Repair and Healing in Planning

Abstract

Repair and healing pose central problems for planning – socially, economically, and environmentally. If we are to acknowledge and atone for histories of racialized and gendered violence, exploitation and neglect in our communities, we must do better to create healthy conditions for enduring kinship, solidarity, and mutuality. This collection of Interface essays presents critical, practice-oriented cases that address the reparative or healing potentials of planning practices. Each essay not only suggests our fi eld ’ s potential to be a repairing force, but it also addresses the wicked challenges that can accom-pany such a transformative reorientation. Our contributors explore reparative planning ethics in practice, not abstractly wrestling with the conceptual distinctions of rights and obligations and duties, but speci fi cally engaging the work of (re)creating and sustaining social and political relationships, addressing community traumas and mistrust, and building mutuality across difference. both historically rooted and future-oriented, to ask through cases: where have we come from, and how we collectively create better futures? As we structural as both staged and emotionally compelling. In our own work, our struggles shadows white supremacy racism Poe, In this essay, I relate the story of a community engagement initiative launched by the City of Albuquerque (City) to ensure that redevelopment of the Albuquerque Railyards (Railyards) will be equitable and bene fi cial to their adjacent neighborhoods of Barelas and South Broadway. Since 1993 I have worked with these neighborhoods on issues of affordable housing advocacy, anti-racism activism, program evaluation and CED research and practice. My experience as a facilitator in the Railyards project led me to see more clearly diverse relationships that these neighborhoods have negotiated over years, so I see new challenges to ensure that facilitation processes do not undermine their own redevelopment and reparative processes. This 2019 process has shown me profound differences between South Broadway and Barelas concerning their racialized histories, philosophies of redevelopment, and strategic priorities and alliances with governmental, non-pro fi t and fi nancial institutions. Their institutional and organizational structures and alliances differ; their requirements for Railyard redevelopment also differ. Built South residents and both Railyard and Railyard 1969). When Rail Yard both neighborhoods suffered devastating economic consequences. Both neighborhoods have responded to loss drawing on historically constructed identities to recover from loss, even as demographics in both neighborhoods have shifted. Increasingly, therapeutic planning literature has been exploring trauma-informed approaches that recognize and acknowledge community traumas or stressors as fundamental to designing sensitive, responsive, appropriate solutions. But trauma-informed work often addresses individuals ’ management of trauma instead of asking how collective groups might engage in transformational spatial and/or social change. One possible approach to bridging this gap is found in Healing Centered Engagement, an assets-based practice that advances a collective view of healing. This essay examines two cases to explore how Healing Centered Engagement might help planners to address community trauma.