This is The Black Urbanist Weekly. I’m Kristen Jeffers and I’m making this weekly digital newsletter to share my Black, Spiritual, Diasporic North Carolinian, Working/Lower Middle-Class, Educated, Queer, CisFemme thoughts on how places and communities work. Think of this as my weekly column, sitting on your proverbial print paper’s editorial page or as so many other of your favorite newsletters do, in your inbox.

This is edition #26 and folks, we are in crisis. It’s not too late, but things at this point could get worse before better. Hence why I’m suspending my usual format and doing my best to keep you both informed and calm.

A shout-out.

To all the folks working in the hospitals, first-responders, delivery drivers, grocery stores and pharmacies and for all of our government entities. A special nod to all my federal employees and others who are waiting for permission to tele-work or at least get extended paid leave. For those of you who cannot stop working outside because what you do is vital to the continued function of both our health system and economy, I see you and I’m with you. Search for #mutualaid for specific efforts, similar to ones being taken here in DC  to ensure bills are paid, people of all ages are fed, clothed, in their right mind and have the medication and cleaning supplies needed, education and trainings are offered and continued and alternatives to supporting in-person arts and conference trips are happening. It’s times like this that the support you provide via Patreon and Venmo to me are helpful. While I already have a couple of in-home projects, and I’m not my only source of household income, my conference season is currently on hold and if we are in long-term quarantine, I may become my only source of household income.

 I’ve turned my social feeds into information feeds because we need it. 

It’s sad that in 2020, you have to tell someone to not drink bleach to be cured from a disease. Of course, there are a lot of other sad things. Mainly how the US federal government has handled this; the worldwide deaths and serious illnesses and all the economic and social effects. Even if we all get better, there are concerns about students losing not just instructional time, but going hungry and losing a stable place to go. We already have people on the streets and in jails and yes, even those who are black, no matter who you are, can get sick from it. However, you can boost your immune system, be productive if you are working-from-home, even with children of any age (note, I would still be cautious with the playdates this article suggests) and I myself am balancing out the doom and gloom with some wonderful distractions. My Twitter and Instagram Stories are the best places to go for my real-time updates. I also encourage you to consult your city, county and state websites, Twitter feeds and Facebook pages, along with the World Health Organization  and local hospital websites for up-to-date and accurate information about the virus and responses to it. Also, double-check information you send and please encourage municipalities, workplaces, family and friends to do right by their citizens, their workforces and their health.

I still want to hear from black women via my survey!

I still want to hear from you if you identify in any way with being a black woman or black womanhood. Thanks to the 8 people who have taken the time to do the survey so far and others who continue to share the information. In the coming weeks, I’ll be releasing more surveys using and reporting out all this data to build an even better picture of what life looks like for black folks and others here in the United States and around the world. I’ve learned so much so far, with the DC, Atlanta, Cleveland and San Francisco Metro Areas represented. I know you’re out there, please boost our representation numbers. Plus, once you get that skeptical person in the house for social distancing, or get cabin fever with your young and adult children back at home over the next few weeks, send this link to them and use it as a conversation starter!

A product promotion, but its a book and it can be delivered to your house!

I’ve been promoting a wonderful book of Black architectural history, that also doubles as a call-to-action to all of us to commit to building up and ensuring black folks are housed, as well as promoting and hiring black-led firms and developing multiple capabilities in-house. It’s by architect Melvin L. Mitchell and it’s called African American Architects: Embracing Culture and Building Up Urban Communities. Currently, you can mail order it directly to your home on Amazon and make it a part of your social distancing and quarantine activities. Soon, we hope to have it in as many bookstores as possible. Please feel free to share this link, in addition to purchasing a few copies and gifting them to folks who could use reading material, but are unable to purchase at this time.

Take care of yourselves and I’ll be back next week with the regular programing. 

(P.S. Happy 66th Birthday to My Mom, who is safely at home and socially distancing. She also is a survivor on multiple levels and I pull from her strength today and especially every day).

This is The Black Urbanist Weekly. I’m Kristen Jeffers and I’m making this weekly digital newsletter to share my Black, Spiritual, Diasporic North Carolinian, Working/Lower Middle-Class, Educated, Queer, CisFemme thoughts on how places and communities work. Think of this as my weekly column, sitting on your proverbial print paper’s editorial page or as so many other of your favorite newsletters do, in your inbox.

This is edition #25 and I’m back this week ready to take chances. (In case you’ve missed last week’s email, here’s a direct link). Now many of you may think of chance like a game of luck. For me, in my case, chance means putting myself out there and putting out new levels and opportunities for information. It means learning more about who’s reading and bringing in people who could read more.

This week I am launching the first of several surveys of who reads this newsletter, listens or has listened to any of my podcasts (hence the hiatus, I want to know more about who you are) and who also shares points of my identity, so I can help you better, provide more relevant and accurate information and also add to the cannon of urbanism thought and practice.

• Before we dig into this week’s edition, just a reminder that you can send all emails related to myself or The Black Urbanist to theblackurbanist@gmail.com.  Plus, author and esteemed Black architect Mel Mitchell has a very special announcement below, before you go. You can join him in advertising your company, organization, book, event, school or initiative by emailing theblackurbanist@gmail.com as well. These surveys will help with me creating ads and picking paid affiliate organizations that make sense for who I want to serve, aren’t doing shady things and can help keep this platform running.

You can also support the platform financially, individually, on a monthly basis using Patreon or one-time using Venmo. 

I also want to clear it up, that I’m not currently recovering from the flood situation. Les and I are fine, our apartment is not flooded and it’s the cumulative hurt and pain that have inspired me to do what I do, which, is exactly what I’m here to talk about and survey about. However, the folks in North and East Nashville could use help recovering from their recent disaster and this is how you can help them. Unfortunately, there are fears that rebuilding may permanently displace black communities in Nashville, but this organization of community members is ready and organized to help and you can donate or connect with them directly.

Also, today would have been my late father’s 60th birthday. As many of you know, he was a key influence in me building up this media platform and I miss him dearly. Happy Birthday, Daddy! Rest in power and relax in paradise.

And now…

Introducing The Inaugural How Black Women* Are Really Living Survey 

(*Inclusive of Anyone Who Claims a Tie to Womanhood/Femininity, i.e. those who are also non-binary, trans and gender non-conforming people)

When I first started this platform back in October of 2010, I really thought I was the only black woman urbanist. I knew of black men, but really, besides myself and a handful of other women, I didn’t think we existed.

Later on, I would learn about all of you black women architects, planners, social scientists, mothers, ministers and anyone else who considers themselves friends of the city, warriors for justice in our streets, builders of homes, healers of body and spirit, the 4.2 million strong of us in major cities across America and the remaining millions in small towns and farms across America and the billions of us on all continents, that all connect back to mother Africa. 

I would learn what erasure is and intersectionality is and I would come out into my own complete sexuality and gender expression. I would become poor and feel rich. I would feel uneducated, inadequate, impractical. And sometimes in the next hour feel and know how educated, adequate, practical and necessary I am and we are.

So that’s why, in the spirit of making this platform I’ve ran for 10 years, more equitable and ACTUALLY centered in the experiences I’ve had in this body, with these identities, and all the things you do in your bodies, for our communities, for our souls, I’m launching this survey of Black Women in Metro America.

With the results of this survey, I hope to publish and house a more comprehensive snapshot of how urbanism is working for black women-identified and aligned folks. Over the next few weeks, I’ll be asking some of these same questions, along with a few others to those of you who are not black women and non-binary people.

Other Things I Think You Should Know About

There’s really not A PLAN for the displacement of black folks in many cities, namely DC, but a lot of our city plans do in fact account for displacement of people of certain economic classes and the loss of certain businesses, who also happen to be disproportionally Black and non-white descendants of Latinidad. An update on how this is playing out in my old DC neighborhood, Park View. DC’s property tax assessments are out and based on a simple reading of this map, areas east of the Anacostia River and several other neighborhoods that have seen shifts with their Black residents, have rising rates.

In better news, Durham County (which encompasses the city of Durham and a few surrounding towns in North Carolina) has an all women-identified county council and a new council of women that advises the mayor’s office.

A history of Black American womanhood through recently released archives of the Smithsonian.

Finally, what I’ve been through with housing is nothing compared to what folks go through who are returning from being incarcerated. While there may not be many, one person is too many to go through this. This article walks through this process, which happens to be a success story, through a DC-based black woman with children. And again, this is a success story, where are the other sisters who are still struggling and how are we reaching them? Also,  Rep. Ayana Pressley and her husband Conan Harris recently did a joint interview on their own experiences with incarceration.

Before You Go

• Five open jobs on the job board! Submit your jobs with this online form for free for a limited time. Note that this week’s board is the main spreadsheet, as I had some technical difficulties with the other sheet.
• I’m working with esteemed Black architect Mel Mitchell, FAIA, NOMA, over the next few months to get the word out about his newest book of Black architectural history and commentary African-American Architects: Embracing Culture and Building Urban Communities. If you would like for him to come to your campus, bookstore or on your program, please also let me know.
• I’m still making custom infinity scarves and printing Les’s and I’s joint card line via the Kristpattern label. Check out its Instagram and DM me if you’re interested. 
• Book me— on your media platform, as a keynote/lecturer, for one of my workshops or as a panel participant. If you are a member of the press and you would love to get my expert commentary on deadline, you can reach me at (301) 578-6278.
• Les, that wonderful life partner and sales advisor of mine, is great at hyping you up, making you laugh and helping you or your organization make radical changes in your life and health. Join the email list for her company Les’s Lighthouse for periodic motivational and comedic updates. 
• Don’t forget to check out my mentee’s Rashida Green’s podcast which also discusses environmental issues from a black woman’s perspective. You can listen to me talk about some of North Carolina’s more notorious environmental issues and the political culture on this episode. 
• One last reminder for Black women-identified people to fill out the survey!
• You too can sponsor The Black Urbanist platform as a company, nonprofit organization, conference or event, institution or agency. Email us at theblackurbanist@gmail.com and we can schedule a call to discuss email, and social sponsorship options. Or, become an individual monthly supporter via Patreon or send me a one-time Venmo. Remember, Patreon supporters get exclusive audio from me and soon video!

