Tactical Urbanism A Participatory Planning & Action Toolkit for Environmental Justice Communities

Environmental Justice

Vulnerability, as described by Mechanic and Tanner (2007), is susceptibility to harm and it results from a complex interaction between the an individual's, population's, or community's available resources and present challenges and may therefore require the application of different policies or interventions.

Vulnerable individuals: "...those who, because of their race, class, gender or sexual identity, religion, or other intersectional characteristics or circumstances, are more susceptible to... emotional, financial, or physical harm or neglect." (McDonald and Forte, 2022)

Vulnerable populations: "Vulnerable populations, based on their social and economic standing, have the fewest resources to prepare for a hazard, they tend to live in the highest risk locations, and they lack the social, political and economic capital necessary to take advantage of resources to adapt or recover from changes." (USACE 2016)

Vulnerable communities (climate change): "Vulnerable communities are those whose location puts them at special risk from the effects of climate change. These include settlements along coastlines and inland waterways that are at risk from flooding and sea-level rise, as well as communities at risk from increased drought, higher temperatures, and wildfires. Further, special attention needs to be paid to underserved and low-income communities that have fewer resources and face other barriers to accessing resilience and adaptation solutions. These communities typically lack the community and economic amenities that are promoted in smart growth strategies, and many already suffer adverse health impacts from proximity to industry and degraded environments." (American Society of Landscape Architects, 2022)

Impacted residents: those who have experienced a particular harm.

The White House Environmental Justice Advisory Council provided the following definitions as part of their Final Recommendations for Justice40 and Executive Order 12898 revisions:

• Community of color: "a geographically distinct area in which the population of any of the following categories of individuals, individually or in combination, is higher than the average population of that category for the State in which the community is located: (i) Black; (ii) African American; (iii) Asian; (iv) Pacific Islander; (v) Other Non-White race; (vi) Hispanic; (vii) Latino; (viii) Indigenous or members of a Tribe; and (ix) Linguistically isolated."
• Environmental justice: "the just treatment and meaningful involvement of all people regardless of race, color, national origin, or income, or ability, with respect to the development, implementation, enforcement, and evaluation of laws, regulations, programs, policies, practices, and activities, that affect human health and the environment."
• Environmental justice community: "a geographic location with significant representation of persons of color, low-income persons, indigenous persons, or members of Tribal nations, where such persons experience, or are at risk of experiencing, higher or more adverse human health or environmental outcomes."
• Low-income community: "any census block group in which 30 percent or more of the population are individuals with an annual household income equal to, or less than, the greater of: (i) an amount equal to 80 percent of the median income of the area in which the household is located, as reported by the Department of Housing and Urban Development; or (ii) 200 percent of the Federal poverty line."
• Meaningful participation: "potentially affected populations have an opportunity to participate in decisions that will affect their health or environment, that the population’s contributions can influence the agency’s decisions, that the viewpoints of all participants involved will be considered in the decision-making process, and that the agency will seek out and facilitate the involvement of the population potentially affected, including consultation with Tribal and indigenous communities and by providing culturally appropriate information, access for people with disabilities, and language access for persons with Limited English Proficiency (LEP), considering issue of access raised by location, transportation, and other factors affecting participation, and by making available technical assistance to build community-based capacity for participating."

Environmental Justice Principles

Robert Bullard, known as the "father of environmental justice," described the movement as "trying to address all of the inequities that result from human settlement, industrial facility siting and industrial development."

Delegates to the First National People of Color Environmental Leadership Summit held on October 24-27, 1991, in Washington DC, drafted and adopted 17 principles of Environmental Justice. The California Environmental Justice Alliance summarized the following environmental justice principles for policy implementation:

• Prioritize and value prevention, human health, and improving quality of life.
• Prioritize [vulnerable] communities
• Meaningful community engagement
• Responsiveness
• Transparency
• Accountability
• Proactive partnerships

In December 1996, the “Working Group Meeting on Globalization and Trade" was hosted by the Southwest Network for Environmental and Economic Justice in Jemez, New Mexico and adopted the following “Jemez Principles” for democratic organizing:

1. Be Inclusive
2. Emphasis on Bottom-Up Organizing
3. Let People Speak for Themselves
4. Work Together In Solidarity and Mutuality
5. Build Just Relationships Among Ourselves
6. Commitment to Self-Transformation

Community Engagement Strategies

Build Partnerships

According to Davies (2000), the three principles to building partnerships are:

1. Successful partnerships are based on reciprocity. All those involved in the partnership have overlapping responsibilities and each needs the help of the others.
2. Developing effective partnerships is a democratic process. Partnerships should recognize the different interests, races, religions, and educational status of its participants, and should be prepared to resolve conflicts through the democratic processes of mediation, negotiation, and compromise.
3. Effective partnerships provide a variety of opportunities to participate in decision making.

