By Ashley Benkarski

NASHVILLE, TN Heru the Happy Dragon, by Fred Doc Beasley, is a love letter to Black and Brown children, and the original and indigenous children of the diaspora, letting them know that their health, their creativity and their imagination is paramount, the author said.

As a father of four children myself, learning things that pained me in [my childrens] early processes was that there werent too many characters they could look to in the media that reinforced who they were, for them to have pride in themselves. I saw that void there. Also as someone whos been working with at-risk youth for over two decades, you realize how important of a role the media plays in childrens lives when you deal with them up close and they feel like no one represents them or sees or knows their stories.

Children who never see themselves in the shows they watch, and, yes, the books they read can leave them feeling othered, and therefore not valued, which they begin to see as normal, even within themselves, Beasley intimated. It really inspired me to try to create something that could reinforce their beauty, their intelligence, their genius, their wisdom and their strength through art.

Further, he said, I think adults who read the book will also be able to find some type of strength and moral in the story because, at its root, the book speaks about making a pivot and knowing what you have in your dreams and your ideas can push you to greatness.

Heru, a humble yet powerful servant to the Crown, asks his King and Queen to allow him to serve them in another way through his passion for cooking and farming.

But though Heru had served them well, the King and Queen laughed at him, and denied his request. And because they laugh at him, it forces him to rethink all of his years of service. Here he is, a dragon of the highest rank who has the riches, who has the so-called honor, but yet he knows theres something missing inside, Beasley said. In the process of writing this book, you know, we were experiencing Covid. And a lot of people they kind of felt that same void, like, What do I do now? How do I pivot and still find meaning in whats happening? Because the whole world was changing in front of our eyes.

What lessons will readers learn from Heru the Happy Dragon? Understanding mental health, social and emotional learning, growth and development, conflict resolution, cpnfidence and even a bit of urban farming, Beasley remarked.

This book is the culmination of years and years of his experiences, focused into a form children can understand, which is why theres lots of pictures to help spark the readers imagination.

Heru is Egyptian for hero, and he wants children to know they have the ability to be that hero theyre seeking, and they can find that hero when they look in the mirror and look inside themselves.

He continued, The powers that be, or in this case the king and queen, who represent the power structure, do not do anything to affirm him. Beasley pointed out that the same has occurred throughout our nations history, drawing a line from the murder of young Emmett Till to Michael Brown and George Floyd, along with the countless unnamed young indigenous people whose options have been taken because they wereent valued or even considered to be citizens according to the highest document of the land, the Constitution. How do you reconcile that in someones mind when theyre looking at mass media and theyre seeing people who look like them being gunned down in the streets and just being treated other than? It puts you in a very precarious place as a parent, trying to reconcile that in their imaginations without making them bitter toward the world, without making them afraid.

Beasley said the characters in the book arent human because readers wont impose their inherent biases on animals and other mythical creatures in the same way they would with people. And Heru being a dragon was very much intentional. A dragon is a mythical creature, and to me, in many ways, the indigenous population of the diaspora are mythical creatures to the world at large, Beasley explained.

Herus passion is also a subtle nod to living a healthier lifestyle, as he prepares dishes consisting of vegetables for the people in the kingdom. Beasley said he feels its an important message because, in so many communities, people dont eat food, they eat emotions.

Beasley self-published this first installment of Heru the Happy Dragon and held an in-person reading at Alkebu-Lan Images Sun., July 24. You can buy the book at heruthehappydragon.com.

See the article here:

Heru the Happy Dragon: Helping Kids Love Themselves and Embrace Imagination - tntribune.com

In the final days before I lost my wife to cancer, we often relived a memory of Californias millennia-old redwood forest. Arlene and I spent many weekends hiking among the majestic trees, awed at the thought that those same wondrous creatures who watched civilizations rise had also borne witness to our partnership. Soon, I fear Ill have to let go of this sacred space, too, as the fires intensified by climate change threaten to consume the redwoods.

In recent years, experts developed a fancy term for what Im experiencing: eco-anxiety. But as a young woman of color growing up in Camden, N.J., near Superfund hazardous waste sites, I didnt have a name for the kind of grief that comes with losing your community and your special places to environmental degradation. I just knew that something was terribly wrong when loved ones suffered from cancers and respiratory illnesses more often than those who lived in neighborhoods just a few miles away. My sense of injustice is what led me to my current work with the Health and Environmental Funders Network, which organizes grant makers in support of environmental health and justice.

That same righteous anger and hope for something better has propelled people of color across the country for generations to hold the powerful accountable for protecting clean air, clean water, and livable communities. Our communal grief deepened last month after the Supreme Courts ruling in West Virginia v. EPA, which stripped away some of the Environmental Protection Agencys tools to keep industrial polluters in check. And while the recent news of a Senate climatel deal shows promise, its unclear how much the legislation will ultimately benefit the low-income neighborhoods and people of color who bear the brunt of climate change.

Taken together, the devastating Supreme Court ruling and the hopeful congressional action signal an opportunity to redirect attention to the work of environmental-justice groups, which for decades have toiled with minimal support to address climate change in the hardest hit communities.

Consider, for example, that one of the so-called solutions struck down by the Supreme Court was the power of the EPA to implement a cap-and-trade program, which attempts to reduce carbon emissions from year to year by allowing industry to pay when those emissions exceed the government-mandated limit. But instead of reducing emissions, companies often buy credits to pollute more typically in communities of color and low-income white rural areas where most of their fossil-fuel-burning plants are located.

Heres the bottom line: No matter which way the federal winds blow on climate, activists and donors need to organize and invest in proven solutions that dont sacrifice the well-being of large segments of the population. Especially at the state and local level, important opportunities remain to halt new fossil-fuel-producing projects despite the Supreme Court ruling. Theres no better time for grant makers to step up as allies in this work.

A recent analysis of climate funding by the Health and Environmental Funders Network found that 14 percent of total philanthropic dollars spent annually in the United States or $272 million goes to heath and equity issues related to climate change. Compare that with the $10.45 billion spent by the biggest industrial polluters during the past decade on lobbying and greenwashing campaigns that deceive the public into believing companies have adopted environmentally friendly practices when, in reality, they are protecting the status quo. As elected leaders continue to play political football with the health of communities, philanthropy has an opportunity and a responsibility to pick up the slack and invest in bigger and bolder action.

What does this look like in practice? From my experience working with a range of grant makers and nonprofits, climate philanthropy is most effective when it focuses on three strategies: intersectionality, building power, and trust.

An intersectional approach to climate funding. In straightforward terms, this means health donors should see climate change as a health issue, food donors, as a food-security issue, and social service grant makers, as a critical factor in social and economic development. All are connected, especially for people shouldering the worst of climate change. Investments in solutions should be connected as well.

The Kresge Foundation, for example, combines its health care and environmental work recognizing, as the foundation puts it, that climate change is the greatest public health threat of this century. Its efforts include building the capacity of hospitals, health care systems, and public-health institutions to lead climate mitigation and equity advocacy. It also supports professionals in these fields seeking to incorporate climate-related health practices into their work. Along with this strategy, Kresge has more than tripled its funding in the past decade to climate-justice organizations led by people of color.

