The DC Metro Will Probably Never Be Free

The stories are coming out right and left of grassroots voter coalitions turning over seats that were forgotten or underfunded, or bypassed by the official Democratic Party organizations tasked with running candidates and winning elections.Those voter coalitions embodied what I call being a good neighbor. What I call defying gentrification is being a good neighbor.I measure being a good neighbor by being someone who checks in, looks out, and acts in a way that helps others, while also taking good care of themselves.In my book, that’s why I emphasized having faith in oneself, taking care of oneself, and being creative, while providing care as a community, along with access, infrastructure, and convenience.It’s a framework that I think will help you or your community sustain and grow if you need additional help with neighborliness as you think about what this post is saying.People were good neighbors to me, even when I couldn’t always return the favor, especially in these years since 2024, and losing income from both W2 employment and lack of commissions and invitations.However, I wrote my book, and I write this newsletter to make sure you know that I’m still here and I care, even when I can’t physically be in a room somewhere, due to social anxiety or flares of my other chronic illnesses. We have to stop assuming that everyone in our coalitions will be able to come to us, especially if we have the power to come to them.And what I saw in these Southern coalitions was people being met where they are, with a proverbial cup of sugar.We need those kinds of meetings, and in our halls of power we need heavier lifts in public policy in favor of housing production and preservation, public transit, and municipal services.We need state houses that empower their cities and counties, instead of taking over services when they don’t bow to social conservatism, like throwing trans folks under the bus.In fact, stop tying trans folks, immigrants, and poor folks to the tracks, in the name of getting a red vote that only moved blue because their bank accounts weren’t moving.I know that outreach was done in many places to bring more progressive voters back into the idea of voting as a piece of our political resistance and liberation building. But too many people spoke of voting against someone they thought was going to make them rich, actually making them poor.So much for not being a single-issue voter.But, so many of these folks are single issue voters and will revert back if we don’t make good on the economic promises. But we can do that without abandoning those who are most vulnerable and whose lives are under risk.We don’t have to be corrupt or complicit anymore. Let this be the election that we started governing like good neighbors, the way we are organizing for the vote and for community issues.I’ve already started being a smidgen more active by writing a letter of support for an affordable housing development in my hometown, and I need and want to do more supporting of my home state and hometown, which get written off as unchangeable, but clearly changed how they vote or if they vote in Tuesday’s election.I’ll still press Congress more, because they can reset public housing and transportation funding and policy. Even if the bills are vetoed, the shift in public opinion trickles down into many state and local governments.But honestly, the housing voucher, the transit fare gate, and the food and medical assistance cards may start with Congressional appropriation and block grant mandate, but their administration comes from states and municipalities.This is the time we put more pressure on our local leaders. This is the time we step up ourselves and run when we know that things can be done better because those things need administering into pockets, accounts, and households.Because this fight-back just started. People are still struggling with basic needs. And our neighbor power will always have the most weight when it comes to basic needs. And when those basic needs are met, we self-actualize,and we flourish the way other beings of nature do when they are nourished, fed, and cared for.Until next time,KristenMore about meKristen E. Jeffers is an urban planner, writer, and advocate for inclusive communities. With a passion for social justice and equitable urban development, Kristen utilizes her expertise to foster spaces where everyone can thrive. Through her writing, speaking engagements, and community activism, Kristen champions diversity, accessibility, and sustainability in urban planning and design. She is dedicated to reshaping cities into vibrant, inclusive environments that prioritize the needs of all residents.Kristen Jeffers (she/they) is the creator and managing editor of The Black Urbanist multimedia platform and the author of The Defying Gentrification Playbook, which strives to bring a Black queer feminist, dynamically disabled perspective to urbanism through a newsletter, workbook and podcast on Defying Gentrification. She is one of Planetizen’s 2023 100 Most Influential Contemporary Urbanists and have served on two panels at the Congressional Black Caucus Annual Leadership Conference on transportation and Black mobility. Most recently, they were the contributing editor for Greater Greater Washington and have been featured in the New York Times, Washington Post, Streetsblog, and on NPR affiliates, WAMU, WUNC, and KCUR, along with bylines in House Beautiful, Sierra Magazine, Streetsblog, Next City, and Grist.And yes, she loves music, making things out of yarn and fabric, and eating everybody’s food as long as her stomach likes it. A native of Greensboro, North Carolina, she has lived in DC, Kansas City, Durham and Raleigh and now is on her second round of living in Baltimore, with her wife Les Henderson.*The Buy My Book link is an affiliate link to my Bookshop. Search The Defying Gentrification Playbook to find it in a bookstore of your choice or ask your favorite bookstore to order it for you. Paperback coming soon! Get full access to Defying Gentrification with Kristen Jeffers at theblackurbanist.substack.com/subscribe

“The most common way people give up their power is by thinking they don’t have any.”-Alice Walker, author of The Color Purple (and other things)We are on the eve of another national election, one that could change our lives. But isn’t that what an election is supposed to do?I think, though, when we are bound in a soup of apathy, despair, gentrification, racism and all the other isms, it’s been easy to think that maybe we should just let AI take everything it can, and we can just plug ourselves into a Matrix and live forever, but without control.I wonder if that’s how the over 89 million people who were eligible but didn’t vote in the 2024 election felt.I know I felt that way. The photo that opens this post is from Halloween of 2024. At the time, I still had a job, but it wasn’t my dream job. Yes, it was a job that allowed great daytime flexibility. However, it wasn’t the contract job I’d had previously that allowed me to feel like I had policy power. However, that power came without the responsibility of actually running the place or being courageous enough to write these kinds of newsletters that speak to every issue, especially those of racism and gentrification.I also didn’t realize that those who sought to harm