Taking A Closer Look: Living & Dying in LA vs. the Dream of a Noble Profession

Taking A Closer Look: Living & Dying in LA vs. the Dream of a Noble Profession

By Melani V Smith, AICP

In 2016, I was a co-chair of the California Chapter American Planning Association’s Annual Conference. Part of my responsibility was to serve as the lead gathering content for the Conference Edition of Cal Planner, a statewide newsletter for APA members. The articles came in. One of them was written by Ivory Chambeshi, a young black female planner, titled “To Live and Die in LA: Empathy for Transformative Planning.” I remember being warned that Ivory’s article was maybe a bit more intense or “real” than the CalPlanner editor and I may have been expecting.

The thing that stands out in my memory of the article, as it was originally written, was Ivory’s characterization of “racist planning paradigms, land use planning, and planners” that “disregarded the right of others to inhabit livable, breathable and vibrant communities.” To be honest, I absolutely could not accept the idea that all planners and planning policy could be characterized as racist. I remember making the case to Ivory that if she wanted folks to read the piece, and absorb it, maybe she didn’t want to shut down a conversation, or close a door to a conversation, by using the “racist” label. I was a little uncomfortable with that recommendation at the time, but in retrospect, I’m cringing, embarrassed, and sorry about the way I responded. Ivory, however, was open to the commentary. Of course, her article speaks for itself, and you should read it here (on page 10): https://www.apacalifornia.org/wp-content/uploads/2013/07/CalPlanner-1604.pdf.

Frankly, though I might have been uncomfortable, very little changed in the article from first draft to final, other than the relatively weak watering down of the content that I directed – removing the word “racist” and substituting “racially insensitive” in some places, and changing “planners” to “some planners.” You may notice that Ivory’s article didn’t actually make it into the Conference Edition of the publication. I was told that this was due to space constraints, and while I expressed my displeasure about that, I didn’t put up a huge fight. The article was published in the next issue, which was ironically themed around “Healthy Communities.” Because I was concerned that Ivory’s perspective might go unheard at the 2016 conference, we instead arranged for her to lead an impromptu lunchtime plenary discussion about equity and the issues facing people of color in our communities. I learned a lot, but it was a last minute add to the program, and so I only wish we had ensured a larger audience. The memory of Ivory sharing data demonstrating that black boys in preschool are punished more often and more severely than their white counterparts is seared into me. 

"It’s so interesting to hear you say that, what makes you think that, or feel that way?”

Before the conference, Ivory and I agreed to meet to continue our conversation and talk about the potential of her speaking role. Over lunch she told me about herself and the life experience that she describes in her CalPlanner piece, and I enjoyed the conversation we had about her family and career. I remember we talked about our experiences being female owners of consulting businesses. This was in the summer of 2016, and so we talked about the upcoming election, and Trump. I think that was what caused me to casually make the statement that has become my most cringe-worthy memory of our interaction. I said something like, “Well, at least we live in a progressive City and work in a progressive profession, unlike a lot of people in the rest of the country.” Ivory, without missing a beat, responded, “It’s so interesting to hear you say that, what makes you think that, or feel that way?” In response, I was dead in my tracks for a minute, and if anyone had been listening nearby, they might have heard a little bubble bursting. Until that very moment, despite the fact that a smart young woman I had quickly come to think very highly of, had already identified the profession I loved, and its practitioners racist, I still somehow thought I was in a “noble” profession. I also clung to the notion that I was working in a City that certainly isn’t perfect, but is a whole lot better…than what? And for whom? These are some of the questions I obviously hadn’t considered deeply enough. At that moment, using the words of the poet Diana Der-Hovanessian ”my sun shifted forever” and I began trying to reconcile this noble, helping profession that I had until that time felt very comfortable in, with the reality of a person of color’s perspective. I’m not sure how I responded to her question at the time, to be honest, I doubt it was memorable. I do remember Ivory pulling her “I’m with HER” aka “Woman Card” out of her wallet, and mildly saying something like, “Look, I’m voting for Hillary and I think she’ll be a good President, but I don’t think everything is OK in this country or profession.” And we left it at that.