A focus on power building. Left to their own devices, major institutions and elected officials will rarely do the right thing on climate. That means grant makers must move beyond programmatic or direct-service investments and support work that builds influence. Mobilizing communities; nurturing partnerships with government, business, and research institutions; winning in court and in the court of public opinion are all avenues that movement leaders say are effective if only they received more than a sliver of funding.

Industry understands this well. Between 2008 and 2017, for example, oil companies forked out $1.4 billion on advertisements, largely to promote greenwashing tactics. In 2020 alone, the industry spent at least $9.6 million on Facebook ads to undermine government action on climate by, for example, suggesting that gas created by fracking is a green fuel source.

Philanthropy needs to borrow a page from industry and invest in communications strategies that embrace the relationship between power, narrative, and policy to build support and influence. They should follow the lead of grant makers such as Grace Communications Foundation, which invests in strategic communications, storytelling, and partnerships at food and environmental-justice organizations. The foundations own multipronged communications effort includes consumer-focused websites, a seasonal food guide, and a series of films to shift public appetites and policy toward regenerative agriculture.

Trust in the knowledge and expertise of movement leaders. Unleashing the environmental-justice movements full potential will require the same intentional listening and flexible, trust-based grant making that nonprofit leaders have been forcefully pushing in recent years. A foundations prebaked ideas about what will make their climate investments more effective may have little connection to the work advocates are doing to keep their communities safe, healthy, and economically sustainable. That means they may need to loosen the reins on those identified strategies and listen to what advocates on the ground say they need to address climate and cancer-causing pollution in their communities.

Our nations climate story is a work in progress as the troubling direction of the Supreme Court and inconsistent action by our elected leaders make clear. But one thing is certain: By increasing investment in environmental-health and justice-movement leaders, grant makers can help write a story focused on hope instead of despair.

Continue reading here:

The Federal Whiplash on Climate Is a Wake-up Call for Better Grant Making - The Chronicle of Philanthropy

A proposed set of conduct and discipline standards applicable to all law enforcement agencies in Oregon were published Monday.

In several instances, the commission charged with establishing the new rules left room for officers found to have committed serious, often illegal offenses to keep their jobs. For example, officers who commit sexual assault or intentional physical assault may not be fired if there are mitigating factors.

Members of the Commission on Law Enforcement Standards of Conduct and Discipline discuss discipline for officers who intentionally target someone based on them belonging to a protected class on July 12, 2022 in a screenshot during a Zoom meeting.

Screenshot from YouTube / OPB

The butt is considered a sexual part of the body, said Mark Makler, a former prosecutor who represents police unions and officers, at a meeting on June 30. So grabbing somebodys butt in gest or horseplay could be considered a sexual assault.

Defense attorney Laura Fine, another member of the commission, retorted that that would be sexual harassment, not assault.

Makler and seven other commissioners who were present at that meeting voted against making sexual assault an automatically fireable offense.

There are things like state of mind or absence of intent that could come into play. Or degree of harm, Portland Police Association attorney Anil Karia said. There are nuances in this.

The commission was formed with the passage of HB 2930 in 2021, one of several pieces of legislation passed last year tackling police accountability and reform.

The goalwas to have clarity, bill sponsor Rep. Janelle Bynum, D-Clackamas said in an interview with OPB. Officers like to have clarity, some level of certainty about what the standards are.

By having one statewide set of guidelines, Bynum explained, officers who have discipline problems in one local department cant transfer to a different agency that has lower standards. She said the kinds of people the community wants working in law enforcement, dont want to work for agencies with low standards.

The interesting thing about these commissions and how they have these conversations and come up with draft rules you can tell where peoples values are, Bynum said. Why would you have rules that just say you could potentially just get a slap on the wrist for sexual assault. Whos going to want to work there?

The commission has 13 voting members and two non-voting members. Members include a representative from the Oregon Department of Justice, two police chiefs, a sheriff, two lawyers who represent police unions, a defense attorney who also represents police, the former president of the Salem-Keizer NAACP, the executive director of the Oregon District Attorneys Association, and a civil rights investigator at Oregon State University.

Over the course of 13 meetings since early March, the group hammered out standards on a range of issues from unjustified use of force to assault to targeting someone based solely on their race, gender or other protected status.

Some of the most notable draft rules are:

The full list of proposed rules, including moral character violations, is available online.

The commission based their approach to designing the new rules on the recently created New York Police Department discipline guidelines. The NYPD approach essentially listed the range of potential misconduct along with the default penalty, and more severe or less severe penalties that can be assigned depending on mitigating or aggravating factors.

That approach differs from the Portland Police Bureaus recently adopted discipline guide which requires people in leadership positions to identify the infraction and then rank the severity from A to E, a subjective step critics say creates an opening for arbitrators to effectively overturn discipline decisions.

In the case of sexual assault, the commission ultimately decided that the default proposed penalty should be termination but that could be lessened to suspension without pay, salary reduction, demotion or a written reprimand if mitigating circumstances are identified by an officers chain of command. Potential factors that might lead to a less or more severe penalty include an officers conduct history, whether the conduct was intentional, if the officer is a supervisor and the potential for rehabilitation.

At some points in the six months and 26 hours of meetings, proposed rules were watered down after an initial poll suggested they wouldnt garner the necessary support.

In a meeting on July 7, only five of the 12 present commissioners initially thought officers should be fired without any option for mitigating factors when they use excessive physical or deadly force seriously injuring or killing someone.

Michael Slauson, chief counsel of the Oregon Department of Justices Criminal Justice Division and commission co-chair, tinkered with the wording and removed physical force.

Ultimately, eight commissioners said an officer should be fired for using unjustified or excessive deadly force causing serious injury or death; the minimum number required to pass. Makler, Karia, Confederated Tribes of the Umatilla Indian Reservation Police Chief Timothy Addleman and Keizer Police Chief John Teague held out and voted against the rule.

If, however, an officer uses unjustified or excessive physical force that is, anything other than deadly force they can present mitigating factors and potentially keep their job.

Thats one of the disappointments that I have with the way some members of this commission have looked at this, Benny Williams, former president of the Keizer-Salem chapter of the NAACP, told OPB, explaining that he is disturbed by the notion that anything short of being killed by an officer is not considered severe enough to warrant termination.

Sexual assault, deadly force these are things that have been put in front of us specifically because these are issues that are pervasive across the country, Williams said. And Oregon is not in any way unique.

If an officer intentionally targets someone based solely on a protected class such as their race, ethnicity, national origin, sex, gender identity, sexual orientation, religion, or housing status, the default discipline should be termination, the commission said. But, as with assault, the officer can present mitigating circumstances.

Targeting someone in that way is against state law and a Fourth Amendment violation. Only five commissioners thought the offense should be an automatic termination.

Steven Schuback, the lawyer who represented the city of Portland in police union contract negotiations, said the new protected class of homelessness is not well defined.

We have to recognize that there are cases of implicit bias that are inherent just in our culture that we are dealing with on disciplinary levels, Schuback argued. Exclusive termination is just too tight. Whereas presumptive [termination] allows for some level of mitigation when its appropriate.

