Writing & Speeches
Paul Davidoff was committed to expanding economic opportunities for poor and working class- individuals and families by creating new affordable housing in America’s suburbs. His efforts to achieve this goal were frequently opposed by local officials who used exclusionary zoning to oppose such projects. Paul Davidoff and his colleagues produced research, wrote articles, prepared plans, organized grassroots movements, and initiated legal cases advance their economic and housing integration efforts. These activities, along with his 1968 run for Congress as a Civil Rights and Peace and justice candidate, generated considerable press coverage. Paul Davidoff writing samples and articles are available in this section of the website.
By Paul Davidoff
Exclusionary Zoning
Journal article I Paul Davidoff & Neil Newton Gold I Published 1971
Present efforts to solve the “urban crisis” tend to restrict solutions to inner-city poverty and ghetto areas. These ghetto and poverty areas have been the focus of nearly all the research and action programs undertaken by both public agencies and private non-profit groups as part of the war on poverty.
Normative Planning
Book Chapter I Paul Davidoff I Pages 173 – 187 I Published 1968
The essence of politics is who gets what. Or call it distributive justice. The public planning process as a part of the political system is inextricably related to the distributional question facing communities in which planners work.
Working Toward Redistributive Justice
Journal article I Paul Davidoff I Pages 317 – 318 I Published 1975
The essence of politics is who gets what. Or call it distributive justice. The public planning process as a part of the political system is inextricably related to the distributional question facing communities in which planners work.
Suburban Action: Advocate Planning For An Open Society
Journal of the American Institute of Planners I Paul , Linda Davidoff & Neil Newton Gold I Pages 12 – 21 I Published 1970
The suburbanization of population and jobs in the metropolitan regions is an accomplished fact. Rather than fighting this movement, urban development policy should work with it to assure equal access to suburban land and jobs for all citizens of the regions. Suburban Action is an advocate agency engaged in policy discussions with suburban employers, public officials, and private groups and in legal actions aimed at opening the suburbs to blacks and to low and moderate cost housing.
A Choice Theory of Planning
Journal article I Paul Davidoff & Reiner Thomas I Pages 103-115 I Published 1962
The Appearance for the first time in Local Planning Administration (as this book was formerly titled) of a chapter on social planning and its relation to city planning reflects significant changes within the United States since the publication of the third edition in 1959.
Advocacy and Pluralism in Planning
Journal article I Paul Davidoff I Pages 331 – 338 I Published 1965
The present can become an epoch in which the dreams of the past for an enlightened and just democracy are turned into a reality. The massing of voices protesting racial discrimination has aroused this nation to the need to rectify racial and other social injustices.
Social Welfare Planning
Book Chapter I William I. Goodman & Eric C. Freund I Pages 295-324 I Published 1969
The Appearance for the first time in Local Planning Administration (as this book was formerly titled) of a chapter on social planning and its relation to city planning reflects significant changes within the United States since the publication of the third edition in 1959.
Advocacy & Urban Planning
Book Chapter I Paul Davidoff & Linda Davidoff I Pages 99-120 I Published 1978
The American practice of urban planning began in the 1900s as an outgrowth of an elitist concept of urban political structure: the “good citizens” would swing their influence behind the formation of a Planning Commission for the city which would make long-range decisions about city growth and design, insulated from the crass self-interest and short-sightedness of the corrupt political machine.
Opening the Suburbs: Towards inclusionary land use controls
Syracuse Law review I Paul , Linda Davidoff I Published 1971
Affluent, powerful America has an ugly side-racial and class hatred, violence, systematic injustice, and political repression. In the suburban residential communities of our metropolitan areas, the affluent and powerful segment of society is enthroned; in slums and ghettos of our aging cities live the powerless-the poor, the black, and the aged.
Study of growth and Seggregation
Report I Paul Davidoff I Pages 331 – 338 I Published 1975
Advocacy planning represents a departure from scientific, objective, or rational planning, which was the dominant paradigm of the post–World War II era. It is premised upon the inclusion of the different interests involved in the planning process itself.
A Housing program for New York State
Report I Paul Davidoff I Published Feb 1968
The present can become an epoch in which the dreams of the past for an enlightened and just democracy are turned into a reality. The massing of voices protesting racial discrimination has aroused this nation to the need to rectify racial and other social injustices.
The Origins and Effects of Discrimination at Starrett City
Report I Paul Davidoff I Published June 21, 1983
An Evaluation of the Racial Quota at Starrett City in the context of the population and rental housing market in Brooklyn and New York City. An Evaluation of the Decision- making process used to arrive at Starrett City Quota.
Democratic Planning
The MIT Press on behalf of Perspecta I Paul Davidoff I Pages 156 – 159 I Published 1967
The city planning process is neutral. It may be used in support of a number of different values. It may be used for Liberal or Conservative or Radical purposes. It may be used to support the status quo or it may be used to assist the development of social change along predetermined lines.
