Defy Archaic Power Structures
Resident planners shake up the traditions that limit us.
Across America, we are dotted with once-boomtown-cities that now face the challenges of recovering their economies, rehabilitating their land, and recreating their identities. Railroad, mill, and factory moguls quashed civic life by enacting their power upon local governments and milking their communities dry of its resources for their own gain. Whole towns became identified with destructive industries, and the remnants of infrastructure that was laid for the benefit of a few still carry on harmful injustices.
To me, the most destructive vestiges of places that were once run by these company bosses are the traditions and truths instilled in people. Laws can change, environments can be cleaned, and economies can recover, but long-held beliefs about how the world works are stubbornly persistent.
The “Mill Mindset”
When I worked in a former mill/rail town as a park planner, I often heard people mention the “mill mindset” of residents. They were referring to the mentality that went along with the mill town when companies controlled everything. When mills were the dominant industry in the city, peoples’ grocery stores, neighborhoods, banks, and, of course, employment were all owned and operated by the mill companies they worked for. What’s more, the people running the companies were often the same people holding or influencing government offices.
When the mills that the town depended on shut down, people were ill equipped to manage parts of their lives that had been handled by the company. Many were left with a sense of helplessness in shaping their neighborhoods and their lives.
As I understood it, the term “mill mindset” was used to describe the following:
Residents’ dependence on the city government to solve problems not typically in its purview. Laziness was often implied as part of the problem when people used the word to mean this.
Residents’ reluctance to be involved in community action, community planning, or to work with the city government. This inaction was often attributed to people not wanting to contribute or just being happier to let others handle problems.
Residents’ lack of trust in the city government to act in residents interests. Those in government that I heard use this were often dumbfounded as to why.
There is profound depth behind each of these phenomena that is too expansive for me to go into here or to fully know. The basis though was that people were taken advantage of and harmed by those in positions of power. They had well-founded reasons to not take part in government-led efforts.
What it meant to me
This truth was important for me to hold with care as I entered relationships in the city for two big reasons.
I needed to know what I was up against when requesting resident participation. I worked for a city that had earned its residents’ distrust for over a hundred years. People had a pattern of not having their voice heard, and they resented it. Part of my groundwork was just listening to their frustration and being a representative for them to vent their anger and criticism to. I got it.
I had to be aware that I was working in a system that encouraged and benefitted from the mill mindset. Though those in positions of power and leadership weren’t often criticized for having a “mill mindset”, they were just as marked by it. Mine was the first resident-led design effort in the city, and the city system was not designed for it. In fact, it worked against a lot of the privilege and corruption that some people depended upon to do their job, at least in the way that they wanted to. As much as I could assure residents that I would honor their participation, there was no guarantee that those above me would do the same.
When I planned parks with residents, I actively worked against these conditions. I had to create a new standard with evaluations, documented procedures, and repeated practice of being open and responsive to the public and of meaningfully involving them in decision-making. I won’t lie, it was a slog sometimes.
Highlights were finding and working with other people in city government, in activist groups, in nonprofit organizations, and other spots throughout the town who were of like mind. Those interested in healthcare, housing, environment, public art, local economies, and public safety found common ground in parks.
Together, we formed a sort of alliance. We worked through the park planning effort to engage residents to be a part of a project that had good support from city government and meant a lot to neighborhoods and individuals. We collectively held events and meetings to bring people with diverse interests into the conversation.
Throughout this time, some residents were emboldened by the opportunity to share their thoughts and proactively build their communities. Some groups independent from the City were finding insurgent ways to create change by working around or gaining support from the City. I think all of them were brave in going against the relentless status quo, and I think we all made a difference.
The work is still ongoing. People in that town who want more participative, more equitable, more people-driven city government are grinding every day. They push up against city and state laws that make their very reasonable asks ridiculously difficult. They get dismissed and disregarded by a local government that keeps telling the story that resident knowledge is less valuable than technical knowledge (unless it comes from those who contribute to certain election funds). They get confronted by friends and neighbors telling them that things will never change, and that they’re crazy for believing otherwise.
Each moment they keep doing what they’re doing, they are changing the “mill mindset”, and each success they have weakens its hold on the community.
Rails to Trails Mindset
Every town is unique, but I think every place has its own baggage that needs to be addressed and modified for today’s civic world. I believe that greenway trails and park networks are rare things that can bring a multitude of people together in a civic space to create something new. The physical trail itself can be transformative, but when done meaningfully and thoughtfully, its planning process can make even more of a difference.
People find neighbors and organizations that connect them to resources and that give them a louder, more collective voice. They get a look into the city process, and take on the privilege and responsibility of community action. Organizations get out of their silos and work together on complex problems. Leaders and city employees begin to have more connections to those that they serve.
With abandoned rails crisscrossing the country, my hope is that we create new kinds of civic relationships as trails take their place. I hope park planners and those taking part in greenway planning efforts take on the responsibility of being a facilitators of meaningful community conversations. They should recognize their project is not and cannot be isolated into just green space, that many different people and entities have a stake and should be involved in collaboratively finding a solution.
My call to action for you is to show up to these spaces, understand that they are not perfect, and be a part of changing them for the better.