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Planning Theory & Practice

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The Multicultural City as Planners Enigma


MICHAEL A. BURAYIDI
To cite this article: MICHAEL A. BURAYIDI (2003) The Multicultural City as Planners Enigma,
Planning Theory & Practice, 4:3, 259-273, DOI: 10.1080/1464935032000118634
To link to this article: http://dx.doi.org/10.1080/1464935032000118634

Published online: 01 Dec 2010.

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Planning Theory & Practice, Vol. 4, No. 3, 259273, September 2003

The Multicultural City as Planners


Enigma

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MICHAEL A. BURAYIDI

ABSTRACT Planners in the USA and other Western European countries are faced with the
dilemma of how to deal with the demands of an increasingly multicultural population. This
problem has become more acute as the number of immigrants from non-European countries has
grown in the last several decades. This paper examines how this demographic shift impacts on
planning practice. Two planning practice issues are examined; historic preservation and housing
for ethno-cultural groups. The paper discusses why these two issues and other emerging demands
of ethno-cultural groups matter to planners. A suggestion is made for changing the culture of
planning and planning processes to recognize plurality as points of departure in planning
practice.
Introduction
Urban America has always been diverse both in culture and ethnic composition. The
influx of immigrants from European countries to the USA in the colonial era produced
a mix of different ethno-cultural groups. In time, however, many of these groups became
Americanized through a national policy of assimilation. In the last half century, the
American urban landscape has changed drastically. This change has been influenced by
the dramatic increase in the number of immigrants from non-European countries to
prosperous North American and European countries. The U.S. Census Bureau expects
these migration flows to continue, affecting both the politics and spatial structure of the
countries of destination. This shift in immigration has also brought remote ethnic needs
and claims into urban neighborhoods that pose a new challenge for planners. The needs
and demands of these ethnic groups raise moral and practical questions about the
legitimacy of such customs and how to cope with the consequences that these diverse
customs and demands create in the use of urban space and facilities.
At the same time, the spread of capitalism and a worldwide communication infrastructure has fostered a veneer of civic tolerance by enabling diverse ethnic groups to
trumpet their identity claims before a worldwide audience. The world community now
debates the fate of groups previously known only to their neighbors. For urban America,
this means that the needs of ethno-cultural groups can no longer be ignored in the
framing of urban policy and planning.
The point of this paper then is that the increase in the multicultural population and
the recognition and legitimation of the culture of these ethno-cultural groups will
affect planning practice. The paper provides a rationale for action and suggests ways
for coping with this challenge. It begins with a discussion of culture and why it
Michael A. Burayidi, Department of Geography and Urban Planning, Halsey 311, University of Wisconsin Oshkosh,
800 Algoma Blvd. Oshkosh, WI 54901-8642, USA. Email: burayidi@uwosh.edu
1464-9357 Print/1470-000X On-line/03/030259-15 2003 Taylor & Francis Ltd
DOI: 10.1080/1464935032000118634

260

M. Burayidi

matters in planning. It then proceeds with examples of how current planning practice
may not appropriately address the unique needs of ethno-cultural groups, and discusses
why the unique needs of these groups matter in planning. It concludes with suggestions
for changing the culture of planning to meet the changing demographic and multicultural needs of the population.

