This is The Black Urbanist Monthly. I’m Kristen Jeffers and I’m making this monthly digital newsletter to share my Black, Spiritual, Diasporic North Carolinian, Working/Lower Middle-Class, Educated, Queer, CisFemme thoughts on how places and communities work. Think of this as my monthly column, the one that flaps open as you start browsing that coffee table magazine or printed alt-weekly newspaper or as so many other of your favorite newsletters do, in your inbox. This is the one that will transition us from December 2020 to January 2021.
I expected this year to be special, because it was my 10th anniversary year creating this platform. I expected to have this big 10th anniversary party with a big cake and all my family and friends surrounding me and reading from the finished A Black Urbanist and preparing to go on book tour.
But the year I got was good too. How?
- Coming out publicly and to family, which has allowed me to breathe in a way I’ve not been able to in years. Also, reconnecting with family in general, thanks to check-in Zooms.
- Having major interviews and bylines in Sierra Magazine and Streetsblog, along with those Zoom panels and keynotes despite working on a tray table in my bed.
- Collaborating with several pro-Black planners and urbanists to start building up a Black urbanist media and thought-leadership collective, plus drafting a curriculum and support network of my own, that honors Black queer feminist people and their work in the canon of urbanism and placemaking.
- Helping Les start podcasting, work-from-home in defiance of her office’s declaration of essential work and taking her advocacy work to the next level with endoQueer.
- Using my sadness at the loss of beloved people, stores, institutions and the ability to go out to eat and to concerts, to get better at my crochet, go on lots of harbor trail walks and drive around the metro region and get a sense of how vast the suburban areas are on both sides of the Potomac.
- And, because a lot of the wishes from prior years came true.
In fact, let’s revisit some of those wishes…
I want to make it clear right now, that I do not see myself as THE Black Urbanist. As in the only and the best and the most important one. I want this site and it’s companion Twitter to inspire more theses, Twitter accounts, conversations and real-life solutions. I want to see other cultures represented in building styles, businesses and on bikes. The urban fabric would not be where it is without the culture that infuses its transit-oriented bones. If you are interested to contributing to this site in some way, let me know, I’ll be glad to have you!
Reducing My Dependence on Chain Retail
This one is hard. I am a mall rat. Also, if I fail to support my local mall, we will lose some of the good remaining retail near my home. However, I realize more and more that the possessions I have do not matter as much as the people I have and that I share said possessions with. I think that I can make the most of being in a suburban area, by reducing my car trips to shopping areas and taking up more DIY projects. Also, when I can, I want to carpool. My belly will love it when I stop going to Bojangles as much and I’ll begin to use the things I already have more and save for travel.
Becoming More Competitive In a Glocal Market
Yes, I used the word Glocal. I am hoping to become location-independent in the next few years. This way, I could pick areas that are walkable/bikeable, but reasonably priced. Many bastions of walkability area are too affluent and pricey for the space provided. However, a nice small town with a lot of downtown stock (Sanford, NC and many New England towns come to mind), would be perfect. I could even set up a more permanent shop such as a coffee shop or fruit stand if I wanted, because I have an income stream that allows me to contribute to an area that needs it. I am still open to being somewhere large and already vibrant, but without commuting expenses. I would like to start a family. Unfortunately, there is a great fight for urbanist and family friendly areas that are affordable. I want to set roots so that I can help ease that transition for myself and others.
This year, my wish manifests in one word:
Maintain.
It’s nice to have brand new town center neighborhoods, but let’s not forget to maintain the old ones, especially those that were already town centers.
It’s nice to have brand new transit lines, but lets not forget to maintain the old buses and trains, so they won’t fall apart and stop coming on time.
It’s nice to have new civic centers, but let’s not forget to maintain the old recreation centers that serve so many children and their parents who need a nice community place, for a reasonable cost.
It’s nice to have new markets, but let’s not forget to maintain the old ones, lest they start to sell moldy or old food, because they don’t believe they have the clientele or the money to support good food.
It’s nice to have new homes, but let’s not forget the old ones, the ones that are well made, with unique, authentic features. Also, let’s not forget those who live in these older homes, that may have paid off their homes and have lived honest lives. Let’s help them maintain their American Dream, especially if they’ve been there for 30 years, fought for this country, endured racism, sexism, classism and any other isms. Sometimes, gradual change is good enough.
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.
Truly Open Streets
Remember this picture of me? I was playing on a B-cycle demonstration bike on the street that I helped paint, to have an open streets event there. Yet, from then to now, not just in Greensboro, but in many other cities, the streets haven’t been so open. In fact, many have been hostile. My wish is that we can start looking at people on our streets, not as threats, not as people to shake money out of, not as places to speculate our real estate futures and to shoot to kill, but as places where we can celebrate our achievements and what it means to be human. I might be wishing this every year, but I’m going to get us started there. If we block the streets in 2015, I pray that it’s to have a party, be at peace and be better neighbors.
