Writing assignment

· Sustainable development started post WW2 late 1960s, rising living standards worldwide

· Concerns about overpopulation, “one earth”, suburban expansion, limits natural resources, pesticides, nuclear weapons

· 1969 International Union for Conservation of Nature declared environmental harm from economic development (but it is possible to develop without harm to environment)

· 1972 create The Limits of Growth and Blueprint for Survival – Weight in on planet and future, alarmist of industrial society with predictions of global collapse

· 1972 United Nations Conference on the Human Environment, Stockholm – talk about society and the environment

· 1987 publication of Our Common Future, Development term everyone uses (more familiar). Report talked about resource distribution to poorer nations to encourage economic growth, thought of future generations living in our world.

· Sustainable Development: The development that meets the need of the present without compromising the ability of future generations to meet their own needs (pg. 8)

· 1992 UN Conference on Environment and Development (Rio “Earth Summit” agenda 21) Conference talked about relationship of protecting environment and developing the planet. Mainstreamed the call for sustainable development. Agenda 21 was produced that improved human lives and protected the environment.

· 2000 Millennium Summit of the UN New York. 8 millennium development goals targeted Reduction of extreme poverty, protect vulnerable populations (targeted developing countries)

· 2002 UN World Summit on Sustainable Development – agreed to reduce poverty, protect environment

· 2012 UN Conference on Sustainable Development (Rio) later occurred 2015 UN Sustainable Development Conference and later next one in 2030 goals (17 of them)

· Sustainability and sustainable development relationship (Sustainability: A state, or set of conditions persisting over time) (Sustainable development: the process by which sustainability can be achieved. An action-oriented version of the term “sustainability”)

9/2/19

· Early 19th century concerns about industrial cities:

· 1) Living conditions of working class (sanitation, sewers, clean water)

· 2) Human-nature separation

· 3) Industrial impacts on the environment (de-forestation, air pollution)

· 4) Suburban encroachment on natural areas

· When did we start talking about sustainable development and urban settings?

· 1975: United Nations Habitat and Human Settlements Foundation (Give money and technical foundation)

· 1976: United Nations Conference on Human Settlements, Vancouver (“Habitat I” )

· 1977: United nations Commission of Human Settlements is established; UN Centre for Human Settlements (“Habitat”)

· “Tangible yet timid” calls its own work tangible but timid (because 2/3 of humanity were in rural settings – about urbanization)

· Responsibility for sustainable urban development scaled down, from UN and national gov. to local govs.

· 1990: International Council on Local Environmental Initiatives (now called ICLEI) they help local governments around the world develop sustainability programs

· 1992 United Nations Conference on Environment and Development (they talked about environment at the conference)

· Local Agenda 21: focus on cities, and authorities unfolding a local plan of action for developing the city sustainability. Very important for making cities around the world develop sustainability initiatives.

· 1996 United Nations Conference on Human Settlements (“Habitat II” “City Summit”)

· 2002: Habitat is elevated to program status: United Nations Human Settlements Programme (UN-Habitat)

· 2015 UN Sustainable Development Conference: Sustainable Development Goals for 2030 are approved (Make Cities and human settlements inclusive, safe, resilient, and sustainable)

· 2016 United nations Conference on Housing and Sustainable Urban Development “Habitat III” signed onto New Urban Agenda to set a new global standard for developing new sustainable cities (what they should look like) – economic prosperity, cultural and social well-being (cities center of it), protecting the environment

· Why plan for sustainable development at local scale, in cities?

· Global sustainability is the end goal “A sustainable city is essentially one that contributes effectively to the global aims of sustainable development”

· So why should planning for global sustainability occur at the local scale, in cities? “The extent to which the 21st century world will be ‘sustainable’ depends in large part on the sustainability of cities”

· On planning for SD at the local scaled

· The subsidiarity principle: An organizing principle of decentralization (idea where least centralized authority should handle the issue) like Democracy where decisions are made close as possible to citizen

· Local governments and citizens have the strongest potential to do sustainable development well

· 1) Knowledge of local citizens, organizations, etc.

