Written by Jesús Torres
When we think about planning communities, our most common thought tends to be urban planning. And it's normal. The communication related to planning is almost non-existent in the mainstream, and when it gets to be taken into consideration, it focuses on urban planning. A great number of lands on earth are rural, and even if administrations don't acknowledge them, there are inhabitants experiencing life in those places.
The living life experience of a human being cannot be worth more than another, not even if one is being experienced in Los Angeles and the other in the Argentinian Patagonia.
Communities all over the world are as important and valuable as any other. That's why we invited our new friend, professor Melissa Schumacher. She got a master's degree in Urbanism from Universitat Politècnica de Catalunya and a Ph.D. degree in Land Management from Technische Universität München. Nowadays she's a professor at Universidad de Las Americas de Puebla, in Mexico, and is also the founder of the Tlalli Amealco workshop, a place created to design rural and social projects.
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Jesús Enrique Torres López: Melissa, what is urbanism?
Melissa Schumacher: Urbanism or urban planning, and I quote the architect Enrique Ortiz, is how you get along with your neighbor. Here is where Urban Planning begins. It’s how you take care of the things that happen outside the façade of your house, and that means: cleaning the sidewalk in front of your house, taking care of the trees in your neighborhood, and knowing and getting along with your neighbors. Urbanism, besides the technical concept, which is the study of the city, I find it appropriate to state that Urbanism is the relationship between one subject with their neighbors and surroundings.
JT: There’s a quote that I like a lot from Teodoro González de León: cities are shaped by time, memory, design, and non-controlled or random factors. What do you think about this quote?
MS: I agree. I’d like to add that cities are also shaped by real state developers. Housing, most of the time, are built within informality, but also by real state developers. Real state agencies decide where and how the city will grow, especially in the global south countries. The city hall no longer plans how the city would grow horizontally, nowadays the urban planning offices are pleasing the real state agencies.
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JT: Related to that, what do you think the citizenry could be able to act against these kinds of actions, within this economical-political frame?
MS: That’s a great question. I have a great example that happened here in Cholula, Puebla (México). This situation (neoliberal urban developments), it’s what could describe what’s happening outside our cities. In San Andres Cholula, during the past 10 years, we’ve seen these real state dragons developing rural land. Investing in urban development, not only in housing, but in huge roads, that’s destroying and changing the landscape of the rural territory of the municipality. Now: what happens with the inhabitants of that rural land?
We started to observe the rise of consciousness by the locals, questioning: why do these land-use change is necessary? Does it benefit the rural community? Why do you, the municipality, change the land taxes? Why is it more expensive for me to own lands instead of real state developers if I’m not urban-developing these lands?
A group of urbanists developed a program named Urban Literacy. A group of professionals arrived to the community to talk to the inhabitants, explaining concepts such as: land use, urban planning, and so. Thanks to this movement and the genuine arise of consciousness from the community, groups of locals won a legal protection against the municipality.
The urban plan proposed by the incoming municipal administration in 2018 got abolished due to the legal protection locals submitted. That was an enormous step forward, mainly because this new urban plan was financed by a real state developer. They did not consider the group of inhabitants living in the rural area, and by law, if there’s going to be a massive change such as the one that was going to happen, they need to ask first to the inhabitants if they agree with this change.
Inhabitants stated that they were not against urban development, but asked for respect for the people, their lands, and their traditions.
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JT: I get to see, at least here in Mexico, that professionals working within these areas, tend to push their practices within the city, and have a urban-centric vision. Is that okay?
MS: Some professionals working within the sector have a narrow vision of what territory is and what urban development means. We need to integrate different sectors of the community.
Urban planning is not only city-gated communities, and social housing in the city's periphery. We don’t have proper urban management. Most of our professionals don’t have a wide knowledge of the sectors that integrate the city.
Thankfully, we do have good examples, like the one developed in Colombia named social urbanism: how can we manage to integrate different realities within a whole view of a city?
Politicians don’t have an integral long-term planning view. They only see a two, three, five, or ten years view, and what happens after that is not an issue for them.
