The Racial Issues of Urban Planning

In a post in Newgeography, the racial aspect of urban planning was examined. The standard examples of urban areas that top the progressive lists of media, academia and planning circles are Portland, Seattle, Austin, Minneapolis, and Denver.

If you take away the dominant Tier One cities like New York, Chicago and Los Angeles you will find that the "progressive" cities aren't red or blue, but another color entirely: white.

In fact, not one of these "progressive" cities even reaches the national average for African American percentage population in its core county. Perhaps not progressiveness but whiteness is the defining characteristic of the group. - The White City | Newgeography.com

Portland, often held as the ultimate example of New Urbanism, has less than half the national average of African American citizens. It is really the ultimate White City.

We've already seen how planning and growth management contribute to high costs of housing and price volatility. Read this whole article and decide for yourself if local land use policies decrease diversity. Then, for kicks, look at the Manson Subarea Plan and see if you think it encourages, or discourages, population diversity.