May Day, Immigration Marches - The Changing Face of the U.S.

Recently, in theory class, the question that was brought up was how planners can plan for ethnic communities? As I sit here and read about immigrant activists getting out in the street to rally for an immigration reform, I think back on that question that is becoming so pressing, especially in the Southern California region. How can future planner's plan for ethnic communities, and should we even be planning for them, should they not be integrating into mainstream America? What is mainstream America? Is that the suburban community of Irvine? Also, another issue that comes up with that, is that America is an immigrant community made up of many ethnic communities. Not only am I minority that goes through identity issues daily, but now I'm a confused planner, that wants to integrate the different ethnic cultures that exist but also feels that immigrants should be integrating into the American lifestyle.

Is there a solution? I think there are great successful examples of integrating culture into the neighborhoods. Such examples can be seen in most of the major cities in the U.S., like Los Angeles, San Francisco, New York, D.C. all hosting Chinatowns..Little Italy..and so forth. Integrating culture into mixed used neighborhoods can make them not only vibrant but great business ventures.