Equitable Public Space, Environmental Justice Through Policy and Design (PDF) is a practical guide for community and civic leaders, city planners, policy makers, designers and project managers to address public space inequities and disparities in community conditions within the built environment. This guide explores the question of how the myriad benefits offered by public and green space can be fairly distributed and tailored to the specific needs and desires of a community, while also ensuring that people who most need these benefits are able to “stay in place” to experience them. Green Futures Lab Interns Adam Carreau (MLA ’19) and Margot Chalmers (MLA ’18) probed this question, identifying and illustrating the documented benefits of public space and access to nature, and exploring the potential pitfalls of implementing policies, plans and places without leadership from the communities being impacted.
In this document, Adam and Margot present considered perspectives on social equity in the dynamic urban context; potentials and case studies of tensions between efforts to uplift neighborhoods and unintended resulting displacement, processes for community participation, empowerment and stabilization; and tools and case study lessons that planners, designers and citizen activists can employ to equitably promote community health, prosperity, and well-being
Equitable Public Space, Environmental Justice Through Policy and Design (PDF)