2016 into 2017
Steady Rents and Mortgages
Every city that has at least a major employer; homes that resemble craftsman bungalows, art deco apartments or colonial row houses; has a college or two or three; and has reasonable diversity in population is seeing some form of gentrification, proportional to the average median household income. Every city has people who can’t make ends meet and in some places, it’s worse than others, because salaries are holding steady for a lot of industries, especially at the minimum wage and entry levels. But, if the housing market could as a whole lower their costs by maybe 10% on services, rents and the like (as well as themselves start to rely less on bank loans and a bit more on cash), maybe we could fix this. This will be a continuing wish, because I know what I just proposed isn’t practical. What however is practical, is empowering people to create craft and trade guilds and turn neighborhood association funds into a means to fund labor and supplies for these maintenance and building crews. My friend John Anderson has a great argument for continuing to mentor and cultivate tradesmen, especially in underserved communities who need lots of housework done, but may not have what it takes to hire outside workers.
Understanding of How Housing Policy and some Transportation Policy Has Created A Number of Social Ills.
Again, this combines elements of the two wishes above. People need to know the history of their neighborhoods, their states and their country. If you don’t like not having public transit, find out where the stops are and why your system exists. Same with your neighborhood and why you may have seen a restrictive covenant in the deed, even though technically those are illegal. At the very least understand why your Realtor still may have suggested a certain group of neighborhoods and why certain neighborhoods command high values (It’s not just because of proximity to Trader Joe’s). I want to use this space and other forums to help people understand why so many of our urban and suburban racial battles have roots back even further than the greater civil rights movements of the 1950s and 1960s. Maybe you weren’t aware of the origins of Oregon, but this post touches on that and how in least one state, capturing the American Dream was completely banned well into the 20th Century. (I’m also aware of the irony of this link in the light of the other link from wish 1.)
That I wasn’t so afraid of the future and neither were so many other people
This is the linchpin to me of the most recent round of elections in the United States, as well as the last few election cycles. We’re afraid to die. We’re afraid of losing control. We’re afraid of never being in control. This is just a portion of the phenomenon that allows evil to raise up through our civic spaces, but it’s worth looking at by itself.
On a more personal level, I’ve been more afraid since the election. Mostly because I was afraid long before the election. I feel safe to say that I left both my hometown and the one I adopted from June 2015-September 2016 because I was afraid of being myself in the spaces I conducted myself in. I feared that I wasn’t square enough to be in elected and appointed politics. I felt super black, and not in a good, fists up, I matter kind of way. I felt smaller and smaller. I felt like I had to be involved in small town nitpicky things. I felt like I was running out of people. And energy. And time. So I’m in the D.C. Metro finally. I can’t say that it’s for good, only because life happens and life happens outside of me.
For our greater populace, we may not like each other. We may feel like people are invading our personal space and messing with our ego, but the world needs some of that. We need all kinds of spaces, safe, and unsafe. We need dense and open spaces. May we continue headfirst to the transect and may we look at everyone first and foremost as worthy of love and worthy of the best. Then stop building bad things, taking away good social programs that work and condemning folks to judgment places that probably don’t look like what you think they do in your head.
2017’s epic lessons learned post and my opening wishes for 2018
A lot has changed, but the forward motion of being myself, partnering with someone who loves me and supports me and raising money has come true. Still working on the marginalized peoples part.
2018 going into 2019
I couldn’t write it at the time, because I wasn’t ready, but much of what I did write in drafting this post became my coming out day post of this past year.
Everything I said last year is still true and in the wish column. Media, North Carolina, mask it up and get it together.
And now, going from 2020 into 2021, here’s what I can add:
- Kristpattern and the Black Queer Feminist Urbanist School create the passive income I need for me to be comfortably location-independent and that allows me to do the work I want to do, when I want to do it and take care of my family, my friends and my partner.
- The industry continues to do the work it promised to do to increase racial equity. This means being pro-Black, pro-gender non-conformity, pro-all class levels, paying equitably and retroactively, understanding when it’s time to pass the baton and restoring the legacies and work of those it stole or suppressed in route to catering to a white supremacist, whiteness first ideal. Oh and those of us who are Black — never stop using our radical imaginations, claim our space and heal on the inside and heal our communities.
- I can finally release A Black Urbanist Journey, with audiobook, e-book and in print and on tour.
- I continue to love, nourish and cherish my Black Queer Feminist Urbanist Southern self and know that I have everything I need, if only on the inside.
After all, I’ve learned over the last decade that the best wishes capture feelings, not so much specific items. If anything, those feelings create the action items and goals.
And in this time, where I can’t guarantee I’ll be alive next year, let alone next week, my biggest wish for 2021, is to be sitting in front of a computer, writing out 2022’s wishes, in good health and at peace.
As I’ve said throughout this pandemic, I hope you’ll be there with me too. Thank you for being here with me today and be sure to keep in touch via @blackurbanist or @kristpattern. And if you can, support this venture financially for the cost of a trip to the coffee house, via Patreon.
That’s all for 2020!
Love,
Kristen