Thanks for reading! You can get these messages in your email, support the platform financially on Patreon and a special audio edition of the newsletter; follow the platform on Facebook, Twitter, LinkedIN and Instagram and if you missed some of the previous weeklies, check out the archives.

This is The Black Urbanist Weekly. I’m Kristen Jeffers and I’m making this weekly digital newsletter, to share my Black, Spiritual, Diasporic North Carolinian, Working/Lower Middle-Class, Educated, Queer, CisFemme thoughts on how places and communities work. Think of this as my weekly column, sitting on your proverbial print paper’s editorial page or as so many other of your favorite newsletters do, in your inbox.

This is edition #24 and I’m back this week with something that ties my previous two months series—To City, With Love (Again) and my other series from January ‘“And That’s What Time It Is. I’m calling this week’s newsletter— Times When City Breaks My Heart and Inspires Me to Put It Back Together Again, to move us into the next phase of my work and presentations for you and others.

In case you’ve missed all the prior emails/newsletters/posts here they are:

• And That’s What Time It Is Part 1– Time To Make More Media, Not Less
• And That’s What Time It Is Part 2—To Create Inclusive Spaces and Walk Away from Those That Aren’t
• And That’s What Time It Is Part 3 —What Time Is It For North Carolina?
• And That’s What Time It Is Part 4 —Is Everything Up-to-Date in Kansas City?
• And That’s What Time It Is Part 5— The Time is Now for the Greater DC Region
• To City With Love (Again) Part 1 — What I Love About The City As A Black Woman
• To City With Love (Again) Part 2 — What I Love About the City As a (Black) Queer Woman
• To City With Love (Again) Part 3 — To City, With Love from a (Black, Queer) Entrepreneurial Woman on a Budget

Before we dig into this week’s edition, just a reminder that you can send all emails related to myself or The Black Urbanist to theblackurbanist@gmail.com.  Plus, author and esteemed Black architect Mel Mitchell has a very special announcement below, before you go. You can join them in advertising your company, organization, book, event, school or initiative by emailing theblackurbanist@gmail.com as well. And since this is an advertisement, yes, it helps keep the lights on here as well.

And, if you aren’t already, you can support the platform financially on a monthly basis using Patreon (and get an exclusive audio version of the newsletter) or one-time using Venmo. 

Times When City Breaks My Heart and Inspires Me to Put It Back Together Again 

It was about 1:30 a.m. I welcomed this rain, because despite the humidity, it was keeping the otherwise hot and balmy July weather at bay. I’d managed to figure out english basement living. 

Find somewhere to go during the day, namely a job or to co-working to work on my projects to get myself some sun. Make dinner with friends at their larger, brighter place so you don’t have to be alone in the dark. Get that Damp-Eze that the Target four blocks away sells in abundance and be ready to swap it out almost daily so it doesn’t smell like wet basement and the bag of water doesn’t explode. 

Remember that the walls can swell and get damp, so don’t put your clothes against them, even when they are dirty. Run the air conditioner and the fan and take comfort that you have more control than the main part of the house upstairs, despite not having central heat and air.

Again, it’s 1:30 a.m. and the fan’s running and it’s making the kind of noises that fans do. In fact, the fan’s running so consistently, it’s making you think of waves at the beach. Rising and crashing, creating a nice rhythm that soothes your anxiety. 

But then you start to hear crackles and pops. You look down and see water rushing out of your fan and quickly spring to action. It’s a good thing you looked down so you didn’t soak your feet in the pool of dark water at the foot of your bed. 

You thought you’d conquered english basement living. But, you weren’t ready to swim in this pool.

——

If anything breaks my heart about city living, it’s how despite the vitality and healing that comes from people joining together to create communities, the capitalized, corporatized, colonized, appropriated version of that is killing us. 

People created their own villages and communities naturally over millennia. However, some communities decided that instead of working together to create their own means of survival,  they needed to colonize and pillage other settlements. Rather than share and uplift, it’s about give and take.

This cycle repeats itself and places and communities often shift roles. However, as much as I try to create a sharing and uplifting community, the give and take community is stronger and larger and been at their work longer.

And my heart gets squeezed and time seems to slow down and close in as the panic combines and then I feel lifeless and that my work doesn’t matter and …

——

So this is where time and heart come together and feed my fatalism. I know I’m not alone, but that’s not enough. When the rent keeps rising. Jobs tell me I’m doing well but I still have one more thing to do to get right. And if I don’t get it right, I’m back on the hunt. A deeper sword is when funding has strings that are easily frayed and cut, despite me making something of myself no matter what. Healthcare that’s either expensive or fragmented and I’m already having a panic attack, so that’s not helping. Faith that claims the doors are open, but not if you keep acting and believing like that. Everyone feeling the crunch and raising their rates to survive and to get what they’re worth, but the worth number seems to be rising. Are we not worth anything at birth, at zero, at the top of the hour?

——

Despite all of this, there’s still a glimmer of hope and optimism in my heart. My favorite time of the day is the early morning. I hearken back to when my dad and I would get in the car and drive to the Waffle House and as the waffles and syrup started flowing in my belly, the sun crests over the east. These days, a similar wonderful moment hits when the sun first hits our bodies and Les and I exchange our first set of I love yous before all the other energy of the day has a chance to push and pull against us.

It’s great to be able to do it in our own apartment. With access to transportation. With the healthcare we need. Finally, with occupations, either self-led or with people who trust us to do the job. And a great village of people to lift us up and keep us out of despair. With huge hearts and plenty of time.

——

Over the next weeks, I’m operating in a theme and spirit of chance and opportunity. This week touched on how much that’s a factor in everything I do. I could be doing well and the shoe drops. But, I’ve been inspired to do a few new things. 

First, I am adding an audio version of these newsletters, to Patreon, which you can access at the $5 and up level. 

Second, I want to zero in on talking with black women, black women entrepreneurs and LGTBQIA+ folks of all stripes around urbanism and placemaking. I’m creating a survey based on February’s love measures, with a few questions thrown in around housing, transportation and healthcare. I want to know if these cities from the recent CityLab study measure up to my own metrics and even some of the metrics they claim to focus on. Look for that in the coming weeks and a report back on results after that.

Third, I’ll be doing less storytelling in this newsletter and more of the things like the On My Mind section a, along with other book reviews, as I get closer to my own book release. I’m aiming to have a pre-order link in the email at the end of the month.

The goal is to center the conversation of urbanism, at least the one I’m having, around black women, black women entrepreneurs and LGBTQIA+ folks, but anyone else is welcome to listen and you’ll want to listen and be part of this conversation, as it will not be inhibited by any institutions, and as my financial support increases, these conversations and data sets can grow and be used for positive change.

So, I’ll be back next week, with the openings of the survey and more thoughts like the next section.

Other Things On My Mind

My tribute to NASA mathematician Katherine Johnson…

I’m giving flowers to our great ancestor Katherine Johnson. If the name doesn’t ring a bell despite being all over science and black excellence social media over the past week, this is the woman who was instrumental in helping calculate equations that allowed not just satellites to orbit the earth (giving us this here internet), but helping people get to the moon. If you’ve seen the movie Hidden Figures, she’s the person Taraji P. Henson portrayed.

What’s so remarkable about this woman is not just what she did for NASA and global spaceflight , but doing so in a black body twice oppressed by white supremacy and patriarchy. The movie touched on how she was a black girl genius who managed through her mastery of equations and the mentorship of communitymembers to get the education she needed. However, despite being one of the first to integrate her graduate school, she opted to marry, have three children and be a classroom teacher in a rural Virginia school.

Yet, she was able to find out about the position to use her extraordinary talent with what would become NASA.  She was able to the permission of her husband to do so during a time when that was something that in some cases was socially required and in other cases, was mandated by law.  He uprooted his life and family to allow his wife to be the breadwinner and pursue her dreams and use her extraordinary brain. 

Now he didn’t live much longer after they moved to Hampton for her to take the position and he could have been sick and that’s what influenced his decision with the thought of having more money in the household and the security of a federal job. 

Still, she was able to bless us and so many others with her talent, her mentorship and her longevity. Rest in power and relax in paradise.

As we roll up in to Super Tuesday…

I know many of you on this newsletter are already voting, and several of you are so involved with the political process, you’re running the board of elections, judging your election precincts, canvassing for candidates and drawing and enacting policy. 

What I want us to remember is that we have that power and no one needs to buy it from us to get it done. It’s tempting to fall prey to the lures of more money or a kickback or even just staying on a job and planning something that you know is going to hurt people down the road. I know many of us have families we care for and the systems that we are trying to dismantle are doing everything they can to draw us in the black hole. But there’s hope and there are options. 

Also, I am including Rebecca Nagle’s tweet for clarity around exactly what Cherokee Nation members are asking for from Elizabeth Warren in terms of informing people on how claims of Native ancestry that turn out to be wrong also hurt other marginalized and minoritized groups. Here’s a thread from LA Times reporter Adam Elmahrek that includes more information about this issue and also their previous article I linked to a while back that discusses how MWBE and similar programs have been hogged by those claiming false Native ancestry. 

And while this is a Charleston-based New York Times interactive article highlighting the black church and Black Youth Project 100 canvassing efforts, you could tell me this was done at any of the smaller churches my family goes to and in the housing projects I grew up next to in and around Greensboro and it would make sense.

Before You Go

• Four open jobs on the job board! Submit your jobs with this online form for free for a limited time.

• I’m working with esteemed Black architect Mel Mitchell, FAIA, NOMA, over the next few months to get the word out about his newest book of Black architectural history and commentary African-American Architects: Embracing Culture and Building Urban Communities. If you would like for him to come to your campus, bookstore or on your program, please also let me know.

• I’m still making custom infinity scarves and printing Les’s and I’s joint card line via the Kristpattern label. Check out its Instagram and DM me if you’re interested. 

