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I.

Reference: Seeking Spatial Justice, Edward W. Soja, 2010.

Thinking in Terms of Space and Justice

South Bend’s West Side is the location of numerous infrastructure sites, many of which are a source of air, water, soil, and noise pollution. In addition to a concern for environmental health and land use, the physical artifacts of the city’s infrastructure create large-scale boundaries between adjacent neighborhoods and the city at large. These urban artifacts and boundaries devalue the land thereby delimiting wealth creation across generations, and contribute to conditions of poverty and racial segregation.

 

Noise and air pollution caused by the South Bend International Airport (1) is most experienced by communities near runway take-off and landing sites, and via pollution associated with high volume shipping and distribution traffic. Highways, two-lane arterial roads, and industrial rail lines interrupt local neighborhood streets and sidewalks, and preference movement systems that bypass neighborhoods rather than encourage neighborhood destinations. Factories and raw material processing plants including steel, concrete, chemicals, and plastics industries (2-5) in close proximity to rail infrastructure sit on large parcels that further divide adjacent neighborhoods and interrupt the continuity and accessibility of neighborhood districts. Furthermore heavy industries create waste streams, some toxic and hazardous, that often contaminates the immediate and adjacent land in proximity. Two known superfund sites are adjacent to neighborhoods in South Bend’s West Side; with many additional industrial properties in close proximity (I-II).

 

The negative externalities and border conditions that result from the disproportionate location of infrastructure sites within and at the edges of minority and lower income neighborhoods is an injustice, and points to the uneven and unequal historical development of the city. However, diagnosis and understanding can lead to political advocacy and representation, and even physical improvement and repair.

 

For example, political advocacy and representation could ensure an equitable portion of tax revenues from large industrial corporations is invested in the neighborhood districts where these corporations most closely utilize the land. Not to mention, political advocacy could pressure corporations and companies to create programs to train and hire neighborhood residents.

Reflections on Border Conditions

II.

Furthermore, changes in manufacturing and new technologies has created an explosion of innovative small / light industries, known as “creative” and “clean” industrial sectors. Research and development, advanced manufacturing, prototyping, creative offices, and renewed craft and artisanal manufacturing raises many important questions about long-held zoning tendencies, and, in turn, the possibility of the collocation of housing, commerce, and manufacturing into working neighborhoods. Imagine creative incubators, co-working spaces, 3d printing, new technology prototyping and other innovation market and renewable energy jobs; alongside spaces of community engagement, education, and commerce; with residential and live / work spaces!

 

The St. Joseph River is a collective asset and should be restored as open space for wild life and recreation which includes adequate bridges joining both sides of the river. In addition, the river should be invested in to fully harness its economic potential, to increase land values, and generate wealth. There is an opportunity to provide affordable housing and space for small business along the riverfront to enhance wealth creation across generations, particularly for historically displaced and disenfranchised African American residents and other minority and low-income families.

 

South Bend should provide freedom of movement around the city and the region via numerous mixed mobility services: auto/ bus, bike, pedestrian, regional rail and BRT. Currently, these transit networks are mostly intended to by pass the West Side neighborhoods. Equitable and efficient transit opportunities need to connect West Side neighborhoods to all of the city’s employment and educational centers, commercial centers (namely food choices), and parks and recreation.

 

These are just a few examples that create understanding of unequal and uneven geographies, and point to opportunities for political organization and community development. Further geographic investigation is able to enrich our understanding of th systemic uneven and unequal urban development, particularly its spatial imprint.  Inquiry into the categories of economic/ social justice, environmental justice, and infrastructure justice could provide a spatial framework and practical knowledge that would initiate more effective political action and advocacy. Beyond initial documentation, design and community engagement is able to envision a number of spatial projects, aimed to repair uneven and unequal historical development.

The geography of the city, its form and urban artifacts, is not only the place where the human condition unfolds, but also a dynamic force that contributes to the quality of that condition. Spatial thinking can enrich our understanding of nearly any interest, and has the added potential to extend our practical knowledge into more effective actions aimed at changing the city for the better (2, Soja).

 

Justice, and injustice, has a spatial expression that is representative of and contributes to the social relations of a particular place. Inequity and injustice in our cities is hardly a revelation, however, understanding it’s spatial implication has the power to inform a path toward recovery and possibly repair historical  unjust and unequal acts. Thinking in terms of space and justice not only provides the power of understanding, but can also provide an imaginative capacity for forward looking aspirations. The interests that contribute to a more equitable and just city can be significantly advanced by adopting a critical and pragmatic spatial perspective.

 

For example, the intersection of race and class in the city of South Bend points to a geography of concentrated poverty for minority populations on the city’s West Side (see below). Segregation of the city based upon race and class has a historical basis in racially biased political, legal, and financial mechanisms, including: exclusionary zoning; land and property covenants;  and housing and insurance discrimination; amongst others.

 

In addition, racially and economically motivated choices of what and where to (and what not to) build has contributed to the physical segregation of race and class in the city. The environmental justice movement began as an attack on what was called environmental racism, the tendency for poor and minority populations, especially African Americans, to suffer disproportionately from air and water pollution and the siting of hazardous or toxic facilities (52, Soja).In addition, large scale infrastructure such as airports, highways, railroad yards, and industrial development is often disproportionately located in politically underrepresented neighborhoods.

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