democracy, diversity, equity, inclusion, and justice were so sharp that they’d studied how Black folks build networks and how we use the internet to organize.And they almost convinced me to give up some power by not voting in 2024.I did it anyway.I’m here today to take even more power back.I’m motivated by posts like this one, where business analyst Amanda Sabreah broke down how many of us were convinced that electoral politics has no role at all in our self-determination.I am also finding motivation from having sat in a virtual screening of the film Skylark, by Dr. Yanique Redwood.She decided to return to her home country of Jamaica to facilitate her healing after years of being on the front lines of philanthropy and public policy for Black folks, but two other Black women philanthropic and racial justice leaders found refuge in art and other rest practices, along and being among other people of color who were in the business and purpose of decolonizing.I think we need to be doing all the things to tear down racism and white supremacy. And that medicine looks different based on where on Earth people live.In some places, electoral politics is exactly what is needed in the moment, along with unlearning and discarding racist, classist, sexist, xenophobic, queer, and transphobic, and other behaviors incongruent with human rights on a shared Earth.Being about the business of decolonizing was how I felt like electoral politics wasn’t useful in the first place. I didn’t want to keep voting for genocidaries and corrupt local leaders who take your vote and money, but have no intention of listening or caring.So many states and municipalities are not running progressive, humanity-centered candidates. Corruption and racism are there, and it doesn’t always fit the federal, national narrative of who is corrupt, especially when people of color, namely Black folks, are the face of corruption in some areas.However, in the two years since the national election of the federal anti-progressive regime, I’ve felt the effects of their power, having lost that not-so-great job I mentioned at the beginning that was tied to federal funding.Yet, I’ve felt the hope and light of state and municipal elections going to progressive policies and candidates that want to govern to help people, not to line their pockets.What we don’t do in these times is give up on saying this is how we want to be governed.What we do is speak up. Or vote, or run for office or a commission for ourselves. We write letters and set up meetings with leaders so they have no question where we stand on issues.We prepare ourselves for the consequences, so we don’t always have to be alone. And we remember that we’re not alone in speaking up, even if the person doing the speaking is on the other side of the world.Let us be mindful that we aren’t being manipulated, but instead we are moving ourselves forward with agency, telling the world that our value is also in how we choose to govern ourselves.Until next time,KristenPS. FairFight is stil very active and has information about ways voting has been suppressed and how we can fight back.PPS: Ballotpedia is a great place to start to get informed on who and what is on your ballot. Get full access to Defying Gentrification with Kristen Jeffers at theblackurbanist.substack.com/subscribe

The Yes In My Back Yard (YIMBY) movement shows that we can gather people around to talk about building homes.And I’m grateful that my colleagues in the YIMBY movement have caught up to including subsidized housing in the conversation with affordable housing and ending land speculation, as of December of last year.I’m no stranger to said movement, having delivered a keynote to the YIMBYtown annual gathering in 2018.So many of us in the movement get excited about new luxury buildings. The thought is that the new building will attract the top of the market and then the old buildings will be “naturally” affordable.Officially, the new buildings are called market-rate buildings, and the old buildings have a number of names depending on how they are funded federally in the United States.However, in a world of corporate management companies setting rates on all their properties, old and new, based on credit scores and what a computer told them on a particular day, we need a different approach, especially in nations like the United States that allow for individual states and cities to manage their own housing production, through zoning and permitting.Honestly, every nation on Earth has the power to decide how it wants to offer housing.And in this moment, every nation on Earth should ensure that those who they know don’t have incomes that can meet the housing market, the food market, and other markets tied to basic human needs, should meet those markets.Yes, do what Singapore and Vienna did and build more homes. But don’t let racism and classism get in the way by writing off Black neighborhoods as impoverished and low-(cash)income people as lacking all resources and ingenuity.All of this is near and dear to my heart because this time last year, after losing a job that provided a bulk of my income, we fell behind on our rent-controlled apartment in a very resource-rich area and had to leave that building in a pay-to-vacate agreement negotiated by the DC court.It wasn’t my first brush with financial insecurity, but it was all so abrupt, starting with the layoff, which was unexpected.Mind you, I am one of over a million other Black folks with similar stories since November 2024, but it still hurts that I, the housing advocate with the global platform, couldn’t seem to keep it together.But I also have multiple disabilities, and many of them are brain-focused. America is what America is.I do this newsletter, sometimes from bed, to plant seeds of thought for those of you who don’t have my disabilities or any disabilities to step up on the front lines of these battles.I’ll never think it’s ok for me to not be housed because of my brain, skin color, or bank account balance.But today, seeing that some of those landlords using RealPages have to pay up and that the YIMBY movement is embracing subsidized housing in addition to affordable and market-rate housing gives me hope.Until tomorrow,Kristen Get full access to Defying Gentrification with Kristen Jeffers at theblackurbanist.substack.com/subscribe