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The Culture of Planning


Planners have a culture. This culture influences the way they see the world, how they
interpret their environment, and how they go about reshaping this environment through
their practices.
The culture of planning is one that is rooted in the enlightenment values of rationality,
scientism, and universalism. Sandercock (1998, p. 62) summarized these influences in the
form of five pillars; rationality, comprehensiveness, scientific method, faith in state
directed futures, and faith in planners ability to know what is good for people.
Grounded in this epistemology, planners are accustomed to viewing people as public
citizens with equal rights, making rational decisions, and subordinating their parochial
interests for the welfare of society as a whole. According to such a liberal democratic
view, people participate in public discourse not as members of a group holding
privileged rights but as citizens, equal and autonomous of group interests. The point of
departure in planning practice is an assumption of sameness and therefore planners
pay attention to differences among those for whom plans are made only in terms of
their deviation from the norm (Fenster, 1998, p. 178). Bollens (2002) found that even
in ethnically polarized societies such as in Northern Ireland, Israel and South Africa
where planners are faced with glaring inequities in resource allocation and power
imbalance among ethno-cultural groups, they prefer to retreat to the comfort of professional technicality and regulatory control rather than assisting to find solutions to
pressing issues raised by these groups.
The reliance on technical rationality and regulation to the solution of urban problems
was and is still reflected in Euclidean zoning ordinances and was at the core of the urban
renewal program in the USA. For example, pre-war zoning laws separated the suburban
home from other land uses and make it difficult to juggle the duties of child care, work
and play for households. Euclidean zoning laws also failed to respond to changing
socio-cultural conditions and reality as women began entering the formal labor sector
and as the composition of the traditional American family shifted. As more women
have become wage earners the physical constraints of this type of city have become
apparent. Child care is rarely close to employment centers mass transit is scheduled
for rational commutes to work rather than the erratic movements of women responsible
for both domestic duties and paid work (Sandercock & Forsyth, 1992, p. 50). Hence, the
suggestion by new urbanists for the development of mixed-use neighborhoods that
contain not only housing, but also shops, schools, places of worship and recreation. This
is in contrast to suburbia, which is the result of zoning laws that separate uses, [and]
is composed of pods1 highways and interstitial spaces (Duany & Plater-Zyberk, 1994,
p. xvii).
Adherence to the enlightenment values also influenced the selection of neighborhoods
for urban renewal. Ethnic neighborhoods were regarded as dysfunctional and blighted
and therefore earmarked for revitalization although to these groups, they were vibrant
places. An argument can be made that these decisions did not reflect the cultural naivety
of planners but show a difference in interests between these communities on the one

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The Multicultural City 261


hand and developers and politicians on the other. Developers wanted to make money
building profitable facilities and politicians wanted to increase the tax base of their
communities. Even so, the use of only monetarizable measures in assessing the worth of
the neighborhoods indicates that a distinct value system prevailed in the decision criteria
used, one that has cultural origins.
Enlightenment values that privilege objective knowledge and facts over passion and
feelings, elevate scientific rationality above other forms of discourse, and that underscore
the importance of the physical rather than the symbolic meaning of space, still prevail
and dominate planning practice. In a recent analysis of the redevelopment of South
Floridas Eastward Ho! Turner & Murray (2001, p. 318) found that There is a nearly
complete focus on how to transform the physical plane as a means to preserve the
ecological region with little attention to the social aspects of such a transformation. And
that the focus of the redevelopment plan was the economic and physical revitalization
of space, not necessarily people.
Despite this general bias of planners, there is a growing body of literature and field
practices that point to other directions. Under the umbrella of postmodernism, this
literature is rooted in a pluralist understanding of society. The multicultural conception
of citizenship recognizes ethnic diversity and allows participants to embody their
ethno-cultural traditions and values even as they participate in the public sphere as
equal democratic citizens. This, it is argued, strips the universalizing tendencies of
modernistic planning and advances the public sphere by giving these groups a voice in
the decision-making process.
Such effort is aimed at sensitizing planners to the diversity of the urban public realm
and the need for planners to embrace planning processes that are inclusive of all groups
and address the concerns of a multicultural constituency. To this end, Baum (2000)
suggests that planners encourage community members to discuss their culture and how
it affects their vision for improving their welfare. In my own book, (Burayidi, 2000a,
p. 3), I called on planners to broaden their understanding of the knowledge construction process and to embrace other ways of knowing that had been marginalized in the
process of modernity. Qadeer (1997, p. 482) admonishes planners to work for the
elimination of discrimination on the one hand, and cultural biases in the use of land,
the housing market, and the provision of urban services on the other hand. Wallace &
Milroy (1999) suggest that planners should consider difference as the point of departure
rather than assuming a unitary public interest. Forester (2000, p. 1) implores planners to
learn not only about the facts at hand but inquire about value too, asking what ought
to be honored, protected, sustained, or developed.
The Complex Web of Planning, Culture, Interests and Values
Planning is concerned with helping people identify and meet their needs, and by so
doing improve the general welfare. In their professional practice, planners come into
contact with groups that have values and interests that are different from those of
planners. These value differences are stark when planners encounter ethno-cultural
groups and conflate the public debate on planning matters. For example, planners and
the community groups with whom they work may attach different meanings to words
and phrases, and they may have different ways of interpreting and evaluating data (for
more on this see Burayidi, 2000b). Take the decision by GenPower LLC to build a $350
million power plant near Toltec Mounds in Arkansas and string power lines to the
nearby communities (Parker, 2001). The project pitted the interests of community

