In the United States, people of color are disproportionally more likely to live in environments with poor air quality, in close proximity to toxic waste, and in locations more vulnerable to climate change and extreme weather events.
In many vulnerable neighborhoods, structural racism and classism prevent residents from having a seat at the table when decisions are made about their community. In an effort to overcome power imbalances and ensure local knowledge informs decision-making, a new approach to community engagement is essential.
In Resilience for All, Barbara Brown Wilson looks at less conventional, but often more effective methods to make communities more resilient. She takes an in-depth look at what equitable, positive change through community-driven design looks like in four communities'East Biloxi, Mississippi; the Lower East Side of Manhattan; the Denby neighborhood in Detroit, Michigan; and the Cully neighborhood in Portland, Oregon. These vulnerable communities have prevailed in spite of serious urban stressors such as climate change, gentrification, and disinvestment. Wilson looks at how the lessons in the case studies and other examples might more broadly inform future practice. She shows how community-driven design projects in underserved neighborhoods can not only change the built world, but also provide opportunities for residents to build their own capacities.
Preface: On #Charlottesville Acknowledgments Chapter 1: Introduction: Resilience or Resistance? Chapter 2: A Short History of Community-Driven Design Chapter 3: East Biloxi: Bayou Restoration as Environmental Justice Vignette #1: Fargo: Playing in the Sandbox in The Fargo Project Chapter 4: Lower East Side, Manhattan: Tactical Urbanism Holding Space for the People's Waterfront Vignette #2: San Francisco: Reconsidering Parklets in Ciencia Pública: Agua Chapter 5: Denby, Detroit: Schools, and Their Students, as Anchors Vignette #3: The Cochella Valley: Reimagining the Banks of the Salton Sea in the North Shore Productive Public Space Project Chapter 6: Cully, Portland: Green Infrastructure as an Antipoverty Strategy Vignette #4: Philadelphia: The Makerspacea Revisited in The Tiny WPA Chapter 7: Conclusion: Toward Design Justice Notes Bibliography Index
"This book should be required reading for architects, planners, and anyone else working on complex urban challenges. Resilience for All skillfully presents the structural inequities that are the context for public interest design, and offers practical case studies that confront traditional notions of community engagement and the role of the designer. Dr. Wilson connects the dots between systems-level oppression and on-the-ground design interventions that bring new insights and useful methods to today's conversation about equity and ecology in cities. If you read anything about resilience this year, read this book!"