Slauson, from the Oregon Department of Justice, pushed back.

I see this as an extraordinarily high burden of proof if youre saying that an officer targeted somebodybased solely on homelessness, Slauson said. Describe a scenario in whichtermination would not be a fair sanction for that.

Teague, the Keizer police chief, said what he saw as reasonable policing decisions could look like targeting.

Targeting may connote some nefarious thought but it hardly demands nefarious thought, Teague said.

He explained his officers would ignore teenagers running around near the river but would likely approach a disheveled guy stumbling down there who is rather apparently a vagrant whos established a camp.

Arguably, it is targeting, Teague said, even if the officers dont take action.

Oregon state law prohibits targeting of an individual by law enforcement officers based solely on certain personal attributes, including homelessness.

But homelessness has been part of the profiling statute for at least four years, Slauson said. He said he hoped officers were trained to identify and know that targeting someone based on their unhoused status is illegal.

Teagues argument won out. The proposed rules now allow for less severe penalties in some cases where an officer is found to have intentionally targeted someone based solely on a protected class. Even Williams, the former NAACP regional president, supported the slightly less severe penalty. He told OPB hes a pragmatist and that if these changes are going to be impactful it is important that there be consensus.

If anybody thought that we were going to have unanimous consent on any and all of these things, they were fooling themselves, Williams said. Sometimes it had to be brought back to Wait a minute, heres why were here. And so we dont have to all agree, but we have to have a real consensus of understanding how important this particular issue is.

The commission opted not to consider what penalties, if any, an officer should face if they join a hate group, prompting pushback from the only two Black members.

Its really disappointing to see all the law enforcement and how this doesnt seem to be an important issue to you, said Tarron Anderson, a civil rights investigator at Oregon State University who said he felt compelled to speak up over this issue. I try to be objective and understand from both sides of the aisle but some of these things are really troubling.

Williams said it is known that there are officers in the state involved with or sympathetic to white supremacist and extremist groups.

OPB previously reported that more than two dozen current and former members of Oregon law enforcement had joined the Oath Keepers militia, a group that recruits people with experience in law enforcement and the military and which played a central role in the Jan. 6 attack on the U.S. Capitol.

If nothing is done to address the close relationship between extremist groups and some law enforcement, trust between the community and the police will never be restored, Williams said.

After only five members voted in favor of taking up the issue, several commissioners expressed the hope they would return to the topic at a later date.

The politics of our nation have trained us to take sides: the police or the criminal, Bynum said. Taking sides I dont think its helpful. And thats why I think the conversations of the commission are very important and, again, it will reveal what the dominant thought is around who gets to be safe in our communities and at work.

The commission will hold a series of public hearings throughout August and ending Sept. 16. They will then consider the publics comment and make any changes before the rules take effect on Oct. 1.

The rest is here:

Draft rules to govern police conduct in Oregon leave lots of wiggle room - Oregon Public Broadcasting

Centers for Medicare & Medicaid Services (CMS) Innovation Center recently accelerated this transition by publishing a 10-year strategic roadmap that prioritizes value-based care.

For healthcare leaders who are not yet there, now is the time to embrace the value-based journey and refocus efforts on putting the patient first, says Chan Chuang, MD, Chief Medical Officer and Medical Group President at Envision Healthcare. Below, Dr. Chuang addresses key highlights in the landscape of value-based care, the critical role clinicians will play in bringing about that future, and the importance of innovative care models such as integrated care and the Emergency Triage, Treat, and Transport (ET3) model.

Q: When discussing healthcares future, value-based care always comes up. How do you describe value-based care, and what makes it so critical to the evolution of our healthcare system?

A: Given how our current healthcare system, care delivery and reimbursement model are structured, our country is faced with an unsustainable cost structure of increased healthcare spending coupled with relatively low health outcomes. The U.S. ranks close to last among developed countries in terms of health index and life expectancies. The pressure to shift to value-based care is not only about putting the patient-clinician relationship at the forefront but also about making care more accessible, affordable and sustainable while improving patient outcomes and the overall health of our communities.

One area in which we can see the value-based equation in action is the focus on appropriate sites of care. An example of this is the move of select elective surgical cases from higher-cost inpatient settings to ambulatory surgery centers (ASC). ASCs have demonstrated to be a more convenient setting for patients, a more efficient model for surgical cases and a lower cost of care environment, all while yielding the same or better clinical outcomes. COVID-19 has also shifted how patients and clinicians approach and embrace alternative care settings, such as virtual healthcare, urgent care clinics and in-home care. Aligned with the right incentives, these care models allow patients to receive the most appropriate care when and where they need it while achieving the Triple Aim: improved patient experience, improved population health and stewardship of our resources.

Q: What are the major advantages of value-based care as opposed to a fee-for-service model?

A: Value-based care enables us to pivot to a model that is more sustainable for patients and clinicians, one which is also grounded in scientifically proven data points that more care doesnt equal better care.

From the clinicians perspective, our goal is to provide the best possible care to patients and make sure they are set up for success throughout their care journey. Value-based care aligns with that effort because it prioritizes reimbursement for positive clinical outcomes, allowing for investment into healthcare infrastructure that focuses on the health of the population. More importantly, it encourages every stakeholder in the healthcare system to be more intentional about how they support clinicians in the delivery of patient care.

Healthcare systems and providers who participate in an alternative value-based payment model differentiate themselves and put themselves in a stronger business and financial position to lead the healthcare industry, especially in the current environment where we are faced with significant clinician and nursing labor shortages, increased patient volume lability and uncertainty, and declining fee-for-service reimbursement.

From the consumers vantage point, in the ideal value-based world, patients will be able to spend more time with their physician and/or care team, be motivated to improve their health outcomes with lower cost-sharing responsibilities and have better experiences without being rushed through the healthcare delivery system.

Want to read the full article? Heres a preview of what youll find:

Chan Chuang, MD, FCCP, FACP is theChief Medical Officer and Medical Group President at Envision Healthcare

Envision Healthcare is a leading national medical group delivering care when and where its needed most. They are responsible for treating more than 32 million patients each year.

Read the rest here:

Why Value-based Care Is the Future of Medicine - HealthLeaders Media

Minneapolis, MN As the Twin Cities metro area becomes more diverse, the city of Minneapolis trails behind the regions growth in diversity, with a population trending disproportionately whiter, wealthier, and, consequently more conservative in the past decade. This article demonstrates the intentionality behind this shift and the various tools at the citys disposal to turnover undesirable neighborhoods, and challenges the notion that upzoning on its face will create a more equitable city.

What has replaced the dialogue on urban problems is a public discourse that indicates active antagonism towards the poor.

Minneapolis has experienced a real estate boom since the economic crash of 2008 which was triggered when lenders gave out millions of discriminatory home loans with adjustable interest rates to mostly Black and brown families causing a massive nationwide mortgage default.

In the past decade, the city added over 20,000 new units to its housing stock, with the overwhelming majority being rental units. With increased housing supply, Minneapolis added 60,000 new residents, according to the 2020 census. In recent years, the City of Minneapolis has attempted to codify upzoning, a practice where multi-family housing stock is increased citywide, with its 2040 plan that banned the new construction of single family homes throughout the city.

