Category Archives: Things At a Place

Alexandria, Cities, DC, Durham, Essay, malls, mental health, North Carolina, Politics of Place, Retail, suburbs, Things At a Place, transit, urbanism, Weekly Newsletter, Winston-Salem

Community Care at the Mall?

I know they are sites of capitalism, but when I go to the mall, I’m there to find things I need to make my own tools of system dismantlement and comforts through the storm. As we re-examine many of these spaces, they will thrive only if we see them as extensions of our community care, not a money scheme.

This is The Black Urbanist Weekly, an email newsletter that highlights the Black Queer Feminist Urbanist thoughts and commentary of me, Kristen Jeffers, an internationally-known urban planner, fiber designer, and contributing editor. Think of this as an editorial page column, but directly in your email. This week I wanted to check in with one of my first sites of considering urbanism, which seems to get popular around this time of year — the mall. Also, we have a special message from the University of California at San Diego. Learn more about how you can advertise in this newsletter. Prices start at just $75 a week with a four-week commitment.  You can also become a Patreon as an individual and support this work for as little as $5 a month.

I had other plans to end my year of this newsletter, but right after I pulled my wishes together for this year, I realized I had a couple more things to say that were very relevant to this time of year. Hence why this week’s newsletter is in your inboxes and online today and on Monday, I’ll be revisiting and updating my post on Kwanzaa from a Black queer feminist urbanist perspective, but this week, I wanted to take us back to the mall.

This past Saturday, I snapped the photo that leads this post, showing the far northwest corner of Tyson’s Corner Center at full parking capacity. I was in the middle of one of my many social distancing parking lot picnics with Les, my partner, at the Silver Diner across the street. This diner bills itself as part of the mall, but is really only connected by a pedestrian signal and a sidewalk that still has you battling six lanes of traffic, plus one of the mall access roads that can still be treacherous to cross as a pedestrian to one of the many side doors the of the mall.

I digress, but do I really?

Those of you who have been reading my work for the past decade and some change know that I’ve struggled, as many in the journalism community have, with writing accurately about the built environment. I’ve had a particular struggle in writing about an environment that, confirming my suspicions, doesn’t want to support me at my income level and sometimes my skin tone and whom I choose to love, and how I choose to adorn myself.

Yet, despite evidence to the contrary, Cinnabon, Jamba Juice, Barnes and Noble (B&N), Kohls, Sephora, Target, and Michaels seem to be happy to have me, especially on bad days, when the mall is empty enough to social distance and I can take that bun and juice back to the car and grieve over deceased relatives and new health challenges.

I get back home and I curl up into my new sweatsuits that fit my new size with my shiny new crochet hook set and experiment with making machine-washable sweaters. I do so while listening to podcasts or audiobooks I saw the covers of at B&N. Sometimes I color, because lo and behold, not only does B&N have craft magazines, they still have adult coloring books and pencils. Sometimes I just polish off stacks of memoirs. Sometimes Les and I grab a cheesecake or two, like the Golden Girls, to polish off when we get home.

Ok, that is a digression, but right now, just trying to stay alive in a pandemic while having side illnesses and creating our own self-care network that goes beyond the limitations of the built environment on our bodies, has been vital.

And yes, one of those sites of self and community care for us is the enclosed shopping mall and its power center cousins.

Plus, we live in the DC region and several of our shopping malls and plazas are a half-mile or less from the Metro. Others have bus routes. One is the original central business district, which also has transit access, right next to its local yarn store. One is a power center, but by next May, it will have a Metro stop, after years of plans. I dream of the day when its enormous parking lot stops being an asphalt heat island, but a covered lot like The District Wharf with lots of fun restaurants and shops up top.  

In addition, some of the best formal architectural and planning work on how to make these shopping districts better has come from feminine-presenting people, which in general the mall loves the most or thinks is more likely to part with their money. I first found the work of architects Ellen Dunham-Jones and June Williamson on retrofitting suburbia and I was thrilled to do a special chat with them in March of 2021 they released their newest set of Retrofitting Suburbia case studies. Another collective of planners writing online, managed by Nancy Thompson, AICP, has written this article for people who need steps to turn their back mall into something productive.

And I’d be remiss if I didn’t note that so many of these shopping centers are failing because they see themselves as just shopping centers at best and tax shelters at worst. So many suburbs built and “abandoned” have become sites of opportunity for folks like me who are lower income, small business owners, LGBTQIA+,  immigrants and their descendants, and/or descendants of the Black/African enslaved, and who use mobility devices and other disabilities to make a life for ourselves. Many malls and shopping plazas servicing us are reviving, just in a different way. Meanwhile, other places that were built as money schemes are unfortunately failing, especially if they aren’t properly connecting with the communities that use them.

Because of these kinds of closures and disinvestments,  it might be too late for several malls in Les’s home region of Hampton Roads/Tidewater, Virginia. The area is a cluster of small cities with large land areas, divided up by a substantial waterfront, harbor, and naval operations. Some malls are becoming town centers, including one that she and I both visited a lot in our younger years, and went to in August of 2021 before more of it closed down. Others are just doing their best to share holiday cheer before they go away.

However, the malls and town centers I spent my formative years in Northwest and Southwest Greensboro, Winston-Salem, Durham, and just outside the beltline and midtown Raleigh are not all dead but have had a lot of demographic and physical shifts. I spoke in this presentation in January of 2021 about the death and “re-birth” of two (I set this to start at the part where I start talking about this, then I move on from that around the 38-minute mark). I wrote a slightly humorous holiday tale about a few in 2015. If anything, my hometown malls are showing resilience, in the face of so many of the corporate and manufacturing facets of the goods that fill them moving away over two decades ago.

