All posts by Kristen Jeffers

tips for urbanist living

Five Ways Government Workers and Officials Are Master Placemakers

8 Comments

On Memorial Day, we celebrate the sacrifice of the many men and women of our Armed Forces that have passed on either in battle or having lived a full civilian life. My PaPa was a World War II veteran and his presence was missed as we gathered around the table and the grill at my house yesterday.

Before everyone came over, I was sitting at my kitchen table writing in my urbanist journal and I thought about how some other, more mundane, public servants actually make our places. I’m talking about everyone from the mayors, to the town and city planners, to the grant administrators, to the classically trained government service generalists (MPA’s, MPP’s and the like) such as myself. Even people such as firefighters and police can be placemakers, as they are the ones who spearhead events like National Night Out and make sure we have safe places to go.

In essence, I came up with yet another list of five specific ways us government workers, elected officials and those of us without a fancy planning firm behind our name make or break great places.

–We are charged with creating rural and urban transit systems: Generally, we have the final say about how people get around. Drivers licenses, bike lane approval, and the number of buses or train cars are all government worker decisions.
–We can and must wrangle the political system: This includes public comment periods, concerns about Agenda 21, and just general concerns about getting ourselves into too much civic debt. Also, we may have been in a political campaign, which if done right means we shook every hand and kissed every baby in our community. We know our community and we know how to mobilize them for good will.
–We know how to finance our initiatives: Instead of drawing pretty pictures that can cost whatever it takes, we take grant allotments and make it happen on the budget we have. Often that means we get have to get the community involved or there is no project. And with tactical urbanism and other small-scale movements that incorporate elements of new urbanism, we can have a taste of full community involvement along with good urban design.
–We make laws that encourage or discourage good placemaking: The zoning code or lack of one is in our laps. Same with housing a planning department. Or the decision to go with form-based or Euclidean zoning. Plus, there’s all the behavioral laws that can encourage or discourage good placemaking.
-And finally we can turn spaces into civic spaces: We create the public parks and public squares. We protect the first amendment and allow free speech. We can also deny civil rights in our spaces. Ultimately, we hold the keys to space, unless it’s under tribal control or agreed upon to be shared in some other international agreement.

So to all my folks who are closer to the government side of the sector, take pride. Without us, there wouldn’t be a placemaking discussion at all.

I also welcome continued discussion on Facebook, Twitter and Instagram. Image above by Flickr user WELS.net under a Creative Commons License.

Brooklyn, Greensboro, Issues and Ideas, The Thursday List

The Thursday List: News and Views for the Week of May 21, 2012

I’ve wanted to do this for a while, but came up with all kinds of excuses. No more. Even if this is just a public way for me to clear my thoughts on a few articles that have come past my inbox, news feed and stream, then here it is.

However, before I launch in to everyone else’s news, here are my two shameless plugs for my latest post on when it’s ok to quit a city and my e-book on how to make things better. Thank you for supporting both endeavors. For those of you still scratching your heads on what all this means, subsequent editions of the book will introduce more concise definitions and straightforward action steps for your community. I’m not going to put a timeline, but do expect a bigger edition sometime before the end of this calendar year.

Now on to the news:

It’s really sad that going to school on a bike is grounds for suspension and in some cases jail. Many of us saw the Grist article, but it’s this Bicycling.com article that really drives the point home that something needs to be done. It also exposes how little people in the government sector want to collaborate. Holding a master of public administration, I know that in theory this is not the way things should be, but it’s the way we have chosen in recent years to get things done. Yet, I commend anyone who seeks to take public action who’s just a private citizen trying to do the right thing.

The Huffington Post yesterday highlighted just that. Aurash Khawarzad, who I had the pleasure of meeting at CNU 19 in Madison, is the focus of a wonderful article on Do Tank, the tactical urbanism organization and a new organization called Change Administration, which seeks to deal with gentrification by hipsters dead on. Like it or not, even some of the tactical projects can be disruptive to already existing community norms and rituals. However, that doesn’t have to happen. Khawarzad cites his neighborhood and surrounding areas in Brooklyn as examples of how diverse many of our communities are, but how we also have an obligation as privileged people to do what we can to help save communities. I hope to lend my support to this effort and similar ones across the country that are dealing with distressed areas.