As I’ve been thinking about visions, missions, and goals this week, I realized that many cities, as in the municipal structure, have missions, visions, and goals too. I have a theory that the more time and energy cities put into these missions and visions, along with how comprehensive and overarching they are, the more likely cities actually live by them.As I said in my posts on my mission, vision, and goals for this page, we should be living by these things, not randomly putting words on paper.I could have analyzed every city in the world, but for the sake of time, we will go with the cities I’ve lived in, similar to what I did when I applied my defying gentrification grades to each city.First, I wanted to start with Baltimore and DC, since those are my two most recent cities. Neither city has an overarching vision, but many of their departments, especially those that receive grant funding, have published missions and visions. Specifically, departments that are most relevant to the pursuit of defying gentrification or even being concerned or analytical about gentrification do have mission statements in every city that I’ve analyzed. For example, here are the ones of the Baltimore Department of Planning…* Mission: Build Baltimore as a diverse, sustainable, thriving city of neighborhoods and a regional economic and cultural driver. * Vision: Guide Baltimore’s physical development with an emphasis on equity and public engagementand the Department of Housing and Community Development* Mission: Lead city efforts to promote thriving neighborhoods through community revitalization investments, supporting homeowners, funding critical programs and neighborhood stakeholders, creating and preserving affordable housing, and ensuring safe conditions through code enforcement. * Vision: A Baltimore where current and future residents live in safe and decent housing in thriving, inclusive, and equitable neighborhoods. Here’s the DCs Department of Planning’s Mission Mission: The Office of Planning (OP) is tasked with planning for the long-term growth of the District of Columbia, to help ensure it reflects our values of an inclusive and vibrant city. We help the District work toward a positive future in which all District residents can thrive, regardless of income, race, age, or background. OP guides development in the District of Columbia’s distinctive neighborhoods by engaging stakeholders and residents, performing research and analysis, serving as the steward of our historic resources, and publishing various planning documents, including the Comprehensive Plan.There are no clear goals or vision, but individual divisions inside the planning department have missions and tasks, though.and its Department of Housing and Community Development* Mission: Produce and preserve affordable housing, foster economic development, and revitalize underserved D.C. communities. * Strategic Vision: Increase quality affordable housing supplies, expand homeownership opportunities through programs like the Home Purchase Assistance Program, and promote neighborhood growth. Meanwhile, Greensboro, Raleigh, Durham, and Kansas City, Missouri, all have overarching missions and visions, in addition to their planning and housing departments having missions and visions.Here they are at a glance:Greensboro* Our Mission: The mission of the City of Greensboro is to shape an inclusive future for equitable economic opportunity and sustainable, safe neighborhoods through resident focused services and programs.* Our Vision: Greensboro will be a community with endless economic opportunities and an exceptional quality of life.Greensboro also has a set of values and philosophies, which you can glance as you scroll further down their mission and vision page.Raleigh* Mission: To build a stable platform of evolving services for our community through which we champion positive and sustainable growth and realize visionary ideas for all.* Vision: To pursue world-class quality of life by actively collaborating with our community towards a fulfilling and inspired future for all.Durham* Mission Statement: The City of Durham is dedicated to improving the quality of life in our community by delivering cost-effective, highly responsive services with integrity and friendliness.* Vision Statement: Durham will be North Carolina’s leading city in providing an excellent and sustainable quality of life.Durham also has listed goals, that add specificity to their statements above.Kansas City, Missouri* Mission Statement: “The mission of the City of Kansas City, Missouri is to deliver quality, customer-focused municipal services with an emphasis on public safety, neighborhood livability, job creation, responsible planning for economic growth, infrastructure improvements, transportation systems, public health, and the environment. In pursuit of this mission, we use data to make decisions and measure progress based on economic, social, and environmental factors.”* Vision Statement: “Our local government will be nationally known for its transformative efforts that make Kansas City the diverse and sustainable community of choice for people to live, work, and play as a result of its safety; vibrant neighborhoods; business, educational, and cultural opportunities; connectedness; and vitality.”My theories have been confirmed. While I like that each city’s departments have direction, as evidenced by these mission and vision statements, what I don’t like is the cities that are too vague with no explanation (Raleigh) or not unified across the board (Baltimore and DC). Specificity and unity are key if these statements are to go beyond statements and out into action for every citizen.I also don’t like that most of these statements for housing and community development have no protections or mandates for renters and the unhoused community. Saying that the city will provide affordable housing leaves gaps, as affordable housing and subsidized housing are not the same thing.I want to challenge every city to strengthen what you put down on paper or on the Internet, then enact those changes into the everyday life of your city.So now, for our daily poll:If you were forwarded this, join our subscriber community for more policy insights and analysis like this!Already been here? Use that same button to consider becoming a paid monthly subscriber at just $5 a month. My team and I are working to get me back to $1500 USD monthly across Patreon and Substack, so I can make sure I’m on the right platforms at the right times, without burnout. If you are a paid subscriber, thank you, your support still sustains me, and you’ll see more of it right here on Substack.Until Monday,KristenAbout MeKristen E. Jeffers is an urban planner, writer, and advocate for inclusive communities. With a passion for social justice and equitable urban development, Kristen utilizes her expertise to foster spaces where everyone can thrive. Through her writing, speaking engagements, and community activism, Kristen champions diversity, accessibility, and sustainability in urban planning and design. She is dedicated to reshaping cities into vibrant, inclusive environments that prioritize the needs of all residents.Kristen Jeffers (she/they) is the creator and managing editor of The Black Urbanist multimedia platform and the author of The Defying Gentrification Playbook, which strives to bring a Black queer feminist, dynamically disabled perspective to urbanism through a newsletter, workbook and podcast on Defying Gentrification. She is one of Planetizen’s 2023 100 Most Influential Contemporary Urbanists and have served on two panels at the Congressional Black Caucus Annual Leadership Conference on transportation and Black mobility. Most recently, they were the contributing editor for Greater Greater Washington and have been featured in the New York Times, Washington Post… Get full access to Defying Gentrification with Kristen Jeffers at theblackurbanist.substack.com/subscribe

