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Spring 2007 Latinos and Planning Click here to download IN THIS ISSUE... City Spotlight on Philadelphia
CITY SPOTLIGHT on PHILADELPHIA During the 2007 APA National Conference in Philadelphia, the Latinos & Planning Division took a day to tour around Philadelphia where the Latino population is primarily concentrated. Local planners Annabella Roig and David Ortiz guided the tour providing a historical perspective to the evolution of these areas. The Census estimates Philadelphia's Latino population at 10.4 percent of the city's residents in 2005, an increase from 8.5 percent in 2000. The population is comprised mainly of Puerto Ricans who arrived in large numbers in the 1950's as the island continued to suffer effects from the Great Depression. A significant number of Dominicans arrived in the 1990s and the last few years has seen an increasing number of Mexicans, many have settled in South Philadelphia and opened commercial establishments. The Mexican population has been estimated to double in size since the 2000 census. Population growth, housing market pressures emanating from Center City, and a desire for larger homes with more green space have kept the Latino population moving north and east. Most Latino organizations had their start by providing social services to new residents, helping them adjust to cultural and language differences. Those that focused on physical development generally formed in the 1980s, working on small scale rehabilitation projects, usually less than 10 units. In the 1990's, as organizational capacity increased, the groups began to develop larger scale projects. They were encouraged to think strategically by developing neighborhood plans, funded by the Office of Housing and Community Development in 1995. These are only some highlights from the tour given by our local Philadelphia planners:
On behalf of the division, we thank David Ortiz, Anabella Roig and all the wonderful people in Philadelphia for opening its doors and hosting our first event as a division! We look forward to next years visit to Las Vegas! For more information regarding Philadelphia, please contact David Ortiz at david.ortiz@phila.gov. For more information regarding getting involved for next year's conference please contact Irayda Ruiz at imruizbode@gmail.com.
MESSAGE FROM THE DIVISION CHAIR Leonardo Vasquez, AICP Community planning is one of the best paths to full citizenship. I don't mean the kind of citizenship conferred by a government because one has passed a fill-in-the blank test or because the happenstance of someone's birth. I mean citizenship as a feeling of commitment to a place, and the people who are or will be part of that place. In short, citizenship as ciudadanía. A nationally known planner once told me, "If [Latinos] don't participate in the charrette, it's because they're not interested." He revealed to me what I now think to be among the biggest challenges to getting more Latinos involved in planning — the myths that planners have about public participation. Planning connects people to one another and to their physical environment by focusing on a sphere of relationships — how people relate to buildings, how buildings relate to infrastructure, how the emblems of the past should relate to the opportunities of the future, and so forth. Many Hispanics, I believe, are not familiar with, or perhaps, not comfortable with, the rules of the game in the most common forms of public participation. Consider first the idea of participatory planning. According to researchers in "group culture," Anglo-Americans and African-Americans have direct speaking styles, while Latinos (along with Asian-Americans and Native-Americans) have indirect speaking styles. That means that where there is a disagreement in a diverse group, you would expect the White and Black members of the group to voice their concerns, while the Latinos would be quieter. (These are generalizations, of course, and I use them only for illustration.) Charrettes, town hall meetings, and similar types of public participation tend to be biased toward people who are more direct and who expect to be heard. If you expect that your role is simply to accept, — or at best, react — to someone else's plan, you might be confused or skeptical when someone says, "what would you like to see?" Then there's the big challenge of collaborative planning. To be effective, both the planner and the stakeholder have to feel that they bring equally valid knowledge, and that they are willing to collaborate on a joint solution. But no matter how nice they may seem, planners can be intimidating. Planners tend to have a higher degree of education, they deal with complex issues and are usually associated in some way with government authority. In a sense, they are like secular priests. For many Latinos, culture discourages from questioning people in positions of authority or even talking in church. Thus working collaboratively with planners can take some time to gain trust and respect. What can we in Latinos and Planning do about this? Plenty.
GET READY FOR THE 2008 APA NATIONAL CONFERENCE INTERESTED IN SERVING AS A PANELIST ON ONE OF OUR PROPOSED SESSIONS? Latino USA: Reshaping the American Suburbs Public Participation in Latino/Hispanic Communities, Best Practices The Contested Space: Latinos and Public Spaces WOULD YOU LIKE TO PROPOSE A SESSION? — Send us your ideas by July 27, 2008. Please submit a two or three sentence description of the proposed session along with a list of potential speakers and the learning objective. Send proposal ideas via e-mail to Irayda Ruiz. SHARE YOUR IDEAS FOR CONFERENCE NETWORKING ACTIVITIES In addition to our two sessions, the Latinos and Planning Division will have its Annual Latino Neighborhoods Tour, Business Meeting and a Networking Event. If you have ideas for this activity or would like to assist in it's planning, please let Irayda know. She'd love to hear from you. We look forward to hearing back from you in the coming weeks. If you send a resume or submission, we will be in touch to finalize the programs prior to the APA deadline.
Larry Vasquez About Your Job Education/Training Interests/Areas of Specialization Why are you a member of the Latinos & Planning Division? If you would like to be included in our next member profile, please send an e-mail to mrios27@yahoo.com.
¡BIENVENIDOS! TO ALL OUR NEW DIVISION MEMBERS Oliver Alvarado Lauren Barrett James Castañeda Antonio Castillo Javier Del Castillo Roberto Espinoza Angela Fike Claudia Flores Sara Forelle Cecilia Giusti Alvaro Huerta Anthony Mazzella Dinah Lockhart Arianna Martínez Eduardo Martínez Jackie Meléndez Richard Milk Nina Nixon-Méndez Myrna Rodríguez Richard Rojas David Salazar Mariana Salazar Julie Guerrero Schor Martha Tello Ana Maria Whitaker Lawrence Vásquez ...65 members and growing!
New job? Move to a new city? Graduated? Achieved a milestone in your career? Maribel Rios Louie recently moved to Los Angeles, CA from Chicago, IL and is now working as the Economic Development Coordinator for the City of West Hollywood. Irayda M. Ruiz AICP recently accepted a position as Visiting Professor and Coordinator of the Masters Program in Urban Development at the Universidad de San Carlos de Guatemala, in Guatemala City. Sergio Rodriguez, FAICP recently retired from the University of Miami. He was the Vice President of Real Estate and Facilities, and was instrumental at creating several new facilities there. ¡Felicidades!
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