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This is a Black Spatial Imaginary
(2017)
Abstract
This is a Black Spatial Imaginary is, in part, a project based on research and inquiry over the past several years into the history and current status of Black neighborhoods and repeating instances of displacement. The work brings into dialogue several sources— official planning documents and records from the City archives, showing the rationales and actions of Portland policymakers; news accounts that depict the framing of the problems and possibilities for the Black community in Portland at different points in Portland’s history; materials from community-based organizations that have participated in political and policy debates; and our own work engaging Black community members, from youth to elders and from “the North to the Numbers,” in several artistic and urban planning processes. For the most part, official planning documents represent a white spatial imaginary— a term used by scholar George Lipsitz to describe the application of urban planning and development regulations and public investments to support a landscape of exclusion, segregation, and the accumulation of property value for private interests.
Disciplines
Publication Date
Fall 2017
Comments
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Citation Information
Sharita Towne and Lisa K. Bates. "This is a Black Spatial Imaginary" (2017) Available at: http://works.bepress.com/lisa_bates/31/