Reimagining Planning is a monthly series of public webinars that focuses on the edge of innovation in urban planning and policy. Traditionally Urban Planning has had a long legacy of harming communities of color, developing and implementing racist policies, and destruction of the built environment. This series openly critiques this current iteration of urban planning in the hopes of proposing new theories, strategies, and concepts that help us arrive at an iteration of the field where we all belong. We are interested in helping foster meaningful conversations among urban planners hungry for more and to engage with new audiences that have always been curious about urban planning but may not know what exactly do urban planners do.

To kick off the webinar series, we invited speakers to a symposium to discuss the current iteration of the Urban Planning field. Presenters were asked to name the pitfalls of the current iteration of the field, identify frameworks or practices that have been successful in achieving more equitable community-led planning processes, and share hopes/forecasts for a more equitable iteration of the planning field.

This installment of the webinar series brought together:

Dr. Kafui Attoh is an Associate Professor of Urban Studies at the CUNY School of Labor and Urban Studies and an affiliated faculty member of the Earth and Environmental Sciences Department at the CUNY Graduate Center. He is the author of Rights in Transit: Public Transportation and the Right to the City in California’s East Bay (University of Georgia Press 2019) as well as Disrupting DC: The Rise of Uber and the Fall of the City (co-authored with Katie Wells and Declan Cullen -Princeton University Press 2023). His broad interests are in the political economy of cities, the politics of public space and debates in and around the idea of the “right to the city.”

Veronica O. Davis is the Director of Cities Program for AtkinsRéalis. She is an Entrepreneur and Civil Engineer, co-founding Nspiregreen, LLC., which manages Community, Multimodal Transportation, and Environmental planning and consulting. While at Nspiregreen, she led the Vision Zero Action Plans for Washington, DC and the City of Alexandria. She co-founded Black Women Bike, an organization and movement which builds a community and interest in biking among black women through education, advocacy and recreation. Veronica was recognized as a Champion of Change by the White House in 2012 for her professional accomplishments and advocacy.

Jose Richard Aviles (Moderator) is a Transportation Analyst for the Othering and Belonging Institute. As part of the Community Power and Policy Partnerships team, they support government agencies and partners with community organizations by providing trainings, technical assistance, and evaluation support centering lived experience, vision, and self-determination of the communities most impacted by transit inequities. Aviles draws inspiration from their involvement with the Bus Riders Union in Los Angeles and participation in other social justice movements like marriage equality.

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