Indigenous Planning advocates community development based on land-tenure principles and is informed by the distinctive worldviews of indigenous peoples. Practitioners are committed to social, economic, and political change and welcome all those interested in sustaining traditional indigenous approaches to planning.
After driving through the Cherokee reservation in the Nantahala National Forest on the North Carolina/Georgia/Tennessee border, I was depressed about the way that the United States treats Native Americans (not a surprise to me but it’s still jarring to witness it firsthand again and again). Ultimately, we can’t undo history but we can certainly pay attention so that the future is better than the past and present. Indigenous planning seems to be one way to make that happen.
Local Projects are providing the web infrastructure for some of the best (and most interesting) city planning/public storytelling/etc. projects happening right now.
Leave it to architects to whitewash any tensions that exist within these NOLA projects. While I’m excited about them, lets not forget all the wrangling necessary to get this all off the ground.
“Infill Philadelphia brings together design practitioners, community development experts, policymakers, funders and the media to address urban infill development—a significant neighborhood revitalization strategy for Philadelphia and older American cities.”
This strategy that Infill Philadelphia is employing could definitely be used in New Orleans’ fight against blight. I wonder what sort of deals could be worked out with the Zoning Commission, the Mayor’s blight team, and artists/entrepreneurs to bring buildings back to commerce and infill areas where demolition has occurred. In New Orleans we would need to extend the infill aspect to a the more broad category of temporary use because we do not have a commercial market that can support wide-scale infill development. At this point, New Orleans should work to bring blighted properties back into commerce or residential use; in the meantime lets get a movie theatre or community center up-and-running.