Despite the massive increase in housing stock, recent data suggests that the vast majority of new residents are white and of higher income. In 2010, Minneapolis was still a homeowner majority city but today it is a majority renter city with renters making up 53% of housing occupants.

At the same time, the median household income has skyrocketed by 42%, from $46,508 in 2010 to $66,068 in 2020. That suggests that its not just a construction boom but rather a luxury apartment rental boom targeted at a higher income demographic.

A former Minneapolis police officer told Unicorn Riot that the city used the war on drugs as the pretext to remove Black and brown communities from targeted areas to help make way for the population boom.

Sarah Saarela, a former cop turned vocal critic after officers from the Minneapolis Police Department (MPD) murdered Jamar Clark, said Weed and Seed was a federally funded war-on-drugs-era program MPD used to police certain parts of the city. The Central neighborhood was targeted heavily by MPD in the 2000s to arrest and remove the Bloods, referring to the notorious street gang that made their homebase in Central.

George Floyd was murdered by officer Derek Chauvin on the border of the Central neighborhood. 38th Street and Chicago Avenue where Floyd was killed, is still home to the Bloods. That corner has been a prime target of MPD for decades, according to Saarela. However, it didnt start and end with the Bloods. The whole Black community was swept up in overzealous policing, as demonstrated by Floyds murder. It was all about arresting people for livability crimes, which really was just white people calling the cops on Black people for anything, Saarela said.

Livability offenses stem from post slavery vagrancy policies, also known as Black Codes, which were codified into law at the beginning of the Jim Crow era in order to criminalize Black men for petty issues in efforts to re-enslave them.

The Central neighborhood is part of Minneapolis historic Black Southside. Due to past racist housing policies such as redlining, where banks would systematically deny loans in Black communities after labeling them risky for investing, and racially restrictive housing covenants, it was one of few neighborhoods in South Minneapolis where Black families could live and put down roots.

However, in the past decade, the white population of Central has increased over sixty percent, growing from 21% of the neighborhood in 2010 to 34% today. Conversely, the Black population has halved in past decades, going from 46% of the community in 1990 to just 24% percent today. These trends are part of a bigger agenda, according to the former cop. Weed and Seed was designed to displace Black and brown people and make way for gentrification, Saarela said.

Downtown Minneapolis has some of the most expensive real estate in Minnesota. According to the Star Tribune, the increase in downtown Minneapolis residents alone accounts for more than one third of the citys population boom. Downtown increased by more than 22,000 people, growing from 34,000 residents in 2010 to 56,077 residents in 2021, largely due to its massive increase in luxury rental units.

Throughout this series, Unicorn Riot has reported on the SafeZone surveillance program in downtown Minneapolis. Target Corporation, downtowns largest employer, in partnership with the city and county, created the SafeZone in efforts to rid the citys center of undesired populations including unhoused people and transform downtown into a playground for young corporate professionals.

A former Target insider who wishes to remain unidentified recently told Unicorn Riot that former CEO Robert Ulrich is a staunch racist and constantly complained about Black men hanging outside Targets flagship downtown store. Target and local authorities created the sweeping surveillance program to deliberately target Black men with state-of-the-art surveillance cameras, livability crime arrests, and a vast network of law enforcement partners.

Target explicitly worked to suburbanize downtown. One Target executive said candidly in an interview from 2012, [T]he guest demographic we seek is very much a woman with childrenwe want to be a lot more like Disney World and a lot less like a flea market. Targets stake in downtown Minneapolis is more like that of a real estate investor than a big box retail corporation because of its massive headquarters located there, according to sociologist Dr. Michael McQuarrie.

The geographic restriction policy, which has been detailed in this series by Unicorn Riot, is a commonly activated tool used by SafeZone authorities to make downtown more livable for new, wealthier residents. A judge could geographically restrict someone from being downtown after theyve acquired a number of livability offenses and it has been determined by the judge that they refuse to follow conditions outlined by the court.

The overwhelming majority of people on the downtown geo-restriction list are Black. Geo-restrictions, which critics say resembles Jim Crow segregation, were struck down as unconstitutional by a grand jury years ago. But as previously reported, thanks to legal loopholes the practice continues today as prosecutors and judges found ways to work around it and placate corporate backers.

Dr. Edward Goetz, the Humphrey School of Public Affairs professor and director of the Center for Urban and Regional Affairs, has written extensively about the tools the City of Minneapolis has at its disposal to remove poor people from the city, primarily the war on drugs. What has replaced the dialogue on urban problems is a public discourse, that he says, indicate[s] active antagonism towards the urban poor.

CODEFOR, which is short for Computer Optimized Deployment Focused on Results, was the citys first predictive data analytics program that tracked arrests and mapped crime hotspots in efforts to predict future crime trends, also known as predictive policing.

In his book Clearing the Way: Deconcentrating the Poor in Urban America, Dr. Goetz wrote about the controversy the program caused. Shortly after its rollout, The program became a flashpoint in the African American community, which regarded CODEFOR as simply an institutional form of harassment. The NAACPcalled the program an unchecked abuse of police power aimed at people of color, Goetz wrote. They labeled this technology racially discriminatory because of its focus on minor offenses committed by Black men in core urban neighborhoods, including downtown, while ignoring those of white men occuring in wealthier parts of town.

Saarela remembers using CODEFOR when she was on the force. At roll call the sergeant would tell us we needed to get our numbers up, Saarela told Unicorn Riot, referring to livability crime arrests. They would tell us what neighborhoods we needed to target more. Saarela said they never used any racist language but it was implied.

CODEFOR had adverse effects on real estate in targeted communities. By using data to identify crime hotspots, this drove down demand as real estate agents steered people away from communities labeled high crime. But in communities that were being gentrified, realtors used racial undertones to assure clients that the neighborhood was turning over, according to Saarela, whose parents were Twin Cities realtors for two decades.

Many activists believe that crime data in communities of color is intentionally inflated to harm those communities making them more vulnerable to real estate investors and predatory lenders. The inflation of crime data hurts communities by driving down home values thus decreasing the already struggling communitys wealth, even when those neighborhoods are not particularly unsafe.

Former Minneapolis Ward 2 City Council member Cam Gordon told Unicorn Riot that he too believes CODEFOR crime data was inflated in communities of color but cannot prove it. Even we [council members] encouraged people to call 911 over any little thing. Former officer Sarah Saarela confirmed to Unicorn Riot that MPD absolutely inflated crime data in communities of color using CODEFOR.

Gordon said CODEFOR data was public and the City of Minneapolis gave it to lenders and realtors regularly. Leading up to the Great Recession, data indicates that lenders including Wells Fargo and Countywide sold Black and brown families riskier home mortgages. With sophisticated technology, similar to CODEFOR, and numerous sources of publicly available data to identify potential customers, predatory lenders turn towards those very same neighborhoods police deem hotspots to market their products.

Big banks target communities with predatory loans where they believe the customers are financially unsophisticated or vulnerable, and therefore most likely to accept highly unfavorable loan terms, according to the federally sponsored lending corporation, Fannie Mae. In turn, this leads to increased mortgage defaults, home foreclosures, homelessness, and incarceration, thus completing the cycle of removal and achieving the desired outcomes of public and private interests.