Build Trust

Accoring to Ricklefs (2022), the three ways to build trust in community engagement and tactical urbanism efforts are:

1. Communicate clearly and transparently. Make sure your project offers answers to the following questions:

• What is the goal of this project?
• Who is it aimed at?
• How will input be used?
• Which selection criteria will be used?
• How will the ideas be implemented?

2. Showcase the direct results of earlier community engagement and tactical urbanism projects.

3. Take privacy seriously and explain clearly why you’re asking for specific data from community members, and what you intend to do with that information.

Tools & Strategies

A number of tools and strategies can be used to support community engagement around tactical urbanism and environmental justice issues. Here are a few examples (click on the links for "how to" guides):

• Surveys: collect data on demographics, knowledge, attitudes, behaviors and open-ended feedback with written or online surveys.
• Vulnerability assessment: used to ascertain the susceptibility of a natural or human system to sustaining damage (or benefiting) from climate change.
• Interviews: collect in-depth information with key informant interviews.
• Public forum: a public forum or hearing may be a formal meeting for receiving testimony from the public at large on a local issue, or proposed government action.
• Panel discussions: a live or virtual discussion about a specific topic amongst a selected group of panelists who share differing perspectives in front of a larger audience.
• Roundtable discussions: A roundtable discussion is a conversation on a single topic held between a relatively small group of perhaps 8 to 10 people.
• PhotoVoice: Photovoice is a process in which people – usually those with limited power due to poverty, language barriers, race, class, ethnicity, gender, culture, or other circumstances – use video and/or photo images to capture aspects of their environment and experiences and share them with others.
• Community taskforces: once a need or problem is identified, a community taskforce or action committee can be formed comprised of community members and agencies that work toward resolving the problem.
• Good neighbor agreement: a non-binding agreement between a community and an industry that works to address specific issues of concern in a collaborative way.
• Digital engagement tools: digital and online engagement tools can include interactive maps, project landing pages, idea walls, surveys, forums & more.
• Plan Integration for Resilience Scorecard: provides a mechanism to discuss prioritization of community investment with leadership, stakeholders, and the ‘whole community’.

Citizen Science Strategies:

Citizen science can inform the identification, justification, design, and evaluation of tactical urbanism interventions. The following are steps for conducing a successful citizen science campaign (click the links for additional details):

1. Scope Your Problem: know your tools, engage your stakeholders and participants, know where your project fits, and get approval.
2. Design a Project: know your objectives, determine your resources, plan project management, and finalize logistics.
3. Build a Community: know your community partners, engage your community, acknowledge achievements, and consider socio-cultural issues.
4. Manage Your Data: acquire, process, analyze, share, and preserve data.
5. Sustain and Improve: communicate effectively and evaluate the process and outcomes.

Tactical Urbanism Processes and Considerations

A framework of design thinking can be used to approach tactical urbanism interventions.

In Diffusion of Innovations (Rogers, 1962), five factors are identified that influence whether humans adopt or reject innovation.

1. Relative advantage: Will the project actually provide an advantage over the status quo for an identified group of people?
2. Compatibility: Is the project compatible with its social and physical context, in both scale and scope?
3. Simplicity: Can the project be easily understood by a wide segment of the population?
4. Trailabilty: Can the project be tested easily? Can it be easily replicated elsewhere? Is the path to adoption clear and relatively hurdle free?
5. Observability: Is the project going to be visible to many others? Will it attract use and attention?

In The Lean Startup (Reis, 2011), the process used to test a project is "build-measure-learn": build the project prototype, measure its impact, and learn from the results.

Environmental Justice and Equity through Tactical Urbanism

A combination of shifting demographics, public frustration, economic uncertainties, and radical new forms of communication and connectivity have increased the use of tactical urbanism interventions to achieve justice and equity.

Where official planning processes elude social and environmental justice, tactical urbanism has the opportunity to empower and activate traditionally excluded social groups, including communities of color. According to Dean (2018), in order to promote environmental justice and equity through tactical urbanism, practitioners should be equipped with:

1. a set of approaches that recognize the social [and environmental justice] aims of tactical urbanism and understand them as an informative response to the techno-centrism of policy;
2. tools that allow practitioners to build upon the cultural and political values of urban communities in their projects; and
3. practices that embed collaboration in the very design of urban projects or re-development decision-making.