We’ve now come to the end of our report card series just 50-miles from where we began.Durham and Raleigh are not the same city, but they are siblings. They are now joined at their Southeast and Northwest corners, respectively, and anchored by one international airport that bears their names. They are two points in what was dubbed Research Triangle Park, conceived in the 1950s to invigorate a state struggling with its primary industries of farming, textiles, and furniture after World War II. The foreshadowing has helped as those industries continued to decline statewide, but the new industries brought to the park grew.Before I get into the full analysis of the area where I went to undergrad and spent my first year post undergrad, an area that all of us North Carolina public school students learned about in the fourth and eighth grade and went to as its our state capital region, let’s just plop in the report card.Yes, they are sharing a report card too, mainly because I wanted to condense space, but not because they are exactly the same.One key difference is how the cities relate to their surrounding counties.Durham is also an incorporated city, but it has areas surrounding it that are also named Durham but are governed at the county level. It’s adjacent to Orange County, which has Hillsborough and Chapel Hill as its major towns, with Carrboro and others as auxiliary towns.Raleigh is just one city of Wake County, with all other auxiliary towns (Cary, Apex, Garner, Wake Forest, Rolesville, Zebulon, Morrisville, Fuquay-Varina) and others growing along with it.I hesitate to call these towns suburbs, because they were all towns with rich histories before they started to function like suburbs. The growth of these cities has officially split the region into two halves according to US Census Data: Raleigh-Cary and Durham-Chapel Hill. The original region is now a Combined Statistical Area, similar to how Baltimore and Washington, DC and its surrounding counties are treated.Meanwhile, for comparison, Charlotte and Atlanta are the primary central cities to satellite cities that, again, had history, but are now conveniently placed as suburbs.I just went through all of that explanation so that you can understand how we see these areas as North Carolinians and why I still loop these places together and why they might have the same score, despite some (slight) geographic distance.Gentrification also plays a role in how Raleigh, Durham, and its auxiliaries have merged and mingled over the years. With housing prices rising in the core cities, in the early years of that price increase, the auxiliaries looked even more attractive. However, there are key high-paying job center clusters throughout the region, so some of that price advantage has melted.Historically, Durham has been slightly more proactive with Black businesses and homes than Raleigh, and Black neighborhoods are more spread out. Both cities do risk losing those populations, but Durham has North Carolina Central University as a core Historically Black College and University that’s active, while Raleigh’s two HBCUs have faced pressure to sell land and even stay open.But displacement as a whole has been the name of the game in a way that threatens the cultural fabric. But there are ways that citizens, governments, developers, corporations, and other stakeholders can push back against all of the negative policies and narratives around gentrification and displacement.However, as I mentioned in my previous post on The Assembly NC’s documentation of the last 15 years of North Carolina, job security and wages are slightly rising, but things like the minimum wage being at the federal minimum of just over $7 an hour don’t help those at the lowest end of the job and housing market maintain their homes and commercial spaces. This is how both cities, while earning twos on this measure, can still be individual ones based on what is actually going on in a household. But the job and entrepreneurship market as a whole is integrated.Finally, I want to highlight that, like many other NC school districts, both Wake and Durham Counties have a comprehensive school district that allows for community schooling at the elementary level, then optional choice for students and families, but with complete integration of school quality across the board.Durham is seen as slightly more LGBTQ-friendly, but both cities have resource centers and parades.And the park systems that adjacent areas like Greensboro are known for are very much alive and well and verdant in Raleigh and Durham.Again, I need all of y’all who are still on the ground to submit your own grades. If they happen to be the same, great! It means this measure is covering what it needs to cover, but more responses give the study more reliability.I’d love to reexamine all of these metros next year and to spend some on-the-ground time in all of them before said revaluation.So we are taking a break this coming Monday to honor our indigenous folks, but we will be back on Tuesday.Until then,Kristen Get full access to Defying Gentrification with Kristen Jeffers at theblackurbanist.substack.com/subscribe

Welcome to your Daily Dose of Defying Gentrification. I’m Kristen, a public policy expert, a fiber artist making art influenced by city life, and someone tired of the erasure and pain of gentrification and its cousins. On the weekdays (save holidays and days I need to make a holiday), I analyze a few articles, but one in particular, or I deep dive into a topic of my choice. Today, upon hearing that the DC Metro fares may be going up again, I wanted to go into some thoughts as to why this keeps happening.I will always love and cherish the DC Metro system, rail, bus, and paratransit, operated by the Washington Metropolitan Area Transit Authority (WMATA).So much so, I wrote out all the proper names without looking. I’m working on a fiber art project that honors the colors and the interiors of the underground stations and the trains. Despite moving to Baltimore at the tail end of the year, I still took 75 trips on a Metro vehicle, 63 of those the train and 12 of those the bus.But, as James Baldwin has said, I can love something and criticize it fiercely.And I’m not a fan of Metrorail going up again, even if it’s an inflation adjustment. I feel like there should be some reserve money to help with those kinds of jumps.But, having studied this system for a long time, I know that from the time the system was conceived, it was built on faulty funding.Chapter 7 of Dr. Zachary Shrag’s book The Great Society Subway supports my suspicions.The entire book is considered a bible for those who are obsessed with how Metro works and has worked. I hate that Dr. Shrag won’t do at least a small update of how Metro has ebbed and flowed within the last 20 years, but looking back on what he did write, most every change, save what happened with the system during the onset of COVID-19, can be explained by something in one of the chapters in the book.The money chapter is spot on to what’s happening now. There’s no way we get around this save we do what he mentioned in the first paragraph of the chapter (highlight mine):When Congress authorized the regional Metro system in December 1969, it approved a financial plan based on the hope and expectation that the system, once completed, would generate enough revenue from fare-box collections to cover all operating expenses and pay back at least some capital costs. Rapid transit kept the financial structure of a profitable business. Perhaps it would not provide enough direct return on investment to attract private capital, but it would not be a long-term drain on public coffers. That model died in the mid-1970s, the victim of inflation, delay, and political realities.The system was primarily subsidized by a Congressional act of financial appropriation. Then