Lastly, my home state continues to exhibit examples of my 12 Legit reasons to leave. Case in point, a man who after peacefully demonstrating his desire to not have a Confederate statue replaced in his town, this man’s tires on his business vehicle were destroyed and his car and business were also vandalized, with obscenities related to the president sprayed on them. The man is still pushing on, showing that sometimes, even when it’s past time to leave, you have to keep soldiering on.

Have a great Memorial Day weekend everyone. Be sure to follow me on Instagram and my soon to be revived Tumblr to explore the environment in my own eyes.

Food, Greensboro, Issues and Ideas, tips for urbanist living

Twelve Legit Reasons To Leave Your City (#urbanism #cities #cplan #tacticalurbanism)

Last week, I presented the case on Killing the Civic Inferiority Complex at CNU 20. I also released a companion e-book. It is part picture book of my hometown of Greensboro, NC and part self-help book for those who are having serious issues with the municipality they reside in. All of it is my case for people to find the lights and stop looking at the negatives on the ground in their city.

However, I wanted to go ahead and address reasons why you should NOT remain in a place. Some negatives(and one lone positive) are too much to overcome. Those twelve reasons are as follows:

1. You do not have a job or the job you have does not pay the bills.
2.You cannot start a legit business or the one you have is going bankrupt.
3. Your civil rights (ethnicity, religious, sexual, property) are constantly threatened.
4. Your children’s schools and community activities are failures, no matter the location or operators or actions taken to change these situations.
5. Your parents are treated poorly at their senior centers, despite constant reports and calls and action taken at their facilities.
6. No one, not the police, not the neighbors, not even the code of the street, is keeping your home and your family safe.
7. Your home, be it rental or “owned” or owned is costing you more than it is worth to live in and there are no other affordable areas that are safe, walkable and near jobs and transit.
8. Transit, walkability and other things designated as good placemaking are non-existent and will not be without significant financial burden, or wholesale government changes.
9. Everyone hates you and no longer wants to listen to your ideas for making changes.
10.Your physical and mental health are endangered to the point where you are spending more time popping pills, going to doctors and hospitals and avoiding certain ailment triggers than going out in the community and being happy.
11. Your attempts to find unknown lights failed or are severely thwarted by one of the above.
12. The most positive of them all, you are granted educational, career or some other once in a lifetime opportunity in another municipality.

So, I want to know, could someone still kill a civic inferiority complex in one or more of the above situations? Let me know via The Black Urbanist Facebook Page, @blackurbanist on Twitter or the comments section below. You may end up in the next edition of Killing the Civic Inferiority Complex, in which I’ll discuss these reasons in more detail.

Blog image courtesy of Blush Printables under a Attribution-NonCommercial-ShareAlike 2.0 Generic (CC BY-NC-SA 2.0)

#CNU20, Issues and Ideas, tips for urbanist living

Design Can’t Save Us, but We Can Save Through Design. A #CNU20 Reflection

4 Comments

It’s been roughly 48 hours since the last session at CNU 20 and I’ve been home about 24 of those hours with a sore throat and bruised heels from all the great debates, ideas, dances, food and fellowship that I encountered at the Congress.

There were so many diverse viewpoints this year that it has taken me to this point to be able to sit down and write the proper response to how I felt at the Congress. After reading several other recaps, especially this article from an independent news organization and being asked to discuss diversity again by those not in attendance, I am ready to talk about what CNU 20 means now and going forward.

First, we must remember this is not your average conference. Yes, it is programmed as such, but it evolved from an invitation-only gathering and discussion of friends and leaders who were concerned with how to fix something that is broken. I encourage anyone who comes to Congress, no matter if they are on the program or not, to engage and express your opinions. Yes there will be push back. No, you will not like what the other person has to say or how they say it sometimes. Yet, deep down inside, all these opinions are grounded in truth. To me, calling something a congress means it’s a place for discussion and debate.

