ONLINE - Urban Design Forum - Committee Mtg: Planning + Racial Injustice

**The June UDF meeting is online only. See below and the most recent UDF newsletter for details.**

Join AIA Seattle’s Urban Design Forum for a bimonthly look at our plans and goals as a committee.

Between the inspiring, world-wide protests against racial injustice and inequity and the overwhelming disruption of COVID, we have been struggling to find a place for urbanism in our moment and we continue to question the relevance of urban planning and design during this ‘now.’  Our current thinking is below. It is raw, unpolished and far from perfect, but it represents the base from which we are trying to reshape the work of the Urban Design Forum.

Acting color blind is not the ‘right’ direction. We are not all shades of gray. We all different colors and have different backgrounds and various levels privilege, abhorrently often associated with the color of our skin.

What does the Black Lives Matter and racial injustice movement require of urban design and planning? For one, we must expand or exchange “seats at the table.” Additionally, those of us with privilege, must acknowledge and be aware of our privilege. We must also acknowledge that we all look different, that we all deserve equitable treatment as humans and that racial discrimination against blacks and people of color has been and continues to plague the systems that make up the foundation of American society.

This is the moment for the privileged members of American society to recognize their privilege and put it use toward eradicating racial inequity and injustice. It is time to share and relinquish power and to actively bring people of color to the table, even and particularly when that means a white person must give up their seat.

Along with this rolling moment of movement on racial injustice and inequity, we are part of an America reopening and continuing to react to a 100-year pandemic. In our urban areas we see protest marches, occupied protests and re-engineering of society and business practices in response to both the pandemic and inherent racial bias and inequity. What are you observing and experiencing in the Puget Sound region at this moment? What are your hopes for the future in light of this pandemic disruption and well-overdue reckoning on racial injustice?

We will talk about these questions and review our upcoming programming in light of the past few months to determine how we need to shape our coming events.

All are welcome to join us next Wednesday, 24 June, at 5:30 and share thoughts, react and let us know how or if urbanism is relevant during this moment. Also connect with us on social media below.

Several articles that further describe our current moment as it relates to urbanism:

Broken

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