• Book me— on your media platform, as a keynote/lecturer, for one of my workshops or as a panel participant. If you are a member of the press and you would love to get my expert commentary on deadline, you can reach me at (301) 578-6278.

• Les, that wonderful life partner and sales advisor of mine, is great at hyping you up, making you laugh and helping you or your organization make radical changes in your life and health. Join the email list for her company Les’s Lighthouse for periodic motivational updates. Follow her on Linked-IN for a very special motivational challenge this month. 

• Don’t forget to check out my mentee’s Rashida Green’s podcast which also discusses environmental issues from a black woman’s perspective. You can listen to me talk about some of North Carolina’s more notorious environmental issues and the political culture on this episode. 

• You too can sponsor The Black Urbanist platform as a company, nonprofit organization, conference or event, institution or agency. Email us at theblackurbanist@gmail.com and we can schedule a call to discuss email, and social sponsorship options. Or, become an individual monthly supporter via Patreon (which comes with an exclusive audio version of the newsletter and more bonuses) or send me a one-time Venmo. Remember, Patreon supporters get exclusive audio from me and soon video!

Thanks for reading! You can get these messages in your email, support the platform financially on Patreon and get an exclusive audio version of the newsletter; follow the platform on Facebook, Twitter, LinkedIN and Instagram and if you missed some of the previous weeklies, check out the archives.

This is The Black Urbanist Weekly. I’m Kristen Jeffers and I’m making this weekly digital newsletter to share my Black, Spiritual, Diasporic North Carolinian, Working/Lower Middle-Class, Educated, Queer, CisFemme thoughts on how places and communities work. Think of this as my weekly column, sitting on your proverbial print paper’s editorial page or as so many other of your favorite newsletters do, in your inbox.

This is edition #23 and I’m back this week with the second to last post of my love theme—To City, With Love (Again). This is still Black History Month and I’ll be sharing and tweeting various historical things. However, the way I really wanted to celebrate this month was to dig into what I love about cities, but centered on my identities as a black woman (two weeks ago) black queer woman (last week) and a black queer woman entrepreneur on a budget  (this week). Next week, I have a bonus email that ties together both the love and the time series and has another announcement about my upcoming book.

The title of the series comes from an edition of a prior iteration of my newsletter from 2014. Hence the again, as I’m revisiting the idea of dedicating myself to a city with love.

Before we dig into this week’s edition, just a reminder that you can send all emails related to myself or The Black Urbanist to theblackurbanist@gmail.com.  Plus, Rail~Volution 2020 and author and esteemed Black architect Mel Mitchell have very special announcements below, before you go. You can join them in advertising your company, organization, book, event, school or initiative by emailing theblackurbanist@gmail.com as well. And since this is an advertisement, yes, it helps keep the lights on here as well.

And, if you aren’t already, you can support the platform financially on a monthly basis using Patreon or one-time using Venmo. 

And now, to city with love (again), as a (black, queer) entrepreneurial woman on a budget.

To City, With Love (Again) Part 3: What I Love About the City As a (Black, Queer) Entrepreneurial Woman on a Budget

So last week, I talked about what gets me head over heels for a city from just my black ciswoman perspective. Last week, I stacked my sexual orientation layer on top. This week, it’s back to business, as I discuss what I need, within those identities, for cities to get my love and support as an entrepreneurial black queer woman on a budget.

For those of you have followed all of my moves and travels (for the record it’s Greensboro—>Raleigh—> Durham—> Greensboro—>Kansas City—> DC proper—>Baltimore—> DC proper—> Just over the DC line in Maryland with lots of travel and some apartment moves in between), you probably have wondered how I get work done. 

Plus, I’m working at any moment with less than $2000 average monthly cash flow and have for my entire working career both employed and self-employed, no matter how cheap or expensive the city is known to be. Name a city and my income has probably been between the poverty line and the median income. 

Again, you’re probably wondering how I get it all done. I’ll save the full analysis of that for another newsletter.

I also saved this reflection for last because I wanted to build up the case for why someone like me, an entrepreneur who is supposed to be dedicated to cost-cutting and doing business where it’s the cheapest, would stay in an expensive metro area.

One key reason is that (as I discussed in a previous edition of the newsletter on creating and leaving spaces) capital flows differently based on the two intersections of my identity I talked about in the last two weeks. 

I’ve found that it’s best to feed my soul and then work on stacking my bank account. The following three things are the first level of me establishing my foundation financially in any city:

Affordable Prepared Food Options + Affordable Wages for People Who Prepare Food

It’s really a shame that it’s become harder to find good food. After all, if we don’t eat, we die. But, when you’re busy running a business, especially one like mine that’s basically me and my laptop, the food thing is vital. Even on days when I don’t work out, and days when I don’t have to go outside, I still have to eat.

And sometimes, I can muster up the extra energy, after the information overload, after processing the ups and downs of business, to do more than put rice and beans in my InstaPot. I’m happy that my partner Les loves cooking and will spice up my food life sometimes. But, at other times, the only thing keeping us from the throes of hangry, is a frozen pizza.

I do support higher food prices when that extra cost goes directly to my fellow baristas, line cooks and supermarket clerks. Especially in non-unionized places, the money goes further and in this and other high-cost-of-living regions, the bite is felt even harder when you are on a fixed income. For several months of my time in DC, I’ve worked minimum wage jobs to have the time to work on the platform. Other times, I’ve gotten more lucrative contracts.

Which is why I believe one day my income will increase.  I perform professional services, something for which people pay high rates, especially as you become more well-known. 

However, for folks who will always be punching a clock daily, that’s not guaranteed. We can’t all be in professional services. And one day, some of the service jobs will be completely automated. It’s why I support some form of Universal Basic Income, as do those who released this recent State of the Black Woman Report.

Affordable Fitness and Recreation Options

Working for myself and having a tight budget makes me want to stay in bed and write all the time. But, then after about the sixth hour in bed, I realize I have a random ache. 

Or worse, I’m shutting off my laptop and chucking it on the bedroom floor, frustrated over writer’s block. 

And both come sometimes after reading the sheer amount of information that comes across my social feeds, my email boxes and even sometimes TV if I happen to have it on in the background.

(It’s also why I’m so grateful that you take the time to make this part of my information diet) 

At that point, I realize it’s time to take a break and move around. My preferred methods of doing that are going to my gym (currently Planet Fitness because I can get so much for a good rate and it’s right across the street) or head down to one of the waterfronts. I’ll park the car and I’ll take one of the riverfront trails. 

I also take advantage of helping Les cut down on her office commute time by taking her to work via the car, then stopping at a nearby shopping plaza that has a Planet Fitness, Aldi, CVS, library branch (and bonus arcade) in it. 

I have looked up and realized I’ve spent the whole day in this plaza and then it’s just a quick whip around the corner and evening carpool time is on!

We underestimate the power of recreation centers and natural areas in our communities, even when we can afford other venues like Planet Fitness or an even more pricey gym. I grew up going down the street with my dad to our local rec and I’ve done one of my crafting classes at a then nearby DC rec. All paid for with tax dollars. And the memories and joy that come created from my recent waterfront walks can’t be measured in money.

I finished writing this email after another good night of sleep. Don’t underestimate the time you need to rest and recreate, especially if you are running your own small business.

Affordable and Efficient Ways to Obtain Information and Do Work

This is the time for me to give a full shout-out to the library. In the first part of this series, I talked about how the library was there for me to provide community in craft. However, the first role the library has provided is a free place with wi-fi for me to work on things outside of my prior apartments, which in the case of my first two here in DC, were dark. 

I’ve paid for co-working spaces before and that’s been great, but so far, the nature of my work has been best suited to making time to work from home and then branch out to a library or coffee shop.

The coffeeshop goes back to the affordable food issue I discussed above, as in I still have to pay for something. The library just requires me to find an empty space to sit.

Plus, while I’ve not taken advantage of all the programs many of the local libraries have, they have many. You name the source or resource and if my branch doesn’t have it, another one does and if no branches in that library system do, library systems from other places, places that are sometimes only a block or two away, do.

You also don’t have to be in the library for services. The advent of ebooks and journal access that come to you for having a library card is unmatched.

And so many librarians and library systems are priding themselves on being that third place. They are adding as many programs as they can. Some even let you eat as long as you clean up after yourself and talk, as long as you’re not too loud or in a meeting space.

But, we know there’s a bigger piece to all of this

All these things are well and good when you have the main pillars of affordability: housing, transportation, and utilities. Next week in the bonus round of this series: how income sources, affordable transportation, and affordable housing affects everything else I’ve talked about over the last three weeks, especially this week. If you’ve been reading these and wondering when I was going to address this, it’s coming.

Other Things On My Mind

• Now, I’m ready to do some political endorsements. I’ve been a fan of Elizabeth Warren for a long time, way before the recent debate,  especially considering the economics I talked about at the beginning of this newsletter. I also like how she’s pledged to listen and be held accountable specifically by black women. I’ve decided to be vocal because as much as Bloomberg has sent money, purchased publications and offered training and support to local elected leaders, you shouldn’t have to endorse someone in order to get what you need for your city. Plus, if anyone is shocked at these black community endorsements, I went off on that on a thread. Also a fan of Rhonda Foxx in my hometown congressional district, and wishing the best to friend-of-the -platform Natalie Murdock, and it’s been great to see my hometown learn more about Ayanna Pressley. You can check Ballotpedia and type in your address to learn exactly who is on your ballot and make your own choices. So many of you are voting in the next couple of weeks, and I hope you take that opportunity to do so. 
• I’m saving most of my thoughts on Vision Zero reform for the book and a future newsletter. However, this thread gave me an opportunity to share some thoughts and I couldn’t wait to get them off my chest.
• Visible: Out on Television was worth me spending my Apple TV+ free trial on it. But other than the Peanuts characters…not much else is.

Before You Go

—Two open jobs on the job board! Submit your jobs with this online form for free for a limited time.

–Rail~Volution 2020 is coming up and they’ve reached out to me to let you know that they are looking for speakers for this year. If you live in or plan on being in Miami September 20-23 and want to share a transit or community development-related project, head to https://railvolution.org/the-conference/conference-information/call-for-speakers/. The call for speakers ends on February 28th. There are also scholarships available.

