Defying Gentrification Kristen Jeffers

I knew this week sitting down with Chicago-based journalist Arionne Nettles was going to be a great conversation, but I was very excited about what she had to share, about how Black migration and neighborhood choices past and present are in defiance of gentrification.

And our hot topic this week is the terrible parking meter deal that the mayor of Chicago made in 2008, that's actually not how you want to pay for parking.

About Our Guest

Arionne Nettles is a university lecturer, culture reporter, and audio aficionado. Her stories often look into Chicago history, culture, gun violence, policing, and race & class disparities, and her work has appeared in the New York Times Opinion, Chicago Reader, The Trace, Chicago PBS station WTTW, and NPR affiliate WBEZ.

She is a lecturer and the director of audio journalism programming at Northwestern University's Medill School as well as host of the HBCU history podcast Bragging Rights and Is That True? A Kids Podcast About Facts. Her book, We Are the Culture: Black Chicago's Influence on Everything, will be published by Chicago Review Press in 2024.

Hot Topic Reference article

https://news.wttw.com/2023/07/27/wttw-news-explains-what-happened-chicago-s-parking-meter-deal

Purchase Arionne's book from my Bookshop — https://bookshop.org/p/books/we-are-the-culture-black-chicago-s-influence-on-everything-arionne-nettles/20193723?ean=9781641608305 

Never miss an episode, subscribe to our Substack [https://theblackurbanist.substack.com/]or on LinkedIn [https://www.linkedin.com/build-relation/newsletter-follow?entityUrn=6906573611889754112]

You can also find Kristen @blackurbanist [https://twitter.com/home] or @kristpattern [https://www.instagram.com/kristpattern].

This week on the podcast, I'm joined by Christine Edwards of Civility Localized, a Charlotte-based public engagement firm that is changing the game on so many levels.

But most of all, this is an episode of two Black Southern women who are connected in some shape or form to North Carolina, talking about how we both are motivated and have or haven't been supported by that state.

About our Guest

Christine Edwards is a civic firebrand who has immersed herself in helping urban communities grow with dignity. Since founding Civility Localized in 2018, her work has affected change nationwide through innovative outreach strategies that support racial equity, reducing barriers to participation, and encouraging sustainable growth for cities. Christine earned her Master of Public Administration with a concentration in Urban Management and Policy from UNC Charlotte. Christine's work has been featured in Fast Company, Axios, The Business Journals, Queen City Nerve, Mountain Xpress, Pride Magazine, QCity Metro and many other local and national publications. Christine serves as a board member for Generation Nation, an organization cultivating the next generation of civic leaders and is a member of the board of directors for the Humane Society of Charlotte. She enjoys southern food, and loves seeing urban policy theory play out in daily life.

* Social Media & Websites:
* Websites:
* https://www.CivilityLocalized.com
* https://www.CivicImpactAcademy.com
* https://www.MeetChristine.co
* Facebook: https://facebook.com/civilitylocalized
* LinkedIn: https://www.linkedin.com/company/civility-localized/
* Twitter: @CivilityCo
* Instagram: @CivilityLocalized

Also, I had to have an NC-related hot topic this week and it's about this new mask and protest banning bill, that's just the latest of laws making me not want to move home again, despite my love and homesickness.

Read the reference article here — https://www.wral.com/story/nc-senate-votes-to-ban-people-from-wearing-masks-in-public-for-health-reasons/21433199/

And I found two Black North Carolina authors for you to read this week, you can purchase then in my Bookshop.org [http://bookshop.org/] store:

https://bookshop.org/a/5060/9781982163693

https://bookshop.org/a/5060/9780679737889

Never miss an episode, subscribe to my Substack  [https://theblackurbanist.substack.com/]or on LinkedIn [https://www.linkedin.com/build-relation/newsletter-follow?entityUrn=6906573611889754112]

You can also find me, Kristen , @blackurbanist [https://twitter.com/home] or @kristpattern [https://www.instagram.com/kristpattern].

Kristen spends some time this week talking about her personal needs to defy gentrification. And her hot topic is something she's been boiling over about for decades, teen curfews.

SHOW NOTES

(Apologies for the slightly rough audio, re-recorded and then realized I was on the wrong mic!)

Hot Topic Article from NBC Washington

https://www.nbcwashington.com/news/local/prince-georges-county/prince-georges-county-fast-tracks-teen-curfew-bill-after-national-harbor-brawl/3600453/

What's happened since they implemented the curfew

https://www.nbcwashington.com/news/local/prince-georges-county/its-100-different-national-harbor-marks-first-weekend-of-emergency-youth-curfew/3603452/

What I said in 2013 when my hometown of Greensboro, NC faced the same issue, and what my solutions were then.

https://theblackurbanist.com/thoughts-bringing-youth-downtown/

Parameters of DC's Summer Youth Program

https://summerjobs.dc.gov/page/faq-hsip

Sins Invalid Disability Justice Paradigm

https://www.sinsinvalid.org/blog/10-principles-of-disability-justice

Purchase from Kristen's Bookshop.org store [https://bookshop.org/shop/kristenejeffers] and support the podcast!

Never miss an episode, subscribe to our Substack [https://theblackurbanist.substack.com/]or on LinkedIn [https://www.linkedin.com/build-relation/newsletter-follow?entityUrn=6906573611889754112]

You can also find Kristen @blackurbanist [https://twitter.com/home] or @kristpattern [https://www.instagram.com/kristpattern].

