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Seeing a lot of confused and defensive takes on the responses to the NYTimes piece on banning cars. Can I help? Maybe? Here’s my take, and it’s just my take. I could be wrong, and I don’t claim to speak for others. (1/x)
The demand is 1) explicitly (not implicitly) center & advocate for BIPOC & people w disabilities in our post-autocentric urban utopias and 2) include/center their voices, leadership, & expertise in imagining & evolving such possibilities. That’s it. That’s the demand. (2)
It’s great that so many of us know that auto-centric settlement patterns embody structural racism & ableism. Great that we know the history & current practice of redlining, predatory lending (homes & cars), urban renewal, infrastructure, and public transit system design/ops. (3)
Congratulations. We’ve read some news articles, and some history books. Let’s all go to the stage and collect our participation trophies. (4)
Here’s the thing: I see some assumptions being made. And a primary one I see (correct me if I’m wrong; heaven forfend that I misread anyone on this platform, as conducive as it is to conveying and receiving nuance) is this: (5)
because auto-centric settlement & transport systems are inherently racist & ableist, anything that dismantles/replaces those patterns and systems is inherently anti-racist/anti-ableist. No matter what's done, how it’s done, and who's involved. See the fallacy? (6)
But let’s leave logic and go back to the history we know so well. Starting from the 1st waves of European colonization of N. America, we have 3 centuries of pre-auto-centric urban settlement & transport on this continent. How’d that work out for BIPOC & people w disabilities? (7)
Plessy v Ferguson was decided in 1896. Racial covenants got supercharged in the 1920s, but date back to mid-19th century. Name one American city built at any time before 1990 that included any significant reasonable accommodations in public space for people with disabilities. (8)
And ... the whole history of colonization and land tenure/cultivation on this continent, which amounts to stolen people working on (& increasing the value of) stolen land. (Credit to Roy Wood Jr for the original coinage.) Nary a car to be seen for much of that history. (9)
So if BIPOC & disabled folk are demanding to be a visible and powerful part of imagining, creating, & evolving a better present & future for the cities we live in, and not just as an afterthought, maybe it’s because they know the history too, and are still living it. (10)
Maybe people are afraid of history repeating itself. Or rhyming. (Maybe you ought to be, too.) (11)
I type this with unclean hands. I've been part of the problem, too. I've written and/or edited any number of memos, fact sheets, best practice guides, academic articles, etc., about transport and the built environment that had little or nothing to say about the trauma... (12)
inflicted on BIPOC & ppl w disabilities by these systems & the ppl who run them. It wasn’t “directly relevant,” or there was a word limit or we were “trying to reach a broader audience” (trying not to trigger white people) or assumed the past/present inequities were known... (13)
or blah blah blah. There was always an excuse, and there always will be. Enough. I’m done being part of the problem. I am committed to being part of the solution. You can be, too. (14)
Sometimes (a lot of times) that will mean taking a step back and centering people who've been treated as invisible. Taking leadership from them. Acknowledging their expertise and concerns as serious/legitimate/ worthwhile. (15)
It will mean checking our assumptions about our good intentions and the inevitability of good outcomes from work based on those intentions (and the intentions and work of experts and leaders we’ve admired). It will mean doing the work. And one more thought ... (16)
If we’re feeling uncomfortable/defensive maybe we should ask: have we done anything that we should feel uncomfortable/defensive about? If not, great. Keep working. Keep learning. Reflect on the question from time 2 time. If yes… Same steps. Learn, work, reflect. Repeat. (end)
