By Kimberly Burrowes, How Housing Matters, July 24, 2019
Last month, Senator Elizabeth Warren (D-MA) used a Detroit wall as a platform to highlight how discriminatory housing policies have divided our communities. The wall, six feet high and about half a mile long, was built in 1941 to segregate black homeowners from their white neighbors. It stands as a reminder of how inequitable access to housing was intentionally created through urban planning tools and policies.
Now planners, community activists, and residents are exploring ways to undo historic inequities by ensuring places are inclusive and provide opportunities for everyone. Placemaking is the practice of designing places that reflect the priorities of the community and foster a sense of belonging to improve residents’ quality of life.
Placemaking has been used to encourage investments in communities through targeted economic development while ensuring revitalization activities equitably benefit residents. Recent efforts in Detroit demonstrate how placemaking can not only promote local equity by putting the community’s needs first, but it can also tear down the barriers created by our nation’s discriminatory approach to housing.
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