Kristen Jeffers has always been interested in how cities work. She’s also always loved writing things. She went off to a major state university, got a communication degree and then started a more professional Blogger site. Then, in her graduate seminar on urban politics, along with browsing the urbanist blogosphere, she realized that her ideas should have a stronger, clearer voice, one that reflects her identity as a Black southern woman. And with that The Black Urbanist blog was born. Seven years, one Twitter account, one self-published book, two podcasts and a litany of speeches and urban planning projects later, here we are.
As I finish up this week’s theme of sprawl repair, I want to ask one last question. Can we let the people gentrify (or de-sprawl) themselves? As much as I love the tactical urbanism, the push to return to the neighborhoods left behind, and to fix the broken ones that have been built and broken rapidly, in the back of my mind I worry that our bad development history will repeat itself, much like some of this good history.
Exhibit one is in Durham. I’ve mentioned the Warehouse/Central Park area before. It’s a little bit north of downtown, the DPAC, the DBAP and the ATC. It maintains a degree of quirk and fun. It was a self-made redevelopment, catalyzed by the 2010 addition of the FullSteam Brewery and Motorco Music Hall. Yet, the long time garden store on the block still remains and the streets and sidewalks and parking lots still have a little grit on them. Nothing’s over two stories either. According to landscape architect Mark Hough, who recently wrote about the area in Planetzen, people seem to love the grit and want it to stay.
However, a recent article in the Durham Herald-Sun about new apartments and other developments in the area gave me pause. As they will be new construction and come at market rates, I am concerned that the DIY ethos will not remain in the community. The area even has a hipster name now, NoCo. Now, if it was the community gathering together to build the homes themselves or operate the buildings as a co-op, I wouldn’t be so concerned. Not to say that the community will always have its best interests at heart, but if the community’s already been a “DIY” community as the Planetzen article stated, then let it stay that way. One good thing is that all the current owners and even some of the new ones like the spirit and the DIYness of the area, as well as believe that the community as a whole wants to stay laid back. In fact, Motorco’s owner is a New Yorker. Yet, towards the end of the article, a long time business owner expressed a similar spirit to mine, that he likes all the changes, but he hopes the area maintains character.
Of course, I’d be remiss if I didn’t mention Sheryse Noelle DuBose’s admonition to “gentrify your own self!” She reiterates the point to not leave behind assets because you don’t think they are cool enough. After all, so many people want what others don’t have, especially when it comes to “prime lands” along coasts, near mountains, in good farming shape and the center of cities. Think about the folks in Rosewood and Tulsa and to some extent Durham in the mid-20th century when the Durham Freeway was rammed in over Black Wall Street, who didn’t have the choice to stay or go. The Trail of Tears. Chinatowns that are such in name only.
The truest way to deal with sprawl and its cousin dis-investment, in essence gentrifying oneself, is to do what you can to build wealth and funnel it back into maintaining a sustainable community. We also have to have lawmakers and power brokers on the same page. The Warehouse District folks seem to be both powerful and humble enough to recognize the strength in a low-density, yet urban-style neighborhood and commerce center.
If we don’t exert our innate power, we will constantly be asking those who do have all the land and power, if we can gentrify ourselves. If we can maintain the simplicity that we love so much, along with the things that make us unique, yet still have the basics and a few luxuries and provide for the common good of our neighborhoods and the greater municipality as a whole, then we have in fact gone beyond gentrification. We have sustainability.
Despite my life hacks from this post, we have to do something on a structural and legal level about sprawl. Unchecked sprawl is the urban renewal of today. Instead of providing the services that are needed in the core of the city, there are many cities (mine included) that have chosen to build new facilities outside of the city core. In addition, many cities have allowed subdivisions to be built and not considered the cost of providing schools, fire protection, streets and other elements that make a city a city, even on the basic suburban level. This is not to say that we should not allow people to go off the grid and be responsible for these services themselves. However, many people buy or rent homes with the expectation that basic services will be taken care of efficiently and competently by the municipality or jurisdiction of which they reside.