· 2) Judgment of local authorities

· 3) Local human-environment relations; responsiveness of local authorities

· On planning for SD at the local scale

· Are there other reasons why it may be more effective for local authorities, rather than national or international authorities, to guide local/urban sustainability planning?

· 1) Specific ideas for specific areas, easier to get the message out to your city and win them over when it takes long to go through the nation, local people are more invested into their environment.

9/5/19

· Planning sustainable development: the “Three E’s” triangle

· 1) Environment – What it is? What should we do to it? Amazons, Yosemite, forests, soil, urban wildlife, parks and greenspaces, ponds and oceans, air, work environment (chemical composition of your walls like led in the paint…). | Protection, conserve it, preserve it, environmental restoration of depleted nature – ex Los Angeles river restoration by taking away concrete they made so that it would flood before but now so it looks natural and will serve wildlife and aesthetically pleasing)

· 2) Economy – What should we do to it? Measure of success? Scale? Economic growth, where industry can flourish, attract residents, adding business, adding jobs. | How many jobs are in your city, tax revenue... to measure economic success. Change to apply necessities to everyone, alternative economies like bartering… | Scale is like property values of a neighborhood/

· 3) Equity – Equity and justice (Equity- the notion of sharing burdens and benefits) (Justice – the notion of righting a wrong) Integrational equity (between different generations, people alive in the future have same opportunity in the past to meet their means) and Intergenerational equity (everyone alive right now) 4 categories of it: social equity / distributive justice (resources and benefits are distributed to all groups, like clean air, or more Greenland natural places like Yosemite… Negative ones are like new industrial areas create more pollution and are their certain social classes that experience it), geographic equity (does one environment effect another? You should not grow at the expense of others.. like china) procedural equity (how people and social groups are treated during social transactions like transparency through planning making and city decisions)/ corrective or commutative justice, interspecies equity (placing the survival of human specifies on par with plant or animals, all species have the same right to existence, make sure we don’t make the species go out of extinction) . Positive effects and negative effects of economic growth effects everyone equally.

· 4th goal: A social dimension, or livability: “Livability operates at the level of the everyday physical environment and focuses on place making”

· Place: a geographic setting that is meaningful to you, because of your experiences, interactions, and memories there

· The importance of an expanded conceptualization of livability to sustainable development

· What are the qualities, attributes of a livable city? People want to live there

Attributes of a livable city to you?

· Access to the ocean and a city that is always awake

9/10/19

Two visions of contemporary urban planning

· Sustainable Development: Seeks to reconcile the conflicts among economic development, ecological preservation, and equity

· Livable Communities: Livability operates at the level of the everyday physical environment and focuses on place-making (Godschalk)

· These give us four goals of urban sustainability planning: To Protect /improve

Integration or holism

· “…Planners usually represent one particular goal… while neglecting the other two. … the gap between the call for integrative, sustainable development planning… and the current fragmentation of professional practice (Campbell 1996:297)

· “when all values cannot be represented, sustainability cannot be promoted by a plan.” (Berke 2002:31)

· It is imperative to integrate all four priorities into planning practice if sustainable development is the end goal.

Newell et al. 2013

· Integration of sustainability goals in the context of green infrastructure planning: urban alley greening programs.

· Green infrastructure is our nation’s nature life support system- an interconnected network of waterways. Wetlands, wildlife habitats and other natural areas; greenways, parks, and other conservation lands; working farms, ranches and forests; and wilderness and other open spaces that support native species, maintain natural ecological processes, sustain air and water resources and contribute to the health and quality of life for America’s communities and people.” Green infrastructure work group, quoted in benedict and Mcmahon 2002:12)

· Green infrastructure is a sustainable development tool’

Background on alleys in us cities

· Popularized as a design feature in us cities in the mid late 1800s

· Two primary historical functions of urban alleys: service, housing (made alleys so it would be looking prettier, put trash cans and service entrances to be located, put crates with lifts to second floor, delivery stuff, all this stuff made out of public view. Pretty sidewalks were the goal.)