Secondly, New Urbanism as a whole is very misunderstood. It is easy to think that the Charter only supports pastel colored faux downtowns with high rents and white people only. However, it is this first paragraph that really should be blasted out before any other conversation or design plan occurs or is drawn outside the safe space of the Congress:

The Congress for the New Urbanism views disinvestment in central cities, the spread of placeless sprawl, increasing separation by race and income, environmental deterioration, loss of agricultural lands and wilderness, and the erosion of society’s built heritage as one interrelated community-building challenge.

Please highlight the last five words and do not forget them when you are challenged by friends, see something stupid being produced or promoted as urbanism or placemaking or think that the movement has no room for you.

Third, I am especially proud of my NextGen colleagues. We are represented on the board. We are creating Strong Towns. We are coding for the people. We are rebuilding Soulsville. We are chairbombing and paintstriping our ways in to better blocks. We know it’s vital to include diversity and respect the character and the culture of the places we want to fix. We are reclaiming public space and the ability for many owners and renters to have a part in the urban fabric. We are telling people that it’s ok to love your city, even if it’s not all there yet. We love our spouses even when they don’t quite understand. And finally, we know that this list of activities is limitless. Also, we need to replace the Next with Now. Next year will be our 10th auxiliary Congress. Yet, I couldn’t help looking ahead to CNU 30 and seeing our names as the keynotes and plenaries, with our projects becoming the new standards. It’s really already at that point and it will just be set in stone by the time we make it to 30.

Last, I know I was somewhat of a quiet force this year at the Congress. Being such a firecracker last year and knowing how such behavior can ruin reputations in the outside world, I wanted to just lay low and be strategic. However, I think our Congress suffers if we lay low too much. We need the f-bombs along with our chair bombs. We are no longer here to just change neighborhoods, we are here to change the entire world. Noise needs to be made about oversized and overpriced new urban projects that price people out. Just as we love compact urban development, we need to think about cooperative economics. Yes, people outside of CNU have been saying this and other things about community justice and better design for years. Let’s stop fighting over who said it first and start drawing up workplans. Too much talking and we’ll keep losing people to unemployment, obesity, financial ruin and other things I believe the charter exists in order to fix.

With all that said, I really enjoyed seeing everyone who came this year. Those of you who I spent the most time with know who you are and need to know that you better answer texts, and FB messages when I decide to show up in your city.:P I look forward to continuing to spread good news about our various neighborhood projects, writing more about placemaking and coming to meetups and better blocks or whatever we decide to do this year.

I hope to see all of you in Salt Lake City. Let’s change the world and make lots of noise. After all, design alone will not save, but we can save through design.

#CNU20, Traveling as An Urbanist

Updates and Annoucements from #CNU20-Open Source, Panels, Articles, Etc.

Hey everyone. Hope you are having a great time at #CNU20

First of all, check out my travel story at Next American City.

Then, be sure to follow me @blackurbanist on Twitter and Instagram for live tweets and shots.

Tomorrow (Saturday), I’m presenting twice on the Civic Inferiority Complex. First at approximately 11:44 AM on Saturday morning and second during the Saturday afternoon Open Source time at 3:45. We will meet down where the breakfast table is in the convention center and move if need be. Be sure to bring a pen and paper as we are going to work through your own Civic Inferiority Complex.

Third, I am so happy to see all of you in the flesh again. I know there are folks who are here in spirit and I feel that too. Also, if we have just met this week, it’s very nice to meet you. If we haven’t met yet and you see me in the convention hall or at one of the bars, please say hello.

*Folks who are paid members of CNU-PLEASE VOTE FOR BOARD MEMBERS BY NOON TODAY*

And for those folks who are at home or elsewhere. My UNC Global American South panel is here. Take a couple of hours and listen to powerful conversation on the migration of African-Americans and what everyone in the south needs to do to create community.

Greensboro, Traveling as An Urbanist

CNU, Seeing the Future

Three major things are going on with me right now. The first is that I completed my masters of public affairs! For the last two years, I’ve been studying urban policy from the inside out with a wonderful group of classmates and challenging teachers. It was in an urban policy class that I decided that it wasn’t enough to wax philosophical about placemaking, I needed to tell the world that I was a proud black urbanist.

