Inclusivity is designing with, not for
“Cities have the capability of providing something for everybody, only because, and only when, they are created by everybody.“ — Jane Jacobs
Jacobs statement rings as true of today’s New York City (NYC) as it did in the 1960s. Today’s public spaces in NYC are increasingly privatized and policed. Decades of policy-making and defensive architecture practices have continuously removed people experiencing homelessness from the public view, excluding them from participating in simple everyday acts which housed people take for granted. If designers, policy-makers, and citizens desire a city “created by everybody” and “providing something for everybody,’’ what capabilities would they have to develop to get there? How might we envision and build truly inclusive and equitable cities?
In a recent fireside chat, the NYC Chapter of the Service Design Network heard from Madison Loew, Stella Kim, Nikita Price, and Eric Goldfischer about their work conducted as part of a partnership between the Urban Design Forum and Picture The Homeless. This partnership came out of the Urban Design Forum’s Forefront Fellowship. Its 2018 theme “Shelter for All” explores how they might design NYC’s shelters, intake centers, and supportive housing to turn the tide on the largest homelessness population in the US.
Reclaiming the public realm
Forefront Fellows Madison and Stella shared their participatory design research and tools, which culminated in the Office of the Public Realm. Their research started with the question: In a right-to-shelter city like NYC, why would someone live in the public realm? They explained that the shelter experience is more of a revolving door than a one-way street. People exiting shelters don’t typically go back to their pre-homeless life immediately. Instead, they need time not just to regain stability but also to recover from their shelter and homelessness experiences. If they don’t manage to get shelter, they are forced onto the streets. Over the past half a century, the increasing privatization and policing of NYC’s public realms has excluded such people from participating in regular activities in supposedly public spaces.
For NYC to be a truly inclusive city, it must reclaim its stewardship of the public realm. As such, Office of the Public Realm is designed to bridge the disconnect between the multitude of city agencies and non-city stewards, such as Business Improvement Districts (BIDS), Friend-Of groups, private property owners, etc. Its functions would be to:
- Protect the human rights of people experiencing homelessness through a bill of rights
- Connect people in the public realm with the services they need
- Defend the dignity of people experiencing homelessness by addressing stereotypes and biases through guided exercises and reflections
- Welcome people experiencing homelessness without excluding other New Yorkers.
Public spaces, but for who?
Nikita and Eric’s presentation focused on Picture The Homeless and its work in fostering more inclusive public spaces. Founded and led by people experiencing homelessness, Picture The Homeless is a grassroots organization working to change quality-of-life laws and policies which criminalize homeless people. Not only do they challenge the root causes of homelessness, they also work to shift the narrative about why people are homeless, seeing the connection between people’s “picture” of homelessness and the negative public policies which actually harm the homeless.
A good microcosm of their work can be experienced in many of NYC’s public plazas. These spaces, managed by BIDS and other similar groups, are technically available for all, but are often heavily regulated in the interest of financial gains and “aesthetic preferences”. Some of NYC’s plazas, including the one at 125th Street, prohibit:
- Unreasonable obstruction of sitting areas
- Unreasonable obstruction of free passage for other pedestrians
- Storing personal belongings
- Camping
- Lying down
“The people moving in here don’t want to see you.”
As East Harlem prepares for the extension of the Second Avenue Subway line, the neighborhood is becoming the uptown “Grand Central”. People experiencing homelessness are issued Move Along Orders, being told that “the people moving in here don’t want to see you.” People are marginalized by their socio-economic status, housing status, and even their physical appearance. People of color, immigrants, the LGBTQ community have also been targeted.
Ultimately, Nikita and Eric emphasized the importance of definitions when discussing inclusivity. Could some of our language be code for something else? When neighborhoods “beautify”, do we really mean “gentrify”? Do we define “community” simply as people who look, talk, act just like us? Who gets a seat at the table? Do we fool ourselves into thinking our political leanings will save us? The challenge for designers, policymakers, and urbanists is to design with, not for people experiencing homelessness.
Meaningful change takes time
So how might we practically envision and build truly inclusive and equitable cities? Here are some ways suggested by the four speakers:
- Recognize that design is not a neutral act. Question your definitions and ask the hard questions.
- Take the time to understand how systems work and to know your local politicians. In NYC, council members and community boards make plenty of decisions, which are decided upon by local residents and stakeholders.
- Spread the facts to your spheres of influence. Knowledge empowers people see what they can’t and potentially act on it.
- When researching, explore creative ways to incentivize community participation by working around community’s constraints and needs.
- When designing physical environments, consider if the structures could be considered hostile architecture. Who is it intended for? Who is it excluding?
- Remember that meaningful change takes time.
Recommended reading (abridged):
- New Public Spaces Are Supposed to Be for All. The Reality Is More Complicated by Winnie Hu (Anything by her is particularly helpful as she covers this beat for NY Times)
- Giuliani Time — a chapter from Revanchist 1990s
- Building like Moses with Jacobs in Mind by Scott Larson
- Who Cleans the Park? by John Krinsky and Maud Simonet
- City of Disorder: How the Quality of Life Campaign Transformed New York Politics by Alex S. Vita
