I’m in root shock. However, I’m no longer in denial, that cities exist because of active development and policy, and what I yearn for is the cultivation and elevation of villages. And yes, my imagination of what that looks like still matters!
I was recently asked, as I often am, what exactly is an urbanist?
I told this person, for this podcast that will come out weeks from now and may or may not have this line in it, that there are many kinds of urbanism and urbanists.
There are people who love cities and are enthusiasts. There are elected and appointed officials that determine the laws of our cities. And there are people who plan, build and sell/designate on official levels what cities are and what they do. All of these people work together, but they all have a different, sometimes conflicting, vision of what the city should be.
Then, in another recent conversation, I encouraged someone to not shy away from calling themselves an urbanist, especially since the concern was based on how many folks, folks that don’t look like myself and the person I was talking to, are kept outside of the proverbial gate of URBANISM!
And in this week’s letter, I’m here to tell and/or remind you: Don’t let it be policed or determined by someone else, especially if so much of it was denied to you because of your body shape, presentation, color, or perceived amount of money in your pocket or ability to make money.
That even the person who bikes most days, sometimes gets in a ridehailing (because it ain’t sharing if you’re paying someone who you just met thanks to the app), vehicle, because the grocery was just too heavy and the rain poured down just too much.
Or, like me, which I’ll be sharing a bit about at this week’s Smart Growth America Equity Summit, my urbanism as a young person unaware of how things really worked was chasing the places that decided my neighborhood, my people and/or my occupation wasn’t good enough.
Now, it’s making do with trying to better influence transportation policy, since the costs of making transportation more accessible are more achievable than making housing more affordable?
Or is it?
In May of 2016, I wrote one of my few posts directly centered on housing — The Quest for a Forever Home in an Era of Mass Gentrification
This is what I wanted back then:
Right now, that house is in Washington, DC and it’s one of the many row houses. It’s on a bus line or a flat street on which I can bike easily. Metro proximity is a bonus, but I’m ok with it taking me 30-45 minutes to get to outer suburbs or closer to the monument core. Uber and Lyft and my own two feet and the bus and my bike will be my friends. Or, it will be one of those far north or eastern or western houses with room for a car…
There will be three bedrooms and two bathrooms. There will be a bathroom and bedroom on one level, so that my mom can visit and not have to go up or downstairs. There will be a porch or a turret or both. There will be a drugstore or a farmers market or a quirky neighborhood café or all three. I will play soul music mixed with gospel, mixed with the blues, with a shot of go-go out of its windows. There will be parties there, and political strategy and resting and relaxation. It will be a shelter. It will be blue in part or whole. It will be home.
Even back then, in the following paragraph to be exact, I admitted that this could be a dream house. However, I also realized that the shape and form weren’t as important as what I wanted to do there — be a haven for fellow Black folks working and creating towards our liberation.
Plus in the six years since I’ve made this declaration — I’ve actually moved to the DC region, spent time and lived in Baltimore, taken almost all forms of transportation in our U.S. Census Designated Combined Statistical Area, fell out of the gender/sexuality closet, and fell in love because I allowed myself to come out of that closet.
Those things have altered the dream in significantly positive, affirming, and exciting ways and I’ll share those in a future dispatch.
Yet, several negatives out of my control over the past six years really make me question my version of the “American Dream”
First the root shock of seeing so many homes that were “hood”, or more officially, traditionally redlined, blockbusted, or fled in prior years, now be million-dollar homes or constant targets for short sales or other seizures of property.
Then the challenges of living through a pandemic without succumbing to the pandemic AND the rapid changes of governance at all levels to one more hostile to my bodily intersections.
And third, that it’s for want of housing, not for social clout or being seen as a “respectable” person of my gender or race, makes me work twice as hard for half as much in the regular economy.
That’s what made me cynical about so much housing policy. That’s what’s made me not want to talk about it and the time I did do so, now feels more like a dream deferred.
And yes, I’m aware that root shock as Dr. Mindy Thompson Fullilove writes goes even deeper than individual pains, but their work melds together how addressing root shock is a form of community care that radiates into adequate and fulfilling self-care, therefore restoring it as Audre Lorde’s political act.