That declaration led to an article in Grist, which led to a week of sharing ideas last year in Madison, Wisconsin that changed my life. This year, I’m about to get on a plane to West Palm Beach, FL to do it all again.

That gathering, the Congress of New Urbanism, is celebrating its 20th gathering this year. Anyone who has been knows that this is not your average trade show. From bringing back the traditional small town to putting a tent over a bus stop to make it a more humane place to wait, to people who recognize the public health benefits of a more vibrant, dense lifestyle, this thing we call urbanism or placemaking extends past the bricks and the sidewalks and into the hearts of many attendees.

That’s what I will be talking about on Saturday morning in a session on Tactical Urbanism, Economics and Community. My presentation, Killing the Civic Inferiority Complex, will offer steps to help communities of any size and stature take the resources they do have and put their minds together to make them awesome. I’m presenting with a number of place-making rockstars. I’m not sure about video for this session, but if you are in West Palm Beach, you should come to our session after the Saturday plenary at 10:45.

I’ll also be keeping a journal of my experiences at CNU 20 for Next American City. Be sure to bookmark the site for my twice-daily dispatches from West Palm Beach(and the various destinations in-between). I’ll also post teasers here so you won’t miss a thing. And check out this CNU 19 recap while you are at it.

After I get home from WPB, I’ll start my tenure with the NC Humanities Council on the 15th. Looking forward to helping communities find the funding to bring museum exhibits, neighborhood histories and neighborhood book talks alive, among other things. This job will also allow me to live, work and play in Downtown Greensboro.

So here it is, three weeks, three life changing events. Thanks again for reading folks and I look forward to seeing many of you later this week!

Food, Greensboro, Issues and Ideas

Maybe It’s Not the Food Itself, It’s The Way We Eat

1 Comment

This morning I saw not just one, but two articles on the food desert issue. Both articles talked about previously hashed arguments on food deserts, as well as new research that suggested that the accepted solution of more supermarkets in poor areas does not work as planned.

I think it’s more than the presence of food, but how we eat. This goes for people who eat everything in sight, as well as people who nearly starve themselves or only eat a certain type of food.

I’m not saying that we shouldn’t have healthy diets. In fact, that’s exactly what I am saying. But we should stop policing only those who are poor who often eat what’s in front of them, just like we do.

Plus, who really wants to admit they are poor. Eating for some people may be a form of upward mobility. It may be because stuff just tastes better. It may be emotional. It may be cultural. Not all these reasons have to do with the fact that there is or isn’t a Whole Foods around the corner.

Side note of the day: I may be getting fat off of Spinach Artichoke Hummus and Sweet Potato Biscuits, but that’s just me

Still,just as I did above, I can admit that sometimes I eat or drink too much. If that stat that was sited in both articles about poor people eating better than rich in the 1950’s, maybe it’s more than the location and even the cheapness of food. As a whole, despite all our healthy living efforts, we still prioritize and celebrate eating what we want, as much as we want, whenever we want.

If people are wanting to be rich and they see how “rich people” act and that is stuffing their faces, then they will stuff their faces. They will go to Whole Foods with EBT cards. As they have already done, they will lobby and get farmers markets in their communities.

Instead of saying that healthy eating is good, maybe tell everyone that it’s bad. Or, use whole grain cookies or something else that’s delicious and healthy as bait. Maybe we could go back to tilling fields or walking blocks or between cul-de-sacs, depending on which tradition you grew up in.

Ultimately, I think the time of blaming only poor people for their food choices is over. Unless we are doing it all right all the time, let’s just make sure we all go to the doctor, get in our 8 glasses of water and mix in some fruit today.