Finally, you might not have thought much about these shopping centers and you may see them with disdain. Hopefully, it’s not because you find yourself lesser than for admitting you shop at these stores. Instead, I hope you consider standing with all the retail workers who make far too little making and serving the items we adore so much, with a glimmer of hope that they can get a store discount, much less a living wage. I hope you also think about how and where we choose to trade and barter goods and services we make with joy and in right-relationship with the environment, much like I did in my 2020 Sierra Magazine piece. 

And I hope whichever holidays you choose to observe this year, you do so with joy. Since it took me a minute to get you this week’s newsletter, I’ll be right back in your inbox on Monday, with a revisit of my 2012 post on Kwanzaa as a community holiday, on its first day this year, and how it can become more queer and feminist along with being Black and urbanist.

By the Way

If you’re new here, I write out my grand thesis of the week above, then I share other articles/videos that were noteworthy for me this week in this section. Apologies in advance for things behind a paywall. Some things I subscribe to and others I grab just before the wall comes down on me. I will start marking these articles and describing them.

Nearly an hour after posting this tweet last week about suburbs of survival, I finished editing this piece for GGWash of fellow urbanist writer Addison Del Mastro, on the wild and winding history of this Pizza Hut in what we consider the central part of  Prince Georges County, MD. I was also captivated by his article on the suburbs as we know them being a “first draft”. I’ll be revisiting these ideas in the new year, of changing definitions and feelings of “suburbia”.

Meanwhile, I received other confirmation/affirmation in my Black queer feminist journey from this examination of the late Black feminist Toni Cade Bambara’s 1970s questioning of the gender roles placed upon us as Black folks and  Black construction company executive Deryl McKissack’s article from 2021 on her perspective on defining yourself for yourself. I plan on taking lots of time over this week to not be on social and finding inspiration from within myself and non-digital or digitized written sources. 

And I considered holding this link until next week, but I know many of you are either going to be a Black Santa or you’re looking for one and I really loved how my friend and brilliant Baltimore-based essayist Alanna Nicole Davis described how Baltimore’s holiday celebrations can still be discriminatory and segregated through the hook of a Black Santa everywhere, but Hampden, which is internationally known for its neighborhood Christmas celebrations. (This may be paywalled for you).

Before You Go

The folks at the University of California, San Diego would love for you to know about not just one, but two tenue-track jobs they have available next year. Plus, some housekeeping about our little space. First the two jobs.

ASSISTANT PROFESSOR IN URBAN STUDIES AND PLANNING

The Department of Urban Studies and Planning at the University of California, San Diego invites

applications for a tenure-track Assistant Professor working in the area of urban studies and

planning to begin July 1, 2023.

This is a position for a tenure-track assistant professor in the Department of Urban Studies and

Planning at UC San Diego, a rapidly-growing department with strategic emphases on social and spatial justice; climate justice; and multinational planning.

The department is interested in candidates who have demonstrated commitment to excellence by strong engagement in teaching, research, and service toward building an equitable and diverse scholarly environment. The successful candidate will be an excellent scholar with an active research program in one or more of the following areas: transportation planning; climate change mitigation and adaptation; environment and land use planning; health and wellness, and/or spatial analytics.

The University of California, San Diego is an Equal Opportunity/Affirmative Action Employer advancing inclusive excellence. All qualified applicants will receive consideration for employment without regard to race, color, religion, sex, sexual orientation, gender identity, national origin, disability, age, covered veteran status, or other protected categories covered by the UC nondiscrimination policy.

Department: https://usp.ucsd.edu

Apply link: https://apol-recruit.ucsd.edu/JPF03452

Open date: November 21, 2022

Next review date: Tuesday, Jan 31, 2023 at 11:59pm (Pacific Time)

Apply by this date to ensure full consideration by the committee.

Final date: Friday, Mar 31, 2023 at 11:59pm (Pacific Time)

Applications will continue to be accepted until this date, but those received after the review date will only be considered if the position has not yet been filled.

***

And…

ASSISTANT PROFESSOR IN URBAN STUDIES AND PLANNING WITH A

FOCUS ON DESIGNING JUST FUTURES

The Department of Urban Studies and Planning seeks faculty candidates at the level of Assistant Professor whose research, teaching, and service will advance scholarship and institutional solutions for designing more just and equitable systems and structures.

This faculty member will advance UC San Diego’s commitment to the inclusion of Indigenous, Black, and migrant communities, anti-racism, anti-oppression, equity, and social justice. We especially welcome candidates whose professional experience, community engagement, and personal background have facilitated their understanding of and ability to better serve students from Indigenous and other underrepresented populations.

Faculty hired under this Initiative will join the UC San Diego campus, the UC San Diego Design Lab (https://designlab.ucsd.edu/), and the Indigenous Futures Institute (https://ifi.ucsd.edu/) to forge a new paradigm of engagement and collaboration that draws on the geographic, academic, institutional, and cultural strengths of our tri-national region across Southern California, Baja California, and the Kumeyaay region.

This search is part of a UC San Diego-wide cluster hire on Designing Just Futures (https://www.design-just-futures.ucsd.edu/) that aims to recruit scholars who can contribute to the advancement of design, social justice, and Indigenous, Black, and migrant futures and seeks engagement with scholars across disciplines to address issues of territory, access, and equity, and social and political debates pertinent to Indigenous, Black, border, and migrant communities, while also working within their home departments and professional communities.

Department: https://usp.ucsd.edu

Apply link: https://apol-recruit.ucsd.edu/JPF03484

Next review date: Tuesday, Jan 31, 2023 at 11:59pm (Pacific Time)

Apply by this date to ensure full consideration by the committee.

Final date: Friday, Mar 31, 2023 at 11:59pm (Pacific Time)

Applications will continue to be accepted until this date, but those received after the review date will only be considered if the position has not yet been filled.

***

I know I’ve been promising that I’ll be live on LinkedIn and YouTube and Instagram and I haven’t forgotten! I’ll be doing my wishes video live on Wednesday, December 28 and a video about these two holiday-themed newsletters Thursday, December 29. Both of these will go live around the noon hour Eastern.

