Can urban design be racist? Yes, according to local leaders, and here’s how to fix it
Asked for an example of how urban design can have unintended racist consequences, Lauren Flemister didn’t hesitate.
Just look at light rail projects, she said, and specifically the Tacoma Link extension currently being laid down on Hilltop.
While the multi-million dollar street car project will run through and serve a historically Black neighborhood that has long suffered from neglect and disinvestment, we also know that it’s already exacerbating a trend of displacement and gentrification that predates it, Flemister said.
The Seattle community planning manager, who formerly worked for the City of Tacoma and still lives here, described it as just one of many instances of how the way cities are built can adversely affect communities of color and other marginalized populations.
“When you have that kind of transit investment, and one that’s considered desirable, what happens is it tends to impact land values, particularly in a community where land values everywhere are going up,” Flemister said, voicing a truth that longtime Hilltop residents already know too well.
“That tends to impact neighborhood stability … and then you start to get a lot of displacement,” Flemister continued. “I know displacement in the city, and on Hilltop, has been happening for a long time, but it speeds it up.”
Locally, conversations about how the Tacoma Link extension will increase housing costs and impact Hilltop gentrification is nothing new. Residents and business owners have long voiced similar concerns, even if adequate solutions to the problem haven’t always flowed freely from elected officials.
According to Flemister, the conundrum also highlights a broader reckoning that’s been too slow in coming for cities across the country, including Tacoma.
Whether it’s how public spaces are designed, where people live, where the big investments are made or which neighborhoods have sidewalks, the racist ramifications and unintended consequences of poor city design are all around us.
Tacoma is fairly typical in this way, Flemister said.
It’s a subject that she’ll discuss with other panelists in detail on Friday, during a free virtual event at noon hosted by the local transit advocacy group Downtown on the Go.
According to Laura Svancarek, Downtown on the Go’s commute trip reduction coordinator, it will be exactly the type of discussion that’s necessary if we want our cities to better serve all their residents.
Svancarek noted that Flemister will be joined by Nick Bayard, assistant chief equity officer of Tacoma’s Office of Equity and Human Rights and Krystal Monteros, vice chair of the city’s Commission on Disabilities.
Like Flemister, Svancarek anticipated a wide-ranging conversation that will help illuminate some of the many ways city design can have racist results or negatively impact others, like those with disabilities, including those that aren’t always visible to the naked eye.
In addition to big transportation projects, Svancarek noted how a common practice known as crime prevention through urban design — or CPTED — can produce outcomes that “end up being drastically skewed against people of color.”
Dating back to the 1960s, the idea behind CPTED is fairly simple: by cutting down on things like unlit areas and hard-to-see spaces, planning experts found that safer neighborhoods could be built, increasing the general public’s ability to self police.
However, as Svancarek noted, there can be unintended consequences to the practice.
If you’re Black or a person of color who is already subjected to societal biases, increasing surveillance opportunities — and encouraging the public to partake through deliberate urban design — naturally leads residents to “putting judgments on the folks that you see out in the street,” Svancarek said.
Walking while Black? Picnicking while Black? Simply being Black in public?
All of these things can become more fraught when a city is built in a way that motivates people to watch one another.
“You are creating a space where you can always be watched. There’s big wide windows. There’s open doorways. There are not hidden areas,” Svancarek said of CPTED, which she noted is “often implemented in more affluent areas.”
“It’s one of those things that at first glance seems to … make sense,” Svancarek said. “But it encourages these stereotypes that folks may already have, and it gives an excuse to build up on those stereotypes to involve police.”
Importantly, Svancarek noted, CPTED — like so many other elements of urban design — rarely comes from “a place of malice.”
In Tacoma, elements of CPTED has been incorporated into development plans over the years, including public housing projects and park redevelopments, often with positive results.
What this proves, according to Bayard, is that thoughtful, inclusive city design remains a complicated proposition.
While racist policies or planning decisions don’t tend to be deliberate or intentional in contemporary urban cities — ignoring for the moment the lasting ramifications of racial redlining — the problem usually starts with well-meaning governments that fail to represent the diverse populations they serve, Bayard said.
It’s something Bayard believes Tacoma is committed to doing, even while acknowledging there’s work to be done.
“Different cultures and communities will define safety differently and will have different needs when it comes to realizing that vision of safety, which is why it’s important that the city is proactively listening to community voice while also seeking to reflect the community in all levels of our workforce,” Bayard said.
Bayard noted that roughly 95 percent of city employees have received significant equity training, with plans to expand into “more advanced” training this year.
He also cited the work his office has done recently, including increasing engagement to diverse communities and working to ensure the equitable distribution of services.
All these things are a step in the right direction, according to Flemister.
Returning to the subject of the Tacoma Link extension, Flemister said the city could and should do more to prevent gentrification on Hilltop.
It will take more than talks, Flemister said, requiring a substantial public investment targeted specifically at residents and business owners — to help make sure they have the resources to stay in the area and benefit from the project.
Asked for her prescription on how to truly ensure cities like Tacoma are designed with all residents in mind, Flemister said it comes down to three main things:
For local cities, it means giving diverse voices a seat at the table, making real financial investments in under-served neighborhoods and building lasting relationships of trust in all neighborhoods, she said.
That takes time.
“Folks want quick fixes,” Flemister said. “If we really want to improve the course of things for the city, we can’t assume that can happen over night.”
This story was originally published January 21, 2021 at 5:10 AM with the headline "Can urban design be racist? Yes, according to local leaders, and here’s how to fix it."
