What Does Public Safety Mean in 2020?
At this moment in history, we find ourselves at the intersection of so many important conversations surrounding how we each experience safety, or the lack thereof. Many of us are asking, how do we make public spaces safe for everyone — especially the most marginalized populations: those experiencing insecure housing, racist police terror, or fear of violence?
Berkeley, California, has been heralded as a progressive model for the country in terms of social and environmental action and innovation through the decades. We spoke with Terry Taplin, author, community organizer, and Vice-Chair of Berkeley’s Transportation Commission, about the intersection of these issues and how he envisions the future of public safety.
“As an openly gay, working-class Black man raised in West Berkeley by a single mother, I am no stranger to hardship and discrimination. Fortunately, I have been able to grow up in a city that champions justice and social change. My great-grandfather was a Texan farmer who fled racial violence in the South, my grandfather was a Navy vet, and my grandmother is a retired nurse,” Taplin shares, among other care-providers and civil servants in his immediate family.
Mr. Taplin sees COVID-19, climate disaster, and racial discrimination as interconnected. The positive consequence of these connections, is that with thoughtful city planning, it is possible to address some of these issues in a productive way simultaneously. Not only are our identities intersectional, these issues are as well. It remains everyone’s responsibility to prioritize and center the safety of the most vulnerable populations, particularly during times of crisis.
The Intersection of Racial Justice and Sustainability
In this moment of reckoning, it is important that we recognize the history of urban planning and racialized displacement in many of our cities. African American homeownership was systematically and legally undermined in many cities including Berkeley, and it is important to acknowledge and work to repair this upsetting history. Urban planning has often been segregationist, and that legacy of racial exclusion and redlining continues to play out through gentrification, and also in a reactionary repulsion to density.
One of the most impactful climate actions city planners can take is prioritizing filled housing. Cities can incentivize housing density with policies such as streamlining the abundance of Below Market Rate units, duplexes, fourplexes, and those that use union labor, as well as providing motivations like density bonuses. With cities prepared to house more people, there is less of a need for car dependent suburbs, and with that, less carbon emissions and deforestation. Mr. Taplin states, “Fighting displacement also means making sure people of color want to stay in Berkeley. The city could support initiatives like these by pushing forward the construction of apartments as well as allowing single family homeowners to opt into converting to multi family housing.” Cities like Berkeley could work towards sustainability by minimizing racialized displacement, and allowing access for Black and brown communities who have historically been excluded from the city, to stay in, and thrive in the city.
Mr. Taplin also strongly believes that rent should be cancelled during the pandemic, on a city and state level, to prevent evictions en masse. He states, “we can all help by spreading public education so that tenants know their rights and where their resources are located,” as well as demanding a moratorium on rent from our public officials, so that communities without access to savings or unemployment can remain secure in their homes.
To further illustrate these connections, Mr. Taplin speaks about “opportunities to learn from the pandemic and enhance resiliency and sustainability moving forward.” While mass calls for defunding the police are taking place, as evictions are skyrocketing, these same police monies could be redirected towards minimizing racial displacement, and subsidizing family units and low income housing. Mr. Taplin is quick to note that we shouldn’t hastily make cuts without thoughtful processes as to which departments and services are being cut. He offers the solution of removing police from areas like parking enforcement, as well as situations that are better fit for a social worker or mental health specialists.
There is an intersection between the movement for racial justice, climate, and housing. If we prioritize housing that allows Black tenants to arrive and new Black people to move into cities, thus fighting gentrification, communities can facilitate intergenerational living close to their jobs, reducing their carbon footprints. New construction opens the gateway for a transition into a green economy and all of the sustainable jobs that come with it. Mr. Taplin is a proponent for sustainable development minimizing cities’ ecological footprint — in Berkeley’s case, that could look like “upgrading the streets with semi permeable pavement for water runoff, bolstering flood risks… upgrading sewage infrastructure, and prioritizing public transportation and pedestrian friendly streets for preventative climate change measures,” as well as reducing the carbon footprint of cities and making alternative and public transportation more appealing for residents.
These ideas and intersections look different in every city and municipality, but we can all take the multi-tasked approach that Mr. Taplin has in addressing multiple issues and crises at once in an imaginative and sustainable way. We each have our own role to play in the uprising for justice, in a what Mr. Taplin describes as a “cross-cultural coalition to demand safety and climate justice.” He states, “to recover economically from COVID and remain on track for our climate goals, our City will need massive infrastructure overhauls to mitigate climate-fueled risk. We need a green stimulus to create jobs, bolster our infrastructure, and prepare our roads for a modal shift.”
Mr. Taplin has personally (painfully) experienced the City’s housing crisis. This experience informs his passion for racial, economic, social, and environmental justice. In times of tragedy, looking towards planning solutions that address multiple issues hitting marginalized communities the hardest, could be our saving grace.
References:
https://news.berkeley.edu/2020/04/10/berkeley-talks-transcript-keeanga-yamahtta-taylor/
https://www.terrytaplin.com/about
https://www.mercurynews.com/2020/06/18/oakland-s-f-neighborhoods-fastest-gentrifying-in-u-s/