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boosters (including planners), who want to improve the general welfare of residents,
against the values of the Quapaw Native Americans. For GenPower and the community
leaders, it all boils down to economics. Lonoke County, in Arkansas, is one of the
poorest in the country. By developing the site, GenPower would pay a predetermined
amount of money to the local school district, thereby reducing the burden of property
taxes and generate employment for area residents. The Quapaw Native Americans see
it differently. For them, it is not about economics but religion and spirituality. The
Quapaw believe that if the site is disturbed, then the spirit of those who are buried there
will forever be in unrest. The site must therefore be protected from any encroachment.
Environmentalists also enter the foray. They challenged the building of the power plant
near the site because it would obstruct visitors view of the sunrise and disrupt its
cultural integrity. There is hardly a region in the country that has not dealt with these
kinds of value conflicts between Native Americans and developers. Plans for a luxury
townhouse development in White Bear Lake, Minnesota were challenged by Native
Americans because it would disturb a burial ground. Wal-Mart had to abandon plans for
the construction of a superstore in the town of Catskill on New Yorks Hudson River
after an archeological review turned up human bones and artifacts believed to belong to
the Mohican Native Americans. As urban areas in the USA continue to sprawl outwards,
such value conflicts in land use between developers and Native Americans are likely to
grow. The culture that most planners are familiar with may pose a limit to how we see
and manage these kinds of land use concerns.
These new complexities require a change in the culture of planning so that planners
are able to not only recognize differences between interests and values in their practice
but also how to resolve conflicts emanating from such cultural differences. To have an
interest in something is to evaluate it in terms of the benefits one can derive from it.
Interest is associated with welfare, gain or advantage (Campbell & Marshall, 2002,
p. 165). If the Quapaw were merely interested in their welfare as defined by the
community leaders, a compensation for the building of the power plant would have
sufficed. However, the Native Americans had a culture that valued the preservation of
the mound over and above the improvement in their, and the communitys, economic
welfare. As Bollens (2002, p. 37) rightly observed: For members of an urban ethnic
group, psychological needs pertaining to viability, group identity, and cultural symbolism can be as important as objective needs pertaining to land, housing, and economic
opportunities. While interests are negotiable, values usually are non-negotiable.
The Native American position reflects value differences between them and planners,
an outcome of the cultural differences within which they operate. Culture is the beliefs,
norms, values, customs as well as the material artifacts such as clothing, food and art
that set one group apart from others. Culture is acquired through upbringing, affiliation
or ethnicity. Cultural conflicts are made evident when a minority ethnic group enters a
dominant culture. Fenster (1998) for example narrates the cultural conflict that came to
light in the resettlement of Ethiopian Jews in Israel. Although the Ethiopians and
Israelites professed the same religion, they still exhibited different cultures. The
Ethiopian Jews grew up in a rural and extended family environment but the Israeli
planners failed to recognize these differences in their resettlement plans, assuming equal
treatment in the order of liberal democratic citizenship. Thus, the housing that was
designed for the Ethiopian Jews did not take into consideration their unique needs in the
construction of residential space where for example, menstruating and post-partum
women are separated from the men to ensure purity. Such failures have had significant
social costs on the Ethiopians in the form of high levels of suicide and domestic abuse.

The Multicultural City 263


To illustrate the need for sensitivity to pluralism in planning, cases from two fields of
planning practice are discussed below. Each case examines the extent to which conventional practices satisfy the goal of planning, understood as the improvement of the
general welfare, and how a multicultural planning practice, if applied to the cases, may
have yielded a different response and outcome. The two practice fields considered are
historic preservation and housing for minority groups.

