On April 18th  I happened upon this post-on popular urbanist blog Greater Greater Washington. The author in my opinion just wanted to get people talking about solutions to the problems DC residents are facing with the loss of the Chocolate City identity. It made me think back to when I published my article in Grist in December. In the editing stages, I was alerted to the fact that the urbanism I was presenting was not necessarily “textbook” urbanism. However, as many of us have learned, outside of some math theories and problems and a few truly accepted scientific laws (note I said laws, not theories), there is not much that people can agree on as absolute truth in the public sphere. Yet, until we can come to a consensus on what urbanism and associated terms such as new urbanism, smart growth, transit oriented development and even sprawl are, then we are in trouble.

This June at the Congress of New Urbanism 19 Next Gen Day 9, I’m gathering together a set of folks who are committed to incorporating the cultures of their birth into the way buildings are planned. We all recognize that urbanism is more than pretty building and pretty trains. Urbanism is also the fact that some strip centers are at 100% density, but with stores run by immigrants selling objects from the old world and some from the new in a way that relates to people. It’s also recognizing how all income levels and cultural backgrounds can benefit from things like bike trails, clean sidewalks and easier walkability.

Instead of name-calling, let’s all dig deeper into our psyche. Realize that some people are trying to make it from sunrise to sunset without losing a job, losing a child or losing a life, especially if they are suffering from chronic illness. Some people would like not to drive and others can’t wait for a car, because that’s been touted as what the successful people do. Because our discourse has been defined by what mainstream(read mostly “white” and rich) people think are best (and has been horribly wrong), then many cultures will never accept what an  or anyone in authority says, despite the fact it may truly be the best solution this time. We need to get to a point where we take all the best of our cultures and let the best idea dominate the conversation, not the channel where it comes from. We can respect our elders, without necessarily following their entire lead.

Our presentation and panel is on June 1st, 9AM. The entire NextGen day is no charge. I’ll be in town all week so be sure to find me to connect.

For many of you, your neighborhood Borders is just another part of the sprawburbia that has eaten our landscape alive in the past few years. However, for my neighborhood and I, Borders is more than a crappy overpriced bookstore and wannabe music store, it’s a gathering place, our true third space.

Just like our shopping mall down the street that’s undergoing a transformation into a mall for working and middle class people of color (well, the stores appear to make it look that way), the Borders in our neighborhood did the same. It stocked a high number of African-American literature. It provided the coffee shop experience in a neighborhood of chicken joints, bar-grills and fast food fantasies.

More importantly for me, it was the place where my love for reading and writing was born. In 1995, when our Borders was built, my parents were separating and I was adjusting to spending every other evening and weekend with one parent or the other. While my mom went off to her new part-time job at the fabric store, my dad and I went to the McDonalds across the street(or the Wendys or Burger King, only because they were cheap), then after bonding over a McFish Sandwich or McNuggets(even at 10, I couldn’t stand the burgers), we’d walk across the parking lot to Borders.

Walking in the store was something like I’d never seen before. I liked the library ok, but all the books were older. I liked the mall bookstore ok too, but they didn’t have comfy chairs and a mini amphitheater that I could just lay back on and read the latest Babysitter’s Club adventure, simultaneously forgetting about the sadness of having divorced parents, going to a new afterschool program and school where I was teased and living in a new apartment where I couldn’t go outside and play because of the mean kids downstairs.

Fast-forward to today. The shopping strip where Borders sits is going to be 75% empty when it’s gone.  There are a few more big-box suburban stores that signal affluence, but in reality, we are in the middle of a suburban blight.

I walked into the store, trying not to cry. So many dreams and stories laid in it’s rafters. Already the store felt empty; the coffee shop had already been shut down. Yet, as I thumbed through books, none compelled me to walk up to the register and take them home. Instead I started a list called “Things to Put on My Kindle.” I considered buying a booklight, but realized I could order it cheaper on Amazon. However, I was determined to buy something in Borders one last time, so after checking out Rusell Brand’s Booky Wook 2 for kicks, I decided on a notebook with flower detailing and a folding clasp. I told myself “Maybe it’s time to write a new story, a new book, tell the story of your neighborhood and spread out to the world.”

With that mindset, I walked to the register, paid for my book and walked out for the last time.

RIP Greensboro Borders. You’ll be missed.

The last two posts explored what urban development has meant to the black community in honor of Black History Month. This time I’m sharing what I think the future needs to be to strengthen and honor black neighborhoods and communities, while including them in the sustainable community movement.