About Paul Davidoff (by others)
On poverty and racism, we have had little to said
Article I Hartman, Chester I Journal of the American Planning Association, Volume 60, Issue 2, Pages 158-160 I Published Spring 94
Comments on the article `Advocacy and Pluralism in Planning,’ by Paul Davidoff. Optimism and positive tone of Davidoff’s message; Importance of plans and planning; Effects of open advocacy planning on immigration and race; Projects of the Poverty & Race Research Action Council (PRRAC).
The Rise & Fall of New Left Urbanism
Article I Klemek, Christopher I The MIT Press on behalf of American Academy of Arts & Sciences, Volume 138, Issue 2, Pages 73- 82 I Published Spring 2009
Comments on the article `Advocacy and Pluralism in Planning,’ by Paul Davidoff. Optimism and positive tone of Davidoff’s message; Importance of plans and planning; Effects of open advocacy planning on immigration and race; Projects of the Poverty & Race Research Action Council (PRRAC).
Paul Davidoff and Planning Education
Article I Rao, Matthew V. I Journal of Planning History, Volume 1, Issue 3, Pages 226 – 241 I Published 2012
While he is often remembered as a tireless advocate, few modern planners remember Paul Davidoff as an educator. In the mid-1960s, Hunter College of the City University of New York conducted a nationwide search for the best possible candidate to develop and head the school’s new graduate program in Urban Planning, and they selected Paul Davidoff.
Advocacy planning as a bridge between the professional and the political
Article I Marris, Peter I Journal of the American Planning Association, Volume 60, Issue 2, Pages 143-147 I Published Spring 1994
Discusses the theories of Paul Davidoff on city planning. Use of political and legal analogies Difference between legal advocacy and the process of democratic politics; Flourishing of advocacy in the process of planning; Citizen participation in planning; Importance of planner’s skills.
Who plans the U.S.A.? “Advocacy and Pluralism in Planning”
Article I Hayden Dolores I Journal of the American Planning Association, Volume 60, Issue 2, Pages 160 – 162 I Published Spring 94
In 1965 when Paul Davidoff wrote his influential essay “Advocacy and Pluralism in Planning,” he was confident that The society of the future will be an urban one and city planners will help to give it shape and content.” He argued that his concept of advocacy could reinvigorate city planning in three ways
Advocacy Planning in Retrospect
Article I Barry Checkoway I Journal of the American Planning Association, Volume 60, Issue 2, Pages 1-11 I Published Spring 94
Paul Davidoff (1930-1984) was an unyielding force for justice and equity in planning. He viewed planning as a process to address a wide range of societal problems; to improve conditions for all people while emphasizing resources and opportunities for those lacking in both, and to expand representation and participation of traditionally excluded groups in the decisions that affect their lives.
It’s The Same Old Thing!
Film I Collection of the Smithsonian National Museum of African American History and Culture I Gift of Pearl Bowser I Object Number 2012.79.1.52.1a I Directed by Charles Hobson 1936
It’s The Same Old Thing! 16 mm film produced in 1971 to encourage citizen participation in public planning process. This 27 minute film features a five minute interview with Paul Davidoff discussing the problems caused by having White planners work in low-income communities of Color. The film was directed by Charles Hobson.
Full film can be downloaded from : Smithsonian National Museum of African American History and Culture
RESTRICTIONS & RIGHT- Public Domain
Focus in on Morris in Housing Dispute
By Maurice Carroll. 25, 1979
MORRISTOWN The most sweeping legal challenge to the suburban right to exclude cityscape sights high-rise buildings, row housing, mobile home- is working its way toward a decision in Morris County.
….. …As seen by Mr. Davidoff of the Suburban Action Institute, the case is highly significant because ” the state has bough legal action against its own communities” and because it claim is that the spreading about of low income housing is “a regional responsibility”.
Epistemological critiques to the technocratic planning model
Research Article I Carolina Pachhi I Springer I Volume 5, Issue 17. I Published 2018
During the 1960s, different critical voices emerged with regard to the main gaps of technocratic planning (what Jacobs calls ‘moderns, orthodox city planning’), voices highlighting the oversimplifying epistemological approaches that had been characterizing planing in the first half of the twentieth century.
The Politics of Exclusionary Zoning in Suburbia
Article I Michael N. Danielson I Political Science Quarterly, Vol 91, Issue 1, Pages 1-18 I Published Spring 1976
With growing awareness of the impact of suburban policies on metropolitan settlement patterns in recent years has come increasing criticism of local land use and housing practices. One of the major civil rights group, the National Committee Against Discrimination has concluded that “there can be no effective progress in halting the trend toward predominantly black cities surrounded by almost entirely by almost white suburbs…..
Paul Davidoff in the News
Advocacy in action
Paul Davidoff was committed to expanding economic opportunities for poor and working-class individuals and families by creating new affordable housing in America’s suburbs. His efforts to achieve this goal were frequently opposed by local officials who used exclusionary zoning to oppose such projects. Paul Davidoff and his colleagues produced research, wrote article, prepared plans, organized grassroots movements, and initiated legal cases to advance their economic and housing integration efforts. These activities, along with his 1968 run for Congress as a Civil Rights and Peace and Justice candidate, generated considerable press coverage. A sample of these articles appear in this section of the website.