Urban Planning For Leftists
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- čas přidán 15. 08. 2022
- Here's a video on how urban planning is a spatial tool used to prevent constant capitalist collapse. I want to start laying out some theory to help leftists think more critically about how the world around them is planned.
I invite all the weird neoliberal reply guys to write their comments about how its actually zoning or rich people in the suburbs or supply and demand. We have heard it, but I know it's all you've got to say, so go ahead!
For this video I used two main sources:
"On Spatial Planning and Marxism:
Looking Back, Going Forward" by Ståle Holgersen:
onlinelibrary.wiley.com/doi/p...
"Urban planning in theory and practice: a reappraisal" by Scott and Roweis
sci-hub.se/10.1068/a091097
Some of my conceptualization of the Kapitalistate was influenced by Jackie Wang's book Carceral Capitalism
Please keep growing this channel. We need it
Thanks! Finding the energy to make these on top of my 9-5 is no joke! But I'm trying to get into a rhythm.
@@radicalplanning I mean dont rush yourself, hopefully other radical planners get inspired and make other channels like this. I want to eventually I just don’t know how to do any video production
@@cw4959 I have been using adobe products for 12 years, so it was pretty easy for me to pick up video editing in premiere - still, the process is expensive and very time consuming. If you do come up with some ideas, you could try tiktok - I started there and the app makes it easy to edit cellphone footage. I think those commenters are worse than twitter or youtube but some really great radical creators exist over there.
The end of the video perfectly showcases the feeling of fatigue I feel when faced with the aggressive and willful ignorance of random people who'd throw their lives at a status quo before even considering change.
Just subscribed!
Very glad this video was suggested to me. Most urban planning conversations feel like they’re sponsored by real estate development associations.
Also I don’t know if you’re familiar with anarchist urbanist critic Colin Ward but a lot of his work was foundational for me in thinking through radical planning and in the future videos on some of his work would be great
Thank you for the recommendation!
Was thinking that too. Anarchist are particularly interested in making the necessary changes directly without appealing to "higher powers" and waiting for them to pay you any attention. Gotta look this Colin guy up too, thanks.
I just got recommanded this video and I have to say, it's a very good job. First and foremost, kudo on the delivery that is incredibly soothing and well built. Second, for the analysis itself, I really enjoyed the factual and rationnal analysis, not politically orientated, not needlessly blaming, just pointing out the mechanism itself.
I, for once, also am happy to see someone that understand the symbiot relationship between welfare state and capitalism instead of pitching them as enemies. Capitalism is just the locomotive of a system to produce things. State and intelligent policies are the necessary coolant to prevent the locomotive from bursting into flame
Thank you so much!
Funny. The neoliberals are positively anti regulation. When you look at the broader meaning of regulation no system can exist in the long term without being regulated.
My dear old long dead dad told me a story of when he was driving a bulldozer and the governor flew apart. The governor was two steel balls rotating on a collar around a vertical shaft. As the engine revs increased the steel balls through centrifugal force went from being vertical to horizontal pushing a pin down and reducing the fuel supply.
When the governor flew apart he had to turn off the fuel supply to stop the engine from blowing apart.
I've thought of this as being a good analogy for the need of government to regulate various aspects of the economy.
The neoliberal approach to economics is about as reckless as adolescent petrol heads attitudes towards vehicle and road safety. How were they ever considered credible. Apart from being a well oiled mafia like operation where they merely eliminate their opposition.
I also understand the neo liberal ideology. They're right to some extent. But as all ideology. If you take a mechanism that's true in some setting and elevate it as a general, near religious, truth, you're missing the point. The state can correct issue, or create issue. The solution is not to abolish the state but to properly evaluate what's efficient or not
I've just discovered your channel and I can't describe how lucky I am to be this early and get along on this journey so this channel could grow, the amount of wisdom here is mind blowing, giving such a very different perspective on mainstream issues no one bet an eye on.. I'll make sure to always like, comment and share! People need to find this ❤
This channel is a hidden gem! I'm glad the algo led me here.