The photo above is of an establishment that has finally decided to make itself known in Greensboro. I repeat again, this place can also make you fat(and broke)  if you aren’t careful. Keep up with me on Facebook, Twitter and now Instagram, where the lovely image above originated.

apartment living, Greensboro, tips for urbanist living

Actually Being Urban Part 1- Apartment Finding

2 Comments

I’ve been fortunate in the past three weeks to obtain full time employment. What that means is that I finally get to put into practice a lot of the things I preach on this blog and retweet out to others on the social sites. You will also notice a few minor site changes(better tags, better pictures) and hopefully more real stories of what it’s like to live a more urban lifestyle in a suburbanesque locale. In this post I will discuss my apartment search.

Let’s start simple. The top five things I want in an apartment are as follows:

1.    Doors to private areas
2.    Balcony
3.    Second floor
4.    Closet space
5.    Low energy bills

That would be inside the apartment. On the exterior, these are my top five:

1.    Proximity to places I need to go on a daily basis
2.    Fitness Center
3.    Bike facilities
4.    Camaraderie of neighbors and management staff
5.    Proximity to fun activities, walking distance preferred, no more than 3 mile drive away from fun stuff unless it’s truly spectacular(other cities, cultural events, opportunities to speak and network with others)

Going into this, I knew the best option for my wishlist was downtown in a new development called CityView. I’d visited the apartments before, but considering a roommate. Now, I was visiting for myself only and I wanted to make sure things were still cool. Also, I’d heard that there were solid concrete floors in the apartments. I was not a fan of this idea and I needed to investigate that problem as well.

Side rant: If you are putting a feature in just to be “urban” and it’s not practical. STOP. You look stupid and even I as an urbanist don’t buy it.

Yet, in touring the “studio”, I was told that there is carpet in the bedrooms and some laminate wood in the living room on the second and third floors. There are also doors to the bedroom. Two in fact. I was sold.

Or so I thought. I got home and I thought about how dark the place seemed. When I lived in Durham, I had light surrounding my place. Even in my childhood bedroom, and throughout my mom’s house there is abundant light. I needed to look at a couple of other places. I am adding light to both of my lists above.

I won’t name the other three complexes, but it’s not because they are evil. They are in great locations(two are walking distance to a lot of big box and even some college style retail, the other is a little closer to what will be my office downtown). Their staff was super nice and didn’t look at me like I had horns when I wanted to tour their complexes. I learned valuable information from all three on general apartment maintenance and money-saving tips.

It was a 15 minute walk on a stressful day that helped me make my decision. From the time I ran track as a high school student, to migrating across campus for a student government meeting or a movie at the campus cinema (or class, I did a lot of that, but they were closer to my dorm), I found solace in walking or running. I knew that if I chose CityView, it would make no sense for me to drive most days of the week to work. I tend to play downtown as well and all of my playhouses would be on the way to my house. I would be able to blow off pressure from work. I could squeeze in a midday walk home. If I wanted to cut time, I could get my bike back and actually ride it this time.

Then the staff was really, really nice, offering discounts and an opportunity to waitlist until the perfect unit (one that actually does face the city, as some don’t) came available. I kept finding out acquaintances of mine that I think highly of would be neighbors. I toured the sample apartment again and someone was just moving in. I saw that all my furniture (which is very few pieces) would fit and that light would in fact come into the apartment, if it weren’t for facing another one of the buildings in the complex. All the pieces of my vision were coming together. (Including the closet space. One closet is just shelves, the other is hangers. If you know me well, you know that this is the perfect balance).

So in July, I will officially be standing in my front yard, as I am in the picture above. I will be a true urban dweller. And this idea of being a black urbanist will no longer be a total illusion. Plus, I get to tell more stories of what it’s like to live, work and play in the CBD of a smaller, more suburban city.

Photo credit above by the lovely Stephanie Eaton. Please check out her work. If you are in the Greensboro area, she would love to make you look as good as she has me. Also, don’t forget Twitter and Facebook where I keep the peeps informed.

Issues and Ideas

Conference Preview and Repost-The Reverse Great Migration and Urbanism

6 Comments
Streets like my own are becoming more desirable for Black Americans and others looking for better deals down South

This weekend( April 20-21, 2012)  I have the honor of being on a panel at the UNC Global South Symposium on the “reverse migration” of African Americans. In honor of this, I’m re-posting my original thoughts on this subject. If you are near Chapel Hill this weekend, feel free to come by tomorrow afternoon. The entire symposium is FREE with registration by clicking here. My panel begins at approximately 1:45 PM and runs to 3:45 PM.