***

I have created a special landing page, www.theblackurbanist.com/books, that’s not only a home for my upcoming volume, A Black Urbanist Journey to a Queer Feminist Future, which I just chatted with my editor with this week,  but I have embedded my Bookshop.org booklists here as well since we were having so many issues with the link. Go here for all things books I’ve read and my book when it comes out!

***

As of today, I am on holiday break from any client projects. I’ll be releasing my Kwanzaa email, making those videos, and doing some 2023 strategic planning and newsletter writing. I’ll release my 2023 Capabilities Deck in the first weeks of January along with a video to pair to explain what my calendar will look like in 2023 and how you can plug into it this year. 

***

Thank you for supporting last year’s capital campaign. Thanks to you, this year, I was able to cover my web hosting, enhance this newsletter, and position myself to take on some other client projects. However,  if you want to send me money for quick expenses or like a tip jar, you can Venmo me. I will also be introducing a paid tier for Substack and Medium users to also function like a tip jar.

***

Happy holidays and talk soon,

Kristen

#transpo, Cityreads, Education, Food, gentrification, Government, Homelessness, Housing, How-To, Kansas City, Transportation, urbanism

To Create a Perfect City

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All it took in many cities for development in the old days was one man who bought up bunches of land and started building houses on it, which he turned around and put up for sale.

One man. Probably white and already wealthy. 

Several plots of farmland. Land which used to be fields and served that purpose, is now a whole neighborhood. In the early years, these neighborhoods were connected throughout with sidewalks, with access to streetcars, with plots designated for community retail, such as a market. Many of these older style neighborhoods were still bedroom communities, but they were connected. In the case of J.C. Nichols here in KC and others, there was emphasis placed on who could and couldn’t purchase those homes, which unfortunately was codified in the federal mortgage-making code. Oh and the official history of his Country Club Plaza flat out states that he was just one man that changed the city. 

So to say that other developers and even you milling around and buying (and being sold) properties can’t change the city (or, at least a chunk of it) with your money, ideas and landownings is crazy. It really comes down to money and respect of who holds said money. Eventually, you can change your city with ideas and small investments. Eventually.

This still keeps me up at night, because unfortunately, I feel the only way to enact wholesale change on cities overnight, is to purchase wide swaths of empty land or existing properties and create my own fiefdom. Let’s chat about that fiefdom shall we?

Let’s first assume that I’m in KC and I bought up a chunk of abandoned or less-loved area East of Troost, but still in KCMO.

Restricitve covenants are illegal these days, but often rent and asking prices are such that certain people are excluded. I’d put up a for-sale sign on the residential properties and tell people the amenities and then invite them to propose a price for it. I would take millions from some and I’d hand out some for free. I’d do it lottery style, so the goal would be to get a diverse amount of people, but let Providence handle who was picked and wasn’t picked. No credit checks. Some people would get jobs handling transportation, doing landscaping, teaching at the educational campus or working at the marketplace and they would get homes that I’ll set aside for workers and families. The lottery will be for folks who don’t live in the neighborhood. 

For the transportation, Transportation to and from my fiefdom would be free and would include all types, appropriate to the context.  I’d give the money to get the Linwood streetcar built, and restore older ones. Troost and Prospect would get streetcars too. Remaining bus lines and the streetcars would have every-15-minutes bus service. There would be free car-share vehicles for trips to stores and other neighborhoods (fiefdoms). There would be bikes. And the sidewalks would be clear. If you still insist on bringing a car after I told you all this, you would have a place to park. But only if you make a compelling case to need one (you use it for your business, you are disabled and use it to cover long distances, you’re an Uber driver, you drive to a far-flung place that doesn’t have rail or bus or air service enough for you to go there as often as you need). While not directly in my KC fiefdom, I’d also donate money to get a streetcar or true light-rail (our existing vehicles can actualy do both!) to the airport. You’d start at the River Market stop, then wind your way through the Northland (possibly tunneled, possibly in the highway median), such that it’s only a 30 minute trip each way. Yes, it would go that fast too. Our  existing vehicles can safely run at 35 miles an hour.

There will be one central marketplace, which the community owns and staffs. There will be all kinds of healthy food options, with an eye to conscious omnivores on down to complete vegans. Subtracting staff salaries and real food costs, care will be made to make sure that people eat. You’d be able to get other things there too, either shipped directly to the store, to your home or inside the building. Yes, this is sounding like Walmart, but my Walmart would look like Target and pay like Costco. Actually, it would look like the City Market, because there would be room for both basic needs stores and also some fun stores. Just like homes, there will be different sizes for all. Also, services like doctors, yoga studios, and credit unions will be in this space too. 

There will be many open parks, with playgrounds and racket courts and basketball courts and even a fountain. This is KC. It seems that I must have a fountain to be a legit fiefdom.

There will also be one school, a campus if need be, that provides all that a kid would need as they grow. That includes any kid with a special need. If we can’t provide it, we will make arrangements free-of-charge for the kid to get the education they need, right by their own home. Or, if the kid was game, we’d bus them across town to another campus, which has mastered something we don’t quite have yet and gives them an opportunity to meet people who don’t live and work in their neighborhood.

But there’s a problem here. It should not take people buying up land and creating fiefdoms to provide education, food, education for all ages and all other needed and wanted services. Also, this could turn into separate-but-equal really quick, especially here in KC and in other places that still have very defined lines of where people of certain races and cultures live, exclusive of their actual income. My economics are probably way off, but I wanted to err on the side of providing homes and jobs and basic needs. I’m assuimg that I’m crazy rich already and can make up the difference.

But that’s what we have, fiefdoms, in an alliance under one city. Or in most cases, we have multiple cities, of multiple fiefdoms, doing whatever they feel like doing to provide basic services. Essentially, separate, but unequal, with a wee bit of separate-but-equal.

So what can we do?