Four years on, in the midst of the unrest in our Country today, in the wake of George Floyd’s murder, the loss of so many others like him, and the accumulation of many lifetimes of rage and exhaustion that black people are continuing to suffer as a result of the inequity and structural racism in our society, I’ve been thinking about those moments with Ivory. I’ve been thinking about what I can do now to avoid being a perfunctory ally, and to be a real conspirator in this struggle for equity in our Country, to affirm that Black Lives Matter, and to take a closer look at myself, and at the planning profession. At the very least, I can be brave enough to hold myself publicly accountable for the journey I am making as I grapple with these issues.

Going forward, I think, will require both individuals, white women like me, and the profession, to mature.

When I met Ivory and read her article, of course I already knew about the racist land use and financial policies that had inequitably shaped our communities and excluded black and other communities of color from accumulating wealth and accessing the services and quality of life that we all deserve. I think I thought about those policies and practices as “long ago and far away.” They weren’t consistent with the best practices I and my colleagues and peers in the profession were using and promoting in the 21st Century, and certainly not in progressive LA! Also, I felt very aware of the disadvantaged communities in southern California, and hadn’t I undertaken many planning projects in my career with the sole purpose of improving access, health, sustainability and quality of life for all, in my years in planning? I left the profession’s dark underbelly out of my thoughts, along with deep examination of my own white privilege and biases, and bubble.

Personally, since 2016, I have been trying to open my eyes and further my education. My curriculum for my graduate planning students has evolved since 2016, and I hope has become more enlightened. I’ve done some work to educate myself, and taken advantage of training and other resources, both things I’ve sought out and that have been offered to me. I am, however, painfully aware that I haven’t asked planners of color about their experiences, their particular aspirations, planning ideas and solutions, and focused specifically on doing whatever I can to support them in getting them where they want and need us to go.

In addition to personal growth for individual planners, I believe that the planning profession must continue to mature as well. We must reckon with the sins of our past, and our profession’s complicity in the disinvestment in, and isolation and breakdown of, black communities and other communities of color, and the suppression of the disadvantaged voices in our communities. We must speak the truth to powerful voices in our communities seeking to maintain the status quo today, in the coded name of “neighborhood character preservation” and building only the housing that the “market will produce.” We must ensure that the ideas that planners of color have about making needed changes in our communities are heard, and that stories of planners of color in our profession are lifted up.

Back in 2016, might Ivory’s article have been treated differently by a CalPlanner newsletter edited by a person of color? I don’t know, but I believe we need more diversity in the leadership of our planning publications, our professional organization, our public agencies, and our elected and appointed bodies. And on a more macro level, we need to find a way to shift our professional process from simply engaging and including communities in planning work, to humbly co-creating solutions with communities. There’s no time like the present – it is well past time – to dedicate ourselves to this work, not from a position of superiority, but from a grounding in moral principles, ideals and actions – true nobility.


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Melani V Smith, AICP is a fourth generation Angeleno and has been a practicing planner for more than 20 years, seeking to improve the quality of life in Southern California. She is the Director of Regional Development for the Gateway Cities Council of Governments, serving the communities in southeast Los Angeles.

Ed Rosenthal

Mentor l BROKER l Writer | Commercial Real Estate L.A. Metropolitan Area Provides services - Real Estate Acquisitions Commercial Real Estate - Public Speaking

3y

Thanks for posting this Melani. It’s not only the planning community that needs to question its long standing beliefs but the larger real estate community itself. 

Michael Banner

President & CEO at Los Angeles LDC, Inc.

3y

#MakeADealMakeADifference

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Phil Crompton (He/him/his)

Technology Strategist and Senior Principal, Vantage Technology Consulting Group

3y

Melani Smith, AICP, thank you for writing and posting this insightful piece. You’re not alone in cringing over previous statements; many of us have said or done similar things in the past and neglected to understand this vitally important topic. So thank you for helping me, and others like me, see things in their true light.

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