— I’m also working with esteemed architect Mel Mitchell, FAIA, NOMA, over the next few months to get the word out about his newest book of Black architectural history and commentary African-American Architects: Embracing Culture and Building Urban Communities. 

—Check out Kristpattern on Instagram and DM me if you’re interested in anything for sale over there. It’s not too late to get one of the cards from the Les’s Lighthouse collection and they’re great for helping you or a friend turn your wishes into reality in 2020.

— Book me— on your media platform, as a keynote/lecturer, for one of my workshops or as a panel participant. If you are a member of the press and you would love to get my expert commentary on deadline, you can reach me at (301) 578-6278.

—Les, that wonderful life partner and sales advisor you learned so much about above, is great at hyping you up, making you laugh and helping you or your organization make radical changes in your life and health. Join the email list for her company Les’s Lighthouse and look out for a special announcement from her on March 1. In the meantime, you can listen to her podcast.

—Don’t forget to check out my mentee’s Rashida Green’s podcast which also discusses environmental issues from a black woman’s perspective. You can listen to me talk about some of North Carolina’s more notorious environmental issues and the political culture.

— You too can sponsor The Black Urbanist platform as a company, nonprofit organization, conference or event, institution or agency. Email us at theblackurbanist@gmail.com and we can schedule a call to discuss email and social sponsorship options. Or, become an individual monthly supporter via Patreon or send me a one-time Venmo.

Thanks for reading! You can get these messages in your email, support the platform financially on Patreon and get special bonuses; follow the platform on Facebook, Twitter, LinkedIN and Instagram and if you missed some of the previous weeklies, check out the archives.

Welcome back to The Black Urbanist Weekly. I’m Kristen Jeffers and I’m currently producing this weekly digital newsletter on my site, via email and various other places, to share my thoughts, my Black, Spiritual, Southern, Working-Class, Educated, Queer, Femme thoughts on how places and communities work. Think of this as my weekly column, sitting on your proverbial print paper’s editorial page or as so many other of your favorite newsletters do, in your inbox.

This is edition #22 and I’m back this week on the day of love, with my love theme—To City, With Love (Again). This is still Black History Month and I’ll be sharing and tweeting various historical things. However, the way I really wanted to celebrate this month was to dig into what I love about cities, but centered on my identities as a black woman (last week) queer woman (this week) and a woman entrepreneur on a budget(next week).

The title of the series comes from an edition of a prior iteration of my newsletter from 2014. Hence the again, as I’m revisiting the idea of dedicating myself to a city with love.

Before we dig into this week’s edition, just a reminder on how to contact and support me:

• Send all emails related to myself or The Black Urbanist to theblackurbanist@gmail.com.
• Book me for one of my lectures and workshops or your own podcast, radio show, panel discussion or a custom keynote using this Google Form.
• If you are a member of the press and you would love to get my expert commentary on the deadline, you can reach me at (301) 578-6278.
• Submit jobs to the job board, using this Google Form. Note that posting jobs to this board will only be a free service for a limited time.

Rail~Volution 2020 has a very special announcement below, before you go. You can join them in advertising your company, organization event, school or initiative by emailing theblackurbanist@gmail.com as well.

Finally, if you aren’t already, you can support the platform financially on a monthly basis using Patreon or one-time using Venmo.

And now, to city, with love, as a (black) queer woman.

To City, With Love (Again) Part 2: What I Love About the City As a (Black) Queer Woman

So last week, I talked about what gets me head over heels for a city from just my black ciswoman perspective. However, this week, I’m stacking a layer on top, my sexual orientation. I’m a pansexual cis gender-conforming woman in a lesbian relationship with a black lesbian cis, but gender non-conforming woman. 

(A content note here— this is how we choose to identify. Note that another member of the LGBTQIA+ community may identify differently and chose different words. However, everyone is valid and it’s best to ask before assuming.)

We are millennials. We are not native Washingtonians, but we are Southerners. We are college graduates, but we also have working-class roots and understandings. We have an entrepreneurial spirit. We are very political, almost to the point of being left-radical, having both been involved in direct actions and political strategizing over the years. We are of faith, and yes, a faith that has adherents that don’t always accept all of our identities. Yes, even the Southerness, which might surprise some of you.

And so a city that makes me fall in love with it, also have to fall in love with us and what makes us us.

So what three things are those? Here they are from my perspective.

A community that honestly shrugs us off at worst and adores us at best.

We can go to Target without issues, no matter what corner of the community we are in racially and financially. 

Our first date was at one of those breweries that throws picnic tables out front and just enough of a bar in the middle to call itself a neighborhood bar. (Oh and it was in a poorly planned strip mall in the middle of DC, that’s been reclaimed for a post office, a used bookstore, and a storytelling center). We walked to my porch untouched, we had our first kiss un-interrupted. 

We’ve both lived and now live together in an all-black and Latinx neighborhood, and what we haven’t found is people harassing us for who we are and how we love.

A faith community that prays with us, not just for us

I was raised as a combination of Southern Baptist, National/Missionary Baptist, United Methodist and African Methodist Episcopal. The preaching talk radio and the gospel station alternated, with a small slither of the hip-hop station, the R&B station and the country station when my Dad really wanted to be cool. I went to church regularly until my teen years and quarterly throughout high school. 

During my undergraduate years at N.C. State, I still held onto a lot of my conservative social views, but I was absolutely a political liberal. My roommate from freshman year will tell you that I made a big deal about her organic food, and her lack of support for my Kerry/Lieberman poster, but we put that aside to go to events at the design school and to gatherings from a neo-Pentecostal church. I would occasionally attend the black church style service at the African-American Cultural Center and another mostly white Evangelical campus gathering in my Botany classroom. 

Then in 2007, I would leave that group and begin the journey over the last 13 years that led me to my current state not just as an out member of the LGBTQIA+ community, but as a progressive Christian, with a sprinkle of Buddhist Meditative practice (shoutout to our LGBTQIA Sangha meetup) and new agey manifestation and intention-setting. I would attend a very LGBTQIA-friendly United Church of Christ congregation when I was in Kansas City and later join a historic UCC congregation inn Downtown DC that would later close. And Les and I have had the privilege of worshiping at her home church, Metropolitan Community Church- DC (MCC-DC). 

Those of you who watched the recent L Word, will recognize that as the church the “priest” character presided over, and the denomination itself was started as a gay-friendly denomination back in 1968 in Los Angeles. Here in DC, they’ve hosted several recent Trans Nights of Remembrance.

But one of the things that stick out for me, is that at the end of every service, we take communion and we are prayed over, together, by a fellow queer elder.

And if something ever happened to MCC-DC, there are so many congregations of all faith and spirit traditions, that see us as human beings worthy of being vessels of spirit. 

And in cities that have always been havens for LGBTQIA folks, but barely guarantee shelter, employment, food, and even clothing, it’s good to know there’s at least somewhere to go, in addition to the library, that affirms our soul.

Celebrations that honor us, make us proud and expand our political position and civil rights.

For those of you not in the LGBTQIA+ community, or who don’t have a friend or loved one or colleague in the community (and of course, it’s becoming rarer for someone to even say this), the annual Pride Parade and Festival in each area is one of the key, positive ways members of the LGBTQIA+ community are seen and presented.

And for many of us in the community, it serves as a homecoming and a place to organize around issues we need to address. However, these celebrations can err too much on the corporate side, without honoring the history and the work that needs to be done to ensure full civil rights for our community.

I met Les doing transportation-related political work. However, I crushed on her after seeing her march with her church during the 2017 Capital Pride Parade. I’d just left a brunch after meeting a couple of new acquaintances, a brunch that advertised being acceptable to all the other alphabet letters along with L and G. While those acquaintances didn’t stick with me, she did. 

Now, even though we have yet to get to our first Pride together, we are looking forward to the celebration this coming year even as we acknowledge that Capital Pride has issues. There is no excuse for the shooting inspired by homo and transphobia that happened at last year’s Pride. Yet, we understood why the 2018 parade was blocked by those who feel the main Pride Parade and Festival, by allowing in institutions that on other days, actively discriminate, disenfranchise and diminish our quality of life. Which is why we were excited to see the return of a counter political march in 2019.

The securing of basic civil rights goes beyond the festival and march days. Much like I mentioned above, where does one go in the other months, weeks, weekends and days of the year to feel loved and accepted.

This is why it was so overdue that my hometown of Greensboro just opened a centrally-located LGBTQIA+ center. The DC Center has been a huge presence and help for me right here in the DMV. Plus so many other organizations exist here and in larger cities that cover various portions of the spectrum, such as Casa Ruby, that centers trans women and other women-identified members of our community. All places, city, suburban and rural, need safe spaces for all those in the LGBTQIA+ community.

We can celebrate, but we have must be human-first and not just a commodity. 

Those things, on top of what I talked about last week, are pillars of my love for a city. Next week, I’ll add the layer of being an entrepreneur on a startup budget.

Other Things On My Mind

• We feel this black homewownership crunch in DC too, and as renters and entrepreneurs who aren’t as politically tied as we once were, we do wonder if there’s still room, outside of the faith community, for us in DC. We also sympathize with a story in the same publication that zeroed in on a black Millennial woman renter.
• I hope we never become homeless in this area (or anywhere), because clearly, we wouldn’t be citizens and we would be a danger to children.
• And finally, I haven’t endorsed yet, but if you want to know where I’m at with the presidential race, this is where I am + this article that considers the extra burdens carried by women of color in political work.