I believe that as an alliance of cities and fiefdoms, we can set a goal to provide co-op grocery and markets, centralized and fulfilling K-12 and secondary education, and free and prompt transportation options. We can continue to provide places to gather, for various schools of thought, pending no one emerges from these meetings with the attempt to do real harm.

I think we could do this today, because these are our things that we can drop money on right now and shift the conversation and how we live.

I believe we can start looking at each other as human beings worthy of mutual respect and sympathy. I think we could switch to a system of true rehabilitation and re-training, to help those who truly have criminal minds (and not just those we THINK) do.

And housing. If we are going to spend money to build something, let us ensure our water and sewer systems are clean. Always. That there’s always a place to go when we are sick and going there doesn’t automatically bankrupt us and won’t bankrupt us down the line. We provide basic shelter, maybe communal at first, then small dwellings to people on a sliding scale. Then, because we’ve stopped servicing some of our other social welfare issues as hard or as inadequately as we were doing, we can zero in on the problems with costs and making sure people have adequate roofs, at the privacy level they so desire.

No city is perfect. Yet, we cannot keep going with the inadequate ones we are fielding today. And we cannot end with separate but equal.

Each week, I send out an email with these kinds of posts, things that I’m working on and other articles you should read. Leave me your information below and you’ll start to see it on Tuesdays.

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Bicycling, Bookcation, Food

Dispatches from Bookcation: Pocket Parks, Dinner and Bikes and Food Deserts

Greetings from Bookcationland. For the record, I do want to establish, that I am writing the book. However, one must sometimes live an experience before they put it out. So what have I been doing to live my experience in the last week or so? Here goes.

First off, we had another City Market, this time, around the theme of Wheels. I am proud to have been on an early steering committee for this great community festival. Thanks to running into one friend,who was staffing the tent for charity, I ended up checking out the Boba House Vegetarian tent. I’d been there before thanks to a gift card, but found the crab amazing and the fried chicken lacking. However, what ever is in the BBQ/Teriyaki sauce is amazing and I have to say that I might give tofu a chance again every once in a while. Check out this sweet painted banner that greeted everyone at the entrance.

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Then on Saturday, I dropped by the Power to the People’s Transit event, organized by fellow local tactical urbanist Ryan Saunders. There were four great rootsy bands, a cute pocket park and a bus hanging out for people to try out. Oh and check this wooden sign out:

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Nothing says tactical urbanism right like a hand-painted, wooden billboard/white board to collect ideas and promote sponsors. There were also folks painting murals right around the corner. Unfortunately, due to the heat and the fact that I had a ton to do on Saturday, I sat here, and finished a couple of chapters of Americanah, by Chimamanda Ngozi Adichie, a great story of the first hand experience of Nigerian immigrants to the US and UK over the span of the last 15 years. 

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Meanwhile, I meandered down to Durham on Monday night to catch Dinner and Bikes with the wonderful bike advocate/book and movie making collective of Microcosm Publishing. I’d been following and tweeting both Elly Blue and Joe Biel for a while and enjoyed getting to know more about their books and watching segments of Aftermass:Bicycling in a post-Critical Mass Portland. Oh and quite a bit of the vegan food was good. I’m more of a pescatarian (still working on the protein balance) but it was good to know how to cook veggies and have them actually taste good. Check some scenes from the evening below:

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Fell ill and missed my monthly transit board meeting, but I was able to get back in the saddle yesterday (Wednesday) and attend this panel on food deserts put on by SynerG, our local organization for engaging young professionals into civic life. And yes, as several of you saw on social media, the chart below is real. The measurement is the USDA measurement of no major supermarkets, but for many of these folks, they would love to have what others in our community have, namely the supermarket on every corner of the stroad. Or even better, a supermarket in walking distance. Even more compelling was that all the panelists were under 40 and already making head-roads into fixing our food desert problem. Check out the map image below.

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And finally, about the book. I’ve gotten a couple new essays written. In addition, for those of you who just want these essays in your inbox click here. As much as I love doing the North Carolina Placebook, I know for many of you, you’d rather read something from me in a more national or universal vein. Plus, folks who join the email list now will get podcast episodes as soon as they come out, along with special goodies when the book hits the streets. Once again, sign up here for the new and improved The Black Urbanist email list.

And with that, I’m back to working on that podcast episode I owe you guys. Promise it’s coming soon!

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Cities, Cityreads, Food

Placebook: That Perfect Restaurant

Dame's Chicken and Waffles in Greensboro, NC. Photo by Kristen E. Jeffers

What makes up your perfect restaurant? Is it all about good food or good atmosphere? Do the waiters, bartenders or folks behind the counter know your name? Is it that one dish that keeps you coming back for more?

Well, my perfect restaurant (which of course doesn’t really exist) sits about 500 feet from my house. I do have one of those in Dame’s Chicken and Waffles and they have pretty good food too, especially their macaroni and cheese, which is the one menu item my perfect restaurant must have. They also play jazz music, which besides a mixture of blues, classic rock (think Steely Dan), black gospel from the 1980s, 90s and 2000s pop music and of course anything from the Motown catalog makes up my perfect restaurant playlist. Add to the menu Pancakes so I can alternate my breakfast game, topped of course with warm maple syrup. And cookies, lots of gourmet cookies. Oh and ice cream, Mellow Mushroom’s Kosmic Karma pizza so I don’t have to walk the additional 1100 feet and a Five Guys cheeseburger with mustard and ketchup so I don’t have to drive two miles and the sushi from Raleigh’s Sushi Republic so I don’t have to drive 90 minutes. And how could I forget some calabash shrimp and croaker. (Some people think the North Carolina state dish should be chopped barbecue. I’d go with calabash seafood).

Of course, if the perfect restaurant existed, it would be Target large and there would be no need for the wonderful strips like Elm Street that force people to take evening strolls, be adventurous and experience different foods and atmospheres. In other words, there wouldn’t be such a thing as a vibrant place.

