In the article “Community planning without displacement: strategies for progressive planning,” Tom Angotti focuses on the close relationships among community planning, political strategy and the control over land-use (public vs private) which could contribute to the prevention of gentrification. He begins by discussing the connection between security of tenure and housing which has been a goal for housing and community movements. The power is usually in the hands of outside forces rather than between or within neighborhoods and it is important for community organizers to take into context these struggles for social justice and to change these relations of political power to play an important role in shaping the city. Angotti states, “ under industrial capitalism, planning became an explicit function of the state, industrial capitalism- contradictions within the capitalist class and between capital and labor.” Urban planning has been a means to address this contradiction. This ties in with James DeFilippis reading for Monday which provided this overview on the contradiction between production and social reproduction. Another important “element of progressive planning” is land-use. Urban planners need to look into ways to develop and regulate land and look at the long-term issues of land use. New York City’s land use policy has been largely been controlled by the economic theory and the powerful real estate sector. As Angotti states, the goal of the community planner is to aid in producing good communities and not just contribute to or accommodate market demand for development. Thus, there needs to be a much more strategic approach to land which would include the development and controlling of land-use. This could provide a “sense of place” that could slow or prevent the gentrification process in neighborhoods that is caused by profitable giant development projects. There is a major set of contradictions between real estate and communities just as between capital and labor. Due to the power of the real estate sector, which is a major node for the transaction of global capitalism, it conflicts with community planning especially in New York City. The real estate industry also plays a vital role in the development of both market-rate and affordable housing. This topic is relatable to our project on community gardens in terms of the connections to land-use and political policies and how that plays a role in community planning. DeRienzo in the article, “Community Organizing for Power and Democracy,” discusses what makes a neighborhood and a community before delving into how community building efforts can be characterized today and a few examples on how to prevent gentrification such as the use of public space should be restored by any community effort. I found DeRienzo’s article very organized and direct in terms of defining or explaining in terms of community planning. This is similar to what Angotti discusses in his article as key for community planners to take into account to slow the process of gentrification. I suppose the question to ask would be, is it indeed possible to mediate between community planning and political power(land-use is just another aspect of political power)?