Have you considered doing an interview on Varn Vlog? He talks a lot about having a long term strategy for leftist and I think you would have a lot interesting to say as it applies to urban planning.
I thought the streets in paris were made wide so that the people couldnt make barricades in their own city instead of just to support commerce?
And people who make barricades were for the most critical of the capitalistic system so both reasons are compatible.
Yes that was absolutely part of it! I cut this out of the script since I see this as being part of a much bigger issue that I hope to address in a future vid.
He's back! Dude, you're fucking amazing. Challenging liberal gentrification is probably the most interesting area for leftists in the modern world -- realizing radical geography is the most exciting area for me. I am in social science, so I am following your stuff - in fact if I am going to go through with getting a PHD, stuff you're putting down has a lot of influence for me.
Your work has been so encouraging to me -- and of course, by now I've read all of the books (Jeff Speck, Chuck Marohn's) you mentioned between your LAST video and this one, as I try to find ways to build a critique....Still working through the classics -- Neil Smith, David Harvey....Can't yet get myself to focus on it, but your videos ARE the undergrad course in leftist geography that I need.
Two questions: One, is there any way to support this project materially? Don't know if you do stuff like Patreon or whatever.
Two: Any thoughts on that recent Rachel Cohen appearance on Jacobin?
czcams.com/video/DIRglbyOLs0/video.html
The idea of liberal development as covert Trickle-Down econ is so refreshing. It begs the question of whether liberal developers KNOW this, and don't WANT to know that, or if they're simply ignorant.
Thanks so much.
Please keep going, in-spite of the more reflexive tendencies of the social-media-based "left."
Thanks, Stephen- that means a lot!
I like to think of these in the same way - the radical theory that my planning undergrad and grad courses never offered. A lot of the written work is needlessly cumbersome to read - the Scott and Roweis article I cited here is foundational, but it takes so long to slog through. David Harvey is probably the best writer of the bunch, but he is sometimes a little too academic. I'll finally be highlighting some of his work next video (I hope at least. I've written maybe ten scripts about privatization and thrown them out).
I am not looking for financial support currently - I would want to be a consistent poster before I ask for anything. Maybe sometime this year - if the algo is willing to boost me.
The Jacobin video is on par with their weird centrist youtube channel. I am always confused at who they bring on. Vox reporters leave too much unsaid - not sure if it comes from the nature of journalism or if it is an actual ideology they hold (probably both). The article and this video really beat around the bush on the financialization and privatization of low income housing as well as how programs like LIHTC and section 8 are means to increase private market profits (trying to make this topic my next video). But the Maryland development itself is pretty good and innovative - it probably still provides too much market rate proportionally, but its a step. The very end of the Jacobin vid is good where she mentions the extensive lobbying that the real estate market does to prevent meaningful changes to housing policy.
Thanks for your thoughtful comments, as always.
@@radicalplanning
I'm guessing that Ananya Roy is already someone you know a little about? She's a pretty articulate critic of YIMBY ideology. I have some disagreements with SOME of the style of her argument, but I think she is a very helpful and clear voice to highlight the limits of supply side liberalism, and how some of these supposedly more "progressive" development ideologies still push forward displacement, and ultimately play into a greater pattern of criminalizing poverty. She's quite an aggressive analyst, in which gentrification is complicity to violence.
She's an activist planner, like you.
In the California area, so quite significant.
(I'm not on Twitter, but I know that she is followed by quite a few people on Twitter).
I'm really not a fan of Russia, but the Moscow metro system is very simple, simple enough that I could figure it out while drunk. It's designed somewhat like a spiderweb. In New York, on the other hand, it's a little bit of a nightmare. It would be really interesting to see someone like yourself give a comparison of public transportation designed under capitalism versus other systems, or perhaps the lack thereof with suburbanites commuting to cities and car companies dismantling railroads.
