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Who Gets to Defy Gentrification?
151 Plays7 months ago
In this episode, Kristen takes us to school and breaks down who gets to defy gentrification. Spoiler alert, It is those who have been colonized, which generally are indigenous populations of color.
Also, on the Street Corner, the hot topic is both the Kansas City and Washington DC stadium/arena deals and how they are different.
Read the Kansas City Defender article on the stadium vote.
Read the KCUR article and see the poster.
Purchase from Kristen's Bookshop.org store.
Never miss an episode, subscribe to our Substack or on LinkedIn.
You can also find Kristen @blackurbanist or @kristpattern
Join the Defying Gentrification Fellowship powered by Podia.
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Transcript
Introduction to 'The Flying Gentrification' Podcast
00:00:02
Speaker
Welcome back to The Flying Gentrification. I am your host, Kristen Jeffers, and I'm so excited to be here with you again, recording this podcast. Just coming back to this podcast has brought me so much joy.
Exploring Stadium Bills: Kansas City and DC
00:00:18
Speaker
and I hope that you've enjoyed episode one and now here we are at episode two and as usual we are going to start episode the episode with our street corner hot topics today's hot topic is all these stadium bills that have been going on in Kansas City and DC we're going to talk about the difference between the two and how the regions are responding to these two stadium bills
00:00:42
Speaker
And then next up, we're going to in our homeroom section, we're going to talk about why we would defy gentrification and who actually defies gentrification.
00:00:52
Speaker
Now in our next episode, we'll learn more about who gets to eradicate gentrification, but by the time we get through our homeroom section today about who gets to defy gentrification, you'll understand why this today's episode is called Who Can Defy Gentrification? All right, so let's, we're gonna take a little break here. We'll be back with our street corner.
00:01:15
Speaker
Hey, y'all.
Book Recommendation: 'Inclusive Transportation'
00:01:16
Speaker
So I have a wonderful book recommendation from my Bookshop bookstore, which I'm an affiliate for. You can browse the entire bookstore at bookshop.org dot slash rather bookshop.org slash Kristin E. Jeffers. But I really wanted to spotlight today in today's episode or at least this episode to a podcast
00:01:41
Speaker
I really wanted to spotlight a particular book at least for these first half. I've got another book recommendation coming at the next ad break, but this one in particular, Inclusive Transportation, a manifesto for repairing divided communities,
00:01:56
Speaker
by Veronica Davis and the Forward by Tamika L. Butler. Those of you who know me and who have been active in the urbanism community know that we all know each other. That's where they work. They have been colleagues and comrades in this work
00:02:12
Speaker
for a very long time. In fact, when I got involved, they were involved. They were doing things, and Veronica talks through her story. So if you love how I tell my personal story in my newsletters, and you love how I mix it up with, like, facts,
00:02:30
Speaker
And you want to hear from a transportation engineer who has run their own company like Planning and Engineering Company, as well as a major metropolitan area Department of Public Works and Transportation. This is your book. You got to get this book.
00:02:48
Speaker
And it's a short read and it, you can get it through the book shop store, my book shop store at bookshop.org slash Christie Jeffers. I get a little bit back from that, but you're going to get a lot from this book and some of your friends that have, um, who are in the industry have probably already read it. But if you're new to all of this and you want to hear from somebody else that thinks like me, this is a good place to start. So now let's go back to the show.
Kansas City's Stance on Stadium Tax
00:03:14
Speaker
Let's talk about how we can define gentrification. Welcome back to Define Gentrification with Kristin Jeffers. Again, I'm Kristin Jeffers and we are now on our street corner here. We are our section of our podcast where we talk about current events, current issues. And so the big deal was
00:03:35
Speaker
on April 2nd, the day I'm recording this on April 3rd of 2024. And on April 2nd, in Kansas City, there was a vote put up for people in Jackson County, Missouri, which is where the heart of, and don't y'all KCK people don't come after me. Y'all know I lived there. Y'all know that in the parlance of how the landscape is
00:04:04
Speaker
KCK or Kansas City, Kansas is deemed to be the secondary Kansas City, then KC Miller, Kansas City, Missouri. The sports team that we are talking about here, specifically the Kansas City Royals play in Jackson County in a part of Jackson County that's adjacent to, but not quite in the city of Kansas City, Missouri. It's adjacent to Independence, Missouri. It's adjacent to, what is that? I think it's Blue Springs,
00:04:31
Speaker
You all know it's been a minute since I've been out there with y'all and I didn't know all of our surrounding cities, but basically for those of y'all who are out of the area, and I wanted to give a shout out of course, and I wanted to leave today's headline with the Kansas City's Defenders headline. Kansas City Defender is a wonderful, newer, black, nonprofit publication that has come up in the Kansas City region. They are doing amazing work.
00:04:59
Speaker
Definitely. If you want to really know what's going on in Kansas city, follow the Kansas city defenders, Instagram, as well as the Kansas city defender site. They're doing some wonderful work, bringing back, um, queer audiences