Race and Policy by Example

'The Racialization of Space and the Spacialization of Race' presents a thourough history and analysis of race and space in the United States. However, the conclusion stops short of anything truely inspiring or generative. Lipsitz tells an amazingly informed, insider's account of the New Orlean's Allison "Tootie" Montana story and then closes with the advice that Landscape Architects and others concerned with the built environment need to be aware of racial implications of space when designing. He breifly mentions planning policy and land use measures, as if a second thought, and name drops Walter Hood and Randy Hester without citing any specific examples of their strong work.

Confronting the issue of race and space in design involves a collection of experts adressing deep-rooted political agendas. As a timely example, Architecture for Humanity's Cameron Sinclair talked about his involvement in New Orleans, post Katrina. His organization not only designed and built housing for the displaced residents but found the loop-holes in FEMA's (and supporting insurace companies and banks) loan and mortgage system. They found discriminatory policy written into the housing applications and rewrote and reworked their own "forgivable" loan policy. They raised their own funds, involved local citizens in design, and are currently affecting over 38% of the Biloxi neighborhood. Through citizen participation and experts who "gave a damn," they were able to re-zone/plan Biloxi with previously segregated and unrepresented minorities ultimatley present and vocal.