Monitoring, Evaluation, Maintenance, and Stewardship

In Tactical Urbanism Toolkit: A guide to demonstration and interim projects focused on active transportation and placemaking, (Urban Systems, 2020), the authors recommend a variety of strategies for ongoing monitoring of a tactical urbanism project.

Monitor

Monitoring through data collection and observation illuminates the impacts of the project while assessing its suitability for long-term implementation and scaling. Both quantitative and qualitative data can be collected to monitor how the space is being used, or how (and by whom) it's not being used. Data collection methods include the following:

• User counts: can be conducted manually using trained staff or volunteers, or automatic count technology can be utilized. Automatic data collection technology includes infrared devices, video, piezoelectric strips, or pneumatic tubes. App-based GPS data may also be acquired, either from publicly available sources such as Strava or by purchasing anonymized cell phone data from Big Data providers.
• User feedback: collected by user surveys, either in person or online. Intercept surveys can be conducted, or a designated booth can be set up on site to provide information about the project and elicit feedback. In addition to surveys, testimonials can be gathered to gain more personal and detailed user feedback related to the project. The type of input collected will vary depending on the type and purpose of the project. When collecting feedback, apply an equity lens and strive to accommodate those who may not have access to a mobile device or the internet, people who speak another language, and other people with a disability or other impediment impacting their ability to provide feedback.
• Observations: One or more members of the project team should gather observations, including notes, photos, and videos of the project and users. For longer projects, observation and photos should be taken at different times, days, and in different conditions to gain a full appreciation for how the new space functions.

Evaluate

Analyze the collected data and watch for overall functionality, including traffic flow, multi-modal access, and maintenance concerns. Identify who is using the space and assess whether or not they are representative of the community. Are there any groups being left out? Is the space functioning how it was intended to function? Compare these observations to your baseline results to evaluate the effectiveness of the project in achieving the stated purpose and goals.

Adjust

Based on the quantitative and qualitative data and observations, make adjustments to the project as needed. Making adjustments shows responsiveness and flexibility, and it can help to quickly alleviate concerns that pop up during the project. This is iterative process – continually evaluate the adjustments and make further changes as needed. All adjustments should be made with the original permit and safety considerations in mind – major alterations would require additional discussion with municipal staff.

Maintenance and Stewardship

Ensure that the project site remains well maintained throughout the project lifespan. This includes regular maintenance such as street sweeping, snow removal, and waste collection, in addition to projectspecific maintenance, such as moved traffic cones, replacing damaged materials, etc. Project stewardship can involve the municipality as well as community groups or other organizations, as outlined in Phase 1. Coordinate with municipal public works departments for any custom maintenance requirements, such as temporarily moving materials out of the way to enable street sweeping or snow removal.

Videos

The following videos provide additional rationale for tactical urbanism and real-world case studies of tactical urbanism and placemaking projects around the world.

Tactical Urbanism: An introduction

How can tactical urbanism help create healthier streets?

Tactical Urbanists transform streets overnight

How to build a better block

Transform Your City With Tactical Urbanism

Tactical Urbanism: Project Delivery for a Post Pandemic World

User-Friendly Tools

The following user-friendly tools can be used to prioritize, map, plan, and evaluate tactical urbanism interventions.

• Better Block Recipe Library: popular design elements that anyone can gather the supplies for and implement in their own neighborhood.
• ArcGIS Online: Quickly create maps by dropping in your spreadsheet and mashing it up with other location data.
• ArcGIS StoryMaps: everything you need to create remarkable stories that give your maps meaning.
• EJScreen (EPA): Environmental Justice Screening and Mapping Tool.
• Climate and Economic Justice Screening Tool (CEQ): provides socioeconomic, environmental, health and climate information to identify disadvantaged communities that are marginalized, underserved, and overburdened by pollution and to inform decisions that may affect these communities.

Community-Based Tactical Urbanism Organizations

The following community-based and community-oriented organizations provide resources and support for carrying out tactical urbanism projects.

• Better Block (Dallas): a 501(c)3 nonprofit that educates, equips, and empowers communities and their leaders to reshape and reactivate built environments to promote the growth of healthy and vibrant neighborhoods.
• Museum of Reclaimed Urban Space (NYC): preserves the history of the Lower East Side’s grassroots activism and promotes environmentally-sound, community-based urban ecologies.
• The Street Plans Collaborative (Brooklyn): an urban planning, design, and advocacy firm.
• NEO Project (Houston): NEO is dedicated to helping people of all ages and backgrounds lead more active outdoor-oriented lives for better health, happiness, and wellbeing. Convenes Healthy Outdor Communities, a groundbreaking outdoor initiative to promote health, wellbeing, and resilience in urban communities.