Discriminating Streets

07 August 2020

为什么会有这么多糟糕的城市设计?我们怎样才能使我们的街道更欢迎每个人?完美的城市仅仅是海市蜃楼吗?在本周的节目中,我们将探讨街道是否会有歧视,以及我们如何设计我们的城市,使它们更加公正。

城市在各种方面都不公平。Many are still segregated because ofredlining, where the government deliberately denied loans to black families in order to keep them out of white neighborhoods. Homeless people struggle withhostile architecture这是故意设计的,防止他们躺下休息。Many poor people live infood deserts, neighborhoods where they can’t access healthy and affordable groceries. Even though the Americans with Disabilities Act was passed 30 years ago,many buildings remain inaccessibleto disabled people.

What should we do about this? One simple idea is that we should hire some architects to design the ideal city, then build it. But figuring out how to implement this plan is staggeringly complex!

The ideal city might just be beyond our reach. If a measure is good for people, but bad for business, it will be hard to pass. Sometimes, everyone agrees that an improvement is great in principle, but homeowners balk at having it in their own backyards; this is often true of needle exchanges, metro lines, sewage treatment plants… even affordable housing. Why envision an ideal if you can never attain it in practice?

Idealists might reply that it’s important to have something to work toward, even if you never achieve it. But there are other problems. How can any small group of architects know what an ideal city looks like? They might get tangled in their own ignorance and prejudice, ignoring crucial possibilities. For example, they might try to invent a perfectly efficient road system, forgetting that public transportation is more affordable and better for the environment. Or they might design a bunch of single-family homes, without even considering the possibility of communal living.

Architects could try to solve the problem by asking diverse groups of city stakeholders what they want. But then a new problem arises: how will they balance everybody’s concerns? If a city needs affordable housing, public transit, beautiful parks, desegregated neighborhoods, and environmentally-friendly design, how will they know what to prioritize? They’ll either need to adopt a systematic theory, or find some other way of settling disagreements.

One last problem with building toward the ideal city is that our current cities have non-ideal features that are costly to dismantle. Highways that were built to destroy black neighborhoods, or cut them off from the rest of the city,still exist today. In an ideal world, they would never have been built in the first place, but dismantling them is expensive to taxpayers and bad for the environment. (If a piece of architecture is still causing serious present-day injustice, destroying and replacing it might be worth the cost, but we’ll need to weigh the trade-offs.)

So, what does urban justice look like? I’m looking forward to gaining a clearer vision in this week’s discussion with guest Shane Epting.

Photo byShengpengpeng CaionUnsplash

Comments(6)


Karen Rhodes's picture

Karen Rhodes

Sunday, August 9, 2020 -- 11:35 AM

Please speak to the need to

Please speak to the need to diversify the urban design profession.

Tim Smith's picture

Tim Smith

Monday, August 10, 2020 -- 6:47 AM

Diversity is needed. How'd I

Diversity is needed. How'd I do?

椅子的设计并不取决于肤色。

This post is specifically designed to address chair design not social justice in the design industry. We might discuss diversity in Philosophy but that is another kettle of fish and one that has been cooked recently and often. We still need to discuss things regardless of their origin or skin color.

I feel this need for diversity as I feel my own frustration at the riots in the streets. How do the streets themselves affect this conversation? That is the question. I too feel this is the wrong question for the times, but it is a question worth asking.

Sharonartist's picture

Sharonartist

Sunday, August 9, 2020 -- 12:15 PM

I have been a neighborhood

近20年来,我一直是一名社区活动家和土地使用观察员,很自然地,我思考了很多关于建设更好的城市的问题。其中一名主持人问道:“如果我没有任何可以比较的东西,我怎么知道一个城市好不好?”我写了一篇名为《城市宜人:城市权利法案》(Urban Fit for People: The Urban Bill of Rights)的文件,试图通过概述城市居民的理想权利来回答这个问题,为城市规划和设计的成功与否设定一个标准。该文件被总结并发表在城市规划杂志上,这是他们唯一由非专业(规划师)发表的文章。重点是,我的论文代表了一种新的城市设计方法——基于权利而不是基于形式的方法。它详细地回顾了哲学讲座中讨论的所有问题。中国伊朗亚洲杯比赛直播我向所有对现实生活规划感兴趣的人强烈推荐这本书。可在以下网址找到(及下载):
https://www.sharonhudson.com/urban_planning/urban_rights.html.

当我听到其中一位主持人推测人们应该住在摩天大楼里,因为摩天大楼增加了密度时,我不得不笑了。他有在摩天大楼里成家的经历吗?现在,我年迈的母亲住在一幢高层辅助生活大楼里;在过去的5个月里,由于疫情的影响,她只能在炎热、耀眼、嘈杂、狂风肆虐的屋顶“花园”和另一个漂亮但很小的花园中接触大自然,只有在工作人员能够陪伴她的时候,她才能进入这个花园。与此同时,许多住在地面层的老年人可以连续接触到大的花园空间,他们的日常生活几乎不会受到干扰。想想你90岁的时候想过什么样的生活。至于汽车:大多数规划者正在打一场最后的战争:当汽车不再需要汽油时,人们仍会想要出行的自由,但如果现在的规划者得逞,将没有停车场。至于我所说的ELK,即“本地知识的效率”:是的,这是至关重要的,但通常被贬低为邻避主义。

我们设计出更好、更公平的城市至关重要,但如果没有一个构建宜居城市的清晰轮廓,这个过程就会像今天的展览一样模糊。我强烈建议阅读我的《城市权利法案》。

Sharon Hudson, Oakland CA
https://www.sharonhudson.com/urban_planning/urban_rights.html

Josh Landy's picture

Josh Landy

Monday, August 10, 2020 -- 4:38 PM

I'm the one who mentioned

I'm the one who mentioned skyscrapers... but I agree with you! I'm fascinated at how often it's been brought up as an idea, including by Le Corbusier (see link below). But it's definitely not my vision of a utopian future. Thanks for sharing your Urban Bill of Rights, and thanks for listening!https://www.archdaily.com/411878/ad-classics-ville-radieuse-le-corbusier

Tim Smith's picture

Tim Smith

Monday, August 10, 2020 -- 6:28 AM

Cross-posting with the show..

Cross-posting with the show...

//m.f8r7.com/shows/can-streets-discriminate#comment-6664

We are not going to design our way out of discrimination, especially in a conversation and blog post picture that seems to imply good design of a park bench is to serve as a bed for the homeless. This is the same mistaken premise that foists social work onto our police, and I might add anarchists at our police stations.

Social injustice needs fundamental justice that respects human rights, not design criteria. Great design helps, but we're polishing turds here not rewriting the constitution. Turd polishing has ever, will ever, be the duty of design.

Pig lipstick.

Momarah's picture

Momarah

Monday, August 10, 2020 -- 7:43 AM

Yes, streets discriminate, or

是的,街道歧视,至少那些计划歧视的人是这样做的。在奥兰多,在市中心的Paramour社区(黑人占多数)和College Park社区(白人占多数)之间,街道被围了起来,只有在College Park一侧的街道还保持着整洁。我已经附上了一个链接来说明这些栅栏中的一个。

https://goo.gl/maps/ko9FyZURoDxJGaTGA