Photo from www.plannersnetwork.org
Photo from www.plannersnetwork.org
Eco-Journal, v.17.1, January/February 2007
By Richard Milgrom
Planners Network Manitoba (PNmb) was established in January 2006. Its primary goal is to draw attention to the importance of planning in addressing issues of social inequity and environmental degradation. The intention of the founding members is to make the links between the concerns of many locally-based interest groups and broader planning and decision making processes at the municipal and provincial levels. This will involve activist roles in public education, promoting the development of alternative plans, and joining with other groups in coalitions to sponsor events designed to raise public awareness about social and environmental issues.
PNmb is a local chapter of the continent-wide Planners Network (PN), and joins Montreal and Toronto as active Canadian chapters. PN was founded in the mid-seventies, building on concerns raised by the US civil rights movement. For many years, it functioned just as a network, providing planners, community organizers, activists and academics access to others who shared their concerns regarding social and environmental justice, occasionally meeting for conferences, and distributing a newsletter. PN has grown though, and since the mid-1990s the conferences have become annual events, and the newsletter has blossomed into a quarterly magazine, Progressive Planning.
To date PNmb has approximately one hundred individuals on its local email list. These people include professionals, students, academics, and activists, and the numbers represent connections with more than thirty other activist groups in Winnipeg and Manitoba (including the Manitoba Eco-Network).
Early discussions in the group have identified a range of issues that need attention. These include: urban sprawl and its broad range of social, fiscal and environmental impacts; urban aboriginal issues, particularly those related to social inequity; alternative transportation strategies, including those that would support public transit and active transportation; affordable housing and homelessness; and the regeneration of downtown.
Group discussions were formalized in a strategy session held in late November with approximately 30 participants. The results of this work are currently being reviewed by the PNmb Steering Committee to help determine more concrete actions for the coming year. PNmb has been active over the last year however, sponsoring, or co-sponsoring a number of events.
In April 2006, PNmb worked with the Faculty of Architecture at the University of Manitoba to present the local premier of Dr. Sheri Blake´s film The Detroit Collaborative Design Center: Amplifying the Diminished Voice. The film documented the participatory design processes of the Design Center, and a panel of invited guests discussed this approach to design after the screening. Proceeds from the event were used to help send four University of Manitoba city planning students to the annual PN conference held in Chicago that year.
Helped organize Winnipeg Community Roundtable
In the fall, PNmb became more involved with other local groups. In September, it joined with seven others to organize the Winnipeg Community Roundtable, a response to Mayor Sam Katz´s City Summit that was only open to invited guests. This was followed in early October by a mayoral candidates´ debate, just before the municipal election. Working with nine other community-based organizations and advocacy groups, the debate focused on building a livable city.
Most recently, PNmb worked with the University of Manitoba´s Faculties of Nursing and City Planning to present three public talks by Cathy Crowe, the Toronto-based homelessness activist. PNmb members also organized tours for Cathy of the city´s shelters and other support agencies that work with homeless individuals.
PNmb will launch a local website in the near future. The main Planners Network website can be found at www.plannersnetwork.org, and includes more information about the organization as well as links to resources. Many articles from Progressive Planning magazine are also available in the “publications’ section of the site.
For more about PNmb or to join the email list, please contact Richard Milgrom at richardmilgrom@gmail.com.