Oh well, here’s your news for today:

News from North Carolina

Today is council meeting day in Greensboro. Here’s your agenda. As always, it starts at 5:30 at the Melvin Municipal Building at the corner of Washington and Greene Streets. Parking is free after 5 in the Greene Street parking deck. For those who can’t make it, video streaming is here and the hashtag #gsopol on Twitter has highlights as well.

In other city and county government news: Greensboro Councilman Jamal Fox has been cleared to teach again at NC A&T; the City of Greensboro fined property owners for housing code violations; the City of High Point is hiring outside legal help to deal with a grievance against its city manager; High Point may or may not have a county commissioner next year; Asheville’s in the hunt to find a cure for its graffiti vandalism; 5.7 million dollars of taxes are due in New Hanover County; and Harnett County hires an economic development planner.

In education news today, the Asheville City Board of Education approves their version of the state’s new 25 percent plan. Meanwhile Wake and Durham Counties plan to join the fight against the new plan.

The major business and retail news today comes from the potential RJ Reynolds/Lorillard merger, which may help Winston-Salem and hurt Greensboro (This is on top of the news that RF Micro Devices may merge with an out-of-state company). Additionally in retail news people say goodbye to the original Ollie’s Bakery in Winston-Salem and Westbend Vineyards in Lewisville; North Carolina founded and headquartered BB&T is now the nation’s 12th largest bank; Lincoln County’s largest subdivision ever has been approved and the Trader Joes supporters signs in Greensboro may be too big.

In tourism and travel news, Biltmore is back to being the top tourist destination in North Carolina, the CIAA tournament will stay in Charlotte for the next six years, the economic impact of our state’s national parks and Governor McCrory honored this year’s Winner’s Circle, those who’ve impacted state tourism the most.

News and Lessons from Elsewhere

New York is starting to impose North Carolina-style laws on its gentleman’s clubs.

Airport chaplains are there for more than just prayers, they are often the most civil employees or volunteers in the airport.

Another nice infographic on what could happen if all boomers behave like their parents and sell off their suburban homes.

Friend of the page Graham Sheridan’s latest, where he highlights what happens when Olympic cities and properties are abandoned. A colleague of his at the Brown Political Review notes that marrying someone like yourself may be bad for curing income inequality.

DC has committed funding to bury its power lines over the next 7-10 years.

This is a phenomenal list of how to come into a neighborhood and be a good neighbor and not just a person who jacks up house values.

This apartment building in Philly actually has mixed income housing.

And finally, a short reminder to some and lesson to all about how the mass grocery business really works, from Marketplace on NPR. Also, what it is like to be stranded in Atlanta’s food deserts.

 

Food, Greensboro, Homelessness, Housing, Retail, Wishes

MORE: My 2014 Wishes for Good Places

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Last year, my wish/new years resolution was to maintain.

Overall, I think we succeeded in that. Downtown continues to grow. Even as beloved spaces elsewhere close, new ones spring right back up in their place, like a sushi bar right across the street from the bar I mentioned above. I’ve maintained employment. I’ve reconnected with family as family has passed on.

Therefore, as we look ahead into 2014, the word that stands out for me this year is simply:

MORE

How does more relate to good places? Here’s how:

More tiny houses

I was delighted to hear this story of how the Occupy Madison group managed to build a tiny house for a homeless couple. Far too many offshoots of Occupy have been blamed for being delinquent, whiny, and entitled. However, this group of folks actually did something about the problems facing our cities. They hope to build a whole village of these homes for people.

I also like tiny houses because they recognize that sometimes people can’t afford a certain amount of square footage, but that doesn’t make them incapable of owning their own home. We laugh at trailer parks, but honestly, at least those people have a roof over their heads. We used to laugh at apartments too, but I’m sitting in a luxury one.

More opportunities for youth to learn good citizenship

I’ve bled a lot of ink and blurred a lot of pixels about the cost of not engaging all of our youth and our citizens. The issue is near and dear to my heart, because I became engaged in placemaking and civic governance as a young child. My parents made sure I went to the library and they encouraged me to learn. So many people don’t have parents that do that, but there’s plenty of people in our community who can serve in that role for our youth. I want to find a way to do more of this myself, in a more productive and proactive way. I also think that if we don’t engage our youth, we will never be able to realize our placemaking dreams.

More parks

Thanks to where I work, I’m able to see a lot of new, cool things that are being built. I also have had a chance to see what’s planned for our new LeBauer Park, along with what’s been dreamed up thus far for the Union Square Park. I hope that these new parks, despite being public-private partnerships, hold true to the spirit of the public piece of the  partnership that is propelling them forward.

More books and reading and writing

I never imagined that by the end of 2013, I’d be walking to my very own local indie bookstore which stocks brand new books, smart magazines and used classics. I never imagined I’d be front page news and make news and have the bylines that I’ve had. In that spirit, I hope that Scuppernong revitalizes its block, not just with libations, but budding librarians. You’re seeing more posts from me here and who knows, I might whip up another book.

More microeconomies

As I talked about above with the support of tiny houses, some of our Occupiers have evolved into a group spearheading a new grocery co-op on the traditionally black east side of Greensboro. Meanwhile, opposition is growing for a Trader Joes (again) on a particular plot near the more wealthy communities of Greensboro. However, if it weren’t for Trader Joes offering some of the foods that make me stick my pinkies out while holding food, at a price that doesn’t make me feel like I’m breaking my pinkies, I wouldn’t be as proactive about healthy food. You already know the mind games I play when thinking about groceries. The more niches a market has, the better the market actually serves people and actually holds true to the notion of being free.

More transportation

I’m now part of a group called the Transit Alliance of the Piedmont, a group formed because of the need for real, not just realistic, regional transit. I hope to channel some of my dreams for transportation (more bus shelters, shorter headways, a serious rail plan, business support) into action in the coming year. We will have a website and some information up soon on how those of you in the Triad area can help. I’m also on the Bike Share Task Force led by Action Greensboro, another group working to bring new transit options to Greensboro.

