I approach this subject with the appropriate amount of apprehension. I know that there are strong feelings about this subject. I know that there are many poignant opinions shared by everyone in this topic. It is certainly not my intention to inflame prejudices or provoke people to anger. It is my intention, however, to inflame the light of understanding and to provoke people to action.
As I mentioned in the previous post, I am re-reading the epic classic Les Miserables. It is a wonderful story, one full of the observations of Mr. Hugo and one that leads thoughtful people to an analysis of the conditions of the world. In particular, the miserable ones referenced by the title are the poor. He spends a lot of time on mandatory free education and how free that would make people. I heartily agree. And I think that our world is seeing the results of this sort of education.
He mentions that the main economic problems that nations face have to do with the accumulation of wealth and then the distribution of that wealth. In particular, he says that communism is not the answer. There is no equality without equity. It is not parity in salaries that produces satisfaction: it is satisfaction that produces satisfaction. People who don't really know what they want or need are always going to be dissatisfied.
So what does this all have to do with planning? Current planning theory doesn't take into account the needs of the poor. In the first place, it doesn't understand what poor people need. There are several reasons for this, including not knowing why poor people are poor, what it takes to help them, and a failure to communicate with the very people that they are trying to help. Poor people often find themselves systematically disenfranchised by an establishment that ostensibly is democratic and open to all. But when office hours are from 8-5, M-F, in formidable neo-classical offices staffed by formidable, neo-classical people with the attendant formidable neo-classical attitudes, where everything seems to scream at people to GO AWAY!, there is little chance for the gap to be bridged.
The current housing crisis is a further exacerbation of the problem. Current planning theory is that new developments are built on models of economic (and therefore racial and ethnic - and why is that, anyway?) diversity. These theoriticians hold up examples like Seaside, Florida, or Daybreak, Utah, as examples of this kind of diversity. But the reality is unfortunately different than the ideal. These places ostensibly have a diversity in housing options that will cater to the needs of many people from all kinds of backgrounds. What ends up happening is that these places are wildly successful. With the success comes the attendant increase in property values and the beginning of the process known as gentrification.
Historical preservation may have the same kind of effect, as seen in many notable neighborhoods all over the country. Originally, these areas have been bastions of diversity in the wake of white flight. But now these areas are being restored to their original grandeur, and the process of gentrification begins anew. And again, the poor are displaced to the suburbs. With our automobile-centered transportation systems, it is not the rich who have returned to the downtown areas who will feel the gasoline price crunch - it is the poor who have been forced out to the dilapidated suburbs with the failing infrastructure and 2 hour commutes.
And what of the working poor (there are such people)? Those who work but still lack? With an unemployment rate of very near 100% (within the margins of statistical error), we are led to ask why there are people who are still poor? People who work should be able to provide for thier needs. I don't know much about these folks, and neither does anyone else. People struggle from paycheck to paycheck, get caught up in housing crises, and pray that their children don't get sick. These people don't have time or energy to get involved with politics. So they get ignored. Politicians are more worried about the elderly and the baby boomers than they are about younger people and their needs.
And what of the elderly? You baby boomers who will soon be joining the ranks of the elderly should wonder how the house of cards you have been building for the last 30 years is going to stay up on that rickety card table. Who will pay for the services you will need? Who will design the communities you will desire (and probably demand)? And how will the struggling younger generations, so long neglected and pampered behind your walls (which exclude dangers and the potential of failure, but also encourage a kind of apathy that is more damaging because it is nearly ubiquitous)?
The solution to all of these things is easy to see. I have been taught that all it takes for evil to prosper is for good people to do nothing. Is that just a trite phrase? I don't think so. The evidences are too great in the affirmation of the strength of a organized moral people. It's what our country was founded on and what has made us great for so long.
If you are older - look for ways to mentor younger people. You have so much to share, and the fires that you have are tempered with the years of experience. The future is (and has ever been) in your hands. Use your skills honed in the crucible of experience to shape and sharpen the people around you who so desperately need you.
If you are younger - stop being so apathetic. And pathetic. I know things are tough and politics is boring. But how do you think that they are ever going to change if you don't do SOMETHING? It doesn't even matter if it is the wrong thing, because people can learn from that. And others will see your efforts and catch the vision themselves.
Planning for the poor involves more than a simple drawing or document or statement of principles or beliefs. It involves a complete change of the way things are done and considered. The poor need to be embraced, not dictated to. They need respect, not condescention. They need appreciation, not patronizing attitudes. And they need a voice and an ear, not Pruit-Igoe. Complete social engineering, in whatever guise, never works. It fails because the people are not consulted. They are not consulted because they are not respected. And the poor are not respected because they are not understood, apprciated, or listened to - they are not even asked. This needs to be the basis of any plan for the poor. This is what gives people the all-important investment in the ultimate success of the plan - a voice in its creation.
I have a lot more to say on this, but I think that this will suffice for now.
1 comment :
nice...
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