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Historic Preservation
Historic preservation is becoming an important element of planning practice in the USA.
There are an estimated 1800 historic district commissions in the USA charged with the
responsibility of reviewing development proposals to ensure that they do not negatively
impact on the historic heritage of communities (Hodder, 1999). Some states now require
that historic preservation be included in local comprehensive plans, and in 1997 the
Board of Directors of the American Planning Association ratified a Policy Guide on
History and Cultural Resources. Thus, historic preservation is no longer an afterthought
of planning practice but an integral part of planning activity. Two issues come to the
forefront with regards to historic preservation. The first is how planners resolve conflicts
between growth and preservation. The second is how planners decide which historic
sites and artifacts merit preserving.
With regards to the conflict between growth and preservation, Rasmussen (1997, p. 26)
observed that the combination of burgeoning population and greater determination by
Native American groups to preserve their heritage has led to growing conflict across the
nation between preserving that heritage and accommodating development. In addition,
while many communities now have historic preservation ordinances, the designation of
such sites tend to reflect the dominant viewpoint of what constitutes a historic resource.
Two cases are illustrative of the problem for planners. The first case involves the
Puvungna Native American fight to preserve their religious site at Long Beach, California. The case portrays the prevailing ethnocentrism of current planning practices and
highlights the need for a re-examination of the universalistic value systems that continue
to influence planning practice. The second case, involving the use of Devils Tower in
Wyoming, demonstrates how competing claims to the use of land can be resolved
through the planning process if only attention is given to cultural diversity and the
accommodation of such diversity in planning.
The Puvungna Lawsuit2
The Puvungna lawsuit (Los Angeles Superior Court, Case No. 087212) was filed in
August 1993 against California State University Long Beach (CSLB). The campus of
CSLB sits on what is regarded by the Gabrielino Native Americans as a sacred site
(Figure 1). Indeed, the university once erected a sign that read; Gabrielino Indians once
inhabited this site, Puvungna, birthplace of Chungichnish, law-giver and god. There are
several archaeological sites on campus and one known burial as well as a reburial site.
The 22-acre National Register site included about two acres of community garden plots,
known as the Organic Gardens, which were established on the first Earth Day. The
remainder is open space where the university organized summer camps for many years.
In 1992 CSLB decided to pave the site to create a parking lot and mall. This decision
led to protests by native Americans and other concerned citizens who pitched tents and
held prayer vigils on the site to prevent its destruction. A lawsuit was also filed by the

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Figure 1. Puvungna Sacred Site at the California State University, Long Beach.
Source: Courtesy of Jan Sampson.

American Civil Liberties Union (ACLU) on behalf of over a dozen Native American
plaintiffs, including not only Gabrielino and other California Native Americans, but also
Native Americans whose tribal affiliation is outside California (as far east as New York)
but who reside in the Los Angeles area.3 The other plaintiff was the Native American
Heritage Commission (represented by the Center for Human Rights and Constitutional
Law), a state commission appointed by the Governor and charged with protecting
Native American sacred sites and burial places.
For the Gabrielino Native Americans the universitys actions showed a lack of
understanding of their religious practices. In Western culture this would amount to the
tearing down of a church in order to create a parking lot. The difference here is that there
are no walls to tear down and no permanent fixtures. This has been interpreted by the
university as the absence of any cultural resources on the site.
Native Americans won an important victory on 3 September 1993 when a Los Angeles
Superior Court judge temporarily blocked the universitys planned development of the
site. The court ordered CSLB officials to be restrained and enjoined from causing any
further unnatural disturbance and from baring appropriate Native American access to
the land at issue.
In April 1995, however, the court ruled for the university, arguing that the law
protecting Indian sacred places on public land is unconstitutional because it violates the
principle of separation of church and state. This ruling was overturned on appeal by the
appellate court, which ruled that the university lacked standing in court to raise
constitutional issues since the university is a state agency, and the state cannot defend
itself in court by saying that the laws it passes are unconstitutional. At any rate, the
current President of CSLB has pledged not to commercialize the site but preserve it as
open space.
While millions of dollars have been spent on the case and the legal battle continues
over the fate of Puvungna, it must be questioned what role, if any, planners have played
in this stalemate and how this case may affect planning practice? The site is zoned

