Month: May 2018

This week’s readings were placed perfectly with the ending of this course.  This entire semester, we have been speaking about the causes and effects of gentrification, and what the solutions to those causes and effects could be.   In these readings, we find a perfect mix of local advocacy and transparency from government officials within community planning.  “Progressive community planning is defined here as planning that seeks to achieve local and global equality, social inclusion, and environmental justice (Angotti, 8).”  Thus, the solution proposed in the readings is the idea of the people of a community standing up against proposed plans which could severely alter their communities.  However, the key is not just advocacy and resistance, but remaining persistent in the advocacy.  The persistence is what led to the success of many community planning projects.  However, as much as a the people want to be involved with projects, often time politicians distract the people and fool them into thinking that they are being helpful in the exact manner they wish to be.  For example, with the destruction of the Twin Towers, there was huge public uproar over the plans of building more offices in that area instead of rebuilding the towers.  However, officials had given the public menial tasks to do and continued to carry out their agenda anyways, which made the people’s help rather futile.  Thus, we can see that the advocacy is not as effective if people do not consistently hold politicians liable.  As we see in this article about community planning, it can be effective. Continue reading “Community Planning: Don’t Let San Diego be San Die-gone!”