Open Streets for Whom?

Abstract

The COVID-19 pandemic has created opportunities for cities to close streets to automobile traffic in the name of public health. Although these interventions promise numerous benefits, neighborhood activists and scholars of color suggest they can perpetuate structurally racist inequities. In this Viewpoint, we implore planners and other city builders to think critically about the impact of these interventions by employing an environmental justice framework. Applying this framework in the open streets context exposes several potential paradoxes that arise. We conclude with a set of best practices that can help city builders transcend these paradoxes and extend this livability revolution to all.

Keywords:

• active transportation
• anti-racist planning
• environmental justice
• open streets
• policing

Notes

1 We use the term city builders throughout instead of the rather restrictive term planners. A number of BIPOC scholars advocate this shift in language, which acknowledges that a variety of actors shape cities, including environmental justice activists, residents, artists, and other advocates outside of the formal profession of planning (Chan, 2018; Pitter & Lorinc, 2016).

2 Because there is little peer-reviewed literature on how these paradoxes play out in the open streets context, we use the term potential paradoxes throughout.

3 This is not to say that every working-class BIPOC community shares the same needs, context, or beliefs; planners must recognize the diversity within BIPOC communities and learn about specific local needs as well as intersectionality issues.

Additional information

Notes on contributors

Dani Slabaugh

DANI SLABAUGH ([email protected]) is a PhD student in the Department of Urban and Regional Planning at the University of Colorado Denver.

Jeremy Németh

JEREMY NÉMETH ([email protected]) is a professor of urban and regional planning and the director of the PhD program in Geography, Planning, and Design at the University of Colorado Denver.

Alessandro Rigolon

ALESSANDRO RIGOLON ([email protected]) is an assistant professor in the Department of City and Metropolitan Planning at the University of Utah.