the federal General Services Administration was given permission to grant each federal employee a fare cards with enough money to cover to and from work commutes. Those cards started as papers with magnetic strips, then a card called SmarTrip that you tap on a circle on the faregate, and now a digital card inside our smartphones that zaps the circle when you hover over it. Now that zap happens just by tapping our phones and selecting which digital bank card we want to use.This is why Metro being free will always be an uphill battle, as its two main funding sources are arms of the federal government, subject to the whims of what the federal government wants or doesn’t want to do.Yet, I want to propose that it could be free.I want to make it clear that the “free” part comes from subsidizing riders from another source, such as a corporation or even the US federal government, versus having riders pay fares, on top of their property, sales, and other use taxes that go back into capital improvements (a.k.a. buying new trains and buses and fixing up old ones and their stations).A lot of people already ride for free in DC – as children under the age of 18 from DC or all children under the age of five. The thought is that kids don’t make money, and in DC, they use the Metro instead of yellow school buses to go to school. In most places, kids use the subsidized yellow school bus to go to school.With Amazon being a major billion-dollar-plus employer with interests in the area, it could be the new number-one subsidizer. However, that brings up concerns with private entities having just their best interests in mind and those not being the public’s interest. However, we live in 2026 United States. Unless there’s a dramatic change in who we vote for and in belief in the power of voting, we are stuck with a federal presidency that operates like a private business empire, one that doesn’t believe in Metro the way we believe in Metro.However, many of my colleagues in the local government, press, and think tanks and institutes focused on local government do. I know people in leadership at WMATA want the best for it, and they acknowledge its challenges.In fact, another proposal circulating at the moment, also detailed in the news story from NBC 4 Washington discussing the inflation related fare increase, is that if the Commonwealth of Virginia and the State of Maryland each give $3 million to Metro, all children under 18 would ride Metro free, pending they carry and use their special Metro card, similar to how seniors and disabled riders get a discount if they use their own special cards.I’d love for us to not have to use fair cards, especially if we have income issues. Especially if we are admitting it would only take millions and not billions, in lump sums, for those populations of people to do so.Finally, I have a tradition of making holiday wishes on this platform, and one of my wishes in 2022 was for free public transit globally. I still have that wish and belief that we can subsidize public transit the way we subsidize public parks, roads, schools, and such, without double taxing the public at the door, like Metro is a show we go to.Metro is a service, not a show and we should treat it that way.How about you, do you think that the DC Metro would ever be fare-free and totally subsidized?Before You GoNeed a guided community cohort to help you maintain your culture and voice? Apply for The Defying Gentrification Fellowship.I want to do a vision board/zine-making workshop themed around The Defying Gentrification Playbook. I could use your help with where you want to host it. These will cost, but they will come with a meal and a complimentary copy of The Defying Gentrification Playbook. I’m looking at East Coast destinations at the moment. Plus, if you’re up to sponsor, take a look at this sample invitation and reply with where you are and what your sponsorship would look like. I’m specifically looking for venue, food, and book sponsorship so that we can offer these programs to those most affected without being yet another financial burden for something they need to thrive.And again, grade your city on how well it defies gentrification, based on the report card I’ve created.See you tomorrow!KristenFootnotesSchrag, Zachary M. The Great Society Subway: A History of the Washington Metro (Creating the North American Landscape) (p. 171). (Function). Kindle Edition. Get full access to Defying Gentrification with Kristen Jeffers at theblackurbanist.substack.com/subscribe

I know I said I’d give you this post yesterday, but since we are coming together anyway every weekday, I decided to make this my Monday post. We have one more of these city-grade posts coming, and it will be Raleigh & Durham, North Carolina, together, but with separate rubrics. Join us on weekdays for links and commentary around defying gentrification and related topics.It’s been exactly ten years since I lived in Kansas City, Missouri, for 14 months. It was long enough for me to learn the local lingo for what side of Kansas City I was referring to and to learn the dynamics of the surrounding suburbs on both sides of the state line. Having a metro region sit on a state line freaked me out at first, but having lived in the DC region, I understand that it’s a nuance that doesn’t have to ruin the vibe. But more on my evolved views on core cities vs. metro regions later.I add this caveat on this and on my next post on Raleigh and Durham, because these areas were lacking things 10-20 years ago that they have caught up to now. Namely, the completed (for now) Kansas City Streetcar. While I was heavily involved in the rollout for the first phase, I’ll never experience what it was like to have it for a major sporting event like the recent World Cup. I did, however, experience the 2015 World Series win in person, and that stands out as one of the most adaptive ways I’ve seen urban streets used.That parade showed me that when it’s something people really want or want to do, they will come downtown and walk miles to get there. The infrastructure is there for them to walk miles, and the streetcar is perfectly positioned along those areas where people walked and biked that day.Yet, the residential segregation and my declining mental health at the time is ultimately what made me decide to leave what was an amazing position for pedestrian and bicycle advocacy, Membership and Communications Director for BikeWalkKC.We were reaching some people, but not everyone who should be paying attention. Part of that reason was that residential and commercial segregation is so strong in Kansas City.However, I want to give a special shout-out to Vine Street Brewing Co. and its owners, who embody what it means to defy gentrification by valuing Black-led and stewarded neighborhood assets and resiting narratives of good and bad neighborhoods. Same with the Kansas City Defender, in their community-based journalism that isn’t afraid of telling the truth and helping people with resources.If we valued Black folks and others deemed Black as much as we claim, we would have less gentrification and more redevelopment.If we valued subsidized housing as much as we do affordable housing, we would also have less gentrification and displacement. But that’s a slight digression in this Kansas City metro region analysis.Being so spread out technically gives ample housing and