Before You Go

• Two of these three job opportunities close in the next 48 hours. Submit your jobs with this online form for free for a limited time.
• Rail~Volution 2020 is coming up and they’ve reached out to me to let you know that they are looking for speakers for this year. If you live in or plan on being in Miami September 20-23 and want to share a transit or community development-related project, head to https://railvolution.org/the-conference/conference-information/call-for-speakers/. The call for speakers ends on February 28th. There are also scholarships available.
• Check out Kristpattern on Instagram and DM me if you’re interested in anything for sale over there. It’s not too late to get one of the cards from the Les’s Lighthouse collection and they’re great for helping you or a friend turn your wishes into reality in 2020.
• Book me— on your media platform, as a keynote/lecturer, for one of my workshops or as a panel participant. 
• Les, that wonderful life partner and sales advisor you learned so much about above, is great at hyping you up, making you laugh and helping you or your organization make radical changes in your life and health. Join the email list for her company Les’s Lighthouse and lookout for a special announcement from her on March 1. In the meantime, you can listen to her podcast.
• Don’t forget to check out my mentee’s Rashida Green’s podcast which also discusses environmental issues from a black woman’s perspective. You can listen to me talk about some of North Carolina’s more notorious environmental issues and the political culture on this episode. 
• You too can sponsor The Black Urbanist platform as a company, nonprofit organization, conference or event, institution or agency. Email us at theblackurbanist@gmail.com and we can schedule a call to discuss email, and social sponsorship options. Or, become an individual monthly supporter via Patreon or send me a one-time Venmo.

Thanks for reading! You can get these messages in your email, support the platform financially on Patreon and get special bonuses; follow the platform on Facebook, Twitter, LinkedIN and Instagram and if you missed some of the previous weeklies, check out the archives.

Welcome back to The Black Urbanist Weekly. I’m Kristen Jeffers and I’m currently producing this weekly digital newsletter on my site, via email and various other places, to share my thoughts, my Black, Spiritual, Southern, Working-Class, Educated, Queer, Femme thoughts on how places and communities work. Think of this as my weekly column, sitting on your proverbial print paper’s editorial page or as so many other of your favorite newsletters do, in your inbox.

This is edition #21 and I’m back this week with a new theme—To City, With Love (Again). This is, of course, Black History Month and I’ll be sharing and tweeting various historical things. However, the way I really wanted to celebrate this month was to dig into what I love about cities, but centered on my identities as a black woman (this week) queer woman (next week) and a woman entrepreneur on a budget(the following week).

The title of the series comes from an edition of a prior iteration of my newsletter from 2014. Hence the again, as I’m revisiting the idea of dedicating myself to a city with love.

Before we dig into this first installment though, I wanted to let you know about some changes in how I receive correspondence and requests.
With all the issues I’ve been having with my email and unfortunately are still having with my email and some of the links in this very newsletter,

I’ve gone through and established new, verified communication channels. I still would love to work with you and I am very sorry that’s been hard to do with some of the broken links and emails.
For the time being, you can send all emails related to myself or The Black Urbanist to theblackurbanist@gmail.com.

You can book me for one of my lectures and workshops oryour own podcast, radio show, panel discussion or a custom keynote using this Google Form.

If you are a member of the press and you would love to get my expert commentary on deadline, you can reach me at (301) 578-6278.
You can submit jobs to the job board, using this Google Form. Note that posting jobs to this board will only be a free service for a limited time.

And finally, Rail~Volution 2020 has a very special announcement below, before you go. You can join them in advertising your company, organization event, school or initiative by emailing theblackurbanist@gmail.com as well.

And now, to city with love, as a black woman.

To City, With Love (Again) Part 1: What I Love About the City As a Black Woman

The first time I wrote a newsletter on this topic, back in 2014, I had three things I loved about the city, in general. First, it was the transportation networks. Then it was the literary and artistic culture. Finally, I loved the abundance of food.

I was in my last full year living in North Carolina and having only lived in North Carolina. My mind was looking ahead to my eventual moves. It was deep in the fantasy of what living in another city, a bigger city, and one not named Charlotte or Raleigh or Greensboro would look like.

It was about not needing to drive anywhere because buses and trains were in abundance. How there were so many museum options— for free or low cost. A standout for me was the Museum of Contemporary Art Chicago, which I’d decided to walk in on a trip to go to a Zara for the first time, during a work visit to Chicago in 2012. And it was all kinds of food and I took for granted how easy it was to get Bojangles or a Carolina-style hamburger or hot dog.

I still love those things, but in my black womanhood, what makes me love a city comes down to these three things in this phase, this post-move, post coming out phase of my life.

First, it’s a hair salon that gets me and what I’m trying to do. Many of you with what’s known in the curly hair world as a 3a texture or above struggle with this, no matter your ethnic background.
For black women, especially those of us whose hair doesn’t actually curl, but kink, this can get even more fraught. I would love to, even if I can’t get back to my salon experience in Greensboro, have somewhere that’s not too much of my budget, knows how to do all the kinds of styles one would want in a healthy manner, isn’t stupid inconvenient to get to and isn’t homo and transphobic or anti-feminist.

Getting my hair done is a refuge for me, even more so than nails. I’m in there longer generally and it’s one of the few places in any city that I’ve been able to find other black women and femme-leaning people consistently and in a state of joy. Hence why it’s first on my list of finding comfort in any city.

Second, I never underestimate the value of having a place that cooks food as my family did back in North Carolina. Or, that cooks food that can take me back to that kind of place. It was sad to hear that so many notable black cooks who try to do this nationwide, still struggle in this world of peak restaurant, namely because racism in lending is still a thing. Folks, comfort food is real. It may not be always “soul food”, but it’s food that feeds my soul and when I feel like the rest of the world is against me, I need to know I can roll up in that drive-thru or that shack door and find a little bit of solace.

Third, this is more of a luxury, but having a handcrafting circle that looks like my mom’s sewing room. I’ve been fortunate to find that here in the DC-area specifically and the generational exchange and knowledge have been top-notch. Much like I was concerned about some black-owned salons being cool with me being queer as a straight-appearing person, I worried about the same thing in my craft circles. So far, no big deal, especially at the ones at the public libraries I try to frequent. Emphasis on try, as I get too busy. (Hence why my Kristpattern venture’s a little dormant, but it’s coming back!).

I alluded to what makes life in the city extra lovable for my queerness, but we’ll leave that to next week, and in the following week, I’ll talk about what’s saved my life as someone who cycles through the challenges of being an entrepreneur, when things seem to not stop being more and more expensive.

Other Things On My Mind

• I couldn’t stomach watching the State of the Union, but I did read and want you to read as well, this one centered on women of color from ZORA Magazine.
• Need a new wine pairing? There’s a black woman that can help you with that and even craft your own wine.
• I also need to shout out the Black Beer Chick who is doing the same for beer.

Before You Go

—Check out the three open job opportunities this week. Submit your jobs with this online form.

—Rail~Volution 2020 is coming up and they’ve reached out to me to let you know that they are looking for speakers for this year. If you live in or plan on being in Miami September 20-23 and want to share a transit or community development-related project, head to https://railvolution.org/the-conference/conference-information/call-for-speakers/. The call for speakers ends on February 28th. There are also scholarships available.

—Check out Kristpattern on Instagram and DM me if you’re interested in anything for sale over there. It’s not too late to get one of the cards from the Les’s Lighthouse collection and they’re great for helping you or a friend turn your wishes into reality in 2020.

— Book me— on your media platform, as a keynote/lecturer, for one of my workshops or as a panel participant.

—Les, my wonderful life partner, and sales advisor, is great at hyping you up, making you laugh and helping you or your organization make radical changes in your life and health. Join the email list for her company Les’s Lighthouse and lookout for a special announcement from her on March 1.

—Don’t forget to check out my mentee’s Rashida Green’s podcast which also discusses environmental issues from a black woman’s perspective. You can listen to me talk about some of North Carolina’s more notorious environmental issues and the political culture on this episode.

— You too can sponsor The Black Urbanist platform as a company, nonprofit organization, conference or event, institution or agency. Email us at theblackurbanist@gmail.com and we can schedule a call to discuss email, and social sponsorship options. Thanks again for your monthly pledge!

Thanks for reading! You can get these messages in your email, support the platform financially on Patreon and get special bonuses; follow the platform on Facebook, Twitter, LinkedIN and Instagram and if you missed some of the previous weeklies, check out the archives.

Welcome back to The Black Urbanist Weekly. I’m Kristen Jeffers and I’m currently producing this weekly digital newsletter on my site, via email and various other places, to share my thoughts, my Black, Spiritual, Southern, Working-Class, Educated, Queer, Femme thoughts on how places and communities work. 

Think of this as my weekly column, sitting on your proverbial print paper’s editorial page or as so many other of your favorite newsletters do, in your inbox.

This is Edition #20 and the last edition in my series “And That’s What Time It Is”.

The series title comes from a saying that my dad used to use after making a bold statement. I’ve used the statement to ask and declare the following:

—  To make more quality media

— To make more inclusive and safe spaces, especially for black women in urbanism.

— For my home state of North Carolina to live up to it’s state motto and to be rather than to seem.

—And that everything is up-to-date in Kansas City.

This week, DC, Maryland and Virginia, specifically the Richmond to Baltimore Corridor, the time is now.

Even though I’d made my customary wishes in December of 2019, I felt inspired by the coming of 2020 and the talk of a new decade altogether, to make even bolder statements about what these times mean for us.

Before we dig in to this last installment though, Rail~Volution 2020 has a very special announcement below, before you go. You can join them in advertising your event, school or initiative. Email us at les@theblackurbanist.com for rates and information on packages.

Or, become an individual monthly supporter via Patreon or send me a one-time Venmo.

Also, our @theblackurbanist.com emails are back up and running. Thanks for your patience.

And now, what time it is for the DMV.

And That’s What Time it Is Part 5: The Time is Now for the DC, Maryland, Virginia (DMV) Metro Region.

For so much of this series, I’ve been calling for changes in areas I  once lived in or that start inside my mind and heart. This week is where the two come together. Originally, I had planned to release this on January 31. However, it’s actually February 2nd (02/02/20) and this month’s theme is love. You’re going to get a bit of the love of city perspective too. 

It’s a good meeting place because outside of Greensboro, DC was one of the first cities I loved. In fact, it was the site of my first out-of-state trip at the age of five in 1991. My mom and I took the train to Union Station and then were picked up by my uncle and aunt and we drove up to their then home bordering Ellicot City and  Columbia, the famously racially-diverse town built halfway between DC and Baltimore. 

