by José Tulio Gálvez Contreras, Ph.D. Candidate in Public and Urban Policy
Cities are a driving force in a nation’s economic growth. However, in the past few decades, the importance of having a proper and inclusive urban planning and strategies has increased to make sure development plan benefits equally go to its all citizens, not just to its elite class. Nevertheless, today, many urban dwellers in America’s cities still yet feel empowered enough to participate in the decision-making process for urban planning of their cities and towns. As Xia Li highlights in her scholarly commentary, “cities are known to be centers for high productivity, innovation, creativity, and social capital.”[1] But as she also points out, the elite class of the cities enjoy benefits from urban development most while the rest of the populations tend to suffer negative impacts of the urban development as the consequences of poorly designed and ill-informed decisions of urban planning.
While cities are laboratories of fresh ideas, dynamic markets that generate wealth and growth opportunities, places where music and art flourish, and can be safe havens for many people, these urban spaces can also be places of poverty, pollution, and disease for many of its population if they are not properly managed. With a rapidly increasing number of urban populations, the negative impacts can get worse by the rate of urban growth. Public consultations and participation, therefore, are key in developing strategy and policies for urban areas to make sure the policies mitigate negative impacts and bring more positive impacts to the citizens.
A possible initial step for more inclusive public consultation and participation in city planning and governance requires recognition that there are problems with how city land is managed and distributed. John R. Logan and Harvey L. Molotch’s present a valid concern on the way in which land values impact city growth as well as the way in which the pursuit of profiting from land values influences life chances.[2] According to their view, commodification of urban places and the political economy have great effect over city development. An urban phenomenon takes place in the city land market which motivates an aspiration on the part of growth elites to acquire more and more land. This aspiration fuels the “growth machine.” Through land monopolies and collective action, these growth entrepreneurs then are able to secure control of property for profit through monetary transactions. Their goal is to disguise the adverse consequences the growth machine has on society and urban development. As awareness about this urban phenomenon is being raised, various affected stakeholder groups in cities will be empowered to take action by demanding policies that guarantee that urban spaces are planned with careful intention and well thought out strategies.
As David Harvey states, “the right to the cities is not merely a right of access to what already exists, but a right to change it after our heart’s desires.”[3] To his point, because cities are the sites of complex trans-local interconnections creating a multiplicity of social, cultural, political, and economic spaces and forms, it is no longer possible, if it ever was, to look at the city from one perspective -- be it cultural or economic. In its place, cities need to be understood from multiple views which recognize that the cultural/social constructs, and is constructed by, the political/economic and vice versa. It is only when we embrace such a complex and textured reading of cities that we will start to be able to tackle the persistent social, economic, and environmental questions faced by cities across the world -- be it the postindustrial city of United States or the rapidly growing megacity in India. At the same time, consultation and participation would require that city planners and policymakers look beyond urban boundary to see what is going on outside and how the city fits in the overall scheme of development that is happening or not happening around it. Moreover, the elite classes must also be willing to share their power among the various stakeholder groups that reside in these places. However, to achieve these goals activism and public action must play a critical force in shaping the urban system. In the transformation of cities, cooperative leadership and communal action is required. Citizens must be empowered to have their voice be heard and also taken into account on how decisions are made.
[1] Li, Xia. “Heaven and Hell: Two Faces of Cities.” Precis: Course, Political Economy and Public Policy Analysis II. The New School University. Available at http://peppaii-milano-2016.weebly.com/week-08-urban-politics. 2016.
[2] Logan, John R. and Harvey L. Molotch, Chapter 3: “The City as a Growth Machine” in Urban Fortunes: The Political Economy of Place, University of California Press, 1987.
[3] Harvey, David, “The Right to the City,” The New Left Review, 53: 23-40, 2008.
Cities are a driving force in a nation’s economic growth. However, in the past few decades, the importance of having a proper and inclusive urban planning and strategies has increased to make sure development plan benefits equally go to its all citizens, not just to its elite class. Nevertheless, today, many urban dwellers in America’s cities still yet feel empowered enough to participate in the decision-making process for urban planning of their cities and towns. As Xia Li highlights in her scholarly commentary, “cities are known to be centers for high productivity, innovation, creativity, and social capital.”[1] But as she also points out, the elite class of the cities enjoy benefits from urban development most while the rest of the populations tend to suffer negative impacts of the urban development as the consequences of poorly designed and ill-informed decisions of urban planning.
While cities are laboratories of fresh ideas, dynamic markets that generate wealth and growth opportunities, places where music and art flourish, and can be safe havens for many people, these urban spaces can also be places of poverty, pollution, and disease for many of its population if they are not properly managed. With a rapidly increasing number of urban populations, the negative impacts can get worse by the rate of urban growth. Public consultations and participation, therefore, are key in developing strategy and policies for urban areas to make sure the policies mitigate negative impacts and bring more positive impacts to the citizens.
A possible initial step for more inclusive public consultation and participation in city planning and governance requires recognition that there are problems with how city land is managed and distributed. John R. Logan and Harvey L. Molotch’s present a valid concern on the way in which land values impact city growth as well as the way in which the pursuit of profiting from land values influences life chances.[2] According to their view, commodification of urban places and the political economy have great effect over city development. An urban phenomenon takes place in the city land market which motivates an aspiration on the part of growth elites to acquire more and more land. This aspiration fuels the “growth machine.” Through land monopolies and collective action, these growth entrepreneurs then are able to secure control of property for profit through monetary transactions. Their goal is to disguise the adverse consequences the growth machine has on society and urban development. As awareness about this urban phenomenon is being raised, various affected stakeholder groups in cities will be empowered to take action by demanding policies that guarantee that urban spaces are planned with careful intention and well thought out strategies.
As David Harvey states, “the right to the cities is not merely a right of access to what already exists, but a right to change it after our heart’s desires.”[3] To his point, because cities are the sites of complex trans-local interconnections creating a multiplicity of social, cultural, political, and economic spaces and forms, it is no longer possible, if it ever was, to look at the city from one perspective -- be it cultural or economic. In its place, cities need to be understood from multiple views which recognize that the cultural/social constructs, and is constructed by, the political/economic and vice versa. It is only when we embrace such a complex and textured reading of cities that we will start to be able to tackle the persistent social, economic, and environmental questions faced by cities across the world -- be it the postindustrial city of United States or the rapidly growing megacity in India. At the same time, consultation and participation would require that city planners and policymakers look beyond urban boundary to see what is going on outside and how the city fits in the overall scheme of development that is happening or not happening around it. Moreover, the elite classes must also be willing to share their power among the various stakeholder groups that reside in these places. However, to achieve these goals activism and public action must play a critical force in shaping the urban system. In the transformation of cities, cooperative leadership and communal action is required. Citizens must be empowered to have their voice be heard and also taken into account on how decisions are made.
[1] Li, Xia. “Heaven and Hell: Two Faces of Cities.” Precis: Course, Political Economy and Public Policy Analysis II. The New School University. Available at http://peppaii-milano-2016.weebly.com/week-08-urban-politics. 2016.
[2] Logan, John R. and Harvey L. Molotch, Chapter 3: “The City as a Growth Machine” in Urban Fortunes: The Political Economy of Place, University of California Press, 1987.
[3] Harvey, David, “The Right to the City,” The New Left Review, 53: 23-40, 2008.