Urban policy is less about revitalizing cities and neighborhoods, and combating the disinvestment of capital, and it is more and more about controlling the dangerous classes.

Through heavy-handed policing and predatory lending public and private interests converge, resulting in the loss of wealth, greater criminalization, continued discrimination and increased state violence against communities of color.

Although Minnesota ranks above all other states and Washington, D.C., for how well its residents are doing collectively, it ranks as the fourth most segregated state in the country. The gap between white and Black households in Minneapolis is one of the most pronounced in the U.S.

The Minneapolis metro has the lowest homeownership rate for Black people and the largest homeownership gap in the nation with a 51% gap between white and Black residents.

The median income for white households in Minneapolis is almost $74,000, while Black households earn slightly over $23,000 today, amounting to a $51,000 pay gap on average, which is the second worst in the nation following Milwaukee.

Democratic political strategist Kendal Killian, who formerly worked in city hall and currently serves as senior advisor to Congresswoman Ilhan Omars reelection campaign, recently tweeted that this conservative shift in the city is not a natural one but one that was intentional by city leaders. Our politics have shifted, and the very people we sought to attract are voting in their own self-interest. This is the city we deliberately sought to create.

In a phone interview with Unicorn Riot, Killian said that the City of Minneapolis fate is not inevitable. The way it trended whiter and more conservative in the past decade, it can also trend the opposite over this decade, if there was political will for it.

Coming out of the 2008 recession, the mayor at the time, R.T. Rybak, used loud dog whistles and talked about attracting a certain demographic of young corporate professionals to the city with promises of breweries, boutique eateries, dog parks, grocery coops and farmers markets. Importantly, critics point out that behind the mayors rhetoric were draconian policies that displaced poor residents of color.

Recent data presented in this article demonstrates that the practice of upzoning alone wont ensure population diversity or racial equity when authorities have at their disposal a number of policies to deconcentrate communities of color that they have deemed problematic.

Dr. Goetz believes such policies are little more than the authorities way to target communities they consider threatening. Urban policy is less about revitalizing cities and neighborhoods, and combating the disinvestment of capital, he wrote, and it is more and more about controlling the dangerous classes.

About the author: Marjaan Sirdar is a South Minneapolis based freelance writer and host of the People Power Podcast. You can follow him on Twitter @peoplepowerpod1.

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Clearing the Way for a Whiter, Wealthier Tax Base in Minneapolis - UNICORN RIOT - Unicorn Riot

What is accessibility and digital inclusion?

It means that websites and web tools are appropriately designed to ensure that people with disabilities can use them to complete tasks in the same amount of time and effort as others who do not have a disability. The critical component of accessibility is being intentional about providing an inclusive and more equitable experience. One goal of accessibility is removing barriers for all members of the community and beyond.

In the panel, Kyle pointed out that an accessibility spectrum exists. There is no single definition of accessibility that applies to all user needs and preferences when utilizing digital products.

Penns Digital Accessibility Policy states that the University websites and web applications that are created or undergo significant revisions or redesign after April 1, 2022, are expected to meet The Worldwide Web Consortiums Web Content Accessibility Guidelines version 2.1, according to Penns Accessibility website.

Why is it important to have these conversations in the workplace?

Accessibility is a component of diversity, equity, and inclusion efforts, so it is important to have these conversations because web accessibility is a shared, continuous professional responsibility for members of the Penn community. We are all involved in developing, creating, publishing, or sharing digital resources. Its our collective responsibility to bring awareness and take action, to increase inclusion and decrease exclusion.

As Kara pointed out in the discussion, accessibility doesnt just stop at websites and tools; it extends to include our emails, registration forms, and all other methods of digital communications. The Centers for Disease Control estimates that one in every four adults in the United States has a disability. Members of the panel further drove that point home during the discussion, mentioning we run the risk of excluding roughly 20 percent of the adult population from participating in and consuming digital content if we dont work to make digital spaces accessible.

What did the panel reveal about barriers for people with physical disabilities?

The panel revealed a range of disabilities, including visual, auditory, physical, speech, cognitive, and neurological disabilities, which should be taken into account when implementing accessibility measures.

The panelists also pointed out that physical disabilities can be temporary, permanent, or situational. An example is if someone suffers from a car accident or sports injury, this may temporarily impact their mobility to use a mouse, hindering their ability to navigate digital spaces. Even aging can play a factor in our ability to interact with websites and web tools. Many of our web tools, computers, and mobile devices have built-in accessibility features that allow those with mobility issues to navigate the digital world without using a mouse.

What were the obstacles in digital spaces that were addressed during the panel discussion?

The panel discussed issues for people using assistive technology such as screen readers. People using screen readers can encounter obstacles in understanding the image content on the page that does not have alt text. When images do not contain ALT text, a person who is blind will not be able to see the image, and the screen reader will tell them it is there with no further context or explanation. The ALT text attribute of an on-page picture will be read aloud to people who use screen readers; this helps them understand the value and context of images on the page. Another obstacle mentioned during this panel was how using flashing objects, transitions, and other effects might harm our community members who suffer from epilepsy. These effects should be used sparingly and should contain a content warning or be avoided. These are examples of technological obstacles that impede users ability to engage with the content and have a similar experience as someone who does not have a disability.

Why does representation matter?

Representation matters because we all have a role to play in creating a more inclusive community and working towards normalizing conversations that address systemic issues that further marginalize people. Representation in digital accessibility can offer affirmation and support to the underrepresented members of our communities and provide an equitable experience for all. It fosters an inclusive culture and creates a sense of belonging.

What were some ways to improve digital inclusion and accessibility?

Awareness is essential and will help members of the Penn community work closely with and utilize the accessibility guidance and resources that Penn offers. Ask a question, schedule a consultation, or get help from Penns Web Accessibility Team.

We received sound advice from the panel; during the panel discussion, one tip was to be mindful the next time you create content, email, registration forms, etc., and think about accessibility first. Consider organizing your content differently and in different formats, using captions, text-based transcripts, descriptive labels in form fields, and especially images. Provide multiple ways users can consume your content. An example from the panel was if you are presenting something visual, be sure to use ALT text, and you can also audibly describe images, charts, and tables.

Anything to add?

To help foster digital inclusivity here at Penn, there are four things you can do to get started:

And lastly:

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How to improve accessibility and digital inclusion | Penn Today - Penn Today

Oxfords one and only Chick-fil-A will completely close on Sept. 1 due to extensive renovations and expansion to the site. The restaurant will be closed for approximately ten weeks and, during this time, the Chick-fil-A food truck will not be in operation due to a lack of available technology.

The West Jackson Avenue Chick-fil-A intends to expand its drive-thru lanes and create more space inside the restaurant to allow for a much larger kitchen and food storage area. Chick-fil-A also intends to reopen its dining area to the public. Oxfords Chick-fil-A is only a few of the ones across the chain with dining areas still closed.