I immediately thought Union Station was the best building ever, questioned why there weren’t any two story McDonalds and Wendys at home in Greensboro and I thought electronic dancing flowers were only sold at the Columbia Mall Spencer’s Gifts. Oh and I always thought I was imagining that the mall food court and the platform from the Carolinian were semi-underground, but I’ve sense verified that this is true.

That childhood trip implanted the DC/Baltimore region on my mind as THE REGION and a place to aspire to for growth. It’s been the endpoint to so many of my early solo road trips. GRO/WAS has been the bulk of my Amtrak mileage.  That aunt and uncle from earlier later moved to the Hampton Roads region and I have another aunt and uncle there. It’s also my partner Les’s hometown region. I have several good friends from and living in Richmond. It’s the only place I could think of coming to, after I decided in 2016 that I wanted to take an active role in where I lived and why, that wasn’t quite home, but was home enough.

I used to have this photo of the National Mall hanging in my room at my mom’s house and for those of you who also believe in the power of visualization and manifestation, I think that photo had a huge role in me ending up here too.

But, like all childhood dreams and wishes, even when they do come true, we realize they are imperfect.

I’ve learned that the hard way over the nearly four years I’ve been a resident in this region. 

And that’s why the time is now for this region to step up and meet several wishes that residents have. What are mine in particular?

Statehood for the District 

There are a number of other states that are smaller population wise, so let’s get that criticism out of the way. And, the paperwork and frameworks are set for how at the stroke of the presidential pen, the Douglass Commonwealth would assume all workings of a state seamlessly.  Plus, with us having a state apparatus, but still benefiting from the existing state apparatuses of our adjacent counties, we should absorb all the counties and jurisdictions in the Metropolitan Washington Council of Governments into one big state, not just the existing District of Columbia. 

Yes, I know it’s a blue state. I know it may leave other states surrounding it behind. But, it would culturally connect a region that suffers from being more than one state level (and sometimes local level) jurisdiction. 

We have come to gather before on projects like Metro and the Wilson Bridge, could we not expand our thinking as a region and formalize it into a common state?

Finalizing The Transit Corridor That Creates This Super State. 

Yes, the highways and roads exist, but the congestion is high and it’s part of what makes Baltimore’s and DC’s downtown cores seem so far apart. 

Job centers are spread out all over this mega region and some people drive daily from the Northern Baltimore suburbs to the far West and Southern DC suburbs for jobs. 

The talk of expanding commuter rail is at a fever pitch, for good reason. Even though I live in a more suburban portion  at the moment, when I can take the car to a Park and Ride and just worry about using transit in the core of DC daily, it puts my mind at ease. Yet, when I lived in Baltimore City, it was frustrating that for a city of similar density, driving was the only real option, as real-time transit tracking had only just made its way to the city. 

And then there’s the reality that Les’ and I’s  commute is shorter and cheaper when we carpool together and use our proximity to the Wilson Bridge and West Alexandria, where she works, to our advantage. I’ve only worked at L’Enfant Plaza and the Watergate since we’ve been together and I’ve been working, but of course, this could all change. 

That’s why we have to fix our transit systems. We are a region of constantly shifting work and family priorities and we are closer than we think, at least on paper.

Being A Refuge for Queer Black/Indigenous People of Color,  Not Just Honoring Our History

Some of you may have seen this article in the Nation about how black DC residents were holding drag balls not long after becoming free from enslavement. 

If we are going to go as far as making a new state, we could also be a known safe region for once homeless queer youth, beef up DC’s well known youth job program and ensure all members of the queer community regardless of age have steady and fulfilling employment or business funding.

Every jurisdiction should ensure not just the safety of trans and gender non-conforming folks, but in being a place they know they can be employed at high levels. I look to Philly in their hiring of a black trans woman as their Office of LGBT Affairs executive director as a standard bearer. And I’m seeing great things out of Baltimore’s LGBT office. The counties directly surrounding the District and Baltimore have to step up their efforts as well.   

Right now, I feel that we have the presence, but like everything else here, it still requires a degree of assimilation and that’s not the freedom or liberation anyone needs. 

Honoring the History of Being the Chocolate City and a Proud Magnet for Black Wealth and Creativity

We have never needed to diminish our black history and contributions to grow. Part of the childhood dream of getting to DC (or Atlanta) was that these were known as meccas for black excellence and achievement. 

I do feel like efforts to make the city solvent in the late 90s and 2000s swung the pendulum too far to the point that green is the only color that matters, not just in Federal/Beltway/Hill Washington, but regular parts of DC that were refuges for generations of black migrants from more hostile parts of the South. 

Also, this alludes to why we are having housing and education struggles that revolve around who gets to build what and learn what and where, both of which are just flat out racist, despite what some may think covers up the issue.

So yes, this is where I am and where we are. And this is because, I still have love for DC and want the absolute best for they’re people. Next week, the first full newsletter in my love series. This is a month where we declare love for ourselves and specifically love for black people. I’m going lean into that over the next few weeks. 

Other Things On My Mind

— A follow up to last week’s story about Moms 4 Housing— sadly, they still may not be able to purchase the home. But, I really appreciated this perspective on Essence on this issue from a black woman. 

—Speaking of black women telling their own urbanist stories, the blogosphere has grown with the addition of America’s Hidden Gem, highlighting black women architects.

— And yes, I feel some kind of way too, when a business has benefited from gentrification and all they think to do is to put on black music, and “generic” black music at that, and/or cook soul food for “aesthetic”, and then look at a group of black patrons as enemies or fail to consider black folks for staff positions.

Before You Go

—Just one active job opening this week. Submit your jobs with this online form. 

–Rail~Volution 2020 is coming up and they’ve reached out to me to let you know that they are looking for speakers for this year. If you live in or plan on being in Miami September 20-23 and want to share a transit or community development related project, head to https://railvolution.org/the-conference/conference-information/call-for-speakers/. The call for speakers ends on February 28th. There are also scholarships available.

—Check out Kristpattern on Instagram and DM me if you’re interested in anything for sale over there. It’s not too late to get one of the cards from the Les’s Lighthouse collection and they’re great for helping you or a friend turn your wishes into reality in 2020.

— Book me for a lecture, workshop or both.

—Les, my wonderful life partner and sales director, is great at hyping you up, making you laugh and helping you or your organization make radical changes in your life and health. Join her email list.

—Don’t forget to check out my mentee’s Rashida Green’s podcast which also discusses environmental issues from a black woman’s perspective. You can listen to me talk about some of North Carolina’s more notorious environmental issues and the political culture on this episode. 

— You too can sponsor The Black Urbanist platform as an nonprofit organization, conference or event, institution or agency. Email Les at les@thblackurbanist.com and she can send you our media kit and package options. Or, become an individual monthly supporter via Patreon or send me a one-time Venmo.

Thanks for reading! You can get these messages in your email, support the platform financially on Patreon and get special bonuses; follow the platform on Facebook, Twitter, LinkedIN and Instagram and if you missed some of the previous weeklies, check out the archives.

Welcome back to The Black Urbanist Weekly. I’m Kristen Jeffers and I’m currently producing this weekly digital newsletter on my site, via email and various other places, to share my thoughts, my Black, Spiritual, Southern, Working-Class, Educated, Queer, Femme thoughts on how places and communities work.

Think of this as my weekly column, sitting on your proverbial print paper’s editorial page or as so many other of your favorite newsletters do, in your inbox.

Thanks for coming back to this newsletter and if it’s your first time here, welcome! If someone forwarded you this newsletter and you want to keep receiving it, go here.


This is Edition #19 and I am continuing my series called “And That’s What Time It Is”, by asking if everything is really “up to date” in Kansas City.

The series title comes from a saying that my dad used to use after making a bold statement. I’ve used the statement to ask and declare the following this past month:

–To make more quality media.

–To make more inclusive and safe spaces, especially for black women in urbanism.

–For my home state of North Carolina to live up to it’s state motto and to be rather than to seem.

And this week, I’m saying that it’s time to get up to date in Kansas City.The post title alludes to the Rogers and Hammerstein song “Everything’s Up-to-Date in Kansas City” from their musical “Oklahoma”.

Next week, I’ll have a similar mandate for the Baltimore/Washington region and the next couple of months will be newsletters themed around love and chance.


If you would like to support this newsletter financially, you can do so by becoming an individual monthly supporter via Patreon or send me a one-time Venmo. You can also purchase a classified ad in my Before You Go section. Send me and my sales team an email at theblackurbanist@gmail.com and we will get right back to you.


One more announcement before we jump into this week’s letter, we are still working on getting our @theblackubanist.com email boxes sorted out from them suddenly not working at the end of 2019. Please continue to be patient with us and feel free to reply back to this email or email us directly at theblackurbanist@gmail.com if you want to reach me or the team for bookings, advertisements, questions with the job board or to say hello and thanks!

And now, onward to talk about how everything is and isn’t up-to-date in Kansas City.

And That’s What Time It Is Part 4— Is Everything Really Up-to-Date In Kansas City?

I hope so. No, I know so.

And I put that on one line because I don’t want those of you who read this letter and we crossed paths in my brief time in Kansas City to think this is just going to be a drag.

When I moved to KC in 2015, I was still in deep personal turmoil. I was very much still in the more violent points of grieving my father, who had just passed in 2013. I felt like I couldn’t meet certain gender and sexual expectations and I wasn’t fully out to my own self as to how I was different, besides in general not feeling like the “modern Southern Belle” that I was supposed to be.

Myself and my dear 2002 Honda Accord were in the drive-thru lines at Biscuitville every morning and the Stamey’s on what’s now Gate City Boulevard across from the coliseum in the evenings, drowning out my sorrows in my favorite comfort foods.

On Fridays for dinner, the Mayflower calabash seafood restaurant got thrown in that mix.

I’d been fired from my previous job with a prominent architecture firm and I was back living at home, with this platform and feeling miserable. And yes, in a romantic relationship, but there were missing links there too.

I’m including this analysis of my mental state prior to moving to KC, because I want anyone reading to understand that physical design doesn’t always save folks, even some of your favorite urbanists, from feeling some kind of way about how life is going.