The Multicultural City 265

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institutional, that is, for university use. The fight then is not between Native Americans
and the city but between them and the university. In a sense, planners have absolved
themselves of the problem.
Long Beach city planners, however, cannot be let off the hook. The City of Long Beach
has a historic ordinance that reads in part:
The City of Long Beach has recognized certain buildings and neighborhoods
as having special architectural and historical value. The City Council designates historic landmarks, historic districts, historic places and objects by city
ordinance. Historic landmark status for buildings in Long Beach may be
designated if they have historic and/or architectural value. Historic districts
are areas containing groupings of older houses that are intact and unaltered.
(http://www.ci.long-beach.ca.us/plan/content/historicpreservation.html.
Accessed 12 May 2003).
The ordinance seems to protect physical artifacts such as buildings but not land that is
in its natural state. Because the Puvungna religious site is left in its natural state, it is not
recognized by planners as historic. The fact that the Puvungna religious site was not
specifically identified in the land use map as a cultural resource worth preserving is a
major shortcoming of the citys land use plan and of the ethnocentrism that guides the
selection of historic sites in the city for preservation. The Supreme Courts decision in the
case between the Navajo and the US Forest Service further attests to this ethnocentrism.
When the U.S. Forest Service planned to log and construct roads in a forested area, the
Navajo challenged the plan because it infringed on their religious practices. In a decision
by the U.S. Supreme Court, Justice Sandra OConnor, writing for the court, justified the
agencys actions by stating that the land in question was not actively used by the Navajo
for religious services and did not have a religious site. As Meyer & Reaves (2000)
observed, such a decision imposed a Judeo-Christian value system on the Navajo who,
like the Puvungna, have a different criteria for designating religious and historic sites.
Bear Lodge Multiple Use Association v. Babbitt, No. 988021
The case of the Devils Tower National monument offers a contrary approach to the
dominant planning practice. The Devils Tower is a 600-foot mountain located in
northeastern Wyoming (Figure 2). The historical and religious use of Devils Tower and
surrounding areas by Lakota people was acknowledged by the Fort Laramie Treaty of
1868. In 1906, President Roosevelt declared the Devils Tower a national monument,
noting that it is a natural wonder and an object of historic and great scientific interest
[and] warning is hereby given to all unauthorized persons not to appropriate, injure, or
destroy any feature of the natural tower (Presidential Proclamation No. 458, 34 Stat.
3236, 3237, 24 September 1906).
The tower is known to Native Americans as Mato Tipila or Bear Lodge, and is a
sacred religious site for many Native American tribes. The tower is also used by
recreational and commercial climbers. Over the past 30 years, the number of rock
climbers at the tower increased dramatically affecting not only the environment but also
the religious practices of Native Americans. To address these conflicts in land use, the
National Park Service adopted a Final Climbing Management Plan (FCMP) for Devils
Tower National Monument, which in part asked climbers to voluntarily refrain from
using the site in the month of June when Native Americans engage in the Sun Dance and
other ceremonies.

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Figure 2. The Devils Tower.


Source: Courtesy of the United States National Park Service.

Although the plan was welcome by Native Americans and led to the reduction in
climbers in June, the Bear Lodge Municipal Use Association and other climbers challenged the FCMP. The group sued the Department of Interior, arguing that the FCMP
violated the Establishment Clause, which prohibits government from sponsoring, supporting, or becoming entangled in religious affairs. On 26 April 1999 the U.S. Court of
Appeals for the Tenth Circuit Court dismissed the climbers lawsuit, ruling that the
climbers lacked standing and claimed no injury from the FCMP. The U.S. Supreme court
upheld the ruling and declined to review the case as was requested by the plaintiffs.
This case shows that proactive planning that is culture-sensitive is capable of accommodating and addressing competing land use claims. This, however, is often the
exception rather than the rule.
Housing for Ethno-cultural Minorities
Another area where planners will be increasingly called upon to intervene is in the
provision of housing for ethno-cultural groups. The concern here is threefold: first, to
what extent do the specific housing needs of ethno-cultural groups matter?; second, does
the existing housing stock adequately serve the shelter needs of ethno-cultural groups?;
and, third, how might scarce public resources be allocated to more effectively serve the
housing needs of ethno-cultural groups? To help answer these questions, consideration
is given to the housing adequacy and living arrangements of ethno-cultural groups as
they are impacted by current planning practices.

The Multicultural City 267

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Housing Occupancy and Overcrowding4