Then I remember that June Jordan, even though her urbanist ideas were put to the side, still insisted on having those ideas. And so, like her, I’ll be sharing more of those housing ideas soon.
In the meantime, I’ll be at my regular bus stop waiting for my express bus to downtown to be restored and clamoring for a 10-minute transit service 24/7 that would keep me from cranking up my compact gas sipper as much and saving her for road trips for hikes and beach camping.
And yes, with my partner and our community by our side, imagining our dream home.
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.
This is exactly how much you need to afford the average-priced home mapped by major metro areas. I’m trying to practice what I just told you when I look at how much I would need if I still lived in the two metro areas I lived before based on what I need now, but know that this map made me go < orange cursing emojii> several times.
And another Black (queer) feminist perspective on wanting and being ready for a home, but facing institutions that aren’t ready to grant that privilege (and reckoning with the fact that it’s a privilege and not a right!)
Our queer community spaces are fewer and further between and yes, they should be available and welcoming to all body shapes, sizes, and functions. Oh and that can be done with an eye for historic preservation. (S/O to the old-timey elevators that still work!)
Getting a housing voucher in an expensive neighborhood, in this case, a part of DC,can go south quickly if the neighborhood’s resources are unaffordable and you lose connections with the other social services and family/friendship ties you need to balance not being able to make the median income.
Even though New York City’s Laundromat Project wasn’t able to take over an actual Brooklyn laundromat, the impact it has had in bridging cultural expression to other neighborhood-level service businesses, in the shadow of gentrification, and to working Black and brown artists is inspirational, even without the extra donation boost they received and being able to secure a 10-year lease in a gentrified neighborhood.
The situation in Sri Lanka is heartbreaking, especially considering it happened because of a failure in organic farming. It’s also a great examination of how we need to incorporate past lessons and present successes in our sustainability visions for the future.
Also heartbreaking is the recent altercation in downtown Baltimore involving the corner squeegee workers and a driver with a baseball bat. I loved this call-to-action from a Black man stepping up as a mentor and waymaker to these young (mostly Black and male) workers, rather than continuing the dehumanization that caused the initial violent incident.
I’m also loving the Baltimore Banner as a publication and this
And I’ve always revered PBS North Carolina’s Black Issues Forum as part of my journalistic diet. It of course also normalized folks like me having a voice in major media. I especially loved seeing one, the Pride Month episode with two Black queer women, and two, so many other folks I’ve known and worked with as commentators on other episodes. You can also watch roughly a decade’s worth of back episodes to get a full slice of Black life in North Carolina.
And finally, a Wilmington, Delaware shopping mall has been hiding a fully furnished closed Burger King, with the decor from its last renovation in the 1990s, behind a wall. Mallfans, have at it. Let me know if you find the BK Kids Club, especially their troll doppelgangers.
Before You Go
This is where I advertise all the ways you can support me on other platforms and financially.
Even though it’s too late to submit to be part of the workshop component, it’s not too late to join us THIS WEDNESDAY, JULY 13TH AT 12 NOON EASTERN, from your favorite screen to explore smart growth strategies for preserving and protecting neighborhood culture during investment and neighborhood change, as well as how factors such as rapid development, gentrification, and rising housing costs affect community culture, cohesion, and belonging at Smart Growth America’s Equity Forum: Upending Cultural Displacement.
Register here — Zoom registration link
In lieu of doing a livestream this week, I welcome you to register and listen to the public part of the panel, which is free and open to the public. Also, in lieu of last week’s livestream, I shared my recent panel conversation on Racial and Health Equity sponsored by EndoBlack, Incorporated.
If you just want to support me for any reason, but don’t need anything in return, you can donate to my capital campaign, or Venmo or Cash. App me. Plus, selecting a book or two bookshelf over at Bookshop.org and taking a “hook” at making my Kristfinity Scarf is a great way to not doomscroll throughout this summer and make something for your own internal freedom. Share them as you care for your squad and let them comfort you as y’all decide on your next major move. And yes, you can still make a monthly pledge to my work on Patreon.
I’m also returning to a familiar place for my byline in the next few weeks, here’s a hint.
Until next time,