The power in urban design lies its ability to provide a lens into the future. It allows communities to project themselves, their families, their values, into the built environment to create spaces that are affirming, safe, and prosperous. In the American urban context, this right has largely been denied for non-White immigrants and communities of color. Structural and institutionalized racism, segregation, and economic inequality have been baked into our sidewalks and reinforced with each generation. The systems that were built to serve and protect us have failed. We are concurrently experiencing a global health crisis, and at large, a crisis of community.
Claiming autonomy is a powerful act of rebellion against the systems that we know and serve. What is being experienced in Capitol Hill is an opportunity for Black and Brown communities to demand justice. A historic moment to reframe the way we police our communities, educate our children, and provide economic opportunities for those who live in our city. The Capitol Hill Occupied Protest (CHOP) has forced the City of Seattle to address these systemic shortcomings in more concrete terms. I believe it is the duty of planners and designers of the built environment to preserve, and enhance the equity, livability, safety, and health in our communities, and this cannot be done without earning the trust of the communities they serve. In order to do so, communities need to be empowered at a granular level.
Top-down planning has created and perpetuated a system that provides equality at best but will never be able to truly serve each of its communities equitably. In order for cities to meaningfully match the needs of its neighborhoods and diverse residents, they need to deploy an asset-based approach to community development. The collective power held by private citizens makes grassroots community-level organization critical to disrupting traditional market-based approaches to land use and urban planning.
Full article published on The Urbanist