Talking Back to Market Urbanism: What does Equity-Driven Zoning and Planning Look Like?

Panel organizers

Dick Platkin

Dick Platkin is a retired city planner with 30 plus years of experience working in the public sector (Seattle and Los Angeles), as well as the private and nonprofit sectors in Los Angeles. Since retiring from the LA City Planning Department ten years ago, he has taught planning classes at the University of Southern California and California State University-Northridge, consulted to many community groups in Los Angeles, and joined the boards of United Neighborhoods for Los Angeles (UN4LA) and the Planners Network.  He also writes a weekly column on planning issues in Los Angeles for City Watch LA and has edited two special issues of Progressive Planning, the journal of the Planners Network, precursor of Progressive City, the on-line magazine of Planners Network.

Moses Gates

Moses Gates is RPA’s Vice President for Housing and Neighborhood Planning leading the organization’s planning, research and advocacy efforts in affordable housing, economic development, and urban design. Prior to joining RPA, Moses was director of planning and community development for the Association for Neighborhood Housing Development, where he initiated New York City’s first Community Development Fellowship program. Moses also has worked for New York City’s Department of Housing Preservation and Development, as a nonprofit affordable housing developer, and as a licensed New York City tour guide. He is currently a visiting assistant professor at the Pratt Institute and is the author of the Memoir Hidden Cities (Tarcher/Perigee 2013).

Alexandra Fennell

Alex joined the Churches United For Fair housing team in 2016 as the Network Director, after 10 years as a hospitality professional, and is now building power in churches throughout Brooklyn through community organizing, advocacy and litigation. At CUFFH, Alex supports CUFFH's organizing team as they work to enable and empower community members to push back against the developers, government officials and inequitable land use policies that seek to remove them from the discussion. She spearheads CUFFH’s work on advancing fair housing policy to ensure a thriving truly integrated city for all the New Yorkers, and is currently working with Public Advocate Jumaane Williams and NYC Councilmember Rafael Salamanca Jr on recently introduced legislation to require the City of New York to analyze Racial impacts in all future land use decisions to fulfill their obligations under the Fair Housing Act.

Churches United for Fair Housing (CUFFH) is a grassroots organization working to achieve community empowerment through organizing, youth engagement, and by providing sophisticated social services. CUFFH organizes towards preserving and creating vibrant communities that are not exclusive and that are truly affordable to working families in NYC. CUFFH believes that housing is a human right and that all New Yorkers regardless of their income level or immigration status deserve to live in a home that is safe, affordable and permanent. Each year our services - including housing assistance and workshops - provide support and resources to more than 3,500 at-risk families, giving them the tools to seek affordable housing, fight back against displacement and ultimately, find and/or stay in their home. CUFFH services and workshops are a community-wide education and advocacy effort and also serve as an entry point to CUFFH’s community organizing efforts, which empower residents and youth by engaging them in CUFFH community meetings and in the larger public debate to preserve, protect and create affordable housing in our communities. We mobilize our network around neighborhood specific land use and development projects and city-wide housing initiatives to advocate for equitable rezoning, the creation of affordable housing at target incomes, preservation of existing affordable housing and strong tenant protections for our communities. 

Eve Baron, Moderator

Eve Baron is the Chairperson of Pratt Institute’s Graduate Center for Planning and the Environment—an alliance of four graduate programs in City and Regional Planning; Historic Preservation, Sustainable Environmental Systems, and Urban Placemaking and Management. She is also an Associate Professor of City and Regional Planning, and a founding member of the Collective for Community, Culture and the Environment. She served as Director of the Municipal Art Society Planning Center from 2007-2010, where she coordinated the Campaign for Community-Based Planning, and was Senior Fellow for Planning and Policy at the Pratt Center for Community Development. She received a PhD in Urban Planning and Public Policy from the Bloustein School of Planning and Policy Development at Rutgers University. Her professional experience spans government, advocacy, technical assistance, and academia. Her career and teaching interests are in participatory planning; planning process; community-based planning; community development; civic infrastructure; participatory budgeting; equity-based planning; land use; low- cost housing; gentrification and displacement; experiential and service learning; and participatory action research. Much of her practice has focused on working with communities to create plans that respond to local needs, on getting people involved in decisions that impact their neighborhoods, and on advocating for a meaningful role for the public in planning decisions. She has been a member of Planners Network since 1999, and is currently co-chair of the PN National Steering Committee.