2011 CBBG

12/7 Reflection

It's hard to believe this semester has already come to a close.  Reflecting back on what we learned, I can't help but feel overwhelmed by the amount of knowledge we gained of the various planning philosophies.  I feel confident that I will be able to apply these processes as well as identify which ones should be the most effective when faced with the complicated planning dillemmas that we will face in the future.  We spent the majority of this week's blog group discussing which philosophy we felt we would most utilize in our professional lives and what challenges we anticipate when utilizing those skills. 

As a required course in the MURP curriculum, I feel strongly that this type of course should continue to be included.  Although some might contest that the curriculum would be better served to teach practical skills, we would be remiss if we didn't acknowlege the value in philosophical knowledge acquisition in order to spur debate about the merits and potential challenges to each methodology.

Reflection 12/7

This has been a great semester, and I have learned a ton.  This last class was a great way to put everything we learned into perspective.  In blog group, we discussed how these processes we've studied all semester might be applied in our professional lives.  While many of the ideas we've discussed are simply ideals and might not necessarily work the same in application, I think they are very important, engaging models that have significant merit.  The answer is, then, while many of these concepts might be difficult to employ in real-life situations, we have to try to incorporate them for more effective planning.

Thanks for a great semester and have a great break!!

Reflection 12.7

This semester really opened my eyes to the role planners have as facilitators and catalysts in the community.  In my second year of planning, facilitation is something that I don't have much knowledge of, which is unfortunate given the important role facilitation plays in the profession.  Aside from the topics and issues we discussed, I also found blog groups to be very helpful in more fully understanding things.  Overall, I really enjoyed this class and, of course, my blog group.  I look forward to taking what I learned in this class into my professional practice.  

Reflection 12/7

I had a great time this semester with my blog group and the New Orleans team. Most of my views about planning have changed as a result of the issues and processes covered through the theoretical articles. Nice learning about the work of Goldstein and Talen from the APA meeting. Have a great holiday everyone.

Discussion 12.7

In the planning meeting I attended, I noticed a lack of public participation and involvement that Innes and Booher mention.  The meeting was a Centennial Planning and Zoning Commission meeting.  One of the topics on the agenda was future plans for the development of the I-25 Corridor and expansion of the light rail.  During this portion of the meeting, the board went into closed discussion--the public was not allowed to make comments.  The planner presenting the information specifically asked the board, “What do you, as the Centennial Planning and Zoning Commission, want to have happen in regards to possible development along the I-25 Corridor?”  It is as Innes and Booher state, “The citizen role is to react” as opposed to being involved in the process in a collaborative and participatory manner (423).  It is safe to say the City of Centennial will create plans for new development along the corridor and let citizens react once plans have been drawn up.

I agree with Innes and Booher’s recommendations.  The way government and public participation is currently structured is insufficient.  For the most part, the public is left out of the planning process by the government, the public is uninterested, or participation creates tensions among groups. 

While I believe the Innes and Booher recommendation is the right direction for public participation, Fainstein also brings up good points.  One specific point that struck me :  “Democratic pluralism, with its emphasis on group process and compromise, offers little likelihood of escape from dominance by those groups with greatest access to organizational and financial resources” (Fainstein 187).  Yes, the current system of public participation is flawed.  The ideal solution is that of collaborative participation like that proposed by Innes and Booher.  However, I question whether it is possible?  Will there need to be an entire restructuring of our society in order to truly achieve equitable and participatory government processes?

 

Discussion 12/7

In the readings this week, Innes and Booher and Fainstein make compelling proposals regarding public participation in the planning process.  Public participation has been a theme throughout the semester, and their ideas can essentially act as a capstone regarding the direction we, as planners, should be going in regards to participation.  On one hand, Innes and Booher propose collaborative planning strategies that are multi-dimensional and include many stakeholders (Innes and Booher 429).  On the other, Fainstein feels that this style of representation will never produce the "just city" because of inherent inequalities between the majority and minority (Fainstein 187).

These philosophies are particularly relevant upon reflection to the planning meeting I attended.  In the meeting, public participation was undoubtedly as Innes and Booher describe it.  According to them, citizens are generally only asked to comment after plans have been proposed.  "The citizen role is to react" (I & B 423).  At the meeting, plans were proposed and citizens were allowed to give their feedback on the issue.  This is particularly important because citizens were only commenting, and were presumably not involved in any meaningful part of the process up until then.  As I mention in my memo, this is an ineffective strategy.

