{"id":379811,"date":"2020-11-03T19:59:58","date_gmt":"2020-11-04T03:59:58","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.esri.com\/about\/newsroom\/?post_type=arcnews&p=379811"},"modified":"2020-11-03T16:46:17","modified_gmt":"2020-11-04T00:46:17","slug":"people-and-places-not-points-and-lines","status":"publish","type":"arcnews","link":"https:\/\/www.esri.com\/about\/newsroom\/arcnews\/people-and-places-not-points-and-lines","title":{"rendered":"People and Places, Not Points and Lines"},"author":5752,"featured_media":0,"menu_order":0,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_acf_changed":false,"sync_status":"","episode_type":"","audio_file":"","castos_file_data":"","podmotor_file_id":"","cover_image":"","cover_image_id":"","duration":"","filesize":"","filesize_raw":"","date_recorded":"","explicit":"","block":"","itunes_episode_number":"","itunes_title":"","itunes_season_number":"","itunes_episode_type":"","_links_to":"","_links_to_target":""},"categories":[1041,430081,282062],"tags":[471702,339072,467761,460171,440761],"arcnews_issues":[472031],"class_list":["post-379811","arcnews","type-arcnews","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-collaboration","category-from-the-meridian","category-geography","tag-black-lives","tag-city-planning","tag-equity-and-inclusion","tag-racial-equity","tag-representation","arcnews_issues-fall-2020","arcnews_sections-gis-people"],"acf":{"short_description":"Geospatial professionals need to more carefully consider the impacts of their work on the everyday spatialization of public space.","pdf":{"host_remotely":false,"file":"","file_url":""},"flexible_content":[{"acf_fc_layout":"content","content":"One month after George Floyd was killed while in police custody in Minneapolis, Minnesota, street artists in Atlanta, Georgia, painted an unsanctioned Black Lives Matter mural on the east side of the BeltLine, a popular walking trail created on the bed of a former railroad line.\r\n\r\nAs of press time, the artwork remains untouched, as it is seen as a catalyst for conversations on race. Yet this mural runs alongside the Old Fourth Ward and Eastside, among Atlanta\u2019s most historic\u2014and historically Black\u2014areas, which are now the site of rapid gentrification."},{"acf_fc_layout":"image","image":379791,"image_position":"right","orientation":"horizontal","hyperlink":""},{"acf_fc_layout":"content","content":"Just a few feet from this powerful work of public art, thousands of Black individuals and families were and are being displaced by revitalization efforts whose looming condos and new amenities will create pristine, planned communities in the heart of Atlanta\u2014communities that will be mostly affluent and predominantly white.\r\n\r\nWhose lives ultimately matter on Atlanta\u2019s east side?"},{"acf_fc_layout":"content","content":"

Present-Day Colonialism<\/h2>\r\nAs professionals who address spatial dynamics through geography, GIS, planning, and more, we like to believe that colonialism and imperialism took place long ago in distant lands. But we reproduce colonialism through research, policies, and teaching\u2014and we need to recognize that. By colonialism, I mean not only the practices of dominating and replacing existing populations in spaces and places but also the mental patterns and elements of professional training that lead us to accept, normalize, and promote those practices.\r\n\r\nCertainly, we often also use analysis to critically interrogate the world we live in. Yet our data and numbers can themselves prevent us from interrogating our own blind spots. We use quantitative, and sometimes qualitative, research to justify our claims regarding space while ignoring what occurs\u2014who does what to whom\u2014in that space.\r\n\r\nWho constitutes the \u201cwe\u201d of our profession also matters. Without robust racial representation, we cannot have a geospatial workforce that is experienced and prepared enough to engage with the critical questions of cities, towns, and rural communities. (See \u201cEarth Science Has a Whiteness Problem<\/a>\u201d for more on this.)\r\n\r\nI challenge us to consider the impacts of our work on the everyday spatialization of public space. How has data science, as a tool, impacted not only the future of cities but also the current battles over racial violence and racial injustice?"},{"acf_fc_layout":"content","content":"

