Growing up in Mattapan, a neighborhood on the southern tip of Boston that today comprises predominantly people of color, Allentza Michel didn’t know that urban planning was even a potential field of study for her. Yet, she felt its impacts every day: a history of redlining, segregation, and, more recently, gentrification. But she also experienced the community’s rich tradition of “looking after each other”. As she became familiar with the field of urban planning, it didn’t appear that there was a place for her as a Haitian-American woman, given that the vast majority of planners were white, male, and middle-class. Those planners looked and thought more like the elected officials who were hiring them and making critical decisions about the future of neighborhoods like hers.Now Allentza has joined with a network of women of color who are taking planning processes and “flipping them on their head” in order to ensure that the people most impacted have a strong voice at the table. Allentza has a Masters in Public Policy from Tufts University's Urban and Environmental Planning and Policy program. In this episode, she describes:
- The need to disrupt traditional planning through approaches that put impacted residents at the center — such as community-engaged “civic hacks” which generate outside-the-box ideas in historically marginalized neighborhoods. - Some key principles and practices that leaders can use to engage in democratic planning processes. - Her experience launching a nonprofit organization that both fosters innovative, inclusive community planning processes and seeks to itself reflect those democratic and participative values. Resources mentioned in this episode:The Color of Law, Richard RothsteinA People’s History of New Boston, Jim VrabelGo Boston 2030Interaction Institute for Social ChangePowerful Pathways,Mattapan Open StudiosMel King InstituteMass Smart Growth AllianceMasters in Public Policy from Tufts University's Urban and Environmental Planning and Policy program
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