One of the roles of planners is to ensure that adequate housing and community services
are provided for residents of the community. One indicator of housing adequacy and
affordability is the extent of overcrowding that exists in housing units in a community.
In the US, Comprehensive Housing Affordability Strategy (CHAS) requires that planners
identify their communities current and future housing needs and devise programs to
address these needs through the use of this national Housing and Urban Development
(HUD) funds. A preliminary review of these programs indicated that half of the
communities applying for funding used overcrowding as one measure of their communities housing need (U.S. Department of Housing and Urban Development et al.,
1992).
Data from the U.S. Census Bureau show an increase in the incidence of overcrowding.
For occupied housing units, the incidence of overcrowding increased from 4.9 per cent
in 1990 to 5.7 per cent in 2000. Myers & Baer (1996) reported a similar trend for rental
housing units. For example, they note that between 1980 and 1990 the incidence of
overcrowding in rental housing units rose from 7 per cent to 8.9 per cent. They also
observed that overcrowding is more prevalent among recent immigrants, Asian, and
Hispanic households than it is for white and African-American households. Furthermore, the authors note that overcrowding among Asian households does not decrease
until you exceed 80 per cent of median incomes.
The conventional explanation for overcrowding is that there is a shortage of affordable
housing. The logical policy direction to ameliorate the problem is thus to increase the
availability of housing that is affordable to these groups. In the USA such policies have
typically included supplementing incomes of low-income households through housing
vouchers or subsidizing production costs in the form of low-income housing tax credits
(LIHTC) for developers of such housing. In each instance, planners are involved in
arranging, recommending and administering these funds. They also help select qualified
tenants who reside in these subsidized housing units. The problem is that programs and
policies that are directed solely to increasing the availability of the affordable housing
stock would not substantially decrease overcrowding rates among the ethno-cultural
groups that these programs are meant to help and may lead to an inefficient use of the
nations limited housing dollars.
In the study by Myers & Baer (1996), overcrowding among Asian households did not
diminish even for higher-income households, suggesting that affordability may not be
the problem. A similar study by Choi (1993) led her to dismiss income as the major
explanatory variable in overcrowding among Asian households. Instead, she noted that
Asians have a cultural preference for living in close quarters compared to other racial or
ethnic groups. Pader (1994) found space use both within and outside the house to be
culturally differentiated. In her study of sleeping arrangements in Mexican families, she
noted that the manner in which space is arranged and used by Mexican families is
designed to foster interdependence and sharing, not independence (see Figure 3). By
contrast, houses in the USA are designed to ensure privacy, develop individualism and
a sense of independence. Cross-culturally, Pader (1994, p. 129) observed, it is common to find more people sharing sleeping quarters and beds than would be acceptable
by the dominant U.S. standardsand doing so by preference, not economic necessity.
The implication of these findings is that understanding the cultural context of
overcrowding is important to devising an appropriate public policy. As Myers & Baer
(1996) rightly concluded from their study: By the traditional definition of overcrowding,
the problem is growing, but at the same time the policy issues it presents are changing.

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Figure 3. Living arrangement in a Mexican housing unit.


Source: Courtesy of Ellen-J. Pader.

The resurgence of overcrowding exposes deep cultural differences among Americans in


their living arrangements and preferred standards (p. 76). They suggest that rather than
focusing on increasing affordable housing for ethno-cultural groups, planners should
instead direct their efforts to increasing the level of neighborhood services such as
schools, parks and rubbish collection, since these services would have greater impact on
the welfare of these groups than an increase in the affordable housing stock. Here we see
that sensitivity to pluralism leads to the crafting of more efficient and more effective
programs and a better use of public funds by planners.
Immigrant Housing for Hmong Families in the City of Oshkosh
The City of Oshkosh, Wisconsin is located in the mid-western region of the USA. It is
predominantly white with minorities making up only 7.3 per cent of the citys population in the 2000 Census. In the 1980s as part of a US resettlement program for refugees
from south-east Asia, the city became home to several Hmong5 families. The Hmong had
an agrarian culture and large families. Thus, it was not uncommon to have 6 to 10
children in a household. As families were resettled in the City of Oshkosh, city planners
were involved in trying to find housing for these families. Using Western standards of
housing, it was felt that a minimum of a three-bedroom house or apartment was needed
for the large families. After a tedious search, housing was found for these families. On
one such occasion, a three-bedroom house was found for a family of six. It was reasoned,
the parents would share a bedroom and the four children would pair up in each of the
other two bedrooms.
Several weeks after the families were resettled, a city planner went to visit one of
the families to see how they were doing in their new housing. To her surprise, she
found that the four children all crowded into one of the bedrooms while the third
bedroom stood idle. After probing into the situation, she realized that Hmong families
preferred their children to share the same bedroom since this bred closer bonds between

