Overcoming Bully Urbanism

At a symposium organized by GSAPP professor Hiba Bou Akar, leading urbanists reconsidered the field of urban planning from “postcolonial, decolonial, and abolitionist perspectives.” University of Illinois Urbana-Champaign Professor of Urban and Regional Planning Faranak Miraftab espoused an ethos of “humane urbanism” rooted in “radical care” as an antidote to the “winner-takes-all” character of conventional “bully urbanism.” Making connections between colonial-era land theft, entrenched planning practices, and contemporary struggles, UCLA Professor of Urban Planning Ananya Roy advocated seizing the current pandemic to “mobilize the police power of the state for the protection of human life rather than the protection of property.” Assistant Professor of Urban Planning at Texas A&M DR. Andrea Roberts pointed to the legacy of post-Civil War Freedom Colonies to “facilitate a re-worlding of Black places” within the context of historic preservation. And UPenn Assistant Professor Akira Drake Rodriguez drew together tensions between cities as sites of “accumulation’ and “soc…