Really enjoyed the video, Radical Planning. I do have an off-topic question for you, though. As I've tried to become more involved with leftists, it feels like there is so much infighting between us. I felt that a little of that sentiment in your video. I just feel a little disillusioned in my quest to assist the working class. Thoughts?
That is an interesting idea - capitalism impacts transit both in what is built and what is destroyed. I'll see what I can dig up.
Yes, there is a lot of infighting. Mostly, I am open to disagreements so long as we all understand the systems at play. As I said in the video, I think the problem is that the big voices online are not typically leftist (especially for urban planning) so when a leftist wants to consume online media, they don't have a lot of options. Another issue is that the American leftist movement today is pretty new - a lot of people got here after 2015 through Bernie Sanders and I think another wave of people after 2020 and the George Floyd protests. It takes time to gain leftist knowledge and its not always easily accessible. I try my best to remain patient with new leftists and believe that over time, they'll get it.
But for your last point, the movement is failing to elevate the working class out of oppression. For many online leftists, it seems to be the aesthetics of the movement that they prefer, not compassion or solidarity. Definitely a problem, but not enough to dismiss the movement and its past successes and wealth of theory. I say, just keep doing what you're doing, listen to the oppressed, and find your role in helping society.
This is a good Channel and I'm digging it. I can't be the only one that that experienced the beginning and the end of this video so viscerally. That high-pitched ringing sound was so incredibly loud. Please keep sound balancing in mind with that sort of thing.
So good, thanks for another great video!
Hi Josh,
Thank you for the video! Really well done.
It sounds just like basic common sense to me (or that it should be).
I had some experience working on urban projects that integrates the community in the decision process, and I think we could not only have spaces with better quality, but if we step out of capitalism competition we could be even more productive.
What I have some difficulty to grasp is how to have a system or process that can increase in complexity as much as a capitalist company.
For me what we lack is a form of consensus that works as smoothly as money gives us the impression it is.
I’ll be waiting for your next video. If you have any clue on what we can build to have this macro impact send me a smoke signal.
This is amazing! Thank you!
I'm glad I saw this, I've been thinking a lot about the development of metro systems/subways recently and these tensions are everywhere. I mean, rapid transit systems undoubtably benefit the general population/the working class, but at the same time there are also profit incentives for development that are hard to limit? like the most obvious being that real estate value of properties goes up when metro stations are built near them. And so how can urban planners engage in the planning of a transit map while resisting market/government forces (which as you pointed out, are often the same in neoliberal economies)?
And, on another note, what about planning in current/formerly communist countries?
Also how come you don't just say Capitalist State instead of Kapitalistate
Thanks for this. As a person working in the profession, it really reflects my personal tensions.
Can’t wait to see this channel grow.
2:55 I must say sir that this is some of the finest irony I have ever had the pleasure of listening to, just *chef's kiss*.
I am interacting with the content
Thank you for another great video! As always, I really appreciate your insight. This video really helped me understand radical planning as a concept and gave me a new lens to look at city planning decisions. I feel much more confident about looking at city issues as capitalist issues and being able to think critically about those issues.
I appreciate it!
Another great vid!! Do you have a few book recommendations for us to educate ourselves more? You mentioned things like Strong Towns, would you recommend reading that? Or is there something else that discusses more of the ideas you cover in this video?
Thank you! I am not a big fan of Strong Towns, I think it leans too heavily on private control of urban space. If you want to get into contemporary radical planning, I think Capital City by Samuel Stein is the best recent work. For more of the foundational stuff, David Harvey will be a good source. You could try to look up academic papers by John Friedmann (a radical planner who wrote from the 1960s-2010s). I also think Carceral Capitalism by Wang is essential for understanding the current situation. Verso is a good leftist publisher, so anything from this list would probably be worth your time: www.versobooks.com/lists/2947-architecture-and-cities-a-verso-bookshelf
@@radicalplanning thank you for the recommendation list! I'm going to start working through it soon.
