From the assigned excerpts in A Region at Risk and Building Like Moses with Jacobs in Mind we were presented with two different representations of the Third Regional Plan (herein referred to as TRP). From Yaro and Hiss’s brief comparisons of the first, second, and third regional plans, and from how they explain the TRP, the TRP’s holistic approach to urban designing seems to be the wisest choice when making decisions that will have large-scale global consequences, because “if you pull on a thread, you move the stars,” (Yaro, 2) and that’s some serious universe shaking stuff. The TRP’s core of balancing the Three E’s – economy, equity and environment – was presented to us as a plan for improving everyone’s overall quality of life, especially that of the lower class, by strengthening the region instead of expanding it. But then we read the fifth chapter in Professor Larson’s book and the TRP seems like it directly made gentrification into a corporate and governmentally controlled agenda to the supreme benefit of economy and environment, but at the expense of equity. As Professor Larson says very eloquently, “gentrification emerged as a calculated component of the intentional and methodical production of urban environments amenable to global corporations and their highly compensated workers,” (Larson, 73), and thus gentrification became an economic tool that furthers the economic disparity between classes.

What we have here is the ideal and the reality. Another plan went awry, as plans do; but why did this one falter? Building Like Moses with Jacobs in Mind had me blaming the “system.” The politicians and billionaires, and even the authors of the plan, had economic interests that corrupted the execution of the TRP. The social factors to the plan were weighed by rich, elite white men, who were more concerned with their own economics than with establishing a sustainable economy with less income inequality; immediate economy TRUMPed equity and sustainable economy. Undoubtedly, this did play a large role in how subsequent urban development occurred.

Still, do not think that all of the “system” could not give a damn about the lower classes and that only college students, the lower class, and Bernie Sander champion the cause for income equality (herein referred to as IE), because the authors of the TRP were very aware and conscientious of this issue. According to Tony Schumann and Elliot Sclar, the TRP indeed gave “prominence to issues of education and access to jobs” by “recognizing discrimination and segregation as obstacles to labor force productivity,” and characterizing the immigrant and minority workforce as essential to its growth and competitiveness. Moreover, it is stated in the TRP that the region is “shamed by its persistent racial and income segregation.” (Schumann). Schumann assures us that the TRP acknowledges the connection between segregation and income inequality as a big problem facing the future of the regional economy. Now, it is true that Professor Larson acknowledges that the TRP was very concerned with IE and increasing general life quality for as many people as possible, as he mentions Jacobsean philosophy multiple times, so I could very well have missed the point. But, I do not think I have because he stresses the “corporate agenda” aspect, implying to me that they did not care even a bit for the disadvantaged.

So, I ask again, how did it manage to not aid the problem if part and parcel of the documented plan was in considerable favor of helping the situation of this population? According to the same Tony and Elliot, it comes down to a contradiction in the Regional Plan Association that prevented the TRP authors from proposing an extensive and effective concrete campaign to combat segregation and income inequality at its roots. Yaro and Hiss, only provide “moral exhortations” (Schumann) in the TRP, which most people did not read and even if they had, would that have done anything? Anyway, the contradiction is that they are spearheading the efforts to encourage unified regional development that does not use up land as it enhances its human resources efforts, while corporate sponsorship of the RPA limits the practical initiatives it can suggest, and when social issues clash with immediate political issues, politics typically are more important to bureaucratic entities. Indeed, Schumann and Sclar point out that Lewis Mumford articulated this underlying principle of the RPA and assert that it is apparent in all three regional plans. Mumford said that the RPA was made to “meet the interests and prejudices of the existing financial rulers… and its aim from the beginning was as much welfare and amenity as could be obtained without altering any of the political or business institutions which have made the city precisely what it is.” (Schumann). Assuming this is true, we see that the RPA became more socially conscious and caring over time.

This is a story like many others. One in which what is popularly conceived as morally correct or morally repugnant is disregarded in favor of politics. It is a corruption of sorts, but what is the root of the corruption? Stories like this make us wonder how far do we have to go to establish institutional social change.

additional sources:

http://www.plannersnetwork.org/1998/03/new-york-race-class-space-a-historical-comparison-of-the-three-regional-plans-for-new-york/

by Joshua Libin