Black Urban Planner's Seven Objectives for the Next Ten Years
These seven objectives by no means represent all Black planner’s objectives. But they do, arguably, reach the general interest of some leading African-American/Black planning practitioners and academics.
The Process
This initiative started as a response to the continuous deaths of Black men and women by law enforcement officers with impunity coupled by a weak response from the planning profession. I worked with a few other outspoken planning professionals to collectively come up with our own goals that we all can advocate and work towards in our own capacities to help undue the historic wrongs that were conceived by the Planning profession which perpetuates social justice disparities in our communities today.
I initially approached a group of 3 planners, Gisla Augustin, Kristen Jeffers, and Jermaine Ruffin to help explore a list of demands for Black Planners. We first developed a list of 10 comprehensive demands. The list of demands were then introduced to Desiree Powell’s Blck Spces’s Black Urban Planner’s Discussion via zoom. The virtual space for Black Planners was used to catalyze a broader discussion about the initial demands which became objectives. Desiree was able to pull and engage approximately 50 planner attendees with various backgrounds per each meeting. There is no doubt that Desiree’s efforts were an integral part of the process.
Through a series of conversations with various Black planners, including those mentioned in the acknowledgement section, a consensus was met where a list of notable and obtainable objectives, that we all can work towards, was preferred, as opposed to “demanding” or “asking” another entity to provide change for us and our community. This idea falls into the same principle of what blackandurban was found on: Sharing Solutions to Improve Our Spaces.
Acknowledgements
Desiree Powell, Blck Spces, Founder
Gisla Augustin , Gigi the Planner, Founder
Jermaine Ruffin. The Streets Are Planning, Founder
Fabiola Alikpokou, Beyond Urban Planning, Founder
Kristen Jeffers, The Black Urbanist, Founder
Dru Maynus, Urban Planning Life, Founder
Coretta Mondesir, Urban Money Project, Founder
Brittany Drakeford, PhD Student
Jonathan Bush, Urban Planner and Designer
Jalyn Porchay, Land Use Planner
Implementable Equity Strategies in Planning
Research shows that substandard infrastructure and materials are used in Black/African-American communities compared to white communities.
True equitable practices would ensure the same use of techniques regardless of neighborhood demographics or political boundaries.
Actively seek Engagement between Black Academics and Black Planning Practitioners
Academics and planning practitioners have the opportunity to create a thorough nexus. Our planning goals can better off be reached by creating an effective pipeline between research pertaining to Black communities and implementing projects that provide fact-based solutions.
Implement a National Ambassador/Mentorship Program
Aimed to inform BIPOC and be intentional about recruitment to the Planning profession.
Introduced by Jermaine Ruffin, Founder of The Streets Are Planning, this objective is seen as one of the most tangible within a 10 year period. It can serve as an effective way to retain Black planners in the profession.
Advocate for Social Justice and Physical Neighborhood Changes
Encourage Black/African/American Heritage Commissions in historically Black communities to influence land use and transportation decisions.
Dru Maynus, Founder of Urban Planning Life, first introduced the idea of creating a type of heritage board in Black neighborhoods that would serve as a governing body to have authority over Black cultural assets and infrastructure that affects residents and businesses under its influence. This would give control to Black residents in predominately Black neighborhoods and allow them to create their own solutions to resolve failed urban planning policies that left Black neighborhoods behind.
Advocate for local city councils to pass sweeping reforms to repair generations of discriminatory practices that has affected Black communities.
Asheville, NC’s City Council passed a resolution to provide reparations to its Black residents. The resolution is a form of restitution to correct the wrongs of racist urban planning policies and systemic racist government policies that have prohibit Black people from accumulating wealth while inhibiting their white counterparts to accumulate generational wealth.
The Town of Asheville, NC shall be used as a precedent for future bills of restitution to the American slave trade.
Encourage Black Urban Studies in Higher Education Planning Programs
Advocate for accredited colleges to include required courses focused on Black/ African-American neighborhoods and developmental patterns cities within continental Africa.
