.6October2022
- Volume 89.5September2022
- Volume 89.4June2022
- Volume 89.3May2022
- Volume 89.2March2022
- Volume 89.1January2022
- Volume 88.8December2021
- v88.6October2021
- v88.4June2021
- v88.3May2021
- 87.1January2020
- 84.4Fall2017
- 84.3Summer2017
- 84.2Spring2017
- 84.1Winter2017
- 84 SpecialNovember2017
- 81.3Summer2014
- 80.1Winter2013
- 78.1Winter2011