· Alleys had alley housing from 1840-1950 where urban immigration were housed (From Europe), laborers from rural areas who went to industrialized cities to get jobs, free African Americans came too and all lived there. (predominately black people after WW2) Working class or working poor lived there. 17,000 people living in 230 alleys Washington D.C. 1897. Profitability were from people who owned the houses and made these alley homes for profit.

· Early-mid20th century, alleys fall out of favor as they are an unnecessary feature, bad reputation (sanitation services evolved). Now trash bins came and trash services came to pick it up.

· “Crowd standing around the partially clad corpse of Edith Bolt, found in an alley at 54th Street and Morgan” – Chicago Daily News, 1926

· Culminates in exclusion of alleys from new developments and in urban renewal strategies. (Role of Federal Housing Administration; role of urban renewal policy) – they set out of a set of standards, for new residential developments. Safer investments, FHA determined what a good neighborhood looked like,

Urban Alleys in the post WWII era

· Alleys qcquire more negative associations: Invasive to residential privacy, further links to crime, …most existing alleys in US cities are remnants of prep-1930s developments (thought of alleys as prostitution, killing… nobody wants a house there now)

· Revived interest in alleys’ roles in cities: New urbanism: build sense of community | Sustainability planning: Repurpose underused spaces (eva)

Environmental protection, economic and equity

9/17/19

Conflict minimization/management

· “…planners must reconcile… at least three conflicting interests: to “grow” the economy, distribute this growth fairly, and in the process not degrade the ecosystem.” (Campbell 1996:297)

· “The three points on the triangle represent divergent interests, and therefore lead to three fundamental conflicts.” (Campbell 1996:298)

· “If the three corners of the triangle represent key goals in planning, and three axes represent the three resulting conflicts, then I will define the center of the triangle as representing sustainable development: the balance of these three goals.” (Campbell 1996:301)

· - For us, this concerns 4 corners, 4 axes, and the “sustainability/livability prism” (Godschalk 2004)

Conflicts

· 1) Economy v Equity: the property conflicts (Examples: conflicts over minimum wages; over property values)

· 2) Equity v Environment: The development conflict

· 3) Environment v Economy: The resource conflict

· 4) Equity v Livability: The gentrification conflict

· 5) Livability v Economy: The growth management conflict

· 6) Environment v livability: The green cities conflict

The property Conflict

· Economic growth can create new inequalities or exacerbate existing inequalities between social groups

· Remedying an inequitable situation can impede economic growth

· Beyond “property”

Economy v Equity

· Example 1: Proposal to raise the City of Los Angeles minimum wage by $5

· What does equity mean in context of wages? (Wages increase -> better access to basic resources)

· What does economic growth mean in the context of wage (wage stability –> attractive to industry)

· How might enhancing equity negatively impact economic growth in this scenario? (might scare away companies

· How might economic growth negatively impact equity in this scenario? (if you keep wage stable you don’t close the wage gap)

·

· Example 2: Boyle Heights

· Economic growth means values increase -> more property taxes

· What does equity mean in the context of property values? (Values or stable -> residential stability)

The gentrification conflicts

· Godschalk (2004) specifies that this conflict is the context of older, lower-income urban neighborhoods that don’t demonstrate livable design principles

· Livability improvements can result in lower-income social groups being displaced prioritizing equity may mean avoiding livability improvements

· Can be extrapolated to new communities too

Property taxes will increase if u do better for that environment which can push them out for richer people to live there, gentrification. So do you want to allow lower income populations to live there or make the neighborhood “livable” by redeveloping it and attracting people to pay the higher cost to liver there now.