Thankfully, I’m not alone in my thoughts. I regularly connect with government leaders, and not just the ones in the planning department, who want to bring more vibrancy back to central cities, but also want to make sure equity is addressed. I believe that the pendulum has shifted towards the idea of density and connectivity, at least among government leaders, developers, planners and others who have a hand in crafting and creating our built environment. Federal funding sources now support reconnecting neighborhoods and many states and local governments have supplemented those funds, either with funds of their own or changes in zoning and building codes to allow different and more efficient types of development. In Cary, a subdivision may not get built, because town leaders recognize the cost of providing services to that subdivision may be too much, even for a town that receives a lot of property tax revenue and is known and loved for its low-density development.
Here’s where my greatest fear comes in. When the disadvantaged and the disenfranchised of a prior generation were left behind in our central cities, it was a terrible injustice. Crime and disinvestment followed poverty in a cycle we now too often subconsciously think of as inevitable. But they were left behind in neighborhoods that still functioned. People there could still get around without a car. They could still get groceries. They could walk to school, even if it was a bad school. At least initially, there were still jobs.
When we abandon our exurbs and distant suburbs – something I see as inevitable — if we leave behind the poorest and most disadvantaged, we won’t be leaving them in functioning neighborhoods. We’ll be leaving them in total isolation. Places without grocery stores that can be walked to. Places without transportation. If the 1960’s inner city was inhumane, this will be far, far worse.
We have to get our leaders who are not on board with modern municipal governance in the loop. This is no longer a fringe conversation held by architects at fancy conference halls. Just last week, the New York Times reported that the middle class in the United States is no longer the richest in what are considered “Western” countries. A lot of our prior wealth was predicated by investment into building, which was primarily suburban, and job growth,with adequate salaries available for all skill levels. Now, we have job growth, but if it’s in the service sector the pay does not cover minimum expenses or the jobs are so specialized, they command high salaries, but require expensive training. We have new homes built, but because it’s new construction, the prices are higher. Urban location and connectivity also command a major premium, that is out of reach for those who need it the most, the ones who can’t afford the cars to get to services.
If we don’t work to make the reversal of the suburban experiment sustainable for all, we will have worse slums and less of an economic boost. The seeds for this change have been planted and are already showing up as weeds. Will we pluck out those weeds and prune that garden?
Peapod Delivery Truck on a Single Family Residential Street. Image Credit #MsLoriTV
I have to always admit, that not all urban sprawl is the fault of the homeowner or apartment renter. Thanks to how our economy and our government is structured, there are a lot of people who would prefer a downtown condo or townhome, but are priced out of the privilege of walking to all the restaurants and theaters. This is even more pronounced in cities like mine where there’s only one or two walkable dense areas. So what is one to do when they are priced out into sprawl? Get to know how to do-it-yourself or have things delivered to make up for lack of restaurants, inability to walk or bike to work, and entertaining yourself and your neighbors.
Conquering the Lack of Restaurants and Nearby Markets
First, there’s meal planning. Most days, one does not need to eat out or go to a restaurant to make sure they eat well. If you write a schedule of what you want to eat, how and when to cook it and make sure you purchase or have delivered storage containers, then you could eat fancy directly from your kitchen, at home or at work. I recommend the Feast Bootcamp, to help you get started learning how to cook on a budget and in a way that makes sense for you. Once you know what you eat all the time, you can keep your list on your phone and do a monthly trip to the grocery store or find out what stores will deliver the groceries you use the most to your home.
Most moderate sized metro areas have a brick and mortar grocery that will deliver directly to your home for a fee. Here in North Carolina, Harris Teeter and Lowes Foods do. Chicago, New England, NYC DC and Philly have Peapod. Amazon delivers to everyone. Case in point, I used to order three weeks worth of oatmeal from them and I utilized their Subscribe and Save to make sure I kept the box coming . No matter what service you use, you may balk at delivery fees and some of the items may be more than you are used to paying. However, imagine not having to battle lines and the sheer overwhelm of shopping at the big box close to home. Or, you can always take your reusable bag and walk on the safe paths to get to that store. Walking doesn’t end just because you are in sprawl.