This week on Defying Gentrification, I, your host Kristen Jeffers, talks to our first guest, Derek Moore, who came by to talk about their experiences with land use and gentrification. Stay tuned to the end to hear what I did after having this conversation! Plus our hot topic this week is how the remaining residents of Chinatown who are Chinese have to take a long bus ride to a grocery store that truly services them. I recorded that part at a store that serves the same role for me and reflect a bit on how that's affected me over the years, as well as issue a call-to-action for the news site that it came from, as I usually do.

About our guest!

Derek Moore (he/they) is a Central West Baltimore-based Urban Planner and Non-Profit Development professional. He grew up in an Army family and has since lived in many cities across North America. Derek is a transportation advocate - co-founder of local urbanist group Friends of the Underground, Greening chair of Madison Park Improvement Association, and City and Regional Planning master's student at Morgan State University.

Our hot topic reference article for this week — https://wamu.org/story/24/04/16/dc-chinatown-chinese-residents-leave-city-grocery-shop/

The WAMU takedown that I somewhat reference — https://www.washingtonian.com/2024/04/19/why-did-wamu-close-dcist/

An analysis and webinar on the lack of grocery stores in Black neighborhoods, focused on the Washington region (DMV) — https://ggwash.org/view/89226/premium-grocery-stores-are-missing-from-the-regions-high-income-black-neighborhoods

Learn more about Eden Center — https://edencenter.com/stores/

(Note, they do NOT have an H Mart, but there is one nearby in Fairfax County, VA)

Purchase from Kristen's Bookshop.org store [https://bookshop.org/shop/kristenejeffers] and support the podcast!

Never miss an episode, subscribe to our Substack [https://theblackurbanist.substack.com/]or on LinkedIn [https://www.linkedin.com/build-relation/newsletter-follow?entityUrn=6906573611889754112]

You can also find Kristen @blackurbanist [https://twitter.com/home] or @kristpattern [https://www.instagram.com/kristpattern].

On this episode of Defying Gentrification, I spend my homeroom time clarifying that gentrification is not a remedy for urban renewal, it's the continuation of urban renewal, land theft and seizure, forced assimilation, and redlining.

And on my street corner this week, I urge Black women to answer the call for liberation, especially when we are given positions of power, and to do our best to not let it kill us, and honor the memories of those that we have lost to the system despite being in its power structure.

—

Here are some of the things I referenced on the episode:

The Assembly [https://www.theassemblync.com/politics/yolanda-hill-mark-robinson-nonprofit/]  article on Yolanda Hill shuttering her organization helping childcare facilities to receive federal funds so her husband could look more Republican as he runs to be the first Black governor of North Carolina.

Dr. Ruha Benjamin's full remarks [https://youtu.be/j_12_E3LAeg?si=nQi9Rl39Wv0L3Gzz] at Spelman College

ABC News report on the legacy and the tragedy of Dr. Antoinette Bonnie Candia-Bailey [https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=LFUfKVI53fs&t=1s]

My tweet [https://x.com/blackurbanist/status/1780308203768590823]on the depression that comes from reading bad news for a living, even when you have supportive people helping you do so.

The full article [https://inclusivehistorian.com/urban-renewal/#:~:text=Urban%20renewal%20is%20the%20process,HUD)%20grant%20and%20loan%20program]from the Inclusive Historian's Handbook on urban renewal

History of the Warnersville neighborhood [https://www.greensboro-nc.gov/departments/planning/learn-more-about/historic-preservation/heritage-communities/warnersville#:~:text=Named%20for%20Pennsylvania%20Quaker%20Yardley,them%20available%20to%20%22freedmen.%22]

The Amendment Podcast episode [https://19thnews.org/2024/04/errin-haines-the-amendment-podcast-kim-teehee/] on Representation for the Cherokee Nation in the US Congress

—

Purchase from Kristen's Bookshop.org store [https://bookshop.org/shop/kristenejeffers] and support the podcast! Also, the Rothstein [https://bookshop.org/contributors/richard-rothstein]'s book is called Just Action, not Just Law.

Never miss an episode, subscribe to our Substack  [https://theblackurbanist.substack.com/]or on LinkedIn [https://www.linkedin.com/build-relation/newsletter-follow?entityUrn=6906573611889754112]

You can also find Kristen @blackurbanist [https://twitter.com/home] or @kristpattern [https://www.instagram.com/kristpattern].

On the third episode of the Defying Gentrification podcast, your host Kristen Jeffers (she/they), spells out why we need to treat gentrification like a disease and eradicate it.

But first, on our street corner, the hot topic is the need to call in our Black siblings who think that verbal transit and street harassment, especially the queer antagonistic kind, is ok, the need to care for our communities over policing them when they err in this manner, and why we should continue to support public transit and increase access to it.

Here's the news article about the incident [https://www.dcnewsnow.com/news/local-news/washington-dc/man-yells-homophobic-slurs-at-metro-passengers-in-dc-metro-police-investigating/]. 

Read my tweet about this situation. [https://twitter.com/blackurbanist/status/1777324926376026543] (CW: The recording of the incident discussed is in this tweet, which I quote tweeted)

(Also I misstated in the audio that the couple who intervened was heading from Silver Spring, they were heading from Dupont Circle, one of our legacy gayborhoods, to Silver Spring, Maryland)

Purchase from Kristen's Bookshop.org store [https://bookshop.org/shop/kristenejeffers].

Never miss an episode, subscribe to our Substack  [https://theblackurbanist.substack.com/]or on LinkedIn [https://www.linkedin.com/build-relation/newsletter-follow?entityUrn=6906573611889754112].

You can also find Kristen @blackurbanist [https://twitter.com/home] or @kristpattern [https://www.instagram.com/kristpattern].