Lesson 16 - Multicultural and Gender Issues

Question 1

Race

Answer 1

Over the past decades, there have been efforts to remove race from the discussion. Arguments have been made that we should strive, as a society, to be fully integrated. However, statistics show that the U.S. is not fully integrated and that there are still disparities between whites and racial/ethnic minority groups.

Martin Luther King, Jr.While the Civil Rights movement resulted in major gains for racial minorities, there are many people who have been left behind. In many of the worst housing projects, African-Americans live in uninhabitable housing. There are numerous other examples in which racial minorities have been placed in situations that would be unthinkable for those who are white and middle-class.

Some believe that race should be the first way to frame a local planning problem rather than the last consideration. Not bringing race into consideration can result in project failure. In many planning processes, there is a reasonable argument for including race as a factor. Do you believe that race should be considered first in a planning problem? How should race be taken into account in initiating a planning process?

In the U.S., we have tried to move away from the idea of “separate but equal,” but there are those who argue that we should cherish our African-American, Latino, and other neighborhoods and work to preserve their unique character.

In Columbus, Ohio, the Olde Towne East neighborhood was originally an area for the middle- and upper-class whites. Later, it transitioned to low-income African-Americans, and today it’s transforming into a predominantly gay neighborhood. This story is highlighted in a PBS documentary titled Flag Wars. Is it important to preserve historically ethnic and racial neighborhoods? How would you go about revitalizing an ethnic/racial area? There are no simple answers to these questions, but racial and ethnic differences should be taken into consideration in planning processes.

Question 2

Gender

Answer 2

While race has been recognized by planners as an important consideration, gender has largely been ignored.

Historically, feminism gained momentum in the U.S. during the 1960s and 1970s. This was happening at the same time as suburbanization, urban renewal, and growing levels of female poverty and single-parent households. Beginning in the 1970s, planners began to focus on the definitions of housing and housework.

Much of urban planning has been and remains gender-blind. To some, being gender-blind is a positive. Why should gender be considered an issue?

What are some of the differences between men and women that are relevant to planning?

1. There is a larger portion of women over the age of 65 than men;
2. There is a significant wage gap between men and women. According to a 1999 study, full-time white women wage and salary workers earned 75.7 cents for each dollar earned by a white man;
3. According to a study by the Canadian Institute of Planners, women planners earn 82 cents for every dollar earned by a male planner (data not available for the U.S.);
4. Single women-headed households are commonplace;
5. Women have different uses of transportation than men;
6. Women have different safety needs than men.

In economic development planning, consideration should be given to those who will be employed by the jobs that are created. Another consideration is home-based businesses. Parents may wish to operate a business out of their homes while caring for children. Most zoning ordinances are quite prohibitive in terms of home occupations, and this can be inhibitive for families.

Suffrage Parage (Courtesy of Wikipedia)Zoning has traditionally not taken gender into account. The strict separation of land uses has resulted in day care facilities being separated from housing, requiring parents to drive to take children to day care. This strict separation of uses results in the primary care giver taking more trips to take care of daily activities, such as picking up children, stopping at the grocery store, and running other errands.

While gender relations are changing and mean different things to different people in many areas, gender remains an important organizing principle in terms of the distribution of opportunities, responsibilities, and resources. This remains an important issue for planners concerned with social equity. The most important point is that feminist theory rejects the notion that theory is value-neutral and, in turn, rejects the rational model.

Give some thoughts to the following questions:

How do men and women experience the city differently? How do cities reinforce the existing (or past) gender roles?
What would a feminist planning theory look like?

Question 3

Social Justice

Answer 3

Social justice is about people being able to realize their potential in the communities in which they live. For city planners a lot of social justice is about spatial justice. How our cities are organized is critical to the ability of people to succeed. For example, if affordable housing is located in an area with poor transportation access and few jobs, people will struggle to find and sustain employment. Thinking about issues of social justice is an important part of our role as planners. The City of Seattle, for example, has a Race and Social Justice Initiative. As part of the initiative they provide a tool kit designed to assist departments to analyze the racial equity impact of policies, programs, initiatives and budget issues. Seattle’s Initiative’s long term goal is to change the underlying system that creates race-based disparities in the city and to achieve racial equity.

Social justice can apply in almost every area of planning. For example, the Centers for Disease Control reports that elderly and minority populations are at greater risk of being killed by a car while walking. Native American men were four times more likely than white men to be killed while walking, and the fatality rates for black and Hispanic men are about twice that of white men. The results are partially explained by the fact that minority households are more likely to be without a vehicle and therefore walking more. As planners we should be considering these disparate impacts and target safety improvements in areas with the highest risk.

David Harvey’s book Social Justice in the City is an excellent resource for learning more about social justice and its application in city planning.