I would love to see an analysis of Strong Towns, especially considering how it's the philosophical backbone of several large urban planning CZcams channels, like Not Just Bikes. And I'm sure it would get some good views 😉
@@radicalplanning earlier today I finished reading Strong Towns and I can definitely see what you were saying about the book leaning heavily on private control. One passage on page 178 stood out to me, where the author advocates for get rid of the conventional priority of "Financing an apartment building with 20 affordable units." and instead "Helping 20 property owners each build one accessory apartment." Another idea he proposed was for state governments to cap the amount of debt that local governments can accrue, something I hadn't considered before.
I'll look into David Harvey's writings and then go to Carceral Capitalism after! Thanks for the suggestions ☺️
So well structured speech! #Clarity kudos!
Just got recommended this by the algorithm. Awesome video!
I'd be curious to see more about certain topics (if you are interested in making videos about them ofc) like:
-America's horrible transportation systems and what can be done
-What can be done about changing the suburbanite community design (if anything can be done)
-What actual communal, beneficial living spaces could look like
I feel like there are channels that address some of these topics, but usually from a liberal pop science perspective. Either way, looking forward to see future videos!
Thanks! I want to discuss transportation soon, but there is so much to say about housing. Suburbs are also an interesting topic - I have been wanting to discuss the socioeconomic characteristics of them for a while (the growing poverty as a result of displacement) and also investigate how "green" it is to densify them. These are all good ideas, stay tuned!
This video brings in some interesting conundrums. Those who are into the urbanist space would be in support of projects like Brightline because it is building more rail infrastructure in a country where it is lacking, but at the same time Brightline is a private company that needs to make a profit to survive. This is something that urbanists encourage that is also encouraging the country to become even more hypercapitalistic than it already is.
thank you!!! i work as an urban planner and i struggle with this every day. what do you suggest we do from the ground level?
I don't know why this video popped up my suggested list, here we are. There is one glaring problem with far-left urban planning. Or left-leaning planning of anything. Humans. Humans are pack animals by nature. We will always gravitate toward one another thus creating larger and larger communities. And no matter how far left the commuity is, all it will take is one person wanting something that their nieghbor has. And then we're heading back to a capitalist system. If you want the far-left ideals, you have to change the point of view for ALL of humanity.
Now don't get me wrong, I dream of the day when the only wants anyone could have is something like sunshine for their picnic in the park. But I'm also a pesimist and I don't see that day ever happening.
The argument is compelling but it’s a bit superficial. In the end, the main critique in the essay is that allowing for less strict zoning of residential areas to increase the supply of higher density is in service of capitalism. However, it’s interesting to note that such exploitation usually would be targeted to places where those under privileged communities are established, but the YIMBY movement is (very vocally) concerned with predominantly white suburbia which are relatively well off anyway. Moreover, instead of imposing such changes on other communities, they are in fact calling for their own communities to open up spaces for other people, sometimes in the face of criticism from ostensibly “left” identifying folk that would not allow the character of their neighborhood be destroyed by such capitalist (/s) endeavors as… social housing and sponsored housing. Yeah. It feels as though that if this same change was enacted in the context of a communist society we would be ok for it even if there was displacement of communities. I particularly didn’t like the suggestion of gentrification given that those areas are already very high density in the United States, those zoning changes would in fact mostly impact white suburbs and prevent their sprawl into other nearby more rural communities.
