Sheila Foster spoke at the New York Botanical Gardens/Humanities Institute colloquium Ethical Spaces: Landscapes and Environmental Law.
Sheila Foster, University Professor; Albert A. Walsh Professor of Law; Faculty Co-Director, Fordham Urban Law Center, spoke about The City as a Common Good. “Much like the natural environment, the urban environment is subject to disproportionate consumption, through economic and cultural domination of its resources—depriving the less well-off of many goods necessary to survive and thrive,“ Foster explained. She also referred to the encyclical Laudato Si’, in which Pope Francis stressed that the natural environment is a “collective good”—a resource shared by all of us—warning of the disproportionate use of natural resources worldwide.
Foster focused on the city as a resource, and asked: why not think about cities the same way we do great natural spaces, like the Grand Canyon? Cities need resources to survive just as natural spaces do, and just like natural areas, over-exploitation of cities—particularly the disproportionate consumption of goods—leads to degradation. Citing the city as a “common good” in which all residents share its resources, Foster asked how these resources are to be managed in an increasingly urban world. Foster’s focus on environmental justice has led to a more polycentric decision-making model: more collaborative assessments are made involving the whole community. As cities grow, the question of who decides how to allocate resources will become more pressing, bearing down upon the common good.