the district sleeps alone
I may as well just get it out there. I know that a few of my friends that are involved in city-centred activities or areas of work/ study read my blog – but none of this will come as a surprise to them.
I find the entire realm of city planning to be really, really fucking elitist. I mean elitist to the point where even the mention of it kind of irritates me. I have done my best to be supportive of friends involved in this realm because I know that they, personally, are not jerks. I am under the impression that many of them also find the genre to be uppity and irrelevant and are trying to do something about it. And there must be something to it that so many of the people that I like and admire are people who are involved in urban planning/ design and community development stuff.
And so, I have avoided the whole genre as much as possible.
Until now…
I recently took some friends to see The Radiant City. No offense to the directors and theorists involved in the making of this ‘documentary’, but it certainly wasn’t the quality or the poignant nature of the film that has made me rethink my moratorium on city-planning. I think *timing* had a lot to do with my change of mind.
*** I should probably do an entry on my feelings/ reactions/ observations of The Radiant City – stay tuned ***
Rather than allowing the sheer narrow-mindedness of how much of city planning comes across – with the creation of dichotomies, lack of understanding of ‘the other’, the inability to include today’s reality in positive solutions for the future – I have decided to seek our areas of city planning that I actually want to participate in.
I have a strong feeling that my educational background will actually allow me to bring some theories and processes to the floor that seem to be conspicuously missing from the realm of city/ suburb/ rural planning. It seems that planners could learn a thing or two from the application of race and gender studies theory from 20 – 30 years ago.
For now, my city of interest is my home, the City of New Westminster. Suburban or not, I still find myself choosing to stay at the fringes.
