Kristen Jeffers, MPA ✊🏽🌈 (she/they)
@blackurbanist
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Black, Queer, Dynamically Disabled, Southern USA, Spiritual, Working/Lower-Middle Class Feminist Urbanist freelance writer and editor and podcaster.
Currently:Baltimore/Washington. Forever North Carolinian
Joined October 2010
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Finally got part 2 of my lessons learned from 8 years in DC up! First, there's a whole YouTube video where I talk through my lessons around Metro
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Luxembourg to become first country to make all public transport free
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No Cars in Black Panther's Fictional African City—And, Yes, the Film Is a Lot of Fun
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This is a parenting column, but it is written by
@JamilahLemieux
and this particular answer is a great breakdown of the effect that gentrification is having on many Black teens in public school (and challenges the parent to consider them). via
@slate
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Barrier to healthier 'active travel': People overestimate how long it takes to walk or bike somewhere (I’m guilty, but trying to do better).
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Will definitely watch!
Unbought and unbossed!
@UzoAduba
is set to portray
#ShirleyChisholm
in a new
@FXNetworks
limited series,
#MrsAmerica
. Details: .
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@AngryBlackLady
@sarahkendzior
Yeah, but this is being QTed outside of context. Our (Black, other folks of color, femme, queer, trans, disabled) people are nowhere near being better off and I do feel like our liberal/progressive core has missed a lot of opportunities to step up on a grassroots level
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This is awesome! Still need to go by her store the next time I’m in Philly!
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Please send folks to this who are in real, honest need. Our ancestors wanted us to read and make decisions on our liberation. Our colonizers, do and did not.
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I really need us to reckon with this. The cameras are not spread evenly, because another part is that a lot of our stroads are built in Black communities much in the way our highways are. And Black and other folks of color were pushed out to suburban/rural areas with the stroads.
Man, I didn’t fully get how many white people have *already* convinced themselves that red light/speed cams should be concentrated predominantly in Black communities. Then you look into it and, yup in each city where they have these cams that’s where they are located. By design.
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Today is National Coming Out Day and I wanted to make clear something I have been telling you for a while— I’m queer. There’s a message in this post for everyone and I made it a post because I had a lot to share.
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It's Time to Expand the Definition of Urban Planning
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@theheatherhogan
This is what would happen if we met in real life. I was on the phone with someone from NC yesterday and I needed to feel and speak with that sense of home.
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So, being poor and needing housing at this level doesn't mean people are terrible humans and will trash their home. You follow me, a person who has solidly, without my partner, been at a 30-50% AMI for years solo. This is why doing this work hurts so much for someone like me.
Buildings with 100% affordable housing is not how you do it. Concentrating poverty is never a good idea.
We can build affordable housing, but it doesn't all have to be in the same place.
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Yes, people need to be compensated for their labor. Yes, building things costs money.
However, the real question is, why are developers/builders/housers doing worse than the car people on making sure everyone has one in their budget?
I feel like developers are the only profession that people have a fit about making a profit.
Isn’t the point of basically any profession to make a profit at the end of the day? That’s what pays the bills.
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I hope this black developer of tiny homes in Charlotte gets to keep building.
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I retweeted someone else's tweet like this, but I am doing this again, because this is a key piece for understanding how black urbanism is distinct. Sometimes we just don't get to build and grow.
The "Black people should just build their own" never takes into account all the times when Black folks did build their own and it was taken away, burned down or destroyed. The issue has never been us not building but other's not allowing us to keep our own.
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When Your Renderings Suggest the Black Population Has Been Abducted by Aliens, It May Be the Least of Your Problems by
@sahrasulaiman
via
@StreetsblogLA
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@DaricCott
Or at the very least, your community can pay for those movers if they aren’t physically able and connect you to the right people. There’s all kinds of ways of community besides “DIY, you’re just an obligation outside of brunch”.
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While what has happened in these schools is tragic, making them fortresses and less connected to the community is not the way out of this.
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Also, cities, shovel your sidewalks. Because it's honestly the right thing to do. Not in the budget? Brainstorm how it could be. (Also like that
@RobinMazumder
touches on comprehensive public health).
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@DocDre
On Desktop, click on more, then privacy and security. You may want to double-check some of your other settings over there as well.
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Atlanta offers licenses to start gardens, farms on blighted properties
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It's happened, but we still need transportation and housing to be paired and paired at all income levels. Fighting the concept as a whole is not a solution. We need a solution that keeps us at the table in an equitable measure. via
@nrdc
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Yes, this is why I'm confident about focusing on how Black women and other Black gender marginalized folks use cities. We out here and we're ready to support efforts that help us do more things like this.
