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Zoning relief, the process of exempting individual properties from land-use regulations, is a widespread yet underexplored planning practice. A mixed-methods analysis of applications to the Board of Standards and Appeals in New York City between 1998 and 2017 examines three clusters of zoning relief. The results suggest a strong relationship between relief and neighborhood socio-political capital and underscore relief as a powerful form of ad hoc planning. Zoning relief practices in New York City deepen inequalities but also facilitate planning goals such as disaster recovery and allowing families to grow in place. Zoning relief has long-lasting consequences on urban development and deserves increased attention from planning scholars.

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In this paper, I describe resistance to a public housing redevelopment process in New York City. I describe the story within a theoretical approach of pragmatism, as I focus on both means and ends in planning while considering the experience and contestations of the various “publics” involved in deliberations surrounding a pilot site for mixed-income infill development. While pragmatism is helpful in reflecting on planning processes, I also simultaneously acknowledge the context of how racial capitalism has shaped and continues to impact the geography of the city, including public housing communities. As such, I propose that residents engaged in “situated resistance” as plans to radically transform the largest housing authority in the United States unfolded around them. I find that while the housing authority and residents had the same objective of preserving existing public housing, their desired paths to achieving that goal dramatically differed. I conclude by proposing that robust democratic engagement requires reparative approaches rooted in racial and economic justice that substantively and procedurally center African American communities such as those living in public housing. By introducing pragmatism alongside racial capitalism through the case of public housing redevelopment, I ultimately highlight the importance of fusing theories of democratic and structural change in urban redevelopment.