Communities Have Realities<\/h2>\r\nFour years ago, while living in Atlanta, I occasionally attended city hall and planning commission meetings to remain connected to conversations surrounding urban design, development, and policy. I once sat in a room of planners and graduate students who were discussing the future of Atlanta. Even though the theme of the conversation was What Is Your Atlanta, the Atlanta in that room was not representative of the city.\r\n\r\nIt was a predominantly white, well-heeled, elitist, and closed space. Participants in the group cited data and examples of crime prevention that rested on environmental design and the blending of public and private spaces. They completely ignored the role that race-based policies have played in shaping the city.\r\n\r\nWhile this discussion was intended to cultivate entrepreneurial innovation around urbanization, the nearly uniform social, political, and economic standing of those in the room ignored the history and lives of the people who are impacted by their policies. Furthermore, the event was advertised among networks of acquaintances and occurred at a time and place that fostered an inequitable and exclusionary decision-making process. As a result, the gatekeepers and power brokers engineered communities that they visualized more as properties on a Monopoly board than as real people.\r\n\r\nIn addition, experts, armed with long-range data that insulates them from immediate consequences, often ignore economic realities. Take, for example, the well-known scholar who spoke at Atlanta\u2019s planning commission about the development impacts of the BeltLine. He had recently accepted a joint position in real estate and urban planning at the university where he taught, and I was struck by the convergence of commerce and planning in academia contained in that title.\r\n\r\nAs I scanned the audience that day, I noticed a repeat of the previous meeting: I was surrounded by the same people, just in a larger venue. After the professor\u2019s lengthy talk and bold predictions, we entered the Q&A period, where local residents posed questions about rising housing costs, gentrification, and the unsustainable population bubble that choked Atlanta. I recall one interaction most vividly: a white, middle-aged man described the extreme gentrification that was occurring in the neighborhood he grew up in, Cabbagetown. He stated that it was becoming difficult to afford his mortgage and property taxes."},{"acf_fc_layout":"image","image":379801,"image_position":"left","orientation":"horizontal","hyperlink":""},{"acf_fc_layout":"content","content":"The professor dismissed this man\u2019s concerns. Eventually people would grow tired of the city, he insisted, and the cost of homes would decline. The professor\u2019s reliance on a long-term scenario\u2014so popular in planning practice and so prized in data analysis\u2014failed to even consider what would happen to people in the meantime.\r\n\r\nAs so-called public forums, these meetings illustrate the extent to which a powerful few make decisions behind closed doors. This power frequently goes unseen and unchecked."},{"acf_fc_layout":"content","content":"

Race-Conscious Geospatial Practice<\/h2>\r\nWhen geographers and planners of color hold the opportunity to frame and use the powerful, exploratory tools of geoscience, outstanding work is possible\u2014work that creates a path for responsible and effective decision-making in matters of community planning, public health, economic development, business creation, housing and homeownership, and much more. Once we commit ourselves to a more diverse and representative geospatial practice, we will be committing to a future of thriving, healthy, equitable neighborhoods, towns, and cities.\r\n\r\nJust one example of the depth and dimension of data frameworks that are made possible by racially just geospatial practice is the Texas Freedom Colonies Project<\/a>. In mapping the presence of more than 550 (and counting) historic Black settlements in Texas, Dr. Andrea Roberts\u2019s participatory atlas reflects the full history and status of these places. Using ArcGIS technology, residents and descendants of these communities can submit qualitative and quantitative evidence of settlement, from deeds and documents to personal recollections and family trees. So far, Roberts, an assistant professor at Texas A&M University, has verified and mapped 357 communities and made place-names and crowd-sourced information available for 200 more.\r\n\r\nThe processes for confirming and documenting these irreplaceable places are an act of community revitalization and preservation. Mapping these once-rural communities\u2014many of which are in the path of exurban development and have been subjected to devastating environmental pollution\u2014improves their chance for survival. The Texas Freedom Colonies Atlas includes layers for the state\u2019s current transportation projects, 2010 Census data, and Hurricane Harvey disaster areas, making it a critical resource for addressing current planning problems as well. (Read more<\/a> about Roberts\u2019s work.)"},{"acf_fc_layout":"content","content":"

Transforming Our Profession<\/h2>\r\nRecently, as I have watched the news and lamented my own position as a Black woman, planner, and geographer, I\u2019ve been paralyzed by intellectual fatigue.\r\n\r\nWith the coronavirus disease 2019 (COVID-19) pandemic, we can no longer pretend that everything is business as usual. Our cities today are an amalgamation of not only redlining, historic zoning codes, and Federal Housing Administration (FHA) policies but also of color-blind data science that is used to justify the demolition of communities of color.\r\n\r\nAs I look at images of the BeltLine in Atlanta, I am reminded of the decisions made by faceless planners who mapped boundaries that excluded and displaced people\u2014people whose lives didn\u2019t matter to those planners. We must transform our profession\u2019s practices in ways that incorporate community-based participatory action, research, qualitative data, and socially conscious policies while bursting the pipelines that skew our field white and male.\r\n\r\nOur communities are more than dots and lines. They are people and places."}],"references":null},"yoast_head":"\nPeople and Places, Not Points and Lines | ArcNews | Fall 2020<\/title>\n<meta name=\"description\" content=\"Geospatial professionals need to more carefully consider the impacts of their work on the everyday spatialization of public space.\" \/>\n<meta name=\"robots\" content=\"index, follow, max-snippet:-1, max-image-preview:large, max-video-preview:-1\" \/>\n<link rel=\"canonical\" href=\"https:\/\/www.esri.com\/about\/newsroom\/arcnews\/people-and-places-not-points-and-lines\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:locale\" content=\"en_US\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:type\" content=\"article\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:title\" content=\"People and Places, Not Points and Lines | ArcNews | Fall 2020\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:description\" content=\"Geospatial professionals need to more carefully consider the impacts of their work on the everyday spatialization of public space.\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:url\" 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