Also these decisions, many times, are guided not by politicians, but by the directors of these real state developers who most of the time are not professionals with knowledge on how they could solve the issues inherent to the city. They get to be lawyers, accountants, or just people with money with no interest in the city and the community.
JT: Why do we think we’re not allowed to make changes as civilians?
MS: There’s a huge gap in knowledge, not only by civilians but also by the government. We don’t know how to promote governance at a local scale. We don’t know how to put into practice good governance, and how to use it positively. We don’t integrate the citizenry into the decision-making processes that urban planning needs.
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JT: I want to make a pause now. Who are you?
MS: I consider myself, first of all, a mom now (laughs). I am an architect, urban planner, eco-feminist, ruralist, and a plants-lover.
JT: What made you get involved in urban studies?
MS: That’s also part of my history. A professor, back in my undergraduate years, an urban planner, told me that I’m very good at talking to people. I love the social area of Architecture. Part of my childhood I used to live in the countryside, and this social awareness and disparity, being in touch with it since I was a kid, I took it into my bachelor studies. This background was so profound within my psyche that I put onto practice my knowledge of this in my thesis.
I fell in love with Urban Planning back when I studied abroad in Spain. I discovered what Urban Planning really was, and I fell in love with the opportunities of the area. I decided to take my master’s degree in Barcelona because of it.
My doctoral degree, which took place in Germany was also a funny stage in my life, because we, as architects, tend to be chameleonic, as in our way to not only have knowledge of Architecture but also about furniture, urban planning, communities, territorial planning, among others.
I returned to my agrarian roots because I saw the possibilities in Germany to integrate rural and urban studies, because sadly, in México we separate things a lot. We have this American influence of zoning: housing areas, commercial areas, industrial areas; in Mexico, we don’t work like that. Historically we’ve been living with mixed land usage. Now in the US, they’re changing that way to plan their cities.
Back to Mexico, we’re forgetting what’s happening to the countryside. Cities are becoming parasites: we consume and dispose. Rural areas are becoming the toilets of the cities. Everything we do as constructors, have an effect on what’s happening outside the city, you know?
JT: What you just said actually moved me a bit, because I’ve been analyzing my relationship with the city I’m living in at the moment, and I realized that I am the city and the city is also a reflection of me, as an individual, and as a part of a more complex entity. It made a click because I think you’re right, but what I’ve been thinking also makes sense, which means, and is not by any means far from the truth, that we’re deeply classist against people who live in the countryside. It’s metaphorically and physically accurate that rural areas are for the disposal of the cities.
Now, shifting to another question, what could you tell me about the permanent time change made here in Mexico?
MS: It’s horrible. When I used to be a student I used to have many mobility options, but I used to love it when I got to walk in sunlight. Sunlight for me was a safe pass. I used to walk home, or even if I wanted to visit a friend or go to a bar. We all know that when Sun is gone, lots of areas are unwalkable because of the insecurity of our cities. I understand completely that many people feel insecure without sunlight, now that sun is gone at 6:30 pm. All of this was pushed by politicians that will never be affected because of this time change. They’re assuming and making changes from their male perspective, a privileged perspective. They have no idea! They’re not aware that half of the population is women! Decisions like this cannot be this narrow. It was great to be outside so late, when I was in Spain, enjoying public spaces with friends, and having the chance to see kids enjoying these public spaces as well. And we used to have that as well. Sadly, unless they change this, these interactions won’t be able to be seen anymore.
JT: Thank you very much, Melissa. Sadly the interview is over, but I’d be greatly thankful if you could share some last words with the audience.
MS: You have to get to know your neighbors. Are you a resident or a neighbor of your community? Are you just sleeping there, or you’re part of your community? See if your streets are safe for your family and co-habitants.
Be open and be kind. Feminist urban planners not only think about cities for women, we get to think and elaborate cities for all the spectrum of society. Secure places for women, the youth and the elder. Look around the street and look around your community, because it’s where Urban Planning begins.
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