Owner and franchisee Lance Reed said plans were pushed further back do to the citys work on a force main located on the property. The main, containing tons of raw sewage, has ruptured a couple of times in the 13 years Chick-fil-A has operated and, to avoid future ruptures in the future, the city completed work on the main during the summer.

I think its a hard thing for us because the fall is by far the busiest time of the year for us and for every restaurant in Oxford, said Reed.

Reed said the decision to close for ten weeks during the fall semester is unconventional, but it will benefit the restaurants team members.

We just dont have the resources that we need from a capacity standpoint to deal with the sales volumes and all that kind of came with a fall, he said. The West Jackson Chick-fil-A has grown in sales in the past year, which Reed calls a good problem, but the location does not have the square footage to keep you with the demand.

Last year, Chick-fil-A utilized iceboxes to store extra product and chicken to keep up with demand at sports events and festivals.

This year with the anticipation of higher student enrollment, football and all this, were dealing with the same thing, Reed said. It just didnt make a lot of sense for us to go through another season.

Another big change will be the loss of Chick-fil-As playground. The loss of the playground will make more room for the drive-thru and provide more room for Chick-fil-A employees to work.

Well probably take eight or 10 trips of a team member just going and getting ice to fill up for the drive-thru in the middle of lunch, Reed said. When they do this, well have an ice machine over in the drive-thru, well have tea brewers and its going to give our team members so much more room. Its going to be such a better working environment for our team members than we currently have and, because of all of that, we felt like it was best to get this done as soon as possible.

Weve kind of been telling [the employees] Be patient. Things are coming in, just keep working hard, said Chick-fil-A Executive Director Tatum Wilson. We dont want to lose our good people to what I would call a tough work environment.

Full-time Chick-fil-A will be supported while the store is closed and some will be given opportunities to work at Centerplates, a service at the University of Mississippi that provides food and beverage services for Ole Miss Athletic events.

Although it will not be selling its famous chicken sandwiches to Oxford, Reed said the hiatus will give Chick-fil-A and team members time to work on other projects.

Chick-fil-A will work with Reclaimed Project, a non-profit organization in Marks, Mississippi that works to make sustainable communities, to renovate apartments for teachers in Marks and Quitman County to live in. Chick-fil-A will also help renovate a room at Madison Palmer High School in Marks into a leadership classroom.

Lastly, Chick-fil-A is working along with Ole Miss, the 410 Bridge, the Fellowship of Christian Athletes and Ethiopian Airlines to help people working at the airline with their integrated marketing degree. Five to six team leaders will join Reed on that project in Ethiopia.

The store may be taking a 10-week hiatus, but that has not stopped the work.

While were closed, were trying to be very intentional about service projects, giving back and what can we do and to be intentional, said Reed.

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Chick-fil-A to close for 10 weeks due to extensive renovations - The Oxford Eagle - Oxford Eagle

On the introductory page of I Am From Here: Stories and Recipes from a Southern Chef, it reads This cookbook thoughtfully, and persuasively, expands notions of what it means to be, and cook like, a Southerner today.

Throughout the cookbook, Vishwesh Bhatt refers to himself frequently and proudly as a Southerner. A native of Gujarat, India, Bhatt later moved to the United States where hes become a standout culinary mind, known for his excellent dishes at Snackbar in Oxford, Miss., where he is executive chef. As a foreigner whos also made her home in Mississippi, I think often about what makes someone Southern. Its a descriptor people born and raised here are proud of, but is it a birthright? When do you get to adopt that moniker for yourself if youre of a place, but not from it?

So I had to ask him what makes someone a Southern chef? Bhatt paused for a second before responding it was a question hes not sure he can answer. He said he learned how to cook in the South. He chose to become a chef here and learned from Southern chefs. Hes made a home and a community for himself in Oxford.

This is the place that influences what I do. This is the place where people come and eat what I cooked, and it is the South and so therefore, Im a Southern chef, Bhatt told Mississippi Today.

The idea that after living here for so long, I still have to answer the question, Where are you from? And then, you know, I say Im from Oxford, and then the follow up question is No, where are you really from? So thats why the title, if that makes sense. Yeah, I moved here from somewhere else, but Im here now.

My main takeaway from I Am From Here, is that food is not static, something Bhatt reminded me of when we spoke. Before our interview, I set out to make a vegetable plate like youd find at meat-and-three restaurants across Mississippi, but with dishes from his book.

I settled on Stewed Gujarati-Style Black Eyed Peas, Spicy Potato Mash, Not Your Mamas Cornbread, and Kashimiri-Style Collards (Haaq). The surprising star of the meal was dessert, Mr. Buzendahls Green Tomato Pie. It was flavored just like a traditional apple pie, but substituted the fruit with fresh unripe green tomatoes.

The dishes all turned out well, and though they were flavored with things like curry leaves, ginger and turmeric, it still felt unquestionably like I was sitting down to eat a Southern plate.

I grew up eating okra and greens and stuff. And when I came here I was like, well, thats not how you eat it, Bhatt said. To him, food is always evolving and changing. You can have the same ingredients in many different places and work with them very differently. And thats okay. And it can all still be just as delicious, just as important.

To use I Am From Here is to rediscover cooking. You can tell flipping through the pages of this cookbook that Bhatt has a deep respect for food. Many of his recipes call for small extra steps that ultimately produce a more tasty dish. Whether it be blooming whole spices in oil, or setting a pot full of basmati rice and water on the stove for 15 minutes before turning on the heat to produce a fluffier result, taking the time to make sure individual ingredients shine is worth it.

Rather than organize the book by meal breakfast, lunch, etc. he organizes it by ingredient. Bhatt says this is because so much of his cooking focuses on fresh, seasonal produce.

In all, 130 recipes fuse meals from his childhood with ingredients and dishes hes learned along the way in homes and restaurants across the South. Take, for example, the pickled okra two ways one with vinegar as its served in Bloody Marys at City Grocery in Oxford, and Gujarati style, the way he grew up where vegetables are steeped in oil and spices to achieve a similar effect but different flavor profile.

But of course, the book is not just a book about food. Its, in a way, a guidebook to foster conversation and connection with new people.

In the introductory pages of the book, Bhatt outlines the many spices and ingredients commonly used in the recipes to come. But for so many of them from tangy, garlicky asafoetida to the bright, punchy Kashmiri chili powder, he includes where to find them. This is helpful in a place like Mississippi where specialty grocery stores and the people who run them are not always well known.

This was intentional, Bhatt says.

These people who run the Indian grocery store are part of the community, same as the people who have the little taco shop where you can go buy chilis, he said. Unless we start interacting with them, theyre always going to be the other. And so the idea is, hey, these people might be your neighbors, you dont know them. Unless you go in that store then youll realize, oh, thats the guy that lives three doors down from me.

Yes, its an expectation that immigrants attempt to assimilate into the communities they come to call home, he said, but as somebody whos been here a while, we also need to make an effort to make people feel welcome. To bring them into the fold and learn about them.

This place the South, much like where he grew in India, has a lot of social issues, he said. Prejudices and preconceived notions keep people from getting to know each other, and it can be awkward and difficult to discuss the ugly parts of history responsible for the inequality that exists today.

We are still very far from being a society that treats people equally and gives people credit or respect for just being themselves, he said.

