What We Want!
BPLA firmly believes that the Los Angeles City Planning Department (Department) is uniquely positioned to chart a course for a more fair, equitable, and just Los Angeles for future generations. The year 2020 has been a moment of reckoning for our City andcreated an opportunity for planners to acknowledge the role the planning profession has played in creating and implementing discriminatory practices in both the past and present that leave Black communities vulnerable to societal disruptions, poor health outcomes, stunted life chances, and climate disasters.
This document is a resource with goals, actions, policies and programs that can be implemented within the Department, through the General Plan elements, and the City of Los Angeles zoning code and administration practices. The document can help to leverage planning’s role to foster an interdepartmental network of policies and actions that can contribute to a more just and equitable Los Angeles.
Framework and Action Plan for Transformative Planning in Los Angeles
This Framework is intended to persist as a living, grassroots document that reflects the values and principles of Black professionals in the planning profession. Additionally, with many City Planning Black professionals originating from communities that have been impacted by racist land use policies, this Framework also reflects the priorities and aspirations of Black communities in Los Angeles overall. BPLA hopes for future generations of planning professionals to carry forward this work—recognizing the struggles, sacrifices and contributions of Black urbanists before them. See below for an outline of the key goals of the Framework:
We call for the Department to take a leadership role in supporting reconciliatory and restorative actions to dismantle land use policies that have led to detrimental outcomes in Black communities. The Department must foster stronger relationships with Black communities and actively listen to populations that have been made vulnerable by past planning practices so that these communities may participate and thrive in a shared future. This process of Transformative Planning must take the following principles into account:
- Acknowledging unjust, exclusionary planning practices that promoted disinvestment and are spurring displacement in ourhistorically Black communities.
- Overcoming barriers to engagement for vulnerable communities through representative engagement that leverages active partnerships with the Black community, promotes shared decision making, and builds community capacity.
- Actualizing policies and programs to mitigate the potential harm caused by past and present planning practices.
We call for the Department to examine its role in diminishing or fostering opportunities for housing and wealth creation in Black communities. It is imperative to cultivate Black legacy and identity throughout the city and protect Black neighborhoods from predatory land acquisition. BPLA challenges the Department to create and promote opportunities for Black Angelenos to build equity and intergenerational wealth through increasing ownership of real property.
- Cultivate Black legacy and identity
- Protect Black neighborhoods from predatory land acquisition
- Build equity and intergenerational wealth
- Black multi-family ownership
- Foster wealth creation through development incentive programs
We call for the Department to be a leader in the creation of Black spaces for Black faces. Los Angeles needs spaces that affirm Black people and culture, and center environmental justice, economic justice, and prosperity through community wealth building for the Black community. The Department must lead in the creation of thriving Black futures.
- Environmental justice
- Economic prosperity through community wealth building
- Reimagining public safety through community investment
- Learning from our past to create thriving black futures
We call for the Department to take action through authentic engagement. The Department must strengthen connections with Black communities by creating trusting relationships, cultivating staff that are prepared to develop comprehensive, data-led, and accessible public outreach and engagement strategies, and deliver effective engagement with consistent community involvement.
- Strengthen connections through building community trust
- Deliver effective engagement shaped by community involvement and data-driven evaluation
- Build upon existing knowledge to develop data-led outreach and engagement strategies
We call for the Department to exemplify internal leadership in transformative planning. To transform the department into an equitable workplace, we need to meaningfully integrate the Department at every level and implement new workforce initiatives that address acute workforce challenges for Black employees that have existed for decades and continue to endure.
- Meaningful integration of the planning department
- Improve equity and representation in local decision-making on projects
- Implement new workforce initiatives that address acute workforce challenges for Black employees