By Marie Kennedy INTRODUCTION Transformative community planning is a way of working with communities across divisions. It is not based on the superficial pasting together of short-lived, issue specific coalitions, but on transforming relations between groups. In this sense, it is participatory planning which empowers the community to act in its own interests. If we … [Read more...] about TRANSFORMATIVE PLANNING FOR COMMUNITY DEVELOPMENT, Part One: Moving From Advocacy Planning to Transformative Planning
ADVOCACY PLANNING AND ENVIRONMENTAL JUSTICE IN MICHIGAN’S MOST POLLUTED ZIP CODE
By Lisa Berglund The 48217 zip code of Detroit is considered the most polluted zip code in Michigan. This fact was discovered by public health scholar-advocates concerned with environmental justice in this majority Black city. Many residents of 48217 are children of the second great migration, and part of a very tight knit community that boasts a lingering spirit of ‘real … [Read more...] about ADVOCACY PLANNING AND ENVIRONMENTAL JUSTICE IN MICHIGAN’S MOST POLLUTED ZIP CODE
PERMITTING ENVIRONMENTAL INJUSTICE AT THE U.S. ENVIRONMENTAL PROTECTION AGENCY
By Natalie Bump Vena As part of efforts to reform how facilities receive permits, the United States Environmental Protection Agency (EPA) is promoting policies that effectively entrust corporations with protecting our most vulnerable communities from environmental hazards that their own businesses produce. By encouraging fenceline residents—people who live next to toxic … [Read more...] about PERMITTING ENVIRONMENTAL INJUSTICE AT THE U.S. ENVIRONMENTAL PROTECTION AGENCY
WHAT’S WRONG WITH THE NEW LOCALISM: A RESPONSE TO RICHARD FLORIDA AND BRUCE KATZ
By Simone Tulumello Calls for a “new localism” abound these days. In the aftermath of Trump’s election, many liberal and progressive commentators have been claiming that cities are the new “nodes of resistance”. Richard Florida, influenced by Benjamin Barber’s If Mayors Ruled the World, has advocated a new urban agenda comprised of a “devolution” of power to the local … [Read more...] about WHAT’S WRONG WITH THE NEW LOCALISM: A RESPONSE TO RICHARD FLORIDA AND BRUCE KATZ
A RESPONSE TO ABOLITIONIST PLANNING: THERE IS NO ROOM FOR ‘PLANNERS’ IN THE MOVEMENT FOR ABOLITION
By Deshonay Dozier Abolition is a movement that seeks to end prisons, police, and border walls. Why? They are institutions of war built on colonial and capitalist legacies of indigenous, Black, brown, Asian and poor violence. They only produce violence and need to be abolished. The fight for abolition is aside from, and not something that can be fully incorporated into, … [Read more...] about A RESPONSE TO ABOLITIONIST PLANNING: THERE IS NO ROOM FOR ‘PLANNERS’ IN THE MOVEMENT FOR ABOLITION