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The Multicultural City 269


the siblings. As discussed above, this is contrary to the one person per room standard
used by the United States Census Bureau in determining overcrowding.
The substantive goal of housing standards is to provide for health, hygiene and safety.
The overcrowding standards, however, tell us very little about the size of the rooms nor
do they take into consideration the different cultural norms of a multicultural public. For
the Hmong, a standard one bedroom for parents and a large bedroom for the children
would have been the preferred housing type. Such a provision could still ensure that
health, safety and hygiene is maintained and would meet the cultural needs of the
group. The shortcoming of current housing standards is that they lead to the production
of standardized housing. This is excellent for those who choose to live in such setting.
However, the standards do not meet the needs of a diverse culture with different tastes
and ways of life. This example points to the need for planners to provide housing
choices and neighborhood differentiation that will accommodate the different housing
needs of a diverse population.
Despite the restrictive zoning and housing codes, several culture-oriented housing
schemes are thankfully springing up across the country. Under the generic/umbrella
name of intentional communities, they include co-housing, co-operative housing, and
even some neo-traditional style communities such as Cerro Gordo in Cottage Grove,
Oregon. According to the Cohousing Network, cohousing is a collaborative housing
that attempts to overcome the alienation of modern subdivisions in which no one knows
their neighbors, and there is no sense of community. Residents typically have their own
housing unit but share common community facilities such as lounges, dining area,
recreation facilities and childcare. With this type of housing, residents participate in the
planning and design of the community so that it directly responds to their needs
http://www.cohousing.org/resources/whatis.html .
These culture-oriented housing developments may be based on interest such as the
ACME Artist Cooperative in Chicago and the Bright Morning Star community in Seattle
for writers, musicians and the performing arts or ideology such as the communitarian
Cambridge cohousing in Cambridge, MA, or the environmentally based Earthhaven in
Black Mountain, NC and the Garden OVegan in Hawaii or religion, such as the Abode
of the Message in New Lebanon, NY. In a sense, such housing is culture-sensitive, meets
peoples needs, and above all, is affordable.
This type of housing, however, is often seen as an aberration to the norm and residents
may feel a stigma for living in such neighborhoods. Besides, several city zoning
ordinances continue to make such housing and neighborhood types difficult to build.
This may account for the limited number of these living arrangements in urban areas.
For example, 54 per cent of the communities listed in the 1995 Communities Directory of
the Coop Housing Network are rural, 28 per cent are urban, 10 cent have both rural and
urban sites, and 8 cent do not specify http://www.cohousing.org/resources/
whatis.html .
Untangling the Multicultural Enigma
The cases cited in this paper present some troubling observations for the planning
profession. How do planners resolve the conflicting land use claims of a diverse public?
How do we design housing and building codes and neighborhoods to meet the housing
needs of all groups in a community? How do planners ensure that what we selectively
preserve for posterity reflects everyones view of their history?
In his classic book, The Reflective Practitioner, Schon (1983) talks about the dilemmas of

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professional practice. He notes that people may choose to practice in the high ground or
in the lowland of professional practice. He asks: Shall the practitioner stay on the high,
hard ground where he can practice rigorously, as he understands rigor, but where he is
constrained to deal with problems of relatively little social importance? Or shall he
descend to the swamp where he can engage with the most important and challenging
problems if he is willing to forsake technical rigor? (Schon, 1983, p. 42).
This is the challenge facing the planning profession. We can continue to practice
planning as it has always been and risk making ourselves irrelevant to much of society
or we can take the bold challenge and descend to the swampy lowland where problems
are much more messy and solutions difficult. The latter is suggested. To make planning
relevant to a multicultural public, planners have to face the challenge of professional
messyness and address the problems that matter to society. This requires a change in
the culture of planning so that in tackling problems of the urban environment, planners
are cognizant of both the real and the symbolic meaning attached by different groups
to the environment. Planners should also consider the psychological as well as the
objective ends of their plans. Yet, this is the area of untidiness and one that would pose
the most challenge for planners. Nevertheless, there are several pointers in the planning
literature to processes that have worked in other settings and that could provide a guide
to planners facing multicultural problems. They include therapeutic techniques (Sandercock, 2000), dispute resolution methods (Susskind, 1995; Susskind & Cruickshank, 1987;
Susskind & Field, 1996), and dialogue approaches (Baum, 1999, 2000; Forester, 1999,
2000; Healey, 1996). However, while these processes and the practice examples they
provide are beneficial, they are for the most part reactive in nature. That is, they are
designed to address multicultural problems after they arise not before they occur.
Planning after all is about pre-emption, not reaction.
As the case studies discussed here show, cities have not been planned to accommodate
diversity and so there is a failure to see that different cultures may have different ways
of defining what is valuable and therefore worth preserving. Cities are not designed to
provide a choice for residents that do not fit the standardized housing and neighborhoods that are built, necessitating application for variances to accommodate housing for
those who do not fit the nuclear family tradition. In the USA, processes have not been
set up other than the adversarial approach to resolving conflicts, and so when such an
approach fails in a multicultural situation, there is a scramble for alternatives that take
longer to set up because few planners are competent enough to use the therapeutic,
dialogue and dispute resolution approaches that a multicultural society calls for and
needs. In essence, the institutions and planning processes were not designed with
difference in mind. This is the major obstacle to multicultural planning. The reactive
approaches are knee jerk reactions that may solve ad hoc problems. What is needed is a
redesign of the planning system for managing diversity without which planners efforts,
even when well intentioned, will only produce limited short-term gains.
Although rare, there are emerging examples of proactive multicultural planning
processes at work. There has already been a description of how proactive planning
averted problems in the use of the Devils Tower. Another pioneering example of
proactive planning is the cultural plan prepared by the City of Vancouver, Washington.
The plan evolved from a series of public meetings of city staff with the diverse groups,
organizations and residents of the community. The cultural plan that emerged embodied
policies and programs resulting from the expressed fears, concerns, interests and
values of the citys multicultural public. The stated goal of the plan is to nurture
collaborative efforts, foster diversity and celebrate the richness of the community. The