commercial opportunities. Still, many homes in the historically Black sections of Kansas City have been vacant and torn down, partially due to an old policy that seized homes that didn’t pay for sidewalk improvements. One of the proudest moments of my time in Kansas City was seeing that get reversed, along with, of course, the first day of the streetcar and being on the first train. But so many of those homes, when they are remodeled, are more expensive to run and purchase, because construction costs are what they are now. On the Kansas City, Kansas side, there have been criticisms of the Unified Government of Wyandotte County. Recent ones have been that the government isn’t running well after nearly 30 years of consolidation, but criticisms that I heard when I was on the ground a decade ago were around Black residents not getting proper representation in the merged government. This is something else I’d love for my KC folks to tell me more about.Additionally, many businesses owned by all kinds of people along the streetcar route were displaced because of rising commercial rents and low foot traffic due to street closures and parking disruptions. Commercial rents often rise because people want a certain type of business with a certain type of tax rate. That’s a type of displacement that only becomes gentrification if it has a racialized element, as the original kind from Britain was racialized and American life is racialized by default.Stay tuned, as I have some posts queued up now that we are coming to you every weekday on how I distinguish between gentrification, displacement, and how both are racialized, so you can really understand how and why I graded the way I did for all the assessments. But now, without further ado, Kansas City’s report card.Finally, I can’t leave y’all without saying I feel like 15+ school districts aren't helping provide equal access to students in the region. Now, geographically, it makes sense to have at least two school districts, since we are dealing with two US states with different educational standards. But I do like that there’s a joint metro planning organization (shoutout to what I like to call other MARC) and the local association of superintendents and school board presidents, which coordinates things like school closures and shares information on how students and staff are doing. Areas that insist on having so many school districts should create similar organizations and work with their metropolitan planning organizations to help ensure schools care about all children.Now, this is my invitation for my on-the-ground Kansas Citians to grade their region. Even if you technically live in Olathe, Lenexa, Overland Park, Lee's Summit, or another metro area city, I still want to hear individually how y’all are doing.See you tomorrow,KristenPS: I’m working on bringing a book talk and vision board event to KC for The Defying Gentrification Playbook. More details to come, but let me know by replying if you’d come or sponsor!PPS: Fellowship applications are still open. Get full access to Defying Gentrification with Kristen Jeffers at theblackurbanist.substack.com/subscribe

Baltimore is gentrifying. It too, does a good job of hiding said gentrification because it values things like art and public space and Black aesthetic spaces.But it’s still sitting out here with a D grade. A 75, but still just below a C.One way Baltimore is unique is that it has world-renowned healthcare, but healthcare that hasn’t always been culturally competent or equally available. I feel that has changed dramatically having dealt with multiple hospital systems in town myself, but there are still care gaps. It does meet the threshold of a 2, if you have the right provider, but goes down to 1 if not.Hence why I invite you to grade Baltimore using the provided scale so we can compare notes.Grade Baltimore (or any other city) for yourself.Yes, the houses are more expensive. Yes, a ton are still vacant.Let’s talk about what housing actually looks like now. Housing is still a 0.5. Maryland can evict people five days after the month if rent isn’t paid.Additionally, Baltimore City has anywhere from 15,000 to 30,000 vacant homes. The number varies depending on who is talking about them and their programs to fix them. The official city number is 15,000 due to a program they run called Vacants to Value, which hopes to pair people with renovation loans and grants to fix up what could be a home that’s basically just a shell with a tree inside, at worst, or needing updated appliances and a deep clean at best.Many of these homes are former rowhome mansions that haven’t been secured for a new large family or conversion into apartments, and many find renovations prohibitively expensive because redlining due to debt-to-income ratios and credit scores are alive and well.This is coupled with a number of homes citywide being held by developers for “optimal market numbers” to become rentals, with 3x income requirements, rather than fixing them up to be owner-occupied.And if your like me and look at Redfin for fun, you’ll notice homes that were $60,000 about a decade ago are going for $100,000 and even $200,000 plus. However we are on par now with other smaller cities. Still, even with a higher minimum wage than say the Carolinas, it’s still not fully matching salaries for everyone in the city. If all of our homes were occupied or move-in-ready but overpriced, we would have an even greater housing crisis.One other housing win for Baltimore is that a number of Black seniors are aging happily in place in neighborhoods that have homes that are easier to maintain due to their size. However, many of those neighborhoods are poorly served by transit, and if a senior starts to lose the ability to drive, that advantage melts.The bell is ringing. Let’s now talk schools.Coming from a completely different school system type, I’ll never understand nor support all these alternatives to a public school in one’s neighborhood that serves needs versus having hundreds of schools that don’t meet standards.I’ll also never understand putting the responsibility on a child to get themselves to said schools if they are having to commute cross-town like adults, with adults.This isn’t to say children can’t ride the bus alone, but the infrastructure doesn’t exist for them to not have to do so.Failures to invest in opportunity-filled public schools and comprehensive public transit, along with rising housing prices with only minimal impact on housing stock, also keep Baltimore lower than it should be.Introducing Your Complete Baltimore Report CardBaltimore Report Card!Note that because I’m using Datawrapper now, it lets me set my 0.5 grades as N/A to reflect the zero that they really are. The JotForm survey will still reflect a 0.5 Grade, but now on my report cards, I can account for the reality of that 0!I look forward to you telling me if I’m right or wrong!Before You GoThis newsletter was a week behind because I’m working behind-the-scenes on a few new projects for you. Here’s a teaser about what they all are:* Defying Gentrification Lunch Links: We all love our links round-ups, and I have a lot to say about what’s going on. So, at noon on weekdays (save holidays and other times I need a little break), here come the daily links. They will start on October 1 right in your inbox, with a technical preview coming on September 30! Big picture editorial articles like this will go back to Sundays, starting this week!* Defying Gentrification Vision Board Party: Come make your own playbook/board with pieces of mine in DC to celebrate 16 years of The Black Urbanist and our new phase as Defying Gentrification. Plus, you’ll get information about the program I’ve been teasing, the Defying Gentrification Fellowship. Register here!* And stay tuned, because yes, I’m rebooting my fellowship program for artists, culture workers, neighborhood leaders, small neighborhood business owners, and others who are facing or have faced gentrification and related issues like redlining, displacement, eviction, erasure, and appropriation. Using the playbook we will build our own neighborhood plans for defying gentrification in community. It will be virtual for this first round, with an optional meetup in the DC metro at the end of our three month cohort. Apply here!Until next time,Kristen Get full access to Defying Gentrification with Kristen Jeffers at theblackurbanist.substack.com/subscribe