2013 was one of the hardest years, from losing my father, to feeling alienated, to a major case of writers block. My hope is that my 2014 will be full of abundance, and that abundance starts with doing what I can to cultivate good places.

Alexandria, Arts Districts, Atlanta, Cities, Cleveland, downtown, Durham, Greensboro, Jobs, Links, miami, New York City, Pittsburgh, Raleigh, Retail, Transportation

Placebook: Snow, Maybe?

Good Friday morning folks! Some of you are snowed in. Some of you are just cold. Count me in the cold bunch. If you want a good laugh, take a look at my account of what happens when we actually do get snow down South.

Greensboro Skyline covered in snow, January 19, 2013. Photo Credit: Kristen Jeffers
Greensboro Skyline covered in snow, January 19, 2013. Photo Credit: Kristen Jeffers

Whatever is going on outside, be safe, have fun and check out the articles below:

Harlem is on the one hand the home of the graffiti hall of fame and  the other a hotbed of gentrification.

Meanwhile, Los Angeles continues its march towards more transit, more parks and civic engagement.

Speaking of civic engagement, with the performing arts center funded, Greensboro leaders are moving towards deciding who’s going to operate it. Oh, and mark your calendars for all the known street festivals in Greensboro this year.

A sign in Miami tells pedestrians to thank drivers for not hitting them.

Terry Kerns(@terrykerns) documents significant demolitions in Atlanta, some nice, some ugly.

Jim Russell(@burghdiaspora) hasn’t slammed suburbia as much as he’s encouraged and documented the need for people to #makeyourcity and how young people are doing just that.

Kaid Benfield(@Kaid_at_NRDC)came back and elaborated on his comments on traditional downtowns, highlighting the generational gap in views on revitalization. I left a comment, stating the need for us to remain centralized, even if that means being polycentric. Also notable is the danger of having your content syndicated without its proper headline.

I don’t think manufacturing job losses are the reason Big 10 college football teams aren’t having the best seasons right now.

And finally, help this Alexandria, VA woman #FindBen, if he wants to be found. When Cragslist’s missed connections goes artisanal. http://dcist.com/2014/01/find_ben_alexandria_posters.php

That’s it for links this week. Be sure to look out for my 2014 Wishes for Good Places tomorrow just in time for brunch on the East Coast.

Arts Districts, Cities, Education, Greensboro, Homelessness, Housing, Links, New York City

Placebook: Housing Standards, Art Coming Back to NYC and Economies of Fear

Good morning folks!

I want to thank everyone again for the support, the shares and the opportunities of 2013. I wish you the best and look forward to us sharing more in 2014 . Look out for my 2014 wishes for good places this weekend and a very special surprise in this space tomorrow morning.

Thanks to those of you who are sharing links using #placebook and #makeyourcity; keep sharing and I’ll include a few here.

And now today’s links.

  • People complain about The New York Times being completely out of focus with the rest of the world, but Paul Krugman is one of those who proves that wrong.  Here he talks about the fear economy, one I know all too well, as quitting is never an option for the middle class and below, even with a savings.
  • Gene Nicol in the [Raleigh] The News and Observer breaks down poverty in North Carolina. Yes, it’s bad.
  • Despite the economic crunch, some artists, are still making it in New York City. How the mayor-elect has supported these small  galleries and lesser-known producers in the past.
  • Finally, if you have a beat down house in Greensboro, either give it up or get it fixed up. Code enforcements are starting again.
  • Michael Benami Doyle (@chicagocarless) on how LA (and cities that have a similar relationship with their bus systems), can do better with their buses.

See you in 2014!

Food, Retail, Transportation, urbanism

Living in the Food Oasis of Greensboro

23 Comments

EDIT 9/14/ 2013: Due to your comments, I’ve gone ahead and rebuilt my chart, along with edited much of the commentary that I originally wrote about these stores. Thanks to everyone who tipped me off to errors and omissions, which helped me find more quirks and a more complete analysis of Greensboro’s food oasis.

I live in a food oasis. I may complain about lack of stores in walking distance, but I still live in abundance of food.

To ease my urbanist brain, I finally sat down and did the math on how to get to the grocery store from my current residence. There is no doubt that despite my prime downtown location, I can’t get there without vehicular assistance. Sure, I can be like my dad who used to walk 5-10 miles a day, but he did that out of necessity. There are bus routes, but the headways (time it takes for the bus to run its route and back) are horrible. It’s far better and more practical to drive to the store.

Now I’m not knocking out the walk completely. I’ve had my 20-minute walk-to-Harris-Teeter moments too. But those moments were tough. Imagine carrying two heavy bags of pasta cans for a mile. Imagine someone my size, 5’4”, 120 something in poundage, lugging two barely bagged plastic bags through parking lots and around roundabouts and over broken sidewalks.

Oh the horror of the privileged college girl, who’s rebeling from the dining hall and avoiding her new, but annoying and challenging friends. She chose to walk to the store. WALK! Carrying groceries. CARRYING GROCERIES!

I digress. Let’s get back to the present. Here are the raw numbers on time and distance to the grocery store, courtesy of Google Maps.

