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…
Not only is balcony time returning to my routine, but so is daily walking. I took great effort to find an apartment close enough to my job to incorporate at least 5 days a week of walking. I was very fortunate that when that job ended, my new one was also in walking distance. However, I fell victim to two things, doing work or looking for work at home and then, despite other times when I would gladly walk in the cold and sometimes the rain and enjoying snow-covered grounds, I opted for my car. Plus, there was a fear that there weren’t enough eyes on the street near my new job, especially during the winter months of a 5:30 sunset and times when working on proposals meant a 6:30 end of day.
Yet now it is spring. My mind, belly and the sunset have told me it’s time to get back to walking and back to walking I did yesterday. It was not without issues, one being minor (lack of walk appeal) and the other being pollen and things that feed on pollen whizzing through the air. Yet, I was good and tired last night, slept well and my head felt clear after the 30 minute roundtrip to and from work and a 10 minute one, with a 20 minute detour to talk to an old colleague I had at lunchtime. I’m looking forward to my further walks this week on the days I’m working, as well as incorporating other reasons to walk. And of course, finishing Walkable City when I’m resting my feet!
I think it is safe to say, that at least in North Carolina, spring has arrived in earnest. It will shock me, but not by much, if we have one more hard freeze before May arrives. Yet, cold was nowhere this weekend, on the patio at Nattys where I had lunch with a few fellow media professionals on Saturday, or my balcony (pictured above) where I chipped away at Andrew Ross’s The Celebration Chronicles: Life, Liberty, and the Pursuit of Property Values in Disney’s New Town. More grittier than Celebration USA, I’ve enjoyed getting another angle of what it was like at the beginning of one of the first, most scrutinized, popular new urbanist developments. (H/T to Placemakers Scott Doyon for the recommendation)What better to read about while sitting on a porch-like structure than a community built around the powers of front porches. Unfortunately, at the time of the writing, the porches were painful reminders of the Florida heat and vermin. I had a wasp or hornet come inside with me Saturday night. It spun around until it finally died in the middle of the night.
Yet, that was just a minor pain in the ability to watch the sunset on my balcony and see what neighbors drove what, as well as a few new ones I hadn’t seen, since I’d not had “balcony time” since way before last winter. I noticed plenty of your photos on all the social sites of patios, balconies, porches and even a couple of hammocks and blankets on the ground. Whatever we did this weekend, it was clearly an ode to the front porches of our lives and the springs that make them awesome.
I’m also drawn, as many who are advocates of the return of the front porch are, to a quote from another book, Ray Bradbury’s Fahrenheit 451:
“No front porches. My uncle says there used to be front porches. And people sat there sometimes at night, talking when they wanted to talk, rocking, and not talking when they didn’t want to talk. Sometimes they just sat there and thought about things, turned things over. My uncle says the architects got rid of the front porches because they didn’t look well. But my uncle says that was merely rationalizing it; the real reason, hidden underneath, might be they didn’t want people sitting like that, doing nothing, rocking, talking; that was the wrong KIND of social life. People talked too much. And they had time to think. So they ran off with the porches.”
I’ve lately been more conscious of the fact that we are in the “future”. Yet, as a neo-traditionalist, a Southerner, a person who likes socialization, who will attend at least 5 cookouts this summer, sit on that Natty’s patio (and the one at the Mellow Mushroom) at least 3-5 more times and probably grab a blanket at the NewBridge Bank park a couple more times, I believe that it will be a longer time, if never, before we will see the conditions described above. Yes, privacy and surveillance has become an issue, but the rebirth of downtown, sidewalk and patio bar/grill economies I believe will eventually trump all concerns of people congregating.
Do you have a front porch or a front porch-like space? Urbanists swear on its power, but does it have that magic for all my non-planner/non-builder types?
What is it about branding cities that appeals to people so much? Is it not unlike the push to identify oneself? If you are highly in tune with your image and what that image is, then you are constantly doing things to make it better.
And that quest to make things better, on an individual level, might mean that one needs to move, change jobs, dump a partner, start a business and a host of other things that are only indirectly affected by the greater brand of a business or municipality. People who are super rich can afford to have homes in multiple locales. They have an affinity and sometimes a corporate presence in multiple locales. Poor people are just trying to make ends meet and if given the opportunity, will go wherever they need to go to make that life happen. If anything, the city brand is aimed at people in the middle, those who are aspiring and holding on to what is left of the traditional American Dream.
But even some of those folks are immune to city loyalty. And it’s not a failure of any city to not keep or satisfy any of these folks. I used to hate Tiebout’s “Vote with Your Feet” model. I though he was a cop-out to making sure all towns provide all people what they need at all times. I still believe that the gold standard of any area that wants to be incorporated, is to provide all that is needed. Yet, for a means of self-preservation and I mean that on a mental health and Mazlow’s hierarchy of needs level, I believe people should move on if they find that a metro area or an apartment or a job or even family members, aren’t providing them with the basic needs. Especially if the bottom part of the triangle (food, shelter, etc.) aren’t there. No city brand can combat the unfufillment of Mazlow’s hierarchy.
Recently, I came across two sets of articles about Historically Black towns in Oklahoma and in Missouri. Part as a means of segregation and part as a means of dignity, self-respect and control of the civic space, African-Americans established or had help establishing their own towns after slavery. Unfortunately, the promises of economic growth and civic engagement were short-lived in many of these towns. Some were burned down. Others were disenfranchised or had other restrictions placed on them. Others died thanks to integration and increased opportunities for Blacks. In North Carolina, the town of Princeville, the first incorporated Black town in the United States. was nearly washed out by Hurricane Floyd in 1999. It has recovered, but as recently as 2012 had its town accounting taken over by the State of North Carolina.