Welcome back to my series where I grade the cities I’ve lived in on whether they are defying gentrification. We are tackling one of the poster children of American gentrification, Washington, DC, with my new rubric. You can listen above or read more below.How Do I See Gentrification Affecting DC?So much has been written about how gentrification has affected DC. I want to honor all of that writing and scholarship, and continue to sharpen my own writings and analysis about such topics, like this article I wrote for Greater Greater Washington almost a decade ago, upon the release of Derek Hyra’s book Race, Class, and Politics in the Cappuccino CityMuch of that prior scholarship uses the looser definition of poor people being replaced by rich people, which allows for Black wealthy people to replace white poor people, which is outlined in this Capital B Atlanta article that I analyzed a few weeks ago. DC has been run by a Black mayor since the 1970s. Beloved “mayor-for-life” Marion Berry has stated that he didn’t intend for improvements that he made to the city, some of which could be construed as gentrification, to actually be gentrification.However, he and others didn’t anticipate how mass Black job loss, underpayment, and undervaluing of properties that cause many forms of Black wealth to be taxed, directly by the government and indirectly by other forces of society, would affect our ability to thrive past the Civil Rights Movement and into the late 20th and early 21st century.In addition, blame for gentrification in DC has also been lazily applied to certain infrastructure improvements that don’t cause gentrification elsewhere, i.e., the bike lane, which in Greensboro, my hometown, has existed in Black and poor neighborhoods for years, and those communities have not seen dramatic change.That being said, my rubric puts numbers on my feelings and how people feel about neighborhood change. The concept of defying gentrification already alludes to Black people being able to thrive even though they pay more in rent. It asks us to examine if Black students are doing well in their schools amidst all these changes. It asks us if Black business exists as an ecosystem of commerce, not a token of capitalism.Yes, without apology, this rubric grades how well Black folks can thrive in the regions I’ve spent time on the ground. And with Black folks being the most marginalized in large metro regions, as shown in study after study, this is how I landed where I landed.Grab your favorite beverage as I outline how I graded DC, and pop over to the full rubric to understand how I graded DC. (Scroll down to the PS section on that post to get back here)First of all, my number twos, the things we are doing great at:* Spiritual spaces of all faiths that affirm and delight in Black, disabled, feminist, and/or queer lives* Comprehensive public transit exists for more than just paratransit users* Bookstores and Libraries that affirm all authors and all readers* Parks, playgrounds, waterfronts, and other natural resources/outdoor activities not closed off to the public* Black, LGBTQ, disabled, and feminist community centers and events* A way to get out of town that’s not your personal vehicle (if you even have one).* Art and creative spaces for all skill and desire levels* Culturally competent non-medical hair and body careThat’s a lot of things. And it only scratches the surface of how these spaces and amenities make gentrification less of a downer. However, we do have to talk about what got ones and .05s and why those things can negate everything above.What got a one?* Thriving entrepreneurship and gainful employment are available to more than white, straight, able-bodied, wealthy people.* Wraparound medical care* Food that provides both joy and basic nutritional needs in all neighborhoods* Schools that affirm Black children K-12, no matter their ability level or perceived behaviorEverything that is a two, starts to care less if you’re hungry, sick, broke, and your kids are being mistreated.In DC, only some neighborhoods have these vital things. Only some neighborhoods have some of the 2s as well, but those 2s are nice-to-haves; these 1s are vitals. And now to the thing we all need: shelter.DC scored a 0.5, like all cities, on its housing measure. While there are efforts to support homeownership, to support renters who fall behind on rent, and to rapidly re-house families, these programs have all seen budget failures over the last 2-4 years, during a time when shelter saved lives above and beyond what’s normally needed, due to the global COVID-19 pandemic.If these avenues had worked, I’d be writing this post from DC, instead of Baltimore.This is why this rubric is still very personal and very biased. However, every researcher brings a bias to the table. The way we get away from that bias is by inviting you, the public, to share your thoughts and to take our surveys for yourself. You can do that for DC by pressing the button below. You can also comment and let me know what you want added to the rubric.https://form.jotform.com/262383869171063And you can come by next week to see how I graded Baltimore and how I see Baltimore’s gentrification showing up!Until next time,KristenPS: Come journal with us if gentrification and related land/propery based trauma has you down this coming Thursday from 8-10 pm Eastern. RSVP here.PPS: I have a number of books on DC’s gentrification in my Bookshop.org store. Support me as you build up your knowledge of gentrification in DC. Get full access to Defying Gentrification with Kristen Jeffers at theblackurbanist.substack.com/subscribe

