Policy, Planning, and People: Promoting Justice in Urban Development

Chapter 6. Toward an Equity-Oriented Planning Practice in the United States

Chapter 6 Toward an Equity-Oriented Planning Practice in the United States Norman Krumholz Over the past sixty years almost all older industrial cities in the United States have been losing population, jobs, and economic investment. As a consequence , most are becoming locations of concentrated poverty and unemployment . Global economic changes have eliminated employment and income opportunities for many lower- and moderate-income people, with minority populations in center cities being particularly affected (Wilson 1987). Many of the people remaining in these places live in areas that provide poor education , have high crime rates, and in every respect offer a sharply lower quality of life than that enjoyed by other Americans. Both local and national leadership have responded to this crisis by attempting to stimulate new investment, bring the middle class back to the city, and develop heavily subsidized real estate projects in downtown areas, hoping that the benefits of these efforts would somehow “trickle down” to those in the lower reaches. To an extent, these efforts have succeeded: new offices, hotels, and sports stadiums have been built in many cities, physically changing their skylines. None, however, has succeeded in reducing poverty, unemployment, or dependency among their resident populations, nor have they lowered rates of negative socioeconomic outcomes associated with concentrated poverty. Moreover, these efforts have left unimproved most of the neighborhoods of the working class and poor, leaving virtually untouched the ever-widening economic disparity between neighborhoods in central cities and between central cities and their suburbs. 13423-Policy Planning and People_Carmon1.indd 123 3/14/13 9:48 AM 124 Norman Krumholz Verification of these trends can be found in a study of 302 American cities . Of these, researchers identified some 65 older industrial cities that, based on eight economic indicators, have been lagging behind the others in the survey in job loss, unemployment rates, median household income, poverty rates, and other economic indicators (Vey 2007). The economic disparities between these cities and their suburbs were also increasing as jobs and incomes were shown to be growing much faster (on average) in the suburbs than in the central cities. In other words, the “trickle-down” policy in American cities—which took the form on the ground of programs such as urban renewal, urban development action grants, and empowerment zones—has produced few benefits for increasingly destitute residents. Instead, it has exacerbated geographical disparities and created a more divided metropolitan area, split between downtown , wealthy suburbs, and other zones of relative affluence, on one hand, and low-income neighborhoods in and outside the central city, on the other. Planning practitioners working in the mainstream of their profession have contributed to these changes partly as a result of their striking success in serving the needs of growth. This was particularly true in the post-World War II period. Growth advocates and coalitions required major land use modifications and changes in the structure of local government, and city planners were important actors in both efforts. Planners often played significant roles in designing and authorizing urban renewal redevelopment schemes, highway projects, downtown renovations, and suburban developments. Mainstream professional practice in city planning adapted—perhaps too well—to the needs of growth coalitions. In the process, concerns for redistribution and broader participation were pushed to the margins of the profession . But an alternative practice, more oriented toward equity concerns, with roots that go back to the turn of the last century, was also at work during this period; one can find connections between that movement and the emerging constituencies of recent decades, as well as those seeking to address the needs of the present. Equity-Oriented Planning in the United States and Its Lessons for Planning and Planners The early history of city planning is marked by many well-known equityoriented initiatives. These include the planned, socially owned garden cities 13423-Policy Planning and People_Carmon1.indd 124 3/14/13 9:48 AM 125 Equity-Oriented Practice in the United States proposed by Ebenezer Howard and the work of the “material feminists” like Alice Constance Austin, who sought housing and community arrangements to form a planned and egalitarian social landscape. Patrick Geddes, a Scottish biologist, drew up dozens of town plans in India and elsewhere based on a cooperative model of city evolution; the Regional Planning Association of America led by Clarence Stein sought to build housing to achieve social objectives; and Lawrence Veiller, the New York housing reformer, endeavored to...