The following curricula should be a mandated throughout accredited Planning schools:
Coursework about African-American neighborhoods within the United States and the government’s role to perpetuate contemporary adverse physical and socio-economical neighborhood conditions due to historic and contemporary policies related to housing, transportation, zoning, gentrification and other exclusionary policies and practices.
For example, the curricula around this topic should be conducive to facillitate student discussions about development projects and/or plans that have created disparate impact in African-American communities, i.e. Pruitt-Igoe Apartments in St. Louis, MO and Black Wall Street/Greenwood community in Tulsa, OK.
The Color of Law by Richard Rothenstein should be a mandatory read.
African cities, their historic development patterns, and their successes and shortfalls due to western principles and native practices.
Other electives should take a look at racial injustice, and the social-economic and psychological impacts of racism within the built environment.
Include prominent Black Urbanists of Historical and contemporary significance at accredited planning schools. The curricula should/must consider the following notable black planners, sociologists, and activists, as listed below from Gisla Augustin, Founder of Gigi the Planner’s recommended list:
Ethel Lawrence, considered the Rosa Parks for affordable housing with the historic Mt. Laurel Case.
W.E.B. Du Bois, well renowned sociologist who studied the effects of racism on African-Americans in Philadelphia, PA.
Benjamin Banneker
James Baldwin
Charles Claybourn Allen
Reginald Griffith
Arthur Campbell
Harvey Gantt
Michelle Obama
Samuel [James] Cullers
Hilanius L. Phillips
Mitchell Silver
Curtis E. Green
Herman Kobe
Glady West
W.E.B. DuBois
Horace Clayton Jr. / St. Claire Drake
John Hope Franklin
Gordon Parks
Dorothy Mae Richardson
Rev. Dr. Calvin Butts
William Julius Wilson
Geoffrey Canada
Mary Pattillo
Urbanists - Academia
Julian Agyeman
Robert Bullard
Sheila Foster
Toni Griffin
Michael Lens
Mary Pattillo
June Manning Thomas
William Julius Wilson
Dr. Destiny Thomas
Urbanists - Community Activists
http://cornersideyard.blogspot.com/2017/11/black-urbanists-part-2-community.html
Christopher Alston
Erma Henderson
Mel King
Teka Lark Lo
Fannie Lewis
Ayesha McGowan
DeRay Mckesson
Liz Ogbu
Olatunji Oboi Reed
Najari Smith
Derrick Braziel, William Thomas, III and Allen Woods
Urbanists - Local Government Management
http://cornersideyard.blogspot.com/2017/11/black-urbanists-part-3-local-government.html
Keith Benjamin
Kelley Britt
Maurice Cox
Kimberly Driggins
Aaron Foley
Majestic Lane
Justin Garrett Moore
Mitchel Silver
John Watson
Prioritize Healthy Cities
Prioritize healthy food equality, and mitigate food deserts. Utilize urban informatics to correlate health data with land use and development patterns, Integrate biophilic design to maintain a good physical and mental health.
Promote inclusive design that encourage physical activity for all users to mitigate cardiovascular and asthmatic health disparities.
Mitigate toxic air, noise nuisances, and urban heat islands while increasing fresh water and waterfront access.
This objective was introduced by Jonathan Bush, planner and urban designer. These are some objectives that should be prioritized to reverse the devastating health disparities in African-American/Black communities set forth by racist housing and transportation policies from the United State’s Federal Housing Authority and Federal Highway Administrations.
In Architecture, form is known to follow function, but so to in planning, shall our health be the motivating objective to create beautiful and sustainable neighborhoods for African-Americans to live, work and play.
Uplift, Support, and Engage with BIPOC Organizations
Black businesses generate revenue to stabilize black communities' tax-base. BIPOC social entrepreneurs focused on helping communities of color should be given preferential treatment to help resolve the problems within our communities.
There are quite a few BIPOC organizations advocating for social and environmental change. It's imperative that we connect, collaborate, engage and foster relationships with one another.