What year is this again?

Mikaela says:
When planning students read about the biggest mistake in planning history, urban renewal -- the systematic displacement of mostly poor, mostly minority residents by the undiscerning demolition of entire inner-city neighborhoods -- most can't believe how bad it was or how utterly it decimated close-knit communities. It's hard to impress upon them the arrogance, condescension, racism, classism, and cavelier disregard planners and politicians showed in making these sweeping decisions without input from or reparations to affected citizens.

This last semester, it was much easier to illustrate, with the live-action case-study unfolding in New Orleans after the destruction caused by Hurrican Katrina. Well-meaning politicians have called for urban planners to be involved in the rebuilding efforts. It's almost as though planners have lived down their own historic involvement in such bad plans. To call on urban planners as though we have power or unquestioningly good ideas seems to me a blueprint for disaster yet again. Involving planners should NOT be a subsitution for citizen involvement and community organizing. Planning expertise is so clearly NOT a panacea for urban problems. What we can bring is support for an approach that can lead to a more democratic, more grassroots, more equitable rebuilding effort -- if we can convince politicians that that's important and keep the capitalist pigs and greedy developers at bay.

Unfortunately, that's not what the situation seems to be shaping up to look like, according to this latest from Democracy Now:

9th Ward Residents Win Temporary Halt to Demolitions
In New Orleans, residents of the low-income 9th Ward have won a temporary restraining order against the planned bulldozing and demolition of their community. The order was won on behalf of a coalition of groups including the Lower 9th Ward Neighborhood and the People’s Hurricane Relief Fund. The residents launched legal action following the city’s announcement 2500 homes would be demolished with 3,000 more to soon follow. The residents said city officials did not consult with them in making the decision nor even inform them once it was made. A full hearing is scheduled for January 6th.