ABSTRACT
The Equity Planner’s Charter, an effort to lay the groundwork for a new planning ethic, is discussed. “The Way Forward” recaps the role of the Equity Planner in today’s society. How do Equity Planners get to know their community’s vulnerable populations and then work to anticipate and counteract the threats that local policies pose to them, unintentionally, systematically, and often without any discussion?
This chapter reasserts the book’s more controversial positions, including the creation of historic districts to protect affordability, the institution of Mandatory Inclusionary Zoning Ordinances along with density bonuses, the free use of Community Benefits Agreements, the idea that environmentalism is used today to prevent housing options, and the idea that public involvement must include those people who are traditionally left out of the process by meeting them where they are, on their terms, and actually allowing the public to make substantive decisions when it comes to their future.
We end with the idea that the concept of equity, alone, is a difficult one and discuss how the achievements of urban planning usually look quite modest compared to their goals. Urban planners must worry less about trying to “change the world” and focus on building something just and compassionate within it.