I feel that Innes and Booher provide the best solution.  They suggest "a multi-way interaction in which citizens and other players work and talk in formal and informal ways to influence action in the public arena before it is virtually a foregone conclusion" (I & B 429).  While Fainstein might argue that this democratic pluralism might further dominance of the majority, I think they provide an effective counter-argument.  Since, in a democracy, the minority has a tendency to remain underrepresented and, therefore, unheard, certain safeguards should be considered.  They suggest helping disadvantaged groups organize into groups with a representative.  They also suggest technical and financial assistance (I & B 430).  Through this, there can be an equitable "just city" and democracy. In this system, we can maintain the benefits of citizen/government opposition without the associated disadvantages.  "Some citizens become more integrated into the polity while others develop skills and knowledge to challenge the powers that be in more sophisticated ways" (I & B 431).

12/7 Discussion Question

The public forum meeting I attended centered on the academic restructuring at Manual High School in Near Northeast Denver.   The event followed a similar format to other community engagement meetings I have attended as a district employee where introductions are made and the first portion of the meeting lays out how the school (or district) arrived at the need for that particular meeting. This is usually handled by a district official and in this case was the school’s administrative staff.  They did a more than adequate job presenting their thoughts on the academic plan, data surrounding the problem, and were certain to reiterate the importance of swift yet drastic performance improvement.  The next portion of the meeting broke us into smaller brainstorming groups directed to evaluate the plan and provide feedback; again a typical activity in one of these meetings.

Although I found the format of the meeting to be standard operating procedure for the school district, the dynamic of the small break out groups demonstrated some of the characteristics that Innes and Booher warn about: ambivalence and concern for voices being drowned out. (Innes and Booher 421)  Of the eight members of the break out group, one was a staff member, one was a current student, and the other 6 were either parents of a student or a neighborhood resident.  Within this group, a few barely spoke English and were given limited translation support.  As a result, they rarely spoke their point of view and in most cases merely agreed with the groups thoughts, making it uncertain if they understood the purpose of the exercise or conversely, if their agreement was genuine.  Some others at the table also expressed levels of exhaustion; that they had been a part of similar exercises in the past and felt as though this was just another in a seemingly endless string of “resets” for the high school.

I firmly believe that the collaborative participation model lauded by Innes and Booher’s article would have better served to increase the public’s interest and confidence in the Manual High School turnaround effort. (Innes and Booher 429) Even the current administration, who is unquestionably an improvement from their predecessors in terms of community engagement, has still sought the public’s input too late in the planning process.  Rather than bring the public in to review a partially-baked plan, they ought to be triggered in a more nascent stage of planning the academic transformation.

11/30 Reflection

By far the most impactful piece of this week's class for me was the video that described the issues we are facing with respect to global climate change.  Although I had seen videos and articles that describe the dire circumstances the world faces, when you consider the economic crises in both europe and the United States, we have to recognize and react to the fact that we can't trade economic growth with environmental preservation.  In the past, we could mine, burn, throw away, and generally dispose of things at any rate in service to short term economic gain, but without drastic change, ESPECIALLY by corporations, we face a future where economic concerns will be the least of our worries.

Reflection 11.30

This week's discussion and readings on transformative resilience and storytelling struck me as being at the core of what urban planning is all about in today's society.  I don't think urban planning today is necessarily the top-down process it largely was in the past (for instance, Robert Moses).  Therefore, the collaborative storytelling process becomes more crucial.  It seems as if our society also looks at problems differently--that we are a bit more forward thinking in how are actions will affect the future (for example, how global warming issues can be prevented or alleviated through our actions today).  Transformative resilience it seems, contributes to this forward thinking.  As was mentioned, this way of looking at a problem helps us to predict a "tipping point" and prevents it or alleviates its impact.  Together, transformative resilience and storytelling can help to create sustainable communities.  Storytelling can also get people to care or get them involved.  It makes them see why they have a stake in a problem.   

Reflection 11/30

While the readings this week on resilience seemed quite abstract, class really put the thoery in real-life perspective.  Global climate change is a great example of the "tipping point" as discussed in the readings, and is something that I think everyone has a vested interest in solving.  Therefore, there are many stakeholders involved and many opportunities for storytelling to play a significant role.  We discussed this in blog group, and came to the conclusion that storytelling is not only important in this instance, but absolutely critical for transformative resilience to occur.  Through the use of personal narratives, people will be able to understand their own roles within this problem, and we can figure out a way to prevent reaching the tipping point as described in the video.