A ‘gray area’? Neighborhood decline and reclamation in 1950s and 1960s U.S. urban discourse and legislation

Abstract

ABSTRACT With a focus on the period between the mid-1950s and mid-1960s, this paper analyses the use of the term gray areas as a descriptor for older neighborhoods in U.S. cities. First, the paper examines how the term gray areas was used in urban debates of the time. It is argued that the term reinforced assumptions of “blight” as a mobile force linked to inevitable decline. Furthermore, in following from stage theories of change, the term gray areas was also used to denote areas that could potentially be reclaimed. Secondly, the paper analyses the connection between gray areas and changes in FHA mortgage risk legislation in historic neighborhoods from “economically sound” to “acceptable risk.” Ultimately, in light of its “plastic” or “fuzzy” meaning, it is argued that the analysis of debates over gray areas highlights the importance of looking at urban change from a less linear, or epistemologically bounded, perspective.