• Education systems that offer students more options and are more accountable. We need our public schools to begin to function more like some of our charter and private schools, offering students more opportunities to learn and more accountability at an early age. Not through test scores that are inflated, but through actual learning measures and workplace interests. This article in the New York Times presents a good start. Our colleges and universities need to ensure that students are connected to employers or seed funders to find a place in the global economy. They also need to ensure more traditional age students graduate within a decent time frame and without heavy loads of debt.
• A return to farming. While this may conjure up images of plantations and sharecropping, worldwide there are shortages of land for farming due to over-industrialization and USDA policies favoring large scale agricultural operations. Even if it’s just something simple as community gardens, or what Detroit is doing, we can all try to contribute something back to the land.
• Neighborhood watches, community associations and other groups that are committed to preserving communities. Not only do these groups allow neighbors to get to know and trust each other, they are great lobbying groups when initiatives go to city councils that may affect neighborhoods fairly or unfairly.
• Political and organizational leaders who actually care. Doing the same old-same old, trying to profit off of other people’s backs and voting down initiatives because they endanger the profitability of themselves should not be tolerated with black leaders, much like we don’t tolerate them out of leaders of other backgrounds. While wise old leaders who care about people should stay, others should step out of the way for the youth to come in and work to improve their communities.

Now I ask everyone else, what can black communities do to make sure they are a part of the sustainable growth movement this time and not sitting on the sidelines?

Last post we explored how movements in history relate to the black experience and what we define as smart growth policies today. Here are how some sustainable community/smart growth policies are affecting the black community today.

Harlem Children’s Zone

Since 1997, Geoffrey Canada has been helping children and families in Harlem by concentrating all social services within a few blocks of each other. The program started in 1970 as Rheedlen, a truancy prevention program. Over the years, as the crack epidemic swept through Harlem, the organization shifted and grew to help maintain stability in the neighborhood. In the early 1990’s, they began tracking and evaluating their programs to make sure they were working, something that was innovative for non-profits at the time. The zone concept began with 24 blocks in 1997, and has now expanded to 100 blocks. Support is provided for parents from before birth until graduation from college.

Greening the Ghetto

Marjora Carter and her movement to re-green the Bronx added another black voice to the sustainable community movement and the green movement. Carter came up with her vision after not being able to find a job after college. She was walking her dog and she walked up on the Bronx riverfront and started envisioning a riverfront park with pedestrian and bike paths. That park opened in 2001 and in 2003 she started Sustainable South Bronx to build the green movement in the Bronx has been instrumental in creating green jobs, building rooftop gardens, planting trees and other efforts to bring progressive green and sustainable policies to the Bronx. Recently moving on from Sustainable South Bronx, she has established the Majora Carter Group which is sought after nationwide for advice on sustainable development issues.

Willow Oaks

Hope VI has been used in varying degrees to help clean up shady housing projects. However, it often fails in its promise to bring mixed incomes and instead results in pushing out residents. Right in my city of Greensboro, the community of Willow Oaks is a small example of what can happen when residents have a part in cleaning up their neighborhood. The neighborhood began its years as Lincoln Grove, a working-class area. However, with the arrival of the Morningside Homes federal housing project in the 1950’s, the area began a downward spiral. Crime rates rose, culminating in the 1980 Klan-Nazi shooting which would reverberate throughout the entire city of Greensboro and beyond. In addition, the units resembled military barracks more than homes and spent many years in disrepair. However, in 1996, Morningside residents, along with 50 other organizations including the City of Greensboro, new urbanist land developers and NC A&T State University began creating an urban village they renamed Willow Oaks.  Today there are waiting lists for the senior citizens home and the townhome village. Single family homes have been built, many occupied by professors at NC A&T. Low-income housing is scattered throughout the neighborhood and looks no different than the market-rate dwellings. Construction is under way on a community/child development center and retail in walking distance of the homes.

Community Gardens in Detroit

Since the 1980’s Detroit has been predominately black. In addition, with the shift in the auto industry in the last 30 years, it’s also been predominately empty. Lots of community leaders have worked to start filling some of those empty lots with community gardens. Over 1000 community gardens exist in the Detroit metro area. So far they have provided work for unemployed Detroit residents and fresh food options in a city which only has 7 full service supermarkets. While many gardens are held by community and school groups, the wide amounts of available land have began to attract private investors, notably John Hantz and his Hantz Farm project. He hopes to pioneer modern organic farming techniques and rebuild property values by buying up over 5,000 acres, creating a scarcity situation. In an area where home prices average at $15,000, property value growth will actually rebuild communities, instead of push out homeowners as is the case in most gentrifying and redeveloping neighborhoods. I’ve personally witnessed how much this movement has grown in the area, as my aunt, a Detroit-area elementary school principal, has sponsored a plot of land at a nearby community farm for her students, along with keeping a rain garden on her campus.

These are only a few of the many projects undertaken in and  by traditionally Black communities and leaders of color to rebuild once blighted communities and also incorporate modern urban planning and architectural elements. Next post will discuss what I believe it will take to continue these efforts and birth new ones.