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
By Kristen Jeffers
Essay/Kristen's Mind/media/mental health/migration/Money and the City/Moving and Migration/placemaking/planning/Politics of Place/urbanism
Are There Really Too Many Planners in Certain Metro Areas?
Recently, I was made aware of and responded to this series of threads on Twitter, that among my colleagues in the D.C. area, there’s a concern over how many practitioners of place, especially planners, exist in the metro area and how many folks want to be planners by name, versus just
Why I’m Raising Money for The Black Urbanist and Why I’m Doing it On Patreon
I am raising money to make this the online home I’ve always dreamed it could be and needs to become. I’m doing it through Patreon because Patreon makes it easier for me to see what I have to work with each month and it’s optimized for people who write and make
Building on Theories and Practice of Black Urbanism in Our New World
I have always owed a great debt to the work of Sara Zewde, especially the usage of the term black urbanist and talking about black urbanism. Zewde is currently a principal at Asakura Robinson a designer at the Seattle-based firm GGN and in 2010, published her MIT graduate thesis, Theory, place, and
[Weekly Email] Blacksonian, Podcasts for Holiday Listening and More –This Week with The Black Urbanist
It’s time for my weekly email! A few weeks ago, I decided to move my email over to a new provider, InfusionSoft. In addition, I decided that since I’m doing this blog and other parts of Kristen Jeffers Media full-time right now, there’s no reason why I can’t send you
Open Thoughts on the U.S. Election Results
I assume most of you are probably in a state of either shock or fear or a combination of the two. I wanted to write a note here, so you’ll know that someone is listening one and two, that you’re not alone and three, so I can process these things.
On The Blog at its Sixth Birthday: Reflections on Its Purpose and My Growing Business and Passions
Hey folks! I’ve just gotten in from a conference day where I’ve been encouraged to make a leap into another step in my business and it just so happens on another Friday night like this in October, six years ago, I made another major leap and put The Black Urbanist
By Kristen Jeffers
Cities/Cityreads/Commons/downtown/Family and Place/gentrification/Government/Housing/How-To/Issues and Ideas/Podcast/transit/urbanism
On the Second Presidential Debate of 2016 and Knowing Your Truth About Where You Live
I wanted to discuss a comment about cities that came up in the debate/ town hall last night. Note, this is not a post endorsing one or the other, although I’ll say that I’m with her. But the issue brought up is one that trips up a lot of people
We May Be Gentrified, But Our Culture Doesn’t Have to Die.
We are at peak gentrification. What’s next? Namely, what’s next for cultures and communities of color who are left in the wake of the racism and greed that drives many gentrification conversations in our cities. How do we overcome the drama of losing our homes and stores and schools and
By Kristen Jeffers
#transpo/Cityreads/Education/Food/gentrification/Government/Homelessness/Housing/How-To/Kansas City/Transportation/urbanism
To Create a Perfect City
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