Livability v economy: the growth management conflict

Proioritizing economic growth can detract from livability

Prioritizing livability can hinder economic growth

09/19/19

· Gentrification: The process of “the gentry” moving into an area (Property values increase in the area because of demand for housing near amenity X)

· Displacement: The phenomenon of lower-income (relative to the income of the gentrifies) populations being displaced from the area

· Lower-income homeowners cannot afford to pay their rising property taxes. Lower-income renters cannot afford to pay the rising rents passed on to them by the property owner

Environmental gentrification

· The general environment gentrification process: environmental improvements making a neighborhood more attractive, driving up real estate prices, and thus displacing lower-income populations

· Environmental improvements can take many forms, similar terms are: green gentrification, ecological gentrification gentrification

· Environmental gentrification: “The exclusion, marginalization, and displacement of long-term residents associated with sustainability planning or green developments and amenities, such as smart growth, public park renovations, and healthy food stores.” (Pearsall and Anguelovski 2016)

· Ecological gentrification: “The implementation of an environmental planning agenda related to public green spaces that leads to the displacement or exclusions of the most economically vulnerable human population-homeless people – while espousing an environmental ethic” (Dooling 2009)

· Environmental gentrification can be the outcome of poor management of:

1) The development conflict (environmental protection/restoration versus equity)

2) The gentrification conflict (livability versus equity)

3) The property conflict (economic development versus equity)

The Atlanta beltline

· A project that may be implicated in an environmental gentrification process

· Which of the three equity related conflicts are at hand? Economic development, made Atlanta shops around livability stimulating local economy.

· Primary funding source: The Beltline tax allocation district (TAD)… Increases in TAD property tax revenues are directed towards Beltline project expenses, Rising property values are an expectation and a funding necessity

· Property values rose in Atlanta from 2011-2015, 18-27% increase of home values that were ½ mile away from Beltline.

· The question is if these people can now afford to pay their property taxes? (Since they rose)

· Existing homeowners and renters were not helped or anything.

· So low-value property owners experience higher property tax, renters have high property tax increases passed onto them in rent, Little progress on new affordable housing

The Kendall Yards Project

Former railyard; West Central Adjacent. Two parts: remediation, then redevelopment. Which of the three equity related conflicts are at hand? All of them, Development, grentrification, and property conflict with the economy

9/24/19

Environmental Gentrification

· The general process: Environmental improvements make a neighborhood more attractive, driving up real estate prices, and thus displacing lower income populations

· Environmental Gentrification can be the outcome of poor management of: the development conflict (environmental protection/restoration versus equity), the gentrification conflict, the property conflict

Minimizing displacement stemming from environmental gentrification

· Policy mechanisms are

1) Affordable housing production

2) Affordable housing preservation

3) Tenant protections and support

4) Neighborhood stabilization and wealth building

Conflict minimization

· Conflict management/minimization/mitigation is critical part of planning for urabn sustainability

· Today: Managing environmental gentrification and displacement that strem

Heading off the environmental gentrification process

· “Just green enough”: A potential strategy to head off the environmental gentrification process set off by environmental remediation and redevelopment

· Just green enough: In the most general sense, it means doing just enough greening (remediation, or new parks or more trees…) To help current residents, but not enough greening to harm those residents.

09/26/19

Assessing urban sustainability

· Measuring progress towards sustainability

· Measuring commitment to sustainable development

· Sustainable indicator: measurable characteristic that represents a sustainability goal or part of a sustainability goal

· As articulated in Santa Monica Sustainable City plan (2014) – (Goal area – goal – indicator – target)

10/3/19

Early scholarly assessments of urban commitment to sustainability

· Portney 2003/2013

· Sample (2013: The largest US cities)

· Index of Taking Sustainable Cities Seriously (38 indicators) (you get points per sustainability act each is = 1) it is scoring and rankings

Later scholarly assessments of urban commitment to sustainability

· Saha and Paterson 2008

· 36 initiatives, equal number relating to environmental, equity, economic initiatives

· environmental initiatives were most likely to be adopted, equity was least likely to be adopted

· perceived incapability of local governments to address social/equity issues

· had lack of funding for equity (instead economic development had the funding)

· Finn and McCormick 2011 (Chicago, LA, NYC climate change plans)

· Environmental protection, procedural equity (fairness in public perceiving’s), geographical equity, social equity, equitable economic development, green economic development, traditional economic development

· Each plan demonstrated little to no attention either to 1+ equity category

Schrock et al. 2015

· What are their key findings regarding whether the 28 cities are making equity a prominent them in their SAPs/CAPs?

