Planning a Just City: Examining Waterfront Redevelopment Projects from a Social Justice Perspective Nufar Avni

Planning a Just City: Examining waterfront redevelopment projects from a social justice perspective

Nufar Avni

School of Urban Planning McGill University, Montreal November 2017

A thesis submitted to McGill University in partial fulfillment of the requirements of the degree of Doctor of Philosophy (PhD) in Urban Policy, Planning and Design

Table of Contents Abstract ...... vi Résumé ...... ix Acknowledgements ...... xii Preface ...... xiv 1. Introduction ...... 1 Social Justice ...... 3 Objectives and Research Questions ...... 4 Structure of the Dissertation ...... 6 2. Literature Review ...... 7 Justice and the city ...... 7 Philosophical Principles of Justice and Their Influence ...... 10 Grounding Justice in Space ...... 13 From Redistributive Justice to the Politics of Difference ...... 15 Process or Outcome: Communicative Planning ...... 18 The Just City ...... 19 Environmental Justice ...... 23 Theory and Practice of Justice in Planning...... 26 Urban Waterfronts ...... 29 The Evolution of the Waterfront ...... 30 Waterfronts as a Field of Research ...... 33 ‘Live, Work and Play’: The Neoliberal Waterfront ...... 35 Access and Public Space ...... 39 Culture, Tourism and Heritage ...... 40 Ecology, Nature and Sustainability ...... 42 Waterfronts and Social Justice ...... 43 3. Research Design and Methodology ...... 45 Qualitative Research ...... 45 A Comparative Framework ...... 45 Case Studies ...... 47 Methods ...... 53

Positionality and Reflexivity ...... 56 4. Jaffa: The Bride of the Sea ...... 59 Jaffa, a Mixed City ...... 61 Major Planning and Development Phases in Jaffa ...... 63 The Jaffa port ...... 64 The Redevelopment Project ...... 69 5. From Port to Waterfront: the Jaffa Port Redevelopment ...... 73 The Vision of a ‘Working Port’ and Its Implementation ...... 73 Trust ...... 80 The Fish Market ...... 83 Whose port? Public Participation and Inclusion in the Redevelopment Process and Outcomes ...... 88 Ethnicity, Diversity and Recognition: Jewish-Arab Relations ...... 95 Discussion: So Long and Thanks for all the Fish? ...... 103 6. The Anacostia River in Washington, D.C...... 107 Washington, D.C...... 107 Planning Landmarks ...... 108 Demographics and Socio-Economic Geography ...... 110 The Anacostia River ...... 116 A Brief History of the Anacostia River ...... 117 7. The Anacostia Waterfront Initiative: Recapturing the Forgotten River ...... 121 A Tale of Two Cities: The Anacostia River as a Symbolic Divider of Washington, D.C...... 123 The Anacostia Waterfront Framework plan: Vision, goals and main issues ...... 124 Exercising Leadership and Forging Collaborations: Implementing the Anacostia Waterfront Initiative ...... 129 Economic Development ...... 132 Social Inclusion and Community Engagement ...... 136 Environment: a Fishable and Swimmable River...... 145 Urban Nature and Justice ...... 151 Discussion: From a ‘Forgotten River’ to a Hub of Urban Development ...... 154 8. Transform. Connect. Engage: The 11th Street Bridge Park in Washington, D.C...... 158 Planning the 11th Street Bridge Park ...... 159 Planning the 11th Street Bridge Park Equitable Development Plan ...... 164 11th Street Bridge Park Equitable Development Plan ...... 168

iii

Preliminary Planning Outcomes...... 171 Who Is This For? Trust and Community Engagement ...... 174 Discussion: Who is this for? ...... 181 9. Discussion: ‘Something Old, Something New, Something Borrowed and Something New’ ...... 185 Vision and outcomes ...... 186 Urban Waterfronts and Social Justice ...... 190 How might social justice be more effectively integrated into and operationalized in waterfront redevelopments? ...... 198 Social Justice: Opportunities and Challenges ...... 202 10. Conclusion ...... 208 Contextualizing justice ...... 208 Research Contribution ...... 212 Future Directions ...... 213 References ...... 215