Quote:
Originally Posted by Nouvellecosse
I don't actually think it's within the scope of urban planning to solve some of the societal-level social ills such as inequality and drug abuse.
|
Actually, that's exactly
not what I would expect urban planners to deal with, and not the focus of my post. What
can planners do that might have a positive outcome and help minimize homelessness for reasons that
don't involve drug abuse and mental illness?
Many years ago there were people who were homeless for many reasons, be it alcoholism or drug abuse, mental illness or trauma, etc., but it wasn't at the epidemic level of today. You can't blame it all on planning, obviously, but it would be a falsehood to say that planning has no part in it whatsoever. Even in the much maligned 'slums' of the mid 20th century, people still had places to live, even if they were run down and below standard. Planning of the era changed that forever with a utopian idea that tearing down the slums and compartmentalizing 'poor people' would make things better for everybody, but we now know that they were wrong.
What I am reading here are lots of reasons why we can't do anything, which in my mind exemplifies a lack of creativity in the established fields.
This isn't all aimed at you, I'm just surprised over the lack of imagination being displayed by some (not all) members in this thread. We're not here to solve the world's problems, but we are here to have interesting conversation about them...
