Arrested Mobility: Overcoming the Threat to Black Movement

Urban planner Brown debuts with an in-depth exploration of Black Americans’ “incomplete access to all means of movement in public and sometimes private spaces by way of deliberate overpolicing.” Examples include laws governing pedestrians that are enforced unequally—almost 90% of the NYPD’s jaywalking tickets in 2019 were issued to Black and Hispanic people, who only made up 55% of the city’s population. Brown further notes the perniciousness of this statistic by pointing out that walking on the street is not always a matter of choice, since not all streets include sidewalks—a design deficit that is also disproportionately present in minority neighborhoods. Other examples include the disproportionate presence of high-traffic corridors and lack of safe crossings in Black and low-income communities, resulting in higher rates of pedestrian roadway deaths. He also give fascinating insight into how efforts to increase pedestrian safety often hamper it for Black walkers. For instance, he explains that a style of architectural design pioneered in the 1970s called CPTED (“crime prevention through environmental design”), while intended to restore an “eyes on the street” effect to communities via “delineated access” for walkers, strong illumination, and “large windows pointing in [the pedestrian’s] direction,” can have the adverse effect of promoting white residents’ surveillance of Black pedestrians. It’s a valuable addition to the literature on systemic inequality in America. (May)