 

According to an article last Wednesday in the New York Times, a reverse great migration of African-Americans from the North to the South is occurring. Reasons cited are lack of jobs for young Black graduates, ability to purchase property and retire in comfort for elders and a flip-flopped racial climate. Also, many of the elders have the ancestral draw back to the South. Also, the Washington Post highlighted Section 8 voucher holders, some African-American, who are drawn to the South for it’s abundant suburban housing for affordable prices.

As a young Black woman with family members who have made the move and some considering a move back, I think the New York Times is spot on in its revelations about the retirees and their ancestral ties. I have aunts, uncles and cousins who have bought homes and began to prepare them for retirement. In the meantime, other family members have made homes out of them and they are good auxiliary gathering places for our family. Plus, my family members up North enjoy coming to visit the rural areas and find the pace of life relaxing. I have a set of neighbors originally from New York and another set from Florida who have decided to retire here, for a better pace of life. In other words, urban life is dead for them.

I’m not so sure that the claims of racial profiling and lack of jobs are a function of just New York though. I think all Black youth across the nation are struggling with this phenomenon. However, Atlanta and Charlotte have emerged as areas that honor and respect black culture, as well as provide a variety of nightlife options that appeal to young Black professionals. In addition, despite more young professionals of cultures outside of African-Americans  converging on Washington DC, there’s still a core of young Black professionals who flock there in search of finding people with similar cultural roots. Lastly, many young Black college students and professionals have grown up with diverse cultures and welcome places that offer opportunities to experience other cultures. Racial profiling also seems to be a function of all police departments, however, I don’t doubt that some forces handle this better than others.

So what does this mean for urbanism? For the retirement age folks, it means that we need to work on spreading tactics such as agrarian urbanism. This way, people can have some semblance of a small town life, without giving up the idea of retiring to a farm and mobility if they can’t drive anymore or never learned to drive. For young people, it means to continue to advocate for places to go. Speaking for my friends and me, we love having the city parks, free concerts and also lounge style places to have a drink, maybe dance and have great conversations with each other.

Practitioners should make sure that community organizations and neighborhood groups can express concerns and even participate in the design of retrofitted and new(in reason) developments.  I think these new migrants would welcome bike lanes, increased bus and train service, and community gathering spots that are community and not corporate owned. The key is to make sure it’s presented in language that they understand. Many of these people are coming South to take more control of their lives. Let’s make sure we help them in that ownership and move them to something that will produce the greater wealth and well-being they desire.

Greensboro, Photospiration

Photoinspiration: Down on the Farm (and a Little Piece of the City Too…)

2 Comments

For those of you who were wondering what the land is like down at my grandparents, here are a few pictures from this past  Easter Sunday. I missed you guys last week, but trust me, there’s a good reason coming up on why I was absent. I’m looking forward to some great discussion on the post that results in that week, but until then, I leave you with some pictures of my grandparents farm.

Just beyond the old house there is where the strawberries and corn fields were. One of my great aunts lived in this house when I was little. Later on it became family storage. Also, the grapevine I mentioned in that post was between the tree stump and the remaining tree.

I wish we owned this land just past the fence there. Next to that shed there was a section that was the green patch. Otherwise, my grandfather kept his lawn equipment there. Just to the left outside the frame is my grandparents house.(Nothing super special, average 3 bedroom 1 bath 1960’s spectacular, but the large kitchen is the heart of our family gatherings.

This is our side field. I can’t remember what was here, but now it’s a great spare yard to take advantage of high winds and fly kites, as we did this Easter. Look at my mom’s skills.


Also, check out the Facebook page. I recently had a photo shoot in Downtown Greensboro and I have a few of those photos up. Above is one that is a little too big for Facebook, but perfect for right here on the blog. Thanks again to Stephanie Eaton Photography for a great shoot