Separate and Unequal

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The 26 essays in The Just City Essays respond to the question: “What would a just city look like and what might be the strategies to get there?“ They were written by architects, politicians, artists, doctors, designers and scholars, philanthropists, ecologists, urban planners and community activists, and came from 22 cities across the world. Write a short essay n which you respond to the same questions.

On September 17, 2011, the economic divide of NYC had reached its boiling point. Financial District’s Zuccotti Park — which was given to the public by Brookfield Properties after being granted a zoning exception — was flooded with by protestors who had, until that point, only worked the minimum wage jobs keeping FiDi running smoothly. The public had taken ownership over its gifted space and did not leave for six weeks. The ’99%’ were occupying in protest for less political corruption, income equality, more and better jobs, bank reform, student loan policies, and foreclosure alleviation.

But Occupy Wall Street was more than just a protest; it was the first major wars between the two cities. In 2012, Manhattan had the biggest dollar income gap of any county in America, in which the top 5% earned 88 times as much as the poorest 20% of the population. A 2014 USA Today article began with the opening “Sports car sellers and Hamptons beach house Realtors rejoice: Wall Street bonuses hit their highest level since 2007.” When millions of Americans lost their homes, life savings, jobs, and then had to foot the bill of the financial bailout, the CEOs of the investment firms rebounded in just a few years to their previous levels of wealth.

The city that existed in the shadows of such opulence did not experience an economic rebound. These residents lack access to quality education, affordable housing, or livable wages. They lived in a city where the American Dream had systematically been moved beyond reach. The rich had tried to distance themselves from the urban blight and struggle of the poor for decades. As Cecilia Herzog illustrated: “There is a factor that plays an important role in many societies: fear. Security comes first, and what is the response of frightened urbanites? Divide the city! Divide the landscape! Live in ‘safe’ gated developments. The market loves and uses this fear in its favor,” (80). This fear literally created a second city in its division — one that was established by the federal housing agencies of the 1960’s who used racial redlining to prevent mortgages and halt any neighborhood investment. The legacy of such policies have only been aggravated, as William Julius Wilson notes that impoverished people of color are continuously shut out of major economic and social systems because of a mixture of covert racism, unconscious racism, institutional racism, and environmental racism, where traditional routes to ‘the good life’ are out of reach. As a result, separate — often illegal — systems arise because of lack of opportunities of advancement and neglect by elected officials.

The unjust city emerges when these two cities of polarized wealth and power cease to overlap. The alienation is extremely prevalent in urban divisions throughout the world. However, this schism need not be so dramatic, for all urban (and planet) dwellers long after similar ideals: to be surrounded by people they love, to be able to support oneself to eat and have a roof overhead, to feel safe and to learn. These goals are what unite us as humans and should be used as pillars in explaining why we enter the chaotic social contract of urban existence. However, when we have two cities, offering vastly disparate opportunities for advancement, we have a social contract that has failed our general will and failed its citizens. Therefore, the just city can be defined as a single, unified place capable of granting equal access to opportunity for its entire people. A just city means the American Dream can be within reach for all. We need a melting pot that actually oozes together.

As Lesley Lokko explains, “cities really are ‘collaborative works,’ places where people of differing racial, linguistic, religious and economic backgrounds and persuasions come together to enact some form of public (and private) life,” (12). We need to create an equal city by design — one that has cooperation to meet the collective goals of the general will. Marcelo Lopes de Souza states: “A just city cannot be a city where some of its districts and neighborhoods (call them favelas, ghettos, barriadas, villas miseria, callampas, townships, bidonvilles… ) are stigmatized just because the people who live there are dark-skinned or belong to an ethnic minority. If the city is the place of encounter and dialogue par excellence, then segregation and intolerance cannot be compatible with a democratic city,” (39). From Brown v. Board of Education we learned that separate but equal does not work and is inherently unjust. We need to have mingling of people from all backgrounds to secure the vivacity and innovation of urban life, and we need a single, unified city to set the stage for sustainable growth.

So, for this reason, we must have more confrontational spaces like Zuccotti Park. Ones where the status quo can be challenged and one city must confront the urban struggles of the other. Classes, political groups, races must recognize each other in order to inspire our best humanity, culture, and democratic system. Social inclusion can go a long way in uniting to form a just city. We need to come up with complementary agendas that holistically address the trap of poverty in a sustainable way.

We need transportation that can affordably and reliably connect all to the resources and benefits of the formal economy. We need livable wages and practical training to get people high-demand jobs in industries with labor gaps. Affirmative action can work to correct the wrongs of systematic racist legacies. We need fair security and court systems that truly operate on the notion that “justice is blind.” We need early education, reformed curriculums, competitive teacher recruiting, and access to higher education for all. And we need these shared, confrontational spaces to inspire involvement and garner feedback in designing and marketing programs for all of the above.

We need community ownership to drive participation. Residents must actually vote to get policies that will reduce economic barriers of entry, rather than maintain the status quo of having only 24% of people vote for mayor. And once the sense of inclusion is established and voters turn out, we need the democratic process to elect officials — from various walks of life — capable of representing their constituents.

People opt to live in the urban social contract to gain the benefits of communal living — innovation, opportunity, community — and when they do so they should be entitled to the benefits and collective goals of the system — shelter, economic opportunity, to support themselves and their families. When only one city reaps the benefits while the other is pushed to the urban fringe, we have injustice, a systematic cycle of neglect, and asymmetries of power and wealth. We need to unite, as one city capable of fulfilling the promises of the general will. Give everyone from a Wall Street Banker to a single mother from the Bronx a fair shot at life, liberty, and the pursuit of happiness.

First Pre-Departure Reflection: The Christmas Gift