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The Multicultural City 271


plan also states that cultural issues will become an integral part of city policy and
partnerships; their legitimacy and importance will be acknowledged as part of the City
of Vancouvers core values http://www.ci.vancouver.wa.us/chservices/culture/
plan/intro.shtm (accessed 12 May 2003). The cultural plan is not just about the
preservation of cultural artifacts, but one that is supportive of the diversity of the people
who live in the city. In addition to the plan document, the city also appointed a cultural
commission to oversee its implementation. Because of the open and inclusive process
that was used in preparing the plan, the diverse groups in the community had a buy-in
and a stake in the success of the plan because it reflects their needs.6 Perhaps if other
communities had adopted Vancouvers example, the conflicts that seem to erupt between ethno-cultural groups and planners may not have occurred. This example also
shows that it is possible to reconcile the principles of a liberal democracy with the
requirements of multiculturalism.
However, planners must be able to recognize when culture matters and when it does
not. Even for those cultural issues that are identified to be important, not all may require
planning intervention. Some can be resolved through the legal system (for example
through anti-discrimination laws), and others through market processes (for example,
retail outlets that provide goods to ethnic communities). Deciphering these differences
requires skills that can be acquired through diversity education and training. To this
end, planning schools and organizations such as the American Institute of Certified
Planners (AICP) and the American Planning Association (APA) should provide opportunities for planners to receive cultural sensitivity training. Many professions ranging from
physicians to teachers, librarians and businesses are now urging their members to
engage in such training. This is an acknowledgement that with cultural diversity has
come the need for cultural awareness and competence to work with a diverse clientele.
The planning profession has so far not entered the foray although this has become an
important aspect of planning practice.
Cultural sensitivity in planning will enhance (i) communication skills of planners so
that they are able to interact with a multicultural public; and (ii) give planners a better
understanding of the beliefs, values and customs of different cultural groups so that they
develop insight into the lenses through which these groups operate. Cultural sensitivity
training has the potential of making planners culturally competent and planning
culturally effective.
When planners are culturally competent, they learn the principles that help them to
discern the pertinent beliefs and customs of cultural groups and so are able to help
provide plans that reflect the needs of these groups. When plans are culturally effective
they blend the conventional planning techniques and strategies with the felt needs and
world views of cultural groups to produce programs and policies that make positive
changes in the well being of these groups.
Planners can become culturally sensitive in several ways. First, there is the need for
curriculum changes that require students in planning schools to immerse themselves in
cultural group settings so as to learn through participant observation that compliments
the standard data collection and analysis process that is so prevalent in many US
planning schools. Second, through cultural workshops, practicing planners may gain the
competence of working and practicing planning for a multicultural public. These
changes should be mandated by the Association of Collegiate Schools of Planning
(ACSP) accreditation body. Experience shows that voluntary compliance is unlikely to
work.
In conclusion, planning is about helping people to reflect on their needs and to find

272

M. Burayidi

creative ways to meet these needs. This objective cannot be achieved if people feel
estranged from the process. The potential for this feeling of alienation is more so for
multicultural groups than it is for those in the dominant culture. This means that
extraneous efforts have to be found to bring these groups into the process. The modest
suggestions made here provide a starting point for planners to help the whole public
to reflect on and take action to meet their needs.
Notes

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1.
2.
3.
4.
5.
6.

These are usually single use zones that do not permit other uses within the district.
This section has benefited from the insights provided by Eugene E. Ruyle, Professor of Anthropology at
the University of California, Long Beach, to whom I am indebted.
Puvungna has become a sacred site not only for the Gabrielino, but for all Indians in the area, since what
is sacred to one Indian tribe is sacred to all Indian tribes.
The U.S. Census Bureau defines overcrowding as a situation in which there is more than one person per
room in a housing unit.
The Hmong are an ethnic group from China and fought alongside the USA during the Vietnam war
following which they were persecuted by the Northern Vietnamese and had to flee their homeland.
This section benefited from correspondence with Leann Johnson, Manager of Cultural Services, City of
Vancouver, WA, to whom the author is indebted.

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