I cant find the stale holgersen book in print. I could just print the PDFs. Does the Class Conflicts and Planning have similar elements? I would think so, but I only now got more interested in planning
I might be considered pretty centrist when it comes to urban planning by your definition. I have read a lot of the books you referenced as centrist, and on reading, agreed with their prescriptions as to what to do about a lot of the issues I care about in the urban environment in the U.S. The "Not Just Bikes" version of urbanism seems pretty defeatist about the North American continent in general, but the solution there seems to be moving to a place that has "done neoliberalism right". There were major social, political, and economic transformations that happened, and are preventing that small country from continuing to contribute to climate change. Granted their wealth and capability to do so is based on a colonial-capitalist past. I guess the question then is are you advocating for something like the Netherlands be implemented everywhere, or something further?
I've always thought urban planning design stuff would be very cool but also permanently stymied by current capitalist reality. Is there a point in lefties going to school for this?
What is the best way to oppose BIDs?
Woah, nice channel.
Hell yes this is what we need! I’ve been looking so hard for leftist urbanism theory!
oh man, i learnt nothing.
Errant was here
Finally som good fucking food
I watch your videos because I want to see what others think. .
I tend to be libertarian. I am a poor working class drone, but here's the deal.
Jeff Bezos didn't force my parents to have me. It's not really Jeff Bezos fault that I am in the situation I am in, if anything it's my parents fault for having me when they didn't have the proper resources to help me thrive.
I don't think Jeff Bezos should be FORCED to have to pay for me when he didn't even have a say whether I was born or not.
Basically what I am saying is that I don't think it's ethical or moral to force on man to pay for another.
I don't think it's ethical that I should pay taxes to support people I don't really like or support.
I believe in a "free market". If that means I die homeless then I die homeless. I don't think anyone should have to pay my way, and I shouldn't be forced to pay other peoples way.
If I was born into an unlucky situation that sucks, but it's no one elses obligation to take care of me. If people wish to donate to me out of their on will then fine, but you can't just bully others into taking care of others.
I even see this in my personal life, when you are constantly focused on other people and "helping" other people usually you end up just making things worse and both parties have resentment. They resent you because they didn't ask for your help, and you resent them because you feel they should reciprocate what you have done for them.
Life is better when people just focus on their own problems. Less chance for resentment.
So happy youtube told me to watch this!
Capitalism, Socialism,
Etc., they are tools.
A wrench can fix a car,
or hit you on the head
and take your wallet.
The tool's not a problem,
the person using it is.
I searched "leftist urbanism" on a whim and found your channel. Are you making an accelerationist argument? i.e. Improvements to life under capital delay or prevent the demise of capital?
I'm disappointed. Watched until the end hoping to find out what an ideal leftist city would actually look like. Nope, just more "capitalism sucks."
【ｐｒｏｍｏｓｍ】
Most advanced sys. of
gov. known:
Democratic Socialism.
(Note: No capitalism)
Am I wrong to understand your definition of Leftism is essentially Communism? I don't mean to stigmatize it, but just trying to understand.
not communism just a rejection of capitalism
Rent control has a 100% failure rate. It brings about the exact opposite of what it hopes for. Restricting rents simply drives away landlords and stops most maintenance of rented properties. The properties disintegrate and the whole area becomes a dystopia , crime ridden, gangland nightmare. Which I guess kind of describes a socialist paradise....
7:34 - I think a better way to frame the current “capitalist” milleu is simply this:
Socialism is for the rich, Capitalism is for the poor. Businesses and the suburban white community get state subsidies (highways from the city to the suburbs are socialist subsidies - noone who benefited paid for them).
I love how you keep saying over and over that capitalism collapses itself, but gives not legitimate, concrete evidence for this central tenet of your video.
The entire video is about how the state prevents capitalist collapse thank you so much for watching
@@radicalplanning I guess I would agree with you, that capitalism left to itself destroys itself, but that does not mean it is bad. Democracy left alone will inevitably destroy itself, so we have limits on democracy that keep it sustainable, while still reaping the benefits of a democracy. Similarly, the state can set limits on capitalism, that still allow society to reap the benefits.
I share some of your sentiments.... but this video has a lot of flaws
One, it's posible to explain communist ideas without using jargon! Try saying "capitalist state" in English instead of in German, and never ever use "BIPOC" (because working class minorities do not call ourselves that!)
