As defined by Google, resilience is “the capacity to recover quickly from difficulties; toughness,” or “the ability of a substance or object to spring back into shape; elasticity.” In terms of place-making, resilience is often about strategic planning to reduce impacts of natural disasters, as highlighted in one of my previous posts. However, there is another level on which designers must work: the community level. As much as we like to say we live in a society that is educated and all for equality, the truth is that socioeconomic status still has effects on living conditions. Institutional racism is often overlooked because “people aren’t racist anymore”. This type of discrimination is clear in low-income minority neighborhoods.
Detroit was once a booming agriculture industry, probably the biggest in America at a point in time. During it’s decline, many people left the city leaving gaps in the workforce that affected the economy and community dynamics. The city of Detroit currently struggles with getting proper nutrition because everything is fast food. More and more people are dying of diseases and disorders sprouting from lack of nutrition. However, urban agriculture is changing the city. The decline of the city left Detroit with a lot of vacant land, fertile soil, proximity to water, willing labor, demand for healthy food. This combination offered ample opportunity for community members to come together and farm. With programming such as educational farm-to-table meals and plant-based cafes, community dynamics have started to change with an increase in jobs as well as a shift in attitude towards community building.
A similar problem exists in South Central, LA. In a TED Talk we watched this week, Ron Finley strives to address this problem in proactive and practical ways. He decided to turn a strip of lawn into an educational garden or mini-farm. Despite having to fight municipality on changing “the city’s property,” he realizes the importance of educating the younger generations with real-life experiences. His community also struggles with finding healthy foods that are easily accessible and affordable to all. If kids are not shown how food affects mind and body, they won’t be consciously making decisions for themselves or their children in the future. The introduction of DIY agriculture has instilled a sense of community through shared ownership and has improved the economy through the opening of jobs and self-started businesses.
These two communities are excellent examples of community resiliency. They strive to overcome socioeconomic adversity through positive, community-conscious ways. Change starts small and powerful; all it takes is putting plans into action.
3 thoughts on “Resilience in Community”
I completely agree with your claim that institutional racism is a thing, and it is also very overlooked as well. New York City came to my mind when you talked about institutional racism. Being from New York City myself, I realized that the racism is shown most prominently in the NYCDOE system: the funding for schools in poorer neighborhoods is nonexistent. That’s why I kept on reading your blog post, and seen how people overcome these difficulties.
Rabab Rahman
While I never lived in a city, I have had my own garden. It is great that urban agriculture has taken off in bigger cities because there is very little that is satisfying as growing your own produce, caring for it, harvesting it, and then preparing it. I swear food that you grow your self tastes so much better than anything that can be purchased at a supermarket. In growing your own food, you also have controls over what kind o food you grow as almost everything in a store is GMO.
Griffin Smeltz
Being from right around Washington DC and going to school by areas in low SES statuses, I have seen how the people in the community are affected just health wise. As a result, I think this piece is really important. We definitely should do a better job of getting better options to communities like these.
Michael Gaines