Granite countertops can’t stop people from falling out of love in marriages. Shiny new playgrounds don’t always keep kids from experiencing all kinds of violence.

So many of you did your best to help me heal, thrive and grow in KC. And guess what, you did, even though my journey meant that I had to continue to journey and I needed to land in other places, pick up new things and fall in the kind of love that i’m in at the moment in this very place.

There’s a lot that’s going right in Kansas City and that the best thing to do, if you are an urbanist, activist, concerned citizen or even now a member of the KC diaspora, is to continue to check-in and evaluate where our greater mental state is. Check in on yourself, your family, your congregants, your citizens, your staff, check-in on everyone.

So many of you who I knew and knew of during my time in KC are doing bigger and better things that we were doing when I started my portion of this journey with you almost five years ago.

We’re sitting in the KCMO mayor’s office and on the city council. We are joining boards, committees, even staffs that we weren’t privy to in the past. We are taking over new and old pulpits and sacred spaces and injecting the kind of affirming life we need. We’re developing storefronts and stadiums and podcasts in all corners of the city and honoring our ancestors wildest dreams.

We are leading the country in asking and acting on how we can better provide transit services to all people. I felt really sad when I walked away from my bike/ped work and I’m really pleased to see my former organization continue to speak out, not just for bike issues, but pedestrian issues in all neighborhoods of the metro.

We’re being spotlighted on several national TV shows and we may have a recent Super Bowl win to add to our World Series pennant (seriously, cannot wait to see the city turn as red as it was blue back in 2015). Our NPR station continues to be one of the best in the country and their own series on the state of KC is not to be missed.

However, what’s sadly also up-to-date, are the problems with violence, gentrification, poverty and access to business capital, racism, trans and homo phobias that every city is facing and that the entire KC metro is facing in its own way along with everyone else.

The rents are higher. People are still dying, both from illness and from gunfire. The K-12 school situation is still a maze of districts and desires and classism and racism. We are two states, with many local jurisdictions outside of the schools, with all kinds of administrative and political views and ideas. We are getting that new airport, but I hope it’s both unique to the region and friendly to travelers. I can’t ignore what happened around the MLK/Paseo renaming, but I understand that it was complicated in a very specific way.

Every metro region confronts and faces issues differently. And yes, they all still hurt and harm, but in different ways, that don’t always have easy answers.

I think, just like everywhere I’ve lived and live, what wins out at the end of the day, is keeping it real, and listening especially to the concerns and the solutions of the most marginalized.

Yes, we are up-to-date and I’m due for yet another visit back. But, before then, I’m turning my eye next week to my current metro area, one that was always the apple in my eye, but like everywhere else, has a few sour apples rotting. More on what time it is for the Baltimore/Washington region, next week.

Other Things On My Mind

We need to break up real estate firms like the one those Oakland women were battling for the right to purchase the home they occupied last month at an affordable price. Thankful they can now purchase it, but we need to go beyond that and question how we let real estate become what it’s become. We must keep working on ensuring that everyone can have a home and a place to do their life’s best work. And acknowledging that so long ago, lands were stolen and people were enslaved in this country and we continue to steal and enslave in so many different, but just as destructive, ways.

I do agree that transit is systemically sexist, but it’s also systematically racist. And I hope that efforts to fix the sexism don’t fall into the bad intersection of creating safety efforts that turn around and marginalize others unnecessarily.

And finally, I like that this Transit Center report was explicit in evaluating that Nashville’s transit referendum failed by not having proper African-American support and buy-in. Once again, another lesson that far too many cites need to learn if they really expect to grow, without loss of culture or even citizenry.

Before You Go

—Check out this week’s job board. Submit your jobs with this online form.

—Check out Kristpattern on Instagram and DM me if you’re interested in anything for sale over there. It’s not too late to get one of the cards from the Les’s Lighthouse collection and they’re great for helping you or a friend turn your wishes into reality in 2020.

— Book me for a lecture, workshop or both.

—Les, my wonderful life partner and sales director, is great at hyping you up, making you laugh and helping you or your organization make radical changes in your life and health. In fact, you can join her in her Facebook group and her email list where she’s doing a 30 Day Manifestation and Wisdom Challenge to help us get ready to do well in 2020.

—Don’t forget to check out my mentee’s Rashida Green’s podcast which also discusses environmental issues from a black woman’s perspective. You can listen to me talk about some of North Carolina’s more notorious environmental issues and the political culture on this episode.

— Email theblackurbanist@gmail.com for information on advertising on The Black Urbanist platform as an nonprofit organization, conference or event, institution or agency. Or, become an individual monthly supporter via Patreon or send me a one-time Venmo.

Thanks for reading! You can get these messages in your email, support the platform financially on Patreon and get special bonuses; follow the platform on Facebook, Twitter, LinkedIN and Instagram and if you missed some of the previous weeklies, check out the archives.

Welcome back to The Black Urbanist Weekly. I’m Kristen Jeffers and I’m currently producing this weekly digital newsletter on my site, via email and various other places, to share my thoughts, my Black, Spiritual, Southern, Working-Class, Educated, Queer, Femme thoughts on how places and communities work. Think of this as my weekly column, sitting on your proverbial print paper’s editorial page or as so many other of your favorite newsletters do, in your inbox.

This week’s edition is #18 and this is the next email in my series “And That’s What Time It Is”. This week, I’m telling my home state North Carolina what time it is. Next week, Kansas City and finally on the last Friday of this month, it will be the Baltimore and DC region. Yes, the whole thing. Get ready. Before we get started, a few announcements:

This will be a weekends-only newsletter for at least the next few months while I’m on a full-time contract. Look for the newsletter as early as Friday night and as late as Sunday evening.

If you’ve tried to email me or reply back any time after December 27, I’ve found out that my email boxes through Bluehost have had issues connecting with Gmail. In the meantime, you can always reach me and the team at theblackurbanist@gmail.com and feel free to reply back to this email or email again if you still would like to reach us. I’ll update you when @theblackurbanist.com emails are back up.

You all really seemed to respond well to the new job board updates! I’m glad that I can be a help. 

For a limited time, you will still be able to post jobs and opportunities for free Go here to post a job and go here to post a scholarship, fellowship, grant or request for proposal. 

Also, you can place an ad of any kind, like an old school classified, in my Before You Go Section. Reply back (if you’re reading the email) or email theblackurbanist@gmail.com, with your budget and we will set a rate for you. Coming soon, an advertising-specific page.

You can always pledge monthly as an individual via Patreon or send me a one time donation via Venmo. 

And now, what time it is for North Carolina.

And That’s What Time It Is, Part 3: For North Carolina to Be Rather than To Seem

Esse quam videri

That’s our North Carolina state motto. It translates “To be, rather than to seem”. Those words have been our state motto since 1893. 

The more I reflect on those particular Latin words, I feel like that’s what embodies so many of my fellow North Carolinians— both native and transplant, in the diaspora and on the homefront.

However, we still have to be careful that we don’t seem as much as we be.

Thomas Wolfe famously said in his posthumously published 1940s novel You Can’t Go Home Again about his fictionalized, but very much Asheville of the early 20th century:

“They had squandered fabulous sums in meaningless streets and bridges. They had torn down ancient buildings and erected new ones large enough to take care of a city of half a million people. They had leveled hills and bored through mountains, making magnificent tunnels paved with double roadways and glittering with shining tiles — tunnels which leaped out on the other side into Arcadian wilderness. They had flung away the earnings of a lifetime, and mortgaged those of a generation to come. They had ruined their city, and in doing so had ruined themselves, their children, and their children’s children.”

Caveat. I did enjoy driving through the mountain tunnels for their novelty when I was in Asheville over the summer, but I could get to downtown just as well on the bypass that went over the valley. I’m well aware both roads have been the cause of much controversy and so do others today.

Every city in our state is wrestling with gentrification, which in this case I mean not being able to afford places, some of which had gone through a sharp drop in value not more than ten years prior. That also continues the charge of cultural erasure, some of which had started as early as integration and urban renewal, and mutated as we went through de-industrialization and the technology boom.

I feel that the struggle in Raleigh was what prompted Octavia Raineyin the Trinagle-based alt-weekly Indy Week’s 2040 predictions section to predict that black people in the City of Raleigh proper, which is at the moment 144.8 square miles and knocks on the door of every city it’s next to, would no longer have a black population. 

Yeah, whew. 

Meanwhile, in the same article on Raleigh, Carly P. Jones, a singer, arts administrator for the State of North Carolina and cultural activist, and also a woman of color, has hope that the Triangle (and the state) will continue to grow their arts community, a hope I share, as I admire the work she had a hand in with Come Hear NC and seeing so many musicians make it big outside of the state and still have their eyes on home. 

The Durham in the 2040s black commentators had similar things to say, but in a way that was true to the city they call home. Alexis Pauline Gumbs wrote a very Earthseedy reflection of how we came back to ourselves and how we managed to create and listen in the midst of climate challenges. Thomasi McDonald spoke of the need to practice Sankofa, the West African principle of going back and collecting what you’ve lost before you move forward. Specifically, Durham needed to reckon with urban renewal fully, before being able to ensure that we would be better in 2040.

So many of the other Indy Week future predictors though that we can just build and park and transit our way into a future where everything is equal. However, without considering what makes up our soul and manifests through our culture and our care for each other, this kind of building will be doing what seems right, instead of doing what is right.

I already addressed my wishes for North Carolina. But this is my heart. May we continue to centralize our services, create affirming spaces to cultivate spiritual connections and create and adore the culture that makes us who we are.

Next week, everything’s modern in Kansas City. So what time is it really?

Other Things On My Mind

I grew up going to McDonalds once a week for a Happy Meal, and knew of several black franchise owners, but looking forward to digging into this book and learning more about how this was a corporate plan to ensure Happy Meal loyal would grow up to become Big Mac and McFlurry loyal.

I would have loved to grow up though with this book highlighting North Carolina’s black history from A to Z.

And finally, to my fellow Black Americans who can. Take Martin Luther King Day off and participate in service if you want to, but not because you have to.

Before You Go

—Check out this week’s job board. You can submit jobs here. Additionally, there are two job and opportunity seeking and posting centered Patreon support levels.

—Check out Kristpattern on Instagram and DM me if you’re interested in anything for sale over there. It’s not too late to get one of the cards from the Les’s Lighthouse collection and they’re great for helping you or a friend turn your wishes into reality in 2020.

— Book me for a lecture, workshop or both.

—Les, my wonderful life partner and sales director, is great at hyping you up, making you laugh and helping you or your organization make radical changes in your life and health. In fact, you can join her in her Facebook group  and her email list where she’s doing a 30 Day Manifestation and Wisdom Challenge to help us get ready to do well in 2020.

—Don’t forget to check out my mentee’s Rashida Green’s podcast which also discusses environmental issues from a black woman’s perspective. You can listen to me talk about some of North Carolina’s more notorious environmental issues and the political culture on this episode. 

— Advertise your conference, event, project or something else right here in this Before You Go section. Reply back to this email and we will be in touch with rates based on your budget. Or, become an individual monthly supporter via Patreonor send me a one-time Venmo.

Thanks for reading! You can get these messages in your email, support the platform financially on Patreon and get special bonuses; follow the platform on Facebook, Twitter, LinkedIN and Instagram and if you missed some of the previous weeklies, check out the archives.

Welcome back to The Black Urbanist Weekly. I’m Kristen Jeffers and I’m currently producing this weekly digital newsletter on my site, via email and various other places, to share my thoughts, my Black, Spiritual, Southern, Working-Class, Educated, Queer, Femme thoughts on how places and communities work. Think of this as my weekly column, sitting on your proverbial print paper’s editorial page or as so many other of your favorite newsletters do, in your inbox.

This week’s edition is #17 and this is the next email in my series “And That’s What Time It Is”. This week, I believe it’s time to create the spaces we need to be in and walk away from spaces that don’t serve us.

Last week I started out by putting out big goals in the spirit of setting intentions. I’ve already had some major shifts on that front. First, I tackled the job board. Going forward, I’ll do a recap list of the still open jobs in this more legible format. Let me know how that goes. This will also be what I link to in the job board link in the “Before You Go” section.

In addition to this week’s reflection on creation of spaces, over the next three weeks in this newsletter (because I totally forgot last week that there are five Fridays in January) I will be predicting what will happen in North Carolina, Kansas City and the DC/Baltimore region over the next 20 years, in the spirit of this article series from the Indy.

This week though centers on that last goal and I quote myself:
“… for those of us who have one or more of those identities I list every week at the top of the page— I want to be able to encourage you and uplift your work, not to always have to explain it, but to be a place where you can be it and then collect that collective community knowledge.”

Come with me now on that journey to do just that.

And That’s What Time It Is, Part 2: To Create Inclusive Spaces and to Walk Away From Those That Aren’t

“Those of us who stand outside the circle of this society’s definition of acceptable women; those of us who have been forged in the crucibles of difference – those of us who are poor, who are lesbians, who are Black, who are older – know that survival is not an academic skill. It is learning how to take our differences and make them strengths. For the master’s tools will never dismantle the master’s house. They may allow us temporarily to beat him at his own game, but they will never enable us to bring about genuine change. And this fact is only threatening to those women who still define the master’s house as their only source of support.”

We’ve heard bits and pieces of this Audre Lorde quote a lot over the past few years, especially in the advent of Twitter allowing a lot of concepts of feminism, womanism, queer studies and the like to come out of the classrooms and into the palms of our hands. The phrases “self-care is a form of self-preservation” and “silence will not protect you from being marginalized and oppressed” are also hers.
And when I thought about how I wanted to write this newsletter, this was top of mind.

I also had on my mind Tamika Butler’s reflection on Medium around her journey and issues interacting in our greater urbanist universe. My own partner Les Henderson and I met doing work with what’s now known as the Rail Passengers Association. Her work with them and in other transportation advocacy circles brings her great joy, but also at times rage and sadness. In the past five years, she’s built up a successful career in the health and wellness space. Yet, she’s still very much an urbanist. Both of these women have an extra layer of being gender non-conforming, and getting black male stereotypes on top of having all other stereotypes of black woman implanted on them.

In my case, this is my first full year being completely out as a queer woman professionally and personally. I’m still more feminine and I could easily pass in certain spaces. Yet,I still get and have flashbacks of times of being told I was too loud, my concerns weren’t enough and worse, the time I was fired from an industry job.

The stereotypes Melissa Harris-Perry pointed out in her book Sister Citizen still play out across gender identities and presentations, especially the more politically aligned places. Meghan Markle is bumping up against all of this as well, in her own way.

Some would say that we as feminine and lighter-skinned or biracial women don’t seem like we have the same pain. But, much like my colleague Sherell Dorsey points out in that recent CityLab article and study on the livability of cities for black women in cities with at least 100,000 people in them, the numbers and even some anecdotes don’t always tell the whole story.

We love numbers and data because they seem to merit replication. However, people live. We plan for people to live. We build for people to live in. We transport people to life. We preserve our spaces for life. Life is both linear and circular. Life is both numbers and letters. Life is lived both once and in memory. So, if people aren’t able to live and we continue to marginalize life, we can’t expect people to not bear witness and air grievances. Some of us love to believe that we don’t have triggers, traumas and problems, but that’s not true.

That’s why Greensboro can lead on so many of those factors in the CityLab story, but because of its lack of leadership in black queer life and lack of economic access, especially for funding businesses, I’ve done as Brentin Mock said in the CityLab article and attempted over my adult life to find places that will “fleece me the least”. It’s also why so many other women do so, despite having leaders that look like them in so many cities.

Yes, I believe that the access to black and queer women doing dope things and our relative higher salaries balances out the rent (and hair) expenses relative to what I paid in Greensboro. And with multiple modes of transportation at my disposal, plus having more of the places I do things daily closer together than I did in my detour to Kansas City , I feel even more connected here. Plus, North Carolina is a half-day’s drive and not a whole day’s drive away. Baltimore is also 45 minutes on a good day and I can tap into the benefits they have, without needing to live under the very real and very crushing pressures the city has created. I can connect to all of our various metro area points here in the DC metro proper. I put my car to work for that flexibility, despite the fact that it does contribute to emissions.

Still, me being guilty about my emissions speaks to a statement made by Pittsburgh City Paper columnist Tereneh Idia in her reflection of the original livability study that was centered on Pittsburgh’s black woman population:

Then there was the “Should I stay or should I go?” battle among Black Pittsburghers. The shame of leaving, the pitying of those who want to stay. The “self-righteous” stay-camp, the “selfish” go-camp. The “self-preserving” go-camp and optimistic “we-built-this-city” stayers. Which also meant Black folks were arguing among ourselves (again) instead of looking at the systems, policies, and people responsible (again).

I’ll admit that this statement (swap in Greensboro or any city name for Pittsburgh) is true for not just things pertaining to black women in Greensboro that hit the national press, but for anything that we as a citizenry thinks makes us look bad. Those of us no matter race or class in small cities tend to have these battles. Sometimes we get to have them on an intellectual level. Other times, it’s either we move or we’re homeless, jobless, sick or all three.

And so what time is it this week? The time has come for me to own that I can be every intersection of identity, while also overlaying the intersection of all the identities that encompass urbanism. I’ve got those raw materials. And in that temporary window, I’m going to make my changes and build my house.

Over the next few weeks, it will be time for me to speculate where everywhere I lived will go in 2020 and beyond.

Other Things on My Mind

This article on Charlotte Mayor Vi Lyles, a black Baby Boomer and her daughter, a Black millennial really spoke to me. Here’s the thread I made on Twitter about it, with comments from the author, another black Millennial, with a cautious Black Boomer mom. I saw this before I saw the CityLab article that leads with Mayor Lyles picture and this is a nice post script about what we talked about above, that highlights how our moms, especially those of us who had moms who were one of the first to enter the middle and upper classes, gave us daughters the privileges and space to take us beyond just surviving and doing what we needed to do.

I’m super excited to see N.C. State University, my first alma mater, truly embodying what it means to live in a pack, by supporting their students in need of housing and food.

I do hope that one day we won’t be able to count our black woman transportation directors and agency leaders in our hands. In the meantime, a salute to IndyGo’s new leader Inez Evans.

And no, you won’t see me at Transportation Camp D.C. or TRB this year. I literally finished the meat of this newsletter in the wee hours of the morning, took another nap, woke up and set everything up to send out and now I’m being a couch potato. However, feel free to DM or text me if you want to set up some time to chat this year. I am still full time temping so my hours are a bit limited, but especially if we share some identity intersections, please reach out as I’d love to hear from you even if we don’t connect.

Before You Go

—Check out this week’s job board. You can submit jobs here. Additionally, there are two job and opportunity seeking and posting centered Patreon support levels.

—Check out Kristpattern on Instagram and DM me if you’re interested in anything for sale over there. It’s not too late to get one of the cards from the Les’s Lighthouse collection and they’re great for helping you or a friend turn your wishes into reality in 2020.

— Book me for a lecture, workshop or both.

—Les, my wonderful life partner and sales director, is great at hyping you up, making you laugh and helping you or your organization make radical changes in your life and health. In fact, you can join her in her Facebook group and her email list where she’s doing a 30 Day Manifestation and Wisdom Challenge to help us get ready to do well in 2020.

—Don’t forget to check out my mentee’s Rashida Green’s podcast which also discusses environmental issues from a black woman’s perspective. You can listen to me talk about some of North Carolina’s more notorious environmental issues and the political culture on this episode.

— Advertise your conference, event, project or something else right here in this Before You Go section. Send us a DM with your budget and we will be in touch with rates. Or, become an individual monthly supporter via Patreon or send me a one-time Venmo.

Thanks for reading! You can get these messages in your email, support the platform financially on Patreon and get special bonuses; follow the platform on Facebook, Twitter, LinkedIN and Instagram and if you missed some of the previous weeklies, check out the archives.