Also, working class people - of all races - embraced suburbs and cars because having your own home with some elbow room and your own yard, and having a car so you can go where you want when you want is objectively better than living in a crowded tenement and being dependent on the tender mercies of the MTA to get you where you want to go. The only bad thing about suburbs is the racial segregation (and that's changing, as cities become preserves of rich Whites and working class Blacks and Latinos are becoming largely suburban)
BTW I suspect that's why a lot of the YIMBY assholes are pro city and anti suburb
Also, growth is a good thing!
Speaking as a former industrial worker, I spent much of my life participaitng in growth (I was a carpenter for 24 years and I'm literally one of the people who built the new World Trade Center - and a hundred other buildings you never heard of) - and when we come to power, we're going to need massive economic growth so every worker and farmer everywhere in the world can have the kind of standard of living that modern science and industry can provide
Otherwise what's the point of communism?
The point is for a better life for the working class and ending class society - universal prosperity is the goal, like Lenin taught us, not the unversal poverty of Pol Pot's Year Zero!
The problem is, who does the growth benefit - us, or the capitalists?
Growth itself is good and necessary
So yeah, this video could have been a lot better, comrade
Why would you want to get rid of capitalism? Why get rid of our only hope of enacting change in the critical next 10 years?
Because capitalism is what got us into this mess. But explaining why capitalism is bad is beyond the scope of this video. It might be better to come back to this one after participating in more leftist discourse - assuming you are actually curious and open to learn, and not just asking disingenuously as a preface to parrot more capitalist apologia.
I would be more interested in learning why you think capitalism is the only or most important tool in fighting climate change and providing affordable housing, considering its track record of accelerating rather than mitigating the worst of their effects.
My brotha in chryst, it is capitalism that prevents the change. It is the dam stopping the river from flowing and watering our lands... so to speak.
@@olive8604 this is exciting. I wish you 2 would discuss this in detail. I find pro-capitalists and anti-capitalists often seem to disagree on how capitalism is defined and end up talking past eachother, with the anti-capitalist thinking they're debating a corporate greed/cronyism apologist and the pro-capitalist thinking they're debating a state monopoly advocate. I find it all very confusing.
@@lazrseagull54corporate greed/cronyism isn't really a economic system. Capitalism itself can be organized in different ways, but all of them involves the search for profit about everything else, and transform the production in a way to make profits, not to fulfill the needs of the people. On the same time, capitalism transforms wealth in political power and this, together with the fact that the system generate accumulation of capital, allow that the political discourse, and practice, become more and more a tool to make the capital owners (the capitalists) more rich, allowing them to have more profits (In any way that they can make it).
It's not about greed, because the capitalist is not responsible itself for this search for profits, but the system works in a way that, if he doesn't do this kind of thing, using leverage of his money to influence the politics, other capitalist will do and take his place eventually.
@@dkmark7802 profit is a good motive to serve the needs of the people but it's sadly also a motive to take shortcuts and serve the interests of the elected and their friends, who are awarded power solely for making convincing campaign promises which they're not obligated to fulfill so they can use taxes from the people to hire corporations who often don't have their interests at heart. Imo, unsatisfactory or expensive service providers should gradually lose customers to their competitors without having to wait for an election. The money should go to whichever providers are doing the best job at the best price until someone else comes along and does better, not until someone else promises better. That's never been good enough for me.
is there any way I can email you? Im a leftist/decolonial planning student and trying to build a similar educational page on instagram like you havae here on youtube. Would love to exchange ideas, materials, sources etc.
What's your page on Instagram, if you don't mind.
I'd also like to know, and follow. I'm a anarchist architect/landscape architect (with some planning exp) and I'm looking for like minded hubs of community online.
Thanks for this. As a person working in the profession, it really reflects my personal tensions.