Cities, these are your target customers.
2 women pulling a trailer with a kid was non-existent 10 years ago in
#Atlanta
, but the city is laying down a bike network, one bit at a time. The progress is visible with the diversity of the riders, specifically women and children.
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Nope. It hasn’t. More thoughts on this forthcoming, but I will say, if you still think Black folks (and anyone non-white) are a monolith, even as practitioners, those times are over.
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Y’all. We can do all these things. It’s time to comb some municipal budgets and round up the regional and corporate collaboration, along with honoring collective general citizenry.
"Fare-free transit sounds great in theory, but American bus networks are far behind global leaders in offering good service."
@JerusalemDemsas
thinks D.C.'s decision to cancel bus fares is wrong and she is right:
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@luckytran
I agree. Her and Beyonce could say wear masks and not only would the concerts stop spread, but protection and mitigation would be trendy.
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Reason
#2
I am considering quitting urbanism — I’m tired of no being seen or paid as a thought leader and instead a charity case in my community. It may just be that I’m in DC and too radical minded and a “wife”…
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'Paying to stay safe': why women don't walk as much as men
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@makeupartist524
As I told someone else on here, my precautions are a love letter towards myself, and if that's not what they want to do, they have chosen to take on risk, which may or may not go well. I also have a good just-in-case plan for infection and it worked well.
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@makeupartist524
The COVID positive Reddit was a game-changer for me. Hence when I tested positive, I left here for a good six weeks, and right now, I'm doing alright six months out, but still monitoring and taking precautions (and my histamine regimen, which I also learned about on Reddit!)
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Thank you
@StreetsblogUSA
for allowing me to talk about what I'm doing now. And speaking of what I'm doing now, more clarity about what's going to happen tomorrow, Friday and going forward.
"'I don’t begrudge anyone who doesn’t relate to the word "urbanist," but I do hope we can examine what we’re asked to do under the banner of that word." -
@blackurbanist
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I've been saying this privately, but never publicly because I know I would get ridiculed. However, I hope you pay attention to this because I'm tired of going through this inability to get long-term adequate housing.
To tackle housing affordability, US needs both:
—Big increases in housing supply for the middle class
—Large expansions in public affordable housing subsidies for people with low incomes
I delve into the dual nature of housing supply needs
@urbaninstitute
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Maybe forgotten by some, but I'm going to make sure everyone remembers him today, before all his buildings go away.
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ICYMI—African-American Craft Beer Brewers Unite To Host A Festival Of Their Own
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Planning doesn't matter if we don't think people are human, good at their core, capable of making their own way and worthy of living, even if they need guidance back to their core of good.
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@makeupartist524
Also, as a multiply marginalized member of society, it's not my first time not having adequate care and much of that is because of system failure. Not everyone has my toolkit to survive something like that, but I can focus on being an example and thriving in spite of
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This article merges food and housing to highlight the flat-out apartheid we have in most of our cities. This is in the US context, but I know other places have other issues with profits over service in food.
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Before the night’s out, I want you to know about the events I’ve envisioned and I’m convening online next week. I’ve wanted to teach them for awhile, but this whole year’s events have shown me its now or never. Learn more and register at
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This is “bike [advocacy] world” in a nutshell.
@urbanadonia
’s book is great and so is this interview with
@Tanvim
!
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@justjo_no_e
I think if we still had a proper 24-hour workday, it would be in shifts, it would be with PPE and it would be with adequate hazard pay. I realize that's not the case, so by all means close up, but at least stay open until midnight and open at 6 am.
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Why bike share makes sense as a library resource - from Better Bike Share
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As I prep for my panel this morning — one of the things on my mind is how neighborhoods “flip” dramatically and how it’s baked into laws and codes
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This study is a game-changer, at least in how we should talk about this and take action as media, planning and development professionals and public policy leaders. Thread on why and how.
Does gentrification also mean displacement? Read our new report to better understand where gentrification and displacement was occurring, and how to measure and monitor it.
#JustEconomy
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We can’t create without adequate shelter. Everyone is creative.
I know that's right!
If I snagged a rent-stabilized apt 30 yrs ago for $250 and was then able to live my dream as a writer and photographer because I'm paying affordable rent, I'd be standing tall in front page news too.
I don't know her but I'm cheering her on.
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Absolutely. But it does show how performative this is going to get, but it also spells out the money that is still possible for us to get what we really need!