Yet the opportunity exists for some of these towns to improve. Some can restore what architecture is left. Others can launch efforts to lure entrepreneurs and others interested in the slow food, do-it-yourself, and community placemaking movements. Plus, for those seeking refuge from higher rents in the city, but still wanting a walkable and vibrant neighborhood, they could become a newer version of whatever inner city neighborhood has died. For those who have outlived their usefulness or are too damaged for repair, care should be taken to preserve history through monuments and exhibits and folk festivals. Fellow planner and author Sheryse N. Dubose has called upon those, namely fellow Black Americans, who see themselves as being victims of gentrification, to gentrify their own selves, i.e. return to older towns and neighborhoods, purchase these homes that have value to other cultures and maintain unique characteristics such as eateries, music venues and corner stores that sell specific foods.
Something else that’s interesting, is how the struggles of black towns compare to struggles of black neighborhoods in bigger, integrated on paper, cities. It appears that in the times of segregation, that black towns were able to avoid issues of redlining, urban renewal and gentrification by enacting their own self governance. Their main threat, if the surrounding white towns did not care that they succeeded, appeared to be loss of commerce, no different than those predominately white small towns and rural townships. Other questions that arise are their ability to accept people of other cultures, such as Mexican farm workers or Asian refugees to regrow their population; if some major cities are defacto black towns now (i.e. Detroit) ;and can we continue our quest for integration, while preserving history and unique cultural businesses?
It is ultimately the question that has been the center of my blogging for the past 3 years: is black urbanism still a thing?
After writing Friday’s post, I have a few bullets I want to add about the Greensboro I’ve come to know since my return just over five years ago. The Greensboro that I know now:
–Has a real downtown. I can go dancing, hear jazz music on Friday nights, play pool, get an authentic Irish pub experience, get fresh veggies, craft beer, veggie lasagna, veggie pizza that doesn’t make me miss the meat, gourmet soul food and good brand new books on my own two feet, without risking life and limb (except sometimes at the Davie/McGee/MLK train bridge convergence).
–Has three times the number of apartments downtown. The one I occupy has been a great place to live for almost two years. Having more housing downtown and housing similar to what’s offered in other cities also brings people from all over the world together, as they come here for jobs and school. I love getting to meet new people with different cultures in the frame of the culture of which I was raised.
–Has world-class, top-notch universities here, that are producing leaders in their fields and making sure we aren’t as far behind on the job numbers as we could be. Also, this site and all my subsequent ventures, would not exist had I not pursued higher education right here in town.
–Has generational and cultural issues. I could call them something else, but it really boils down to the generational tides. If we can get those straightened out and realize that everyone working doesn’t want to be corporate, no corporate suit can keep you from being your creative self after hours and there is wisdom on both sides of the fence, then we will get better. And yes, the problem is still a problem, but how much of that is really fear of irrelevance and impoverishment? No person can keep you from doing exactly what you need them to do in this world.If they are and they do, then the problem is on them and yes, we sometimes have to keep working just a little bit harder to get ahead. Shouldn’t have to, but we do.
And with that, I’m going to end the bullets. I could go on for days about this, but I’m going to leave with this letter, that I wrote a few weeks back about how much I love, but sometimes loathe, my hometown.
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The Raleigh I met yesterday (4/3/20414). Clockwise from left, Sushi Blues Cafe on Glenwood Avenue, Reynolds Coliseum and the partially constructed Talley Student Union on NC State University’s Campus and Glenwood South looking south from the corner of Peace and Glenwood.
Quite simply, the Raleigh I met when I first went off to college in 2004:
–Had yet to air condition the dorm I lived in and introduce on campus apartments for freshmen.
–Hadn’t introduced downtown apartments (and student housing) on a mass scale. Now, it seems like a new unit pops up daily on every block.
–Didn’t have a way to track its campus buses, nor did those buses connect downtown (or did downtown have it’s connector bus).
–Was sprawling out of control with no plan to fix it.
— Didn’t have bars and restaurants that turned their strip parking lots into decks and connect with street walkability. See Exhibit A above.
— Didn’t use roundabouts to manage traffic flow and make it more friendly to pedestrians
–Had buildings that garnered attention from the world, but had yet to build iconic ones in the modern era.
–Had northern hills, but no midtown.
–Had buses stuck in traffic, instead of zooming down shoulders.
–Had yet to finish educating this bright-eyed, bushy-tailed graduate of its largest university and get her to return back to be a part of this growing community.
In honor of returning to my alma mater (the undergraduate one) for our annual PR Day,I wanted to take a moment and talk about its most unusual building. Some of you may think I want to talk about this one. Yes, it’s special. But it’s getting a lot of love and support now. No, the one I want to really discuss is the one pictured above.
At one time, it was revolutionary, much like the Hunt Library is now. However, according to this account, things quickly went south. Oh and the building is too; it’s rumored (among other things) that the building is sinking in the ground. However, even though it may not exist in a few years, either from collapsing under its own weight or being torn down once all the student amenities move to the renovated student center in 2015, it’s still lovable.
Currently, those amenities include the bookstore and the Student Government. When I was in school, it was the math, history, and sometimes Spanish building. In other words, I spent a lot of time there, in its pie shaped classrooms and walking down its spiral ramp. I also complained along with everyone else about its steep outdoor staircases, tore a few holes in items in its tight and sharp wooden seats and got dizzy walking up and down the ramp. However, I also aced both math classes I took in that building, including one that I completely flunked out of in high school. And it’s an architectural marvel. Round buildings don’t exist everywhere. In essence, even our most hated buildings can house our best achievements and most unique and interesting ideas.
And with that, today’s news (will also be hashtaging and photographing my visit via Twitter and Instagram with #prday2014 and #ncstate):
