By Alex Hill Truly every city exists with multiple unequal parts where housing conditions, transportation routes, and access to opportunity remain inequitable. In present day Detroit, the “two Detroits” term has been used to admonish the current Mayor’s focus on Downtown development deals while ignoring “the neighborhoods” where the majority of Detroiters live on the edges … [Read more...] about DETROIT AS A CITY OF COMMODITIZED MULTIPLES
THE FUTURE OF PLANNING: INSIGHTS FROM EMERGING PLANNERS
The ongoing COVID-19 pandemic has raised critical questions of the role of planning in social equity and environmental justice. With regards to ensuring access to affordable and decent housing, green space, transport and employment, the planning profession is at a critical juncture as to whether – and how – our activities can be oriented towards justice as opposed to … [Read more...] about THE FUTURE OF PLANNING: INSIGHTS FROM EMERGING PLANNERS
Why We Should Be Arguing About Rent
By Alexander Ferrer Rent is a concept that has been taken for granted for so long in the context of housing policy discussions that its definition has become invisible. The questions of housing policy, to be sure, are often conceptualized and argued along the lines of rent: rents are too high; rents are too low for housing to be repaired adequately; rents capture too much … [Read more...] about Why We Should Be Arguing About Rent
WHAT CAN PLANNERS DO TO PROMOTE PEOPLE’S POWER? REVIEW OF “PEOPLE’S POWER: RECLAIMING THE ENERGY COMMONS”
By Tom Angotti People’s Power: Reclaiming the Energy Commons Ashley Dawson New York: OR Books, 2020. 274 pages • $20 ISBN 978-1-68219-300-6 Urban planning has traditionally focused on land, particularly its use and development. Questions about how energy is generated and used usually get left to the engineers and the energy providers. At the community level, … [Read more...] about WHAT CAN PLANNERS DO TO PROMOTE PEOPLE’S POWER? REVIEW OF “PEOPLE’S POWER: RECLAIMING THE ENERGY COMMONS”
COVID 2020: RECOVERING FROM A TRIPLE WHAMMY
By Sam Boskey In Montréal, looking back on the last few months, we see how the repercussions of the pandemic hit us in waves, like a triple whammy. The first blow was social and cultural. The government-ordered lockdown and confinement immediately changed the way we spent our days, how we saw to our basic needs of food and shelter, and how we related (or not) to our fellow … [Read more...] about COVID 2020: RECOVERING FROM A TRIPLE WHAMMY