This week’s reading was about community planning or the participation of local people in creating an urban plan for their community. Tom Angotti, professor, and writer; writes in his book “New York for Sale: Community Planning Confronts Global Real Estate” about the start of community planning in NYC with the Cooper Square plan and the alternate plan presented by the community which opposed the one presented initially. The community plan was eventually the plan implemented. This was just the start of community planning as a whole and was followed by many other projects in a similar manner.
This weeks reading reminded me of the movie, “On the basis of sex”, which tells the story of a lawyer, Ruth Bater Ginsberg, and her journey to present a case in front of the supreme court at a time when it was extremely difficult to practice law as a woman. The determination she had in winning her case, and the obstacles pushing her back reminded me of the difficulty communities must have faced in making their community plans heard and accepted as opposed to the urban plans already proposed by developers and others who had more power. I think one of the admirable aspects of Ruth Bater Ginsberg in the movie was her ambition and dedication to her cause, which is what drove her to be able to succeed in changing the way the courts view certain laws that were based on gender discrimination. This is something that is also present in community-based planning projects or organizations such as the cooper square community plan, or the We Stay! committee. In addition, Ginsberg’s court case was the start of many others in the future which also combatted gender discrimination in the law. In this aspect, the movie also related to the continued use of community based planning in the future as well.
Questions
- Do you think getting community-based plans implemented is still an uphill battle?
- Can we do anything more to give community planning more power?
- Do you think there are drawbacks to community planning?