Every damn day I log onto IG + here and there are Black women *begging* for help to survive day-to-day, keep their businesses from closing, address medical debt, etc. There's so much financial suffering and I see it and feel it daily. But $81 million for a presidential campaign.
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ICYMI,
@jgmoore
and
@TamikaButler
spelled out in this upcoming
@SFMOMA
magazine issue what so many of us have felt for years around being called upon as Black urbanists and how that weight felt even heavier in 2020.
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For folks who want more urbanist specific anti-racist education that is Black led and black curated.
RSVP now (free) for the Un-Urbanist Assembly: a LIVE 23-hour digital teach-in challenging the legacy of racism in urban planning. I'll host a space to hash out our differences for a whole 23 hours. I hope you'll join us! June 18-19
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This is good. If you’re going to read a critique on Strong Towns or a decent Current Affairs article, read this one.
A lot of urbanists on the left are drawn to the Strong Towns movement, myself included. But its politics are more complicated than they might seem at first blush. I wrote about this for
@curaffairs
:
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Y’all. I’m depressed. Depressed that this pandemic is alive and well. Depressed that all the issues that come with being a Black Queer woman in the United States on a limited income are alive and well.
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@moorehn
They might not shut up even if they aren't coming over and they probably "want to help". I feel like this is our VP concession, but if whoever this white man is, can be just as quiet as she's has had to be, then I think we might still be ok.
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This is probably the best commentary I've ever read on Jane Jacobs.
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Baltimore park space where Confederate statue once stood is rededicated to Harriet Tubman
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This is the best(mainstream) journalistic summary of this I’ve read. It also is a great reminder of the colonialism, appropriation and harm that’s actually happening.
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This is yet another entry into the "what is gentrification?" cannon. I can co-sign with natural disasters causing neighborhoods to flip, especially ones that are located in places desirable, but not quite attainable until the disaster, to white and wealthier populations.
Natural disasters pave the way of displacement of the poor and replacement by the more affluent, writes
@Richard_Florida
.
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Situations like this (of which there are many that have been documented), make me concerned that building more (or bringing more units on market) will never be enough, especially for Black folks and under current industry practice (which is still full of illegalities).
ICYMI: The Austin family sunk $400,000 into renovating their home, but were stunned when they barely gained any value during the appraisal process. When they had a white woman pose as the homeowner, that all changed—by half a million dollars.
Full story:
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We have to include skateparks in our urbanisms.
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Holding all my Baltimore folks in love and light. Yes, we can discuss rebuilding. No, it's not the time to make infrastructure or any other jokes.
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Houston Neighbors Said No to Walmart and Invested in Black-Owned Businesses After the Hurricane via
@yesmagazine
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This article and the interview doesn’t ignore and actually centers how this particular land use and architecture can’t be separated from from settler-colonialism, evangelicalism and enslavement.
Rebecca Lea Potts wrote one of the best academic articles I've ever read on Fixer Upper, Waco, and the Gaines' empire. I had so many questions for her and she has so many good answers:
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I want to know if housing costs are affordable across income; there are reasonable delivery options for goods & do people get along reasonably well, even with differences, so one wouldn’t need to make a quick getaway or fear arrest. Otherwise, I do support this in US cities.
This city in Spain has been car free for 19 years, with zero traffic deaths since 2009.
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Here's a black-owned, returned citizen-hiring bicycle company that's also paying living wages and giving back.
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A 'walking school bus' in Southwest Baltimore keeps kids safe, boosts neighborhood
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@ItsDanaWhite
Agreed. This is a conversation more about how much the BW is aligned with capitalism and making others feel back because she needs to heal but won't. Not everyone is on that tip and we need to lift them up like you did here.
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Charlotte, I’m proud of you for this. Love, a nonbinary, agender, Black urbanist North Carolinian living in DC for rights we can’t seem to secure at home.
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I'm disturbed that so much of our professional lives in urbanism have returned back to in-person. No hybrid options, no (visible) masks, the expectation that everyone's had it and everyone can easily get over it because healthcare is so great and "you're not one of those people".
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More on who actually bikes in this country, which apparently includes Beyonce.
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Listening to this now, but this is a good opportunity to pump that I'm still taking survey responses for my Black Queer Feminist person-focused liveability index
In Ep. 141 "How 'Most Livable Cities' Lists Center Upwardly Mobile White Professionals," we detail the way media discussions of "cities" prioritizes tech, 'foodie culture' and privileged demographics at the expense of the poor.
With guest
@Jawanza
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Excellent and necessary read on LA, Nipsey and how he embodied grassroots planning while facing a very hostile environment from several government entities and the legacy of government failing the black community in LA.