In addition, if where you live has granted you a lot of land space, get to farming! Even if it’s just one squash plant or one tomato stalk, this will go a long way to reducing your household expenses and also allowing extra money for a once or twice a week jaunt into downtown to enjoy the amenities there. In addition, all you have to do is walk out to your backyard for several of your fruits and veggies. No time to farm? Get to a neighbor farmer with livestock who will sell you an animal and process all the meat for you or will deliver you a bag of produce. CSA’s are also helpful in this, but you may luck out and find that your nearest neighbor may be willing to barter with you, if you have some other service to provide.
Dealing with the Inability to Walk or Bike to Work, Amenities or for Exercise
When I talked about food above, I said that walking doesn’t end. What walking does do, is get harder. You may have to walk on curb cuts or in mud or grass that may or may not be publicly owned. I hope you have good health and can walk fast or run, because you may need to to cross very busy suburban parkways to get to the stores and businesses. Biking is only a little bit better, because you might be able to pedal as fast as car going less than or at 35 miles an hour. Good luck though with higher speeds. Oh, and some communities may have bike lanes/trails, because they are proven to boost fitness.
As far as commuting, there are some suburban areas served by their greater metro area’s transit system. Your government leaders at least recognize that people who live there have to go to work and they can’t all drive there. Find out when the bus or train comes, how long it will take to get to your job and bring a book or get some good music or podcasts to listen to on the way there and back.
If you don’t have transit options, you may have the option of carpooling with a few of your colleagues. Yes, this all depends on you liking the people you work with and the fact that you work for a big enough company to justifiably have enough people nearby going to the same workplace. This also works if you work in the same building or same office complex. Take turns driving. If you don’t have the car, get a driver’s licence and consider being the driver and paying for all the gas.
There’s always telecommuting, developing a home-based business, buying in the subdivision closest to the office park or just driving and dealing with the repercussions of gas and maintenance. When I was reading about Celebration, FL over the past few weeks, many of the residents I read about had a home-based business or worked for Disney. Yet one guy, an urban planner for Tampa, sacrificed a cheap and short commute to continue his regular office job, but allow his family and himself on his downtime to experience the benefits that come from a compact community.
Lastly, don’t count out the hills and trails in your community. Thanks to our climate and terrain in Greensboro, many of our low-density neighborhoods actually still have hilly terrain built-in. There’s two very large hills near my mom’s house that were no joke on my bike when I was younger, so much so I gave up on biking. Yet, as an adult, I appreciate what it means to use nature to exercise and will be using those hills for such in the coming months. If you find yourself in unique terrain, then use it to your advantage. In addition, even if where you live is flat asphalt, people tend to not speed in parking lots and on residential streets. Start walking for fitness at least a few times a week and you may have company in your walk, or at the very least cars will slow down for you.
Entertaining Yourself
If you are comfortable with hosting people in your home or organizing parties, open up your home or help your street close down and have gatherings there. One major defense I hear from suburban dwellers is that where they live allows them to do this often, and sometimes without having to consult governing bodies or other neighbors (since they will be at the party too). Those of you who happen to be on a quiet street, consider having one house party or cookout and see if it works for your street. If your street is a party pooper, don’t be afraid to walk over to the next cul-de-sac or reach out to other neighborhood residents at a community meeting and check out what’s going on.
If it’s not the people you miss, but the content of the entertainment, don’t count out Netflix and Amazon and Hulu, as well as set-top boxes like Roku and Apple TV. That hot Broadway show or documentary may have been recorded and may be streaming on these services. It may take a few months or a year to reach you, but there are tons of other programs, documentaries and plays on these channels to entertain you. If you have friends that rave about these movies and plays and you fear missing out, then work with them to be in town (and stay with them) or schedule a weekend vacation while that particular cultural event is showing or first open. Plus, more smaller cities and towns are developing arts and cultural communities of their own. Don’t snub those communities, as they may also provide what you are missing.