Now 56, Bhatt continued: What Ive come to realize is that I cant really wait any longer for people to interact with me or acknowledge me. Im just going to say that Im here.

Differences in opinion or beliefs are solvable if people are willing to have a conversation, he said. What better way to start one than through a meal?

The only way I know how to talk about it is through food like okay, heres what we eat. Heres what it comes from. You know, lets start that conversation.

What should people take away from I Am From Here? That cooking is easy, and a great way to get to know people.

Bhatt, 2019 winner of the James Beard Award for Best Chef: South, is a featured panelist at the Mississippi Book Festival on Aug. 20. His cookbook goes on sale Aug. 16.

By listening more intently and understanding the people who make up Mississippis communities, our reporters put a human face on how policy affects everyday Mississippians. Were listening closely to our readers to help us continue to align our work with the needs and priorities of people from all across Mississippi. Please take a few minutes to tell us whats on your mind by clicking the button below.

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'I Am From Here' is more than a cookbook. It's a way to get to know people. - Mississippi Today

Teen pregnancy can upend a students life and educational career and can set families back for generations. For Miami-Dade County School Board Member Steve Gallon, the issue is a personal one: his first child Kastevia Gallon-Martin was born when he was just 16 years old.

He talked about his experience as a teenage father at a recent school board meeting during a debate over whether the district should adopt two comprehensive health textbooks and teach sex education in the fall.

I look at it based on my journey that started in 1985, as a product of this or lack thereof. A former teenage father while a student at Miami Northwestern Senior High School, Gallon said. So it is personal for me.

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Miami-Dade County Public Schools will be offering sex ed in the fall after the school board reversed its previous vote to throw out the two textbooks. The decision to reject the books, and effectively opt out the entire district from receiving sex education, drew public outcry and national attention.

WLRN education reporter Kate Payne spoke with Gallon about his experience as a teen dad raising his daughter Kastevia, and the importance of sex ed for him and for students in the district.

The following is an excerpt of their conversation, which has been edited for length and clarity.

Courtesy of Steve Gallon

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Courtesy of Steve Gallon

GALLON: At that particular time I was 16 years old. The mother was 16 years old. We were high school students and we found ourselves in that situation. Fortunately, we had resources. We had information on how to navigate our way through that particular challenging time.

All fathers are not as responsible as I was at a very young age, because I really accepted that obligation and fulfilled it with fidelity and integrity. But let's face it: life would have been different had I not had to have that additional responsibility. Tremendously blessed with my children. Would not have had it any other way. It was part of God's plan. But obviously, it was not intentional.

I've been tremendously blessed, graduating from high school, attending college, earning a master's and a doctoral degree. But I know that I'm the exception, not the rule. And obviously many of our young people are shackled. Teenage parenthood can become an albatross for the rest of their lives.

Once you drop out of school, you're compounding many of the challenges in life. And information is power. And what we cannot do in any educational scenario is deny children an opportunity to be powerful in their decision making.

WLRN: What was that time like in your life? How did you experience that in the moment, as far as trying to stay on the path of education and graduating high school?

GALLON: Very difficult. But again, I had tremendous support that did not simply come from my home. Educators, counselors, administrators, members in the community, wrapped their arms around me, gave me some guidance, gave me some support.

But again, never would say it was easy. We have legions of young people that fall to the wayside educationally because of decisions they make at a very young age. Find themselves terminally on the margins of our society. And that's something that education should try to mitigate as much as possible.

WLRN: Youre a product of Miami-Dade public schools. What did you learn in middle school and high school about sex? Could that have put you on a different trajectory if you had more information during that critical time in your life?

GALLON: Yeah, absolutely. It could have. I graduated from Miami Northwestern Senior High School. My parents once again did not have the talk. But it's not that I was not able to have access to the information. Could it have been amplified a little more?

But at the end of the day, it comes down to individual decisions that we all make. I think our children and our youth need to be equipped with as much information to make the best decisions possible.

WLRN: For teen mothers, only half of them will go on to graduate high school. Their children are more likely to struggle in school, to drop out and to be incarcerated. What more can the district do to support teen parents?

GALLON: I think the district has been a leader. In my last position in this district, I was [in charge of] alternative education. I was over the schools that served young mothers and teenage parents.

I want to say mothers and teenage parents, because fathers, they can get the resources, they can access additional information and guidance. Our district does provide these particular programs.

Can we do more? Absolutely. And as you indicated through those particular data points, those issues show up not simply in our schools. They show up in our communities, they show up throughout the state, and quite frankly, they show up in underserved, underperforming and under-resourced communities. It often leads, specifically for young African American or Hispanic males, to a pathway toward prison, poverty or an early death.

And we have an obligation, we have a responsibility both professionally and morally to make sure that we equip students with the lifelong skills that they're going to need. And some people believe that that's not our role, that's not our responsibility. But our parents, our families many of them are depending on us.

WLRN Senior Editor For News Jessica Bakeman contributed to this story.

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This Miami-Dade school board member was a teen father. That shaped his views on sex ed - WLRN

One of Los Angeles firm LOHAs four corner anchor buildings at City Modern, a development featuring a mix of new and rehabilitated buildings in historic Brush Park, just outside of downtown. Developed by Bedrock, the citys largest developer, its one of the citys most substantial residential developments in decades.. Image Jason Keen Share Share

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Detroit is different.

We say that with confidence knowing the citys demographics (nearly 80 percent African-American and with one of the highest poverty rates in the United States) present unique challenges to providing economic opportunity. And we say that with certainty knowing that a pernicious history of redlining, loan discrimination, and other inequities has denied Detroits Black majority the kind of power and say-so in design and economic development that would produce more favorable outcomes.

+ 15

The citys 139 square miles have seen a lot of change in the past 15 years, with billions spent by business and philanthropy in the citys core, revitalizing a downtown and adjacent communities that had become ghostly and abandoned. The question is, Whos benefiting? And while other cities may have seen substantive shifts toward more community input, and even control, over redevelopment and investment, a group of Detroit policymakers, designers, developers, and activists who gathered for a recent virtual roundtable discussion said that turn has been harder here.

Indeed, it has yet to happen.

The African-American population is still largely disinvested in, and still largely doesnt have the capacity to lead development in our own neighborhoods and in the city where we are the majority population, said Malik Yakini, the executive director of the Detroit Black Community Food Security Network (DBCFSN), a citywide organization of urban farmers and distributors whose aim is to create sustainable, independent sources of fresh food for Detroiters.

The logic of capitalism leads to the trickle-down economic development that were used to seeing, where the core of the city is where the majority of the finances are put in and we develop that with the hope that then, somehow, that wealth and prosperity will trickle down to the rest of the population in the neighborhoods, Yakini added.

Anika Goss is CEO of Detroit Future City, a think tank dedicated to using data to design and encourage a more equitable future for Detroiters. She has a statistic that she shares frequently to point out how lopsided the gains from investment and development in Detroit have been so far.

The exclamation point to what were seeing, how were trending in terms of demographics, is that the only neighborhoods that are growing population are upper-income white neighborhoodswhere weve seen this large-scale investment, Goss said. The rest of the city is static or shrinking.

