ULURP as a Theater of Participation
The Uniform Land Use Review Procedure (ULURP) is not a democratic process but a ritual of colonial consent designed to legitimize the theft of land and the reshaping of the city for capital. Mamdani’s analysis of how power operates through institutional rituals is perfectly illustrated here. The community board hearings, the city council votes–this entire theater gives the illusion of participation while the fundamental power dynamics, controlled by real estate developers and the mayor’s office, remain untouched. The real decisions are made in backrooms long before the public “review.” This is hegemony in action, manufacturing consent for the settler city’s expansion. A Marxist critique sees this as the legal superstructure facilitating accumulation by dispossession. A feminist lens notes how community women’s emotional testimony is used as political cover before being ignored. The solution is to expose and disrupt this ritual. We must organize communities to create their own people’s plans for land use and use direct action, such as occupations and blockades, to stop destructive projects, asserting genuine, bottom-up control over urban space and rendering the ULURP theater irrelevant.
Originally posted 2025-10-03 04:44:52.