· Only 36% of the cities scored a 2 or higher (making it a prominent theme)

· They did not value procedural equity or geographic equity as much, but instead mainly social equity

· If you’re late to drafting an equity plan, you have more knowledge on it all vs people before

· Average equity rating is 1.30

· Capacity is the most important for which factor appeared to be most important,

· Depends on local planning issues on race and ethnicity, to engage community

Key takeaway from this research

· Equity is systematically deprioritized in urban sustainability planning. This is a real and troubling phenomenon throughout urban sustainability planning, not limited to a handful of cities or cases

· Prioritizing other planning goals and/or failing to look out for equity implications of those goals can exacerbate inequalities and cause new injustices.

· “… a clear set of economic and environmental objectives advanced under the premise of sustainability.”

· “social justice concerns are not merely under-addressed, but have been repeatedly compromised by a dominant set of growth-oriented sustainability interests…”

· Assuming that you hold equity to be a fundamental aspect of urban sustainability, how could the “unjust sustainability agenda” be addressed in city?

· Public education on sustainability, committees being bade… Brought up more in city meetings

October 8, 2019

· We establish that equity is systematically deprioritized in urban sustainability planning. This is a real and troubling phenomenon throughout urban sustainability planning, not limited to a handful of cities or cases

· This is a problem because, as we already knew, prioritizing other planning goals and/or failing to look out for equity implications of those goals can exacerbate inequities and cause new injustices

· …Today: environmental and sustainability paradigms

Environmental and sustainability paradigms

· “A paradigm refers to a body of ideas, major assumptions, concepts, propositions, values, and goals of a substantive area that influences the way people view the world, conduct scientific inquiry, and accept theoretical formulations” (Taylor 2000:528) this has changed the common view during the time period.

· Exploitative Capitalist Paradigm (Industrial Revolution-era)

· Romantic Environmental Paradigm (late 19th/early 20th centuries)

· New environmental Paradigm (emerged mid-20th century)

The NEP and urban sustainable development planning

· The New Environmental Paradigm has dominated US environmental thought and activism since the mid-20th century

· Members of the US environmental movement have been very influential in local/urban sustainable development work

· Therefore, the NEP has been highly influential in efforts at the local scale in the US

· The NEP lacks a position on equity/justice

· (The same is true for the global sustainable development conversation – the NEP has dominated Global Northern environmental thought, and members of Global Northern environmental movements have had a lot of say in international sustainable development matters.)

The Just Sustainability Paradigm

· The JSP “prioritizes justice and equity but does not downplay the environment-our life support system”

· The JSP is based in an alternate definition of sustainability: “The need to ensure a better quality of life for all, now and into the future, in a just and equitable manner, whilst living within the limits of supporting ecosystems.” (Agyeman et al. 2003)

· There are four essential conditions for just and sustainable communities (Agyeman 2013)

· 1) Improving our quality of life and wellbeing

· 2) Meeting the needs of both present and future generations

· 3) Justice and equity in terms of recognition, process, procedure, and outcome

· 4) Living within ecosystem limits

The importance of the JSP

· Unit two communities/movements in pursuit of (a more just) sustainability

· People in environmental justice movement who should be way more involved

· Has huge problem with mainstream environmental movement that does not have a justice based critique with the environment

· JSP acknowledges the importance of protecting the environment

· Human impacts on the environment effect races differently, class differently...

·