Movie tomorrow at UDC, about eminent domain and preservation issues

This email was forwarded to me:

The University of the District of Columbia Division of University Relations In Association with The David A. Clarke School of Law Presents:

ScreenJustice, a film series

All for the Taking, Thursday, October 5th, 5:30-7:30pm

Followed by a Q&A with director George McCollough, co-producer Joy Butts and Professor Louise Howells, Co-Director of UDC’s Community Development Clinic.

In a controversial, precedent-setting decision in mid-2005, the U.S. Supreme Court ruled that the Constitution permitted local governments to use their power of eminent domain to forcibly acquire and transfer private property. This film examines the uses and abuses of eminent domain by the city of Philadelphia as it attempts to redefine itself through "urban renewal.” - Human Rights Film Festival honoree (2005: 58 min).

From the movie website:

On April 18, 2001, the City of Philadelphia approved the Neighborhood Transformation Initiative (NTI) -- the most ambitious urban renewal project in its history. With a proposed budget of $1.6 billion over five years, the NTI is designed to reverse a 50-year pattern of population decline, brought about in part by the city's earlier wave of postwar urban renewal. Through the use of eminent domain, the city has authorized the seizure of thousands of homes -- mostly owned or rented by the elderly, the poor, and by people of color -- in order to create a massive land bank to entice private developers to rebuild some of its most historic neighborhoods.

UDC’s David A. Clarke School of Law, Bldg 39, Room 201
Red Line Metro to Van Ness/UDC Station
Enter between buildings 38 & 39 on 4200 Connecticut Avenue

For more information: 202.274.6256, or 202.274.7400
RSVP: Jlibertelli@udc.edu
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Proudly, I think I can say I had a hand in reversing some of the pro-demolition orientation of the NTI program in Philadelphia. At Urban Forum in Philadelphia in 2003, the community development and revitalization conference sponsored by LISC, at the opening plenary session, I pointedly asked the speaker, a fervent preservationist, what he thought of Philadelphia's demolition-first neighborhood "transformation" initiative.

He responded that he thought it was misguided and misdirected. And this impacted participant response and discussion in that session and throughout the conference.

The City of Philadelphia thought we'd love what they were doing. Instead, it sparked an important understanding for me, which ended up being encapsulated in a piece that I wrote for the Philadelphia Daily News, comparing DC and Philadelphia, which ran later that month (October).

After "An outsider's version for saving Philly" appeared in the paper, there was a followup letter disagreeing with me (by a new young planner who unfortunately now runs transportation planning for the National Park Service in DC) and my response. A number of people hunted down my email address and had e-conversations with me about the issue.

Later, the City of Philadelphia participated in the Preservation Development Initiative sponsored by the National Trust and the Knight Foundation.

NTI is still a flawed program though. (And why I think it's terrible that neighborhood preservation groups in Pittsburgh, while creating great neighborhood plans, call their own version of proactive planning the "Neighborhood Transformation Iniative." No preservationist should ever allow that phrase to be used encouragingly.)

Index Keywords: urban-revitalization; historic-preservation