Store Distance(driving) Distance(Walking) Distance (via Bus with 30 minute headways) Distance via Bike
Deep Roots 1.2 miles (7 minutes) 1.2 miles (24 minutes) 21 minutes 1.2 miles(8 minutes)
Whole Foods 3.3 miles(11 minutes) 1 hour 7 minutes 28 minutes 4.1 miles(26 minutes)
Food Lion #1(Glenwood/Coliseum Blvd) 2.9 miles(10 minutes) 2.8 miles (55 minutes) 21 minutes 2.9 milesb(8 minutes)
Food Lion(Meadowview) #2 2.3 miles(7 minutes) 2.2 miles (44 minutes) 21 minutes 2.3 miles (8 minutes)
Food Lion #3(E. Market) 2.2 miles (6 minutes) 2.2 miles (44 minutes) 16 minutes 2.2 miles (12 minutes)
Food Lion #4(Golden Gate) 3.7 miles(11 minutes) 2.9 miles (57 minutes) 23 minutes 2.9 miles (17 minutes)
Food Lion #5(Alamance Church) 2.2 miles (7 minutes) 2.2 miles (43 mintues) 25 minutes 2.2 miles (12 minutes)
Aldi 4.91 miles (10 minutes) 4.1 miles (1 hour 22 minutes) 37 minutes 4.2 miles (25 minutes)
Harris Teeter West Friendly 3.6 Miles(12 minutes) 3.5 miles (1 hour 11 minutes) 32 minutes 4.3 miles (27 minutes)
Harris Teeter Lawndale 3.6 miles(12 minutes) 3.6 miles (1 hour 12 minutes) 35 minutes 4.9 miles (28 minutes)
Target Lawndale 3.6 MIles (12 minutes) 3.6 miles (1 hour 12 minutes) 35 minutes 4.9 miles (28 minutes)
Compare Foods 2.2 miles (7 minutes) 1.9 miles (39 minutes) 16 minutes 2.2 miles (12 minutes)
Bestway 2.9 miles (9 minutes) 2.5 miles (51 minutes) 26 minutes 2.6 miles (17 minutes)
Super G Mart 5.6 miles (15 minutes) 5.2 miles (1 hour 46 minutes) 36 minutes 5.6 miles (32 minutes)
Walmart 5.3 miles (15 minutes) 5.0 miles (1 hour 40 minutes) 54 minutes 5.1 miles (31 minutes)
Walmart Neighborhood Grocery 6.8 miles (12 minutes) 4.5 miles (1 hour 30 minutes) 30 minutes 4.5 miles (26 minutes)
Li MIng’s Global Market 6.8 miles (12 minutes) 4.5 miles (1 hour 31 minutes) 27 minutes 4.5 miles (27 minutes)
Greensboro Farmers Curb Market 1.5 miles (5 minutes) 1.5 miles(28 minutes) 16 minutes 1.5 miles (8 minutes)
Bessemer Curb Market 2.2 miles (7 minutes) 1.9 miles (38 minutes) 15 minutes 2.1 miles (11 minutes)

My original methodology? I chose stores that were in 15 driving minutes or less and were not Walmart (2 of the 4 Greensboro Walmarts hit right at 15 minutes of driving). Also, all these stores are on my radar either for proximity or my actual love of shopping there. Those stores would be the Target, the Whole Foods and the first two Food Lions on my list.

These stores are clean, have exactly what I want or have the advantage of having all that I want. I do also shop at the Harris Teeters, but my guilt for going there is even worse than my Walmart guilt. I’ll save that for another post or if you really want me to explain in the comments.

After doing the additional math and analysis, new ideas for my grocery procurement appeared. Most notably, the farmers market is only 5 minutes from my house via car, making it the closest option. Shame it’s only open on Wednesdays. If I could get used to riding a bike with a cargo bag or trailer and at a speed that didn’t mow me down (or with added bike lanes on major thoroughfares), then I have far more options for stores. There would be more of a time commitment, but biking is as much an adventure as it is a chance to experience the open air. Thirty minutes on a bike can go by pretty fast.  Walmart is not worth the trip, no matter the mode of transport. The bus headways are still terrible, but if push comes to shove, the options do exist. We still have moderately sized cities in North Carolina without bus service. I’m going to count that blessing of bus service here.

In addition, although not shown on the map, I found many stores in far-flung areas are actually very convenient on foot or bike to their surrounding residential areas. Bestway, a small community grocery, anchors its inner suburb area of Lindley Park. For my dad, the Glenwood Food Lion was only a 24 minute walk and 1.1 miles away from home. Likewise for other homes. We may get a bad rap for being car dependent, but if one is willing to brave sidewalks alongside or biking in the midst of busier roads, we don’t have as bad of a grade as I thought on full-service grocery or fresh food markets. If and when the Renaissance Co-op comes online, it will give that community a store in walking and biking distance, comparable with what is available in other parts of Greensboro. Also, I’ve heard from many others that the Food Lions I cited as dirty, along with Deep Roots, are not that bad. Even though I still can’t vouch for East Market in person, I can vouch for Alamance Church being a better store than it has been in the past.

This does not let the City of Greensboro off the hook for moving towards a more complete street plan for all of our major thoroughfares. If we had that, then many of these areas would become urbanist meccas overnight.

So what if I don’t want to leave downtown or even my apartment complex? Give me Peapod or give me Trader Joes. Peapod could set up a kiosk and storage space at my leasing office. Most everyone in my apartment complex is a choice buyer already. Paying premiums for rent and grocery would just be an additional expense.  I would be excited to not have to drive to the store for small items. I’d just have the five-minute walk to the leasing office. Lowes Foods, a local chain suburban in nature, already offers grocery delivery. They could be that service here if Peapod decides to never venture in this market.

And then there is Trader Joes. They should move to my end of downtown, maybe on the South Elm lot or in one of the still empty storefronts on Elm or Greene Street. Their demographic desires are fairly well-known to anyone who follows grocery news. They want the professor. Moderately wealthy but choosy.  Plenty of those types of people (choosy, if not academic) on my end of downtown. Similar to the Deep Roots in physical footprint, they could also draw people from the older, lower-income areas who may or may not be on public assistance. Plenty of these people already shop at the Aldi, which is another imprint of their company. Why not do the Trader Joes concept where there is at least a moderate amount of  their demographic and a smaller floorspace.

