I'm exhausted by urbanists of privilege glossing over systemic racism and rewriting the history of cities just to push a pro-density argument.
I've been thinking about this for weeks now because housing twitter is what it is
Instead of using this moment to contemplate who our cities have deliberately left behind, how that has left them more vulnerable to harm, and how to address those wrongs, the same folks crowing about density are clamoring for us to "reclaim our streets" for biking & walkability.
I briefly vented about this just a few days ago, too, so I apologize those who follow me for the redundancy. It's just that the disconnect between white/privileged and BIPOC cities twitter is so deep.
If you want to advocate for cities to open their streets, that is fine...
with a few caveats
with a few caveats
1) That and seizing the moment to upend car culture shouldn't be the only thing you are talking about.
[you know who you are, so just sit down, thanks.]
[you know who you are, so just sit down, thanks.]
2) Recognize that, thanks to the legacy of segregation, disenfranchisement, and repressive policing, PoC - Black people in particular - have been chased out of the public space and told they had no place there...
...Meaning that not everyone has had the luxury of "seeing their streets as sites of recreation." Opening someone's street, in other words, doesn't necessarily make them feel like it is theirs to "reclaim."
...
...
And in areas where gentrification has made real inroads, folks of color have tended to be erased from the visual and cultural landscape, meaning that the opening of streets that does not acknowledge/engage that has the potential to leave some behind...
Or render them even more invisible once the emergency passes.
Dr. Destiny Thomas was beating this drum last week and got subtweeted from here to next Sunday.
3) If you are using the disparate impact of pollution on communities of color to justify the call for open streets or more bike infrastructure being built during this period, there is a 99.7% chance you are doing it wrong.
Yes, pollution is a factor putting BIPOC communities at greater risk of death from COVID-19.
But why had those folks been relegated to those spaces to begin with?
But why had those folks been relegated to those spaces to begin with?
That's right - discriminatory planning practices.
And what were folks subjected to while living in those spaces?
Discrimination. Denial of access to opportunity, to resources, to adequate health care. Repression and mass incarceration resulting in generational trauma.
Discrimination. Denial of access to opportunity, to resources, to adequate health care. Repression and mass incarceration resulting in generational trauma.
...all of which compound the risk said communities are experiencing.
And all of which means that if you are talking about "not going back" to the injustice of streets without bike lanes like this, you should probably log off now and repent for your sins.
And all of which means that if you are talking about "not going back" to the injustice of streets without bike lanes like this, you should probably log off now and repent for your sins.
In other words, don't tokenize BIPOC folks by folding their vulnerabilities into planning frameworks that take access to streets as a given.
Don't present denser cities as safer places to be without engaging questions of overcrowding, how/why many BIPOC communities are relegated to substandard housing conds, and how we might excise the harms that perpetuate those conditions from our planning processes.
Awful as this moment is, it allows for more radical thinking & for new paradigms to emerge that right some of those past wrongs. We should take advantage of it bc we cannot afford for our cities to emerge from quarantine less intact, less inclusive, less resilient, or less just.
Thank you for your time. Now go read people who have said all this better than I.
newyorker.com/news/our-colum…
newyorker.com/news/our-colum…