Welcome back to my series where I grade the cities I’ve lived in on whether they are defying gentrification. This week, my beloved hometown, Greensboro, North Carolina, is the first to get a deep dive. Before we get into said dive, I want to note that this will be one of the most biased of my reviews, because of my relationship with said city. I did my best to give the town the number grade of 67, and stop there. But I was just on the ground, speaking on how we can do better in our city with food and public resources, while a police shootout happened down the street where five officers shot at a man, who was later pronounced dead. That’s not gentrification, but gentrification does have something to do with how our city is perceived and how violence happens. So, let me go ahead and get into that.How does gentrification show up in Greensboro?In Greensboro, Guilford County, and surrounding areas, it looks like public housing removal, but also land densification, without affordability and subsidization of newer homes for existing people. And now, with the state having to approve our budget, this could look a lot worse when it comes to what is valued and if people have value just for living, not for their property and its location. Folks who have been struggling to make ends meet and keep a home can SOMETIMES resort to violence. But being pressured to keep food on the table and clothes on backs is a silent violence, and yes it can kill.So what grade did I give Greensboro?First up, take a look at the original report card for the full criteria. I scored on a 28-point scale, then divided the 19.1 by 28 to get the classic number grade of 71% for Greensboro.Now to walk through how I graded each point, with a specific emphasis on two things that stood out during my last visit, housing and schools.Greensboro scored a 0.5 on my housing measure which I’ve listed here for clarity: Basic housing that doesn’t exceed 30% of one’s income at the poverty level and for those under the area median income.2- Housing that meets and exceeds these standards, happily and fully.1- Housing that meets these standards, but begrudgingly and with an outside emphasis on mixed-income areas and market-rate areas, without ensuring those who need housing and have no or low income are housed.0.5- People who can pay for housing are unhoused, and of course those who can’t are unhoused by default.In just that short time I was home, I saw a whole empty swath where Smith Homes, a housing project that was adjacent to my childhood home, was gone. Grassed over with a backhoe in the middle of the acreage that also used to include significant tree cover and streets. I know there are rebuilding plans, but whatever is supposed to be built is not even groundbroken and off schedule, and is only tagged as affordable, which may not mean subsidized. Most folks wouldn’t understand the difference, but developers do and exploit that to build homes that may be more affordable than the current market rate, but not equitably priced to people’s actual incomes or lack thereof.I also saw so many folks camped in wooded areas. Which isn’t a problem if people want that. However, it looked like an extension of the neglect that has been going on in town for years, belied by a 2010-2020 government and nonprofit partnership to end homelessness that still meets, but is struggling to meet all the needs of folks.I don’t know what kind of resources to offer here, besides folks understanding that not every house is going to break completely even, but again, we have a conservative General Assembly controlling our budget, so things are suddenly looking bleak for affordable and subsidized housing relief.I will say, continue to be kind to our homeless population, and if you can offer housing, please consider it. Also, be mindful that downtown is a centralized, clustered area that does offer some benefits to people, and not everyone who is sitting or walking around is a danger to you or completely unresourced.I also want to add that this is a problem in every city, but at the moment, considering what it used to be, we are in crisis. Now, to the thing that stood out next, my school measure. It’s listed in the report card as follows:Schools that affirm Black children K-12, no matter their ability level or perceived behavior.2- Every school, no matter who runs it or how much that might put a target on their backs, believes that Black children can thrive. This investment in Black kids reaps across all children, as in many schools, they are the most marginalized.1- Only a handful of schools, and they are ones you have to apply to and/or pay for, are affirming of Black children.0.5- No schools affirm Black children, and they may be terrorizing them and contributing directly, without shame, to the school-to-prison pipeline.I would give our county school system a 1.5. Only because not only did I see homes in addition to the public housing community torn down; my third elementary school, Archer, is torn down. My first, Wiley, may also be torn down, and I don’t have the heart at the moment to confirm and see yet another empty lot of memories leveled. My second, Peck, is now also a middle school, but they do have adequate space, in theory, but folks have told me they are overcrowded. All three of these schools serve a majority student population of color and sit in neighborhoods that are majority people of color. Black students are the majority of those students of color.I felt extremely affirmed as a child, and my mom wasn’t the only Black teacher or principal even at a white-majority school. But North Carolina is now a world of school vouchers for private and tuition-based religious and charter schools. Some of these schools don’t have the mandate to treat all children well. And many of these students have to travel extra time to get to their school, even on the school bus. Our countrywide district is battling that misdirection of state funding, changes in federal funding, and a lack of money for building maintenance. I think some of the buildings will be replaced and reopened, but only if the money is there for it. We also have a former student running the district for the first time, who believes in its power for all students, but who has their hands tied in so many areas.Other areas where Greensboro scored under a 2 are as follows:* Thriving entrepreneurship and gainful employment are available to more than white, straight, able-bodied, wealthy people. (1)* Wraparound medical care (1)* Food that provides both joy and basic nutritional needs in all neighborhoods (1)* Public transit exists for more than just paratransit users (1)* A way to get out of town that’s not your personal vehicle (if you even have one). (1)Most cities also score 1s on these measures, but for a Southern city that claims it’s beyond racism and classism and even queer/transphobia, some of these measures are not where they need to be. Here, we can continue to increase funding for entrepreneurship, especially in communities of color, supplementing what health insurance doesn’t cover in humane ways, increasing funding and headway for public transit and non-car interstate travel; and making sure every neighborhood has access to and training on how to prepare fresh foods.And finally, let me share with you the things we get 2s on* Art and creative spaces for all skill and desire levels* Culturally competent non-medical hair and body care* Spiritual spaces of all faiths that affirm and delight in Black, disabled, feminist and/or queer lives* Bookstores and libraries that affirm all authors and all readers.* Parks, playgrounds, waterfronts, and other natural resources/outdoor activities not closed off to the public.* Black, LGBTQ, disabled, feminist, and other community centers and community events.This wasn’t always the case for several of these points, even when we had better housing and schooling options. This is what is attracting college students to come and stay and folks like me to cons… Get full access to Defying Gentrification with Kristen Jeffers at theblackurbanist.substack.com/subscribe