Reading through “From Dislocation to Resistance: The Roots of Community Planning,” the author mainly focusing on racial and economic inequality of City Planning. She presents New York as a place where public officials and wealthy citizens move working class people like pawns, especially black working class people, without any regard, in the process of transforming the City. On many occasions, this exercise of power from the powerful usually results in forms of resistant from the oppressed, such as riots, like in the 1860’s or 1950’s, forming grass roots community organization, like CDCs ,or living on the fringe, like squatting . I love reading about the “mutual aid societies” or “cooperative ownership of land” during the early 1900’s. These types of societies do not really achieve the integration and shared communities that highlight modern urban planning, since they included only the same ethnicity/make up in a group, but I love hearing about people working together and forming a collective stake in their future. This idea is especially important in lower-middle class communities because their strength stems from their numbers and their specialized abilities, not from individual wealth. The victories gardens during WWII were also adorable, and I wish they were maintained instead of becoming abandoned. Having green space and growing fresh fruits and vegetables is always advantageous.

I am confused about the “slum clearance” of the 1950-60s. Neighborhoods were just teared down because they were in disrepair or the government officials just didn’t  like the people living there? That’s in no way a rational approach. More people just become dispersed and more impoverished, worsening the problem. It’s an example that City Planning cannot solely solve by moving/building buildings. I also found the Columbia University gym protest funny in recent light. There’s no gym, but there is an enormous Columbia research facility being built in Harlem. At least if there was a gym, it could be open to members of the community at certain times- but how will a research center involve a community?

Discussion Question: How can City Planning more effectively take into account the needs of the community?