Maybe they are stuck on the fear of theft, which is real, but these grocery companies need a better strategy and profit margin. Far more people need to eat and are willing to pay than steal. Stop the excuses. Oh and while we’re at it, many of these stores have questionable records on employee compensation and benefits, unionization, quality of food as well as their lust for profits even though they essentially are providing a public service. Is there such a thing as a perfect grocery store? One that I can walk to? One that delivers if I can’t or won’t drive?

This concludes my food oasis grocery rant and analysis. Where do you stand? What’s your perfect grocery store? What can they do for us who can afford to go anywhere, to make sure we don’t just go anywhere?

 

apartment living, Cities, Civic Inferiority Complex, creative placemaking, downtown, Family and Place, Greensboro, Issues and Ideas, Politics of Place, Rural, tips for urbanist living

The Privilege of Urbanism, The Democracy of Placemaking

11 Comments

Privilege.

The one thing I can take from reading this article and reading my words back to myself on what it has been like living as a classical new urbanist over the past year. I cannot think of another way to illustrate how I feel vis-a-vis a young man, only two years younger than me, who’s trying to get his life back on his feet, facing challenges. It also brings me to a hard truth that my design-focused friends and followers will not want to hear.

Design, even new urbanist design, is out of reach or a major stretch for far too many people, including myself.

Prior to speaking with the reporter about the issues and frustrations I have with where I live, prior to the noise ordinance and curfew restrictions, I’d been thinking about a change in living situation.

However, I kept beating myself up with a major what-if: if I leave my apartment and go somewhere cheaper, then many of the theories I’ve put forth on this blog and in other forms would go unproven.

Isn’t that what a theory is though, an idea that hasn’t been proven? Is anything on this blog law?

No, it isn’t, and that’s actually a good thing.

One of the greatest new urbanist writers of our time is actually not quite an urbanist, in the sense that he doesn’t live in an apartment, near transit, by himself or with one or two other people. I would like to think his credibility on the subject is far superior to mine and the marketplace agrees (slowly but surely).

Yet, I still believed for the longest time, that the only way anyone would listen to my words and create a marketplace around them is if I lived the most extreme urbanism I knew how to live.

And it’s urbanism, but it’s not placemaking.

Placemaking does require an address, but it’s not necessarily an address in demand. Place can be made from old-line suburbia, where each neighbor can decide to grow a different vegetable and then teach the community how to clean and cook those vegetables, in order to eat healthier. The streets of that old-line suburbia could become woonerfs, places where cars automatically go slow and people take advantage of the sloping hills and winding curves and dead ends to get in workouts, that shed the pounds earned by sitting in cars commuting to ever further away jobs, or from sitting at home doing a job that no longer requires a specific location. They could carpool to stores. I think my reporter friend said it best in this article, “Even for a staunch new urbanist like myself, the logic is inescapable: If you want two or three bedrooms and you can afford a mortgage of about $100,000, you head for the suburbs.”

While I truly don’t want the center city to yield to the gilded class, I don’t want us to give up on making good places because we don’t live or can’t afford to do so. I also don’t want those of us with massive privilege to forget that it doesn’t take much for anyone to fall on hard times and not all dealing with hard times are lazy and uncommitted.

Whatever happens and whatever I decide to do in the coming months, my goal is to commit myself to a new theory, the democracy of placemaking. To create, to invent, to include, to incorporate, to adapt, to save and to grow. Let me not forget again, what it really means to be a placeist.

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Family and Place, Food, Greensboro, Issues and Ideas

Statement of Support for the Renaissance Co-Op

4 Comments

This evening (May 7, 2013) the Greensboro City Council will vote on the future of their stake of ownership of the Bessemer shopping center and in turn, the Renaissance Co-Op. In case I do not get a chance to read this statement at tonight’s meeting. I am publishing it here.

Members of Council and Members of the Greater Greensboro Community, I am here to encourage council to retain this investment in the growth of our city. While some in this room may feel like we don’t need to have the city make these types of investments, I beg to differ.

All of you who sit on the dais are there because your care about your local community. You all want to support job creation, home ownership, and a strong local economy. You all want your individual neighborhoods to be stronger and capable of producing positive growth.

It is in this spirit that I encourage you to maintain your support of the Bessemer Center and your stake in the Renaissance Co-Op. This council would gladly put up funding for a major national corporation or retailer  to move into the city. However, have you all stopped to think about how that corporation started? That many of the grocery chains began as corner stores, corner stores that anchored and strengthened communities. Unlike some of these manufacturing operations that have come in in the last few years, there is always a demand for fresh food at affordable prices and manpower needed to staff these stores. There are also plenty of service organizations and community groups who are willing to train workers, which may also provide a cost savings of labor, that will not be detrimental to real wages of these people. That alone would lower our unemployment rate.

Need I remind you that this council has a growing history of supporting community projects and community entrepreneurs. This ownership will allow more citizens of Greater Greensboro to have an ownership stake in something that serves our community. All one has to do is turn on the TV or pull up the news online to see that the local food and local merchant movement is more than a passing fad.

That same Internet allows many products that would never have a shelf-life in the pre internet days to be million and billion selling enterprises. Granted, this co-op could have modest financial returns, but for many, the city’s stake in the process would allow people to get a taste of what it’s like to actually own something or create something.

Currently, there is a a lot of momentum around what Greensboro is doing to better itself, namely downtown. Yet, we cannot forget that the vast majority of our citizenry lives elsewhere. They too deserve the ability to walk or make a short drive to services right around the corner.

Lastly, to the community itself. I know it’s not Harris Teeter or something fancier. Yet, as I just told the council, we have to start somewhere. Food is food, as long as it is fresh, reasonably priced and healthy. With the city’s stake in this co-op, there are many of us who can afford to purchase a stake in something positive for this community, that we can have a hand in saying how workers are paid, food is priced and even how long it is open. As we have seen over the years, the larger retailers appear to have no concern for this at all.

So let’s just see how this goes. What harm is it in trying to run this co-op? After all, for 15 years that space has been vacant. Anything’s better than vacant right?