Yakini has been working for nearly a decade, for instance, to leverage the financing for DBCFSNs Detroit Food Commons, a 31,000-square-foot, two-story development along Woodward Avenue, the citys north-south spine. It will house the Detroit Peoples Food Co-op, which will be a full-service, low-cost grocery in the citys North End neighborhood. Many Detroit neighborhoods lack easy access to fresh food outlets because many big grocers avoid the city altogether, and smaller ones sell mostly processed food. The food co-op intends to give Detroiters better access to and more control over the food landscape.

Weve approached the finish line over a long period of time, he said. There were several barriers that we faced, and one I want to [underscore] is the question of market studies. If youre going to any financiers for a deal, they want to see a market study that suggests the demographics and all the other factors align [to] reasonably project that the business will be viable.

But the problem with that is that this art and science of developing market studies is not some objective thing. In fact, often what happens is, if youre hiring a person to do the market study for some amount of time, they come here for three days and they try to get a glimpse of the trade area and try to understand what the demographics and traffic patterns are, and then they make some projections based on similar circumstances, similar factors in other places.

According to Yakini, the underestimation of the Detroit market is nicely illustrated in the development of a Whole Foods store in the citys core in 2013. Projections for sales in the store, developed by a market study, were shattered in the first year.

So there was something wrong with the perspective of the folks who were doing the market research, because they grossly underestimated the market value within the city of Detroit, Yakini said. I think part of that is rooted in this very subtle racism that continues to permeate American society that suggests things like Black people are not concerned about healthy food, or suggests that were not willing to spend money on our well-being and all kinds of other assumptions. As were looking at how we create more equitable development, changing the template for market studies is one of the things we have to do.

Goss believes a big part of the problem is the difference in the lenses that get applied to projects in the citys core, and out in more underserved communities. She said the expectations for big financial returns are mostly concentrated in neighborhoods that already have strong fundamentals, and those neighborhoods tend to be whiter than the rest of the city. Meanwhile, in Black neighborhoods, the investments seem to be social in nature, and not of the scale or possible return of investments in the core.

The big opportunities are not going into those areas, and when they do, its socializing poor Black people and that really bothers me, she said. Its not economic opportunity. So, without some sort of disruption or interruption to that same model, we will continue to [see the] trend where the only places that grow are white and those are the only places that are also stable. That is the highest risk for us.

The best example Goss has seen of Detroit development focused more on the majority population is along Livernois Avenue, on the northwest side of the city, where a once-thriving mile-long Avenue of Fashion that had gone largely fallow was revived with an eye toward inclusive development. African-American developers did the work. African-American businesses were given the support to open shops along the stretch. And the surrounding neighborhoods, which range from middle- to upper-class majority African-American areas, were dealt into the design and execution from the beginning. The result is a thriving corridor that not only reflects but also seems to celebrate the citys majority population.

Ive never seen it done like that [elsewhere], Goss said. Anytime theres a concentration of investment in that way, its always turning over to the people that have the money to make the development happen first, which are generally wealthy white developers. And so, I think there really is something to build from. If we are making investments for Black and Brown people in Detroit, because thats where theyre living, in neighborhoods, what does that require? It requires this intentional reflection and investment in these areas so that you can have the result that you want at the end.

Chase Cantrell agrees that the Livernois projects outcomes were better for Detroiters, but he still believes there was a lack of intentionality in the design. Cantrell is founder and executive director of Building Community Value, whose specific aim is to create more space and opportunity for development in the citys underserved neighborhoods.

Yes, we were able to select Black developers for the projects that are happening on 6 Mile, but there was no cultural plan. It was a traditional market plan of Lets just get retail restaurants into these spaces. Yes, well pick Black people. But there wasnt a conversation about How is this preserving culture or creating culture? What do we want to see? I think that were still doing poorly on that, and were not necessarily responding to residents needs for culture.

Cantrells most recent project, The Enclave, created through a venture called Speramus Partners, is a mixed-use redevelopment of a commercial space along West McNichols Road on the citys northwest side.

The surrounding neighborhoods, Fitzgerald and Bagley, are tight-knit but were hard hit by pronounced disinvestment and depopulation in the 1990s and 2000s. Now they are experiencing revivals, thanks to philanthropic investments and individually financed renovations. The commercial corridor along McNichols has been left largely out of the moves forward because commercial ventures near neighborhoods like Fitzgerald and Bagley are still seen as financially risky.

Market values on our commercial corridors are low partially because the real estate in most Black neighborhoods is undervalued, Cantrell said. There are six loans on my project, something thats under 8,000 square feeta single story. And we needed all of that to make this project work.

According to Cantrell, it was possible only thanks to a combination of innovative financing tools, including New Market tax credits; a grant through the citysStrategic Neighborhood Fund, a $130 million program designed to support projects in some hard-hit areas of the city; and his own personal savings.

Invest Detroit, the community development financial institution (CDFI) that helped Cantrells project access the tax credits, is leading the efforts along McNichols, including handling the property acquisition and recruiting other African-American developers to participate. But its been nip and tuck the whole way, said Cantrell. Its worked out. But is it a model that we can replicate? Thats the question, he wondered.

I live in the neighborhood where the development is taking place. So this is my neighborhood, but market values and the potential returns, especially with so much subsidy, are limited.

This is my money at risk and the fact is, it will be very difficult to get that money out of the project for 10 years, 20 years. So as a developer trying to create a firm, its not as though I can wait two or three years,pull that money out, and recycle. It must stay there. And Im not rich, and my family isnt rich, so how do you then begin to help Black developers create a practice? That is a real challenge in the city of Detroit.

Olga Stella, vice president for strategy and communications at Detroits College for Creative Studies (CCS), and recently-departed leader of CCSs Design Core, which champions design-driven businesses and developments in the city, said the financial biases against community-led and community-centered projects have a profound design impact on those projects, and on neighborhoods. Inclusiveness, even in the finest details, matters.

You cant just say, Its for everybody, then go off and pick your paint colors and your artists, and not actually see in your mind who it is you expect to walk through the doors and whether they can get up the stairs or in through the entrance, and if theyre going to feel comfortable with the artwork, and if theyre going to like the food being served and all of these things, all of these choices, Stella said.

She said a good example of inclusive design in Detroit can be found at the Love Building, being redeveloped in Detroits Core City neighborhood, an emerging corridor of small businesses, restaurants, and shops between residential areas.

You have Allied Media Projects, [the] Detroit Justice Center, and a bunch of organizations that all center inclusion and equity in the work they do, all working together to undertake a real estate development project. They hired a black architect; they went through the community engagement [process]. They really thought about what the space was going to be. Who was the space serving? What was it going to feel like? Just as Chase was talking about with his project, every single choice makes a difference in whether that space truly serves those people.

Stella believes Detroit needs easier ways to make projects like this seem possible:

How do we build more confidence to do these projects in Detroit? How do we build more confidence in our neighborhoods to be able to assist? Because the decision makers still lack that confidence. And thats true whether its the public or the private institutions.

This article was originally published on Metropolis Magazine.

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Following Years of Revitalization, Detroit Still Has a Long Way to Go - ArchDaily