Nipsey Hussle Understood Cities Better than You. Why Didn't You Know Who He Was?
#TheMarathonContinues
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Honestly, one of many churches and other faith-based organizations actively working against these issues in their neighborhoods.
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Grassy lawns exist to prove you're not a peasant. It's time to let that status symbol die via
@ggwash
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Another reminder to register for YIMBYtown to come see me speak.
SPEAKER ANNOUNCEMENT! Kristen Jeffers
@blackurbanist
is the founder and editor-in-chief of The Black Urbanist, as well as an urban planner and advocate. Don't miss the chance to hear her insights at
#YIMBYtown
!
REGISTER TODAY!
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My Whole Life Shouldn't Be at the Mercy of a Ballot Box on The Black Urbanist Weekly
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Yes, I'm still here for this thread. Especially the part that we need to be mindful that so much of our tech is made to eliminate human contact, not support it.
me, a dumbass: "smart cities" are cities w/great transit, affordable housing, divested from fossil fuels
you, supreme tech genius: no "smart cities" means your car can mine bitcoin and there's an app for dialing an immigrant to do your chores for free
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I feel like the next comprehensive gentrification study (With post 2013 data) is going to show extreme gentrification nationwide, basically in every city with a city core and developers and banks who only have one type of buyer in mind.
The South Park neighborhood of Raleigh has a rich past as a historically black community. Lately, white homebuyers are getting nearly 9 in 10 of the new mortgages there.
We found (and mapped) hundreds of similar tracts around the country:
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Note who said this and the time period and sadly only a handful of systems have addressed this.
“Urban transit systems in most American cities... have become a genuine civil rights issue - and a valid one - because the layout of rapid-transit systems determines the accessibility of jobs to the black community..." -Dr. Martin Luther King, Jr.
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This thread sums up why I attack the whole "moving to the burbs for education and diversity argument".
Please stop taking young Black kids to majority white environments & then calling the racism they experience bullying.
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And so is public administration, planning and architecture, especially once it filters through institutional channels.
Robert Moses weaponized Civil Engineering and Urban Planning to suppress marginalized communities. Engineering is always political.
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Also, I was about to mention that we (practicioners of color and other marginalized groups) need more chances to do the work and create the work.
@julianagyeman
said this and has insisted that this is how orgs/cities/plans survive, not just feel good.
#cnu26
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Yet only two of those southern states are safe long-term for my kind of Uhauling. I'm writing up something on this for
@ResidentUrban
, look out for it later this week.
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Let me also take some time to thread about my rebooted podcast The Black Urbanist Radio Show.
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This. All of this. I gots thoughts...
How do we decouple
#bikeshare
from
#gentrification
? What would bikeshare for
#lowincome
, minorities look like?
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@sam_d_1995
I agree. That was the point I wanted to make. And sadly from what I am seeing, it’s starting to be the case in the car market.
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Great story on the first black woman master plumber.
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It would tickle me so much if MARTA jumped up and exceeded it’s sister systems in being innovative after so many years lagging behind. via
@CurbedAtlanta
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I'm trying to get
@Jay_Pitter
to come on the podcast to talk about this banger of an article tying together Cowboy Carter the album with the sense of place it's establishing
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Yes, it's true. An honor to be nominated! Please vote too!
Whoa! Our co-host
@blackurbanist
is in the latest
@planetizen
list of influential urbanists that you can VOTE FOR!
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Everything that’s been said in this thread and also in
@DrDesThePlanner
’s thread she subtweeted.
I'm exhausted by urbanists of privilege glossing over systemic racism and rewriting the history of cities just to push a pro-density argument.
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@EN_Griffin
UberEats, then come and eat with her so she can vent. Neither one of us is doing labor and we are chillin
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We do have this conversation. However, there's not enough consideration of the social/cultural intersections and how practical having this conversation is when you are just trying to get to where you have to go and when people don't want you/expect you to be in the room.
"We should make streets safer for cyclists and pedestrians by making it more annoying to drive" is one of those things that somehow in the brainworms urban discourse gets framed as a gentrifier issue but is beyond question a racial justice issue
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I told y'all not to sleep on Lebron and Savanah. This is black urbanism in action.
@voguemagazine
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Also, in light of today's Curbed article, want to make sure POC women are represented. Tweet at me and let's start a list of work/handles.
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In my newsletter, I ask the question-- Who's Really Going Outside, Safely?-- and I share what it's been like the handful of times I've ventured outside since March 10th and challenge the design industry to think deeper about that first question.
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