Urban Planning, Community Development and the Systematic Abuse of African- American Communities:: Contextual Appraisal, Commentary and Critique

This book, like all of my texts, offers critique and commentary of those institutions and cornerstone organizations that play pivotal roles in impacting upon the black community. Most books about these institutions are descriptive and consist of fluff pieces outlining the well-meaning “programs,” and “projects” that are employed that are aimed at helping the disadvantaged but for some reason always fail. But of course, any failure is immediately attributed to the people and never to the institutions. In other words, those who are ghettoized are victimized twice: one for being victims and a second time for being stupid enough to believe that the system really gives a damn about them. This book, Urban Planning, Community Development and the Systematic Abuse of African-American Communities: Contextual Appraisal, Commentary and Critique, hopes to inspire and evoke change in the existing approaches, paradigms and praxis being created and promoted by urban planners, developers and contractors. It is because of these groups, following the decisions and “master plans” laid out by mayors and others, that have under-developed black communities all over America. The book consists of chapters made up of papers that I have written over the years. When combined I believe that this is about as comprehensive a work that has been written that addresses race, urban discrimination, code enforcement and related issues that deal with the on-going segregation and compartmentalization that continue to plague this society and as a result, continues to do harm to minority communities (ghetto, barrio, reservation) all over America. The first section, “The Social Aspects of Urban Renewal: From 1958 to 2012” is essentially a review of an article that provides the history of a program that did much harm to black areas in the name of “development.” It is a critical race theory approach and addresses the roles that planning and “white privilege” play in justifying the white flight to suburbia and the on-going “experiments” that were performed on the ghetto, with urban renewal being the blanket name applied to white incursions, impositions and re-configuration of the ghetto. The second section, “Legal Aspects of Urban Planning,” shows the role that laws have played in buttressing the segregation, redlining, steering, and other ploys used to create and maintain the ghetto. Also in this section is important information on the role of zoning and code enforcement, and various “housing programs” that made tens of millions of dollars for developers and planners and left black communities oftentimes too weak to do anything but wander. The third sections deals with so-called “minority participation” in these various programs and how planning departments pimp and placate the masses through various “master plans” on their way to maintaining racial segregation. The target city is Omaha, Nebraska, a hick town that has bilked its black community of 50,000 out of just over $250 million dollars since 1975. As long as the black community continues to be labeled a “pocket of poverty”, the city of Omaha can qualify for free grant money from the federal government, Section four is titled, “Keys to Empowerment,” and defines the term “empowerment” because it is a buzzword that is often used by those who are encroaching (invading) black communities in the name of “development.” and an examination of three approaches for neighborhood development: the neighborhood maintenance approach, the social work approach and the political activist approach. Various long-term urban planning models will also be explained. The fifth and final section addresses what I call “anticipatory repudiation.” In a nutshell, it is also known as an anticipatory breach, and is a term in the law of contracts that describes a declaration by the promising party to a contract that he or she does not intend to live up to his or her obligations under the contract.” (Wikipedia, 2017).

Matthew C. Stelly is a doctoral student at the University of Wisconsin-Milwaukee working on a degree in Urban Education and Community Policy. He holds three Master's degrees: Urban Studies (1982), Urban Education (1983) and Political Science (2000). He is the former editor of the Milwaukee Courier newspaper, former director of the Great Plains Black Museum and the Plano (TX) African American Museum, and lead archivist for The Black Academy of Arts and Letters (TBAAL) in Dallas, Texas. Stelly has more than 2,500 articles in print and has won two national essay competitions. He is the founding director of the largest African-American neighborhood group in Nebraska, the Triple One Neighborhood Association and Parents Union. He is the father of five children - Mandla, Malik, Clariece, Charisse and Shannon -- and remains actively involved in community organizing and neighborhood development in several cities, including Milwaukee and Omaha.