Summary: Dr. González is a Professor of Chicana and Chicano Studies at California State University Fullerton. Prof. González has 20 years of experience as a program evaluator and strategic planner for healthy communities with an emphasis in Latinx communities and communities of color. His interest in planning processes and discourses stem from analyzing ways and reasons in which local community development practices and policies are made, implemented, questioned, and of the associated outcomes. In today’s podcast we will discuss Dr. Erualdo R. González’s book Latino City: Urban Planning, Politics and the Grassroots. The book is written as an in-depth case study where he tackles and addresses critical questions about present-day redevelopment models for central city downtown areas such as new urbanism, creative city, and transit-oriented development in areas with a substantial latinx population by revealing the history of Santa Ana’s city commercial redevelopment plans. Not only does his research reveal redevelopment plans, controversies and grassroots struggles in isolation but he analyzes them critically as a connected part of a larger narrative that includes race, ethnicity, and immigration, especially from Mexico. He also dives into topics such as class, privilege, community redevelopment, political economy, and grassroots activism and analyzes these constructs in context. http://larchitect.org/
