Complex Crucial Considerations

Originally, I had plans to pursue architecture. I intended on becoming an architect and I got so far as to achieving an associate degree in architecture from community college. However, gone are the days of x-acto knife cuts and basswood sanding rituals. I don’t miss the one-time models and Michael’s receipts that would accumulate on my desk throughout the semester. Nevertheless, one of the things I took away from my experience as an architecture student was that building design is a series of decisions that hopefully, overall, benefit the user of the space; from aesthetics to functionality.

I credit two specific instances that took place within my architecture schooling that served as the catalysts for my transition to community and regional planning. The first instance took place during my third-year design studio class when my design professor made a heedless, ableist comment regarding how because of A.D.A. most of an architects’ designs are compromised. This was in regard to a monumental staircase and how it was apparently necessary for the building’s experience. Which is totally exclusionary to disabled bodies. What about their experience? Abled bodies can waltz up a grand staircase while disabled bodies get an elevator down the hall? Consequently, that is when I started to realize how biased architecture could be.

The second instance takes place in a low-income, culturally significant and historic community of my hometown. My hometown proposed the construction of a “multipurpose arena” which would involve the use of eminent domain resulting in the displacement of those living in that community. Gentrification, or the displacement of society’s most vulnerable in order to build entertainment for the economically privileged is not progress. My experiences; political and virtuous, are ultimately what lead me to stray away from architecture. Let it be known that I do not have a God Complex; I see the social injustice that exist within our cities, and more so than not these issues are a result from neglectful or intentional planning. I wanted to help mitigate the concurrent issues within our society.

And so, I begin what stood out to me on my first two weeks of my Social Issues in Urban and Regional Development class. We were introduced to the quote “Life is a multiactor social environment” I chose this quote, because of how straight to the point it is to describe a multiplex and ever evolving thing. Everything is connected to everything. Urban planning is experimenting and theorizing (sometimes it’s a hit or miss) ways in which we can utilize our inhabited and uninhabited areas to our optimal benefit while attempting to create the least collateral damage whether it is to people, animals, or the environment. Although, I may have anthropocentric biases I believe, as humans, we have a moral obligation to care for everything.

Although we can theorize solutions to longstanding social problems the fact of the matter is that there are real people that experience real issues on a daily basis. The disconnect that sets planners apart from everyone else is that we tend to think of future resolutions for today’s problems while the public thinks of in terms of what is currently happening today, and frankly the people that are being directly affected by social issues don’t have the time to participate in change because in this system that is against them – they are more concerned with survival. This leads to certain demographics being left out of the conversation.

A Wicked Problem is a term used in community planning to describe a situation that is difficult or impossible to solve because of incomplete, contradictory and or changing requirements that are often difficult to recognize. Tackling these issues isn’t just a one-person job, nor is it a team of people. Community planning involves the collaboration; listening and understanding of a conglomeration of people within society not just limited to the planning profession.

We don’t live in a perfect world and bureaucracy is at the heart of every municipality. I don’t think, at least right now or in this capitalist system, we could achieve equitable living for impoverished people nor would we be able to erase the disparities that certain demographics have felt for generations. Sufficient and sustainable city infrastructure is necessary for the stability of the city. I believe social justice is necessary as it provides critique of why the same demographics are prone to the same vicious cycle. It serves as a reminder to all of us, especially planners, that there are many facets to a community and many things need to be considered before a decision is made.