And you can get lost for hours - I have - looking through cities you know well for the micro-distinctions, block by block in some cases, made in these maps. Th

And you can get lost for hours - I have - looking through cities you know well for the micro-distinctions, block by block in some cases, made in these maps. The scans and commentary -- the commentary is amazing -- date in some cases from the 1930s. But here we are, 80 years later, and it's still rather the same. These maps were a self-fulfilling prophesy. From commentary on the Pasadena, CA neighborhood just north of what is now Old Town, part of which was razed in the postwar decades: "Many dwellings are occupied by Negroes and other subversive radial elements...The area is blighted and its future is a matter of concern and doubt." This is a clear signal to invest in this real estate only as cheap rental, or if you want to eventually tear down and rezone. So if you live there and improve your house, you will never see appreciation in value, and you will likely eventually be forced, by design or neglect, to relocate.