Not Off The Hook
None of this gets developers, builders and resistant governments off the hook for not creating affordable, walkable areas that allow for community-level placemaking, as well as wealth generation and relationship building. However, the circumstances of not having an urban block or a nearby movie theater don’t have to keep you locked up inside or wasting money or gas in transit or in eating.
Welcome to #VideoFriday. Here at The Black Urbanistand across our other platforms, we will either highlight a great video on placemaking or début one of our own videos, much like we do now on #AudioThursdays. I want to start this series by showing the video below, a very cute and light way to highlight not only working as a community and a team, but the idea of traveling in a group, say on the bus, train or walking together Have a great weekend everyone!
Thursdays at The Black Urbanist are now audio days, where either I share great audio on placemaking topics, or I podcast. In lieu of me podcasting this week, I wanted to share my visit to Andy Boenau’s Urbanism Speakeasy, one of the fun podcasts in our neck of the woods. I talked about why I started The Black Urbanist, as well as several of the theories I’ve presented over the years on the blog. Head here to take a listen.
Previously, I’ve written about why words matter. Especially when we talk about what’s a town and what’s a suburb. Once again, people are people and places are places. So how should we talk about places?
First of all, if you have a city, with either two large cities, that are economic powers surrounded by several small towns with less economic power, then you have a metropolitan area. If you have a larger town with economic power, with smaller towns around it, you have a micropolitan area, the Census Bureau’s new word for smaller areas of concentrated economic power. A farm is still a farm.
I know, sounds technical right? And maybe a bit harsh. After all, one of my good urbanist friends reminded me that economically, some larger metros are justifiably suburbs. Yet, we’ve never really been good at this labeling the places we live anyway. Are all our streets streets? Or are they really roads, highways, boulevards, avenues,courts, ways, alleys, etc. Oh and some of those alleys aren’t really alleys. And when do you know when a road is a street? What if the road turns into a freeway after that traffic signal up ahead. Or is it a stoplight.
Anyway, thanks to our nuances in language by region, we don’t all use the same names for the places we live. And that’s ok. As long as you don’t make the racial euphemism mistake, you are ok by me. However, it’s worth checking out the thoughts of Ben Ross, the author of the new book Dead End: Suburban Sprawl and the Rebirth of American Urbanism. This excerpt published on Greater Greater Washington has a lot to say on the many euphemisms we use in urban planning and other more casual conversations about place.:
In Briarcliff, New York, a spurned builder once wrote, the aim of zoning is to guarantee “that each newcomer must be wealthier than those who came before, but must be of a character to preserve the illusion that their poorer neighbors are as wealthy as they.”
Such frank talk about land use is rare indeed. If you don’t want something built, an honest statement of objections invites defeat in court. If you do, plain speaking is unlikely to convince the zoning board, and it risks offending any neighbors who might be open to a compromise.
Each party has an illusion to maintain, so words become tools of purposeful confusion. One side directs its linguistic creativity into salesmanship. Rowhouses turn into townhomes; garden apartments grow parked cars in the gardens; dead ends are translated into French as cul-de-sacs. The other, hiding its aims from the world at large and often from itself, has a weakness for phrases whose meaning slips away when carefully examined.
I couldn’t have written a better paragraph. Check out the rest of that excerpt here for more euphemism fails.
Another great wordsmith of place is my friend and colleague Steve Mouzon. When asked to not write so technically about the urban to rural transect and its effect on how people chose to walk, he went back and crossed out the technical language and added new, more concise and friendly language. Need I mention that this article is about a concept he calls Walk Appeal, one of his many catchy phrases that help us all learn about how to live in and create better places.
I end with one more reminder for all of us to be literary when it comes to describing people and places. Add as many adverbs and adjectives as you need. Say what you really mean, even if it is slightly mean. It’s better than empty euphemisms, with meanings that come back to haunt you later.
I can give people who mislabel the first way a pass. Suburbs are just classified differently in the NYC and DC areas. Montgomery County is a county of neighborhoods. Arlington is really a county. But I’m sorry, Alexandria, the city, actually predates the District of Columbia by 42 years. Yes, it became part of the district for a period of time, but not without a fight and not without later leaving the district. Meanwhile, down in North Carolina, our friend Cary is forever being mislabeled. Yes, it’s a city of many subdivisions. However, it has never been part of Raleigh and is the seventh largest city in North Carolina. Speaking of cities in North Carolina, there are several that have been labeled as neighborhoods and are actually fairly large towns. Take one glance of Wikipedia’s Census-fortified list of North Carolina municipalities and you may notice a few names you thought were just holes in the wall that became classy Charlotte and Raleigh suburbs overnight. You may also notice that there are two cities you may have not heard of, but encompass a 1.1 million person metro area of its own (Points to self and map of the Triad region).
But enough of this kind of snark. Let me get to the real shade. Urban is not a race of people. Suburb is not a race of people. Rural is not a race of people. Say it as many times as you need to. Then, if you write articles like this that either by accident or lack of inclusiveness, imply that only one race of person moves to and from the suburbs, don’t be surprised if they get interpreted as attempts to be nice about labeling races, instead of true analyses of migration patterns.
Whew. That was a nice run-on sentence wasn’t it? Do come back tomorrow and learn how we can better label the metro areas we live in. In the meantime, if you want to learn what we are doing here in the many metro areas of North Carolina, click on the pretty shiny ad below.
For the holiday, I went to my grandmother’s house in rural Alamance County for dinner and family time. I’ve written about making the drive before, but this time I want to focus on the areas of curved roads that I encounter on the route. I’ve driven on mountainous curved roads that make you slow down and clutch your wheel. Yet, these curves, once one is skilled, can be taken at multiple speeds.
When I was younger, and still played video games, I loved playing games like Gran Turismo which featured road races. Many times I’d fall off the cliffs on the curved roads, but once I mastered them, they became my favorite parts of the game (that and the rally races, since they always allowed me to drive in the dirt).
Like many things, curved roads serve as a metaphor for life. The road is a defined path, but in those areas, they aren’t straight lines and they aren’t always on a level plain. That’s the purpose of the curves, to navigate hills and mountains and streams that get in the way of a straight path. It reminds me of how in my life, after seeing the challenges and facing the minor panic, I in turn navigate well through curves and come out one the stronger.
One would note, in many urban plans, curves are evil. We marvel at things like Lombard Street in San Francisco, but no one is rushing out to re-create curves or build hills to add to the urban landscape. In the Transect code, hills and valleys are in the T1-T2 place, natural wonders, but not places where people live who have a choice. But some people do make those choices to live there. Others don’t. Regardless, there are lessons for all in the curving of a road.
This week’s #throwbackthursday post piggybacks on recent statements by the RZA, a member of the Wu-Tang Clan. In an interview with the website Shadow and Act, he stated that gentrification is just the natural order of things. He also mentioned that people have to learn how to utilize it. The context of this interview was to discuss his role in the upcoming movie Brick Mansions, about a walled off housing project in a slightly dystopian Detroit. Between that and other prominent remarks from celebrities on gentrification lately. I saw fit to have us revisit my thoughts on who should own the corner store from September of 2012. Also, check this out this article by friend of the blog Alexandra Moffett-Bateau, where she studied women in a public housing development who exercised political power not against the government itself, but a corner store that was overcharging for basic food and refusing to take food stamps. With that, I hope everyone has a great holiday weekend! See you on Monday.
Recently, a friend on Facebook asked this somewhat quintessential question: Why don’t black folks own businesses in their own neighborhoods? One commenter to this status mentioned that it may be because we (as in black folks) have forgotten to help our own as we have achieved higher and higher financial goals and wealth.
I myself personally believe (and I mentioned this in a comment myself) that black folks went through a period where some of the business types in predominantly black neighborhoods were unwanted and unneeded in their eyes. I’ve even had someone who remembers urban renewal in Greensboro tell me that they willingly tore down the neighborhood businesses in hopes of something better.
However, in many cases, that something better never came. I am also cautious of some modern “revitalizations”, especially when the lots have been sitting empty for several years with no vision and no purpose.
Meanwhile, I applaud those who took up the banner of preserving the history, the commerce, and the tradition of ethnic enclaves, of all cultures. I even applaud those of other cultures who have come in and filled up the vacant spaces, either with businesses and services more geared to their cultures. I especially love if they maintained the original businesses quality and culture, and improved the original operations.
When community and culture and affordability are respected, then I don’t think it matters who owns the corner store.
We underrated, we educated
The corner was our time when times stood still
And gators and snakes gangs and yellow and pink
And colored blue profiles glorifying that…
The corner was our magic, our music, our politics Fires raised as tribal dancers and war cries that broke out on different corners Power to the people, black power, black is beautiful…
The corner was our Rock of Gibraltar, our Stonehenge Our Taj Mahal, our monument, Our testimonial to freedom, to peace and to love Down on the corner... Common featuring The Last Poets, The Corner, 2005
Yet, when businesses on these proverbial corners completely forget their legacy and their obligation for service, then they fail. If a shop owner follows its teenage customers instead of offering jobs, then they have failed. If women are looked upon as strange invasive creatures and vice-versa for males, then they have failed. Yes, we need safe space to be ourselves as men and women, but at the end of the day, there still comes a time for mutual respect. Elders should shop for free. What about GLBTQ folks and their needs? It’s this vision of the corner store or business as a service that owners need to undertake.
Ultimately, I think that this obligation is what makes it hard for people to maintain such businesses over a long haul. These businesses are more than stores, barbers or beauty salons. They are sounding boards, mini town squares and city halls. If you are not ready to be a de facto mayor or community leader, then you best take your business elsewhere. I believe this is why these businesses fall onto those who either want this charge or those who have no other choice but to run this type of business. I think some black leaders (and I’m sure there are others of other ethnic enclaves who feel the same way) who wanted to run a business that would not become every inch of their lives.
So does it matter who owns the corner store? Absolutely. Yet, it’s not a question of what the owners look like on the outside, it’s a question of what they believe on the inside about their community and their business.
So I didn’t make it to the city council meeting last night. Yet, we are one of many cities that sees fit to web stream our meetings, so that people who can’t be at the chamber for some reason (and for those who can’t fit in the chamber) can watch what’s being said and voted on. We also have robust opportunities for public comment, either during a general period, called speakers from the floor, or on select agenda items. Citizens can also call the city and get a real person during business hours to take care of needs, and the city just launched See-Click-Fix (called here Fix-It Greensboro), the popular app to report maintenance and infrastructure issues. We have a bright user-friendly website and elected officials that are social media savvy. We also have a number of boards and commissions that citizens can apply and be appointed, and aid the city staff and our city council with making decisions on city issues. And with that, is my big announcement, that I’ve been appointed to the Greensboro Transit Authority Board by my councilman. I’m excited to have a role shaping our area transit system, as well as continuing to advocate for regional transit through the Bike/Ped Advisory Committee, the Transit Alliance of the Piedmont and the BikeShare Task Force. I’m also the newest member of the Interactive Resource Center board, which is our local homeless day shelter.
I of course see this newsletter/blog and all of my ventures, whether purely volunteer or for purposes of making a livelihood as providing a service. I think we fail as a citizenry if we don’t make our voices heard and help people out when they need help and we have the right tools and skills. We have to be mindful that our service and business pursuits don’t become self-serving or harmful to the greater community. We also have to be mindful that there’s always something to be spoken about and someone who needs our help. It doesn’t have to be an official office or board either. Sometimes it’s just whipping out that phone and reporting that broken poll or reading to the first graders or taking your parents to the doctor.
This is community. And if you want to know what’s going on in the greater North Carolina community…
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