BBQingWhileBlack: Planners' Role in Changing Communities

LEARNING OUTCOMES

• Reflect on your community's planning processes and how to be more inclusive of economic and cultural diversity.
• Understand how economic privilege impacts planning policy and how to address this in the design of public space.
• Understand policy and design changes for public space that address the needs of poor and working-class communities of color and new, wealthier residents.

MORE SESSION DETAILS

Growth returning to city centers in America has renewed economic development opportunities, but has also placed gentrification pressure on poor and working-class communities of color. Oakland is the epicenter of this in the Bay Area tech boom, where an exodus of black and brown residents is occurring. African Americans have seen a 30 percent population decline since 2000.

Oakland’s Lake Merritt BBQ incident (2018) was just one of many examples of racial, class, and cultural conflicts that follow rapid neighborhood change. How can planners create public space, and public dialogues that are inclusive? Can planners address the dynamics of privilege?

Session Speakers

Brytanee B. Brown
Mobile Workshop Guide
City fo Oakland, Department of Transportation
Oakland, CA

Christy Leffall
Speaker
Metropolitan Transportation Commission
San Francisco

David Ralston
Mobile Workshop Guide
Bay Area Air Quality Management District
San Francisco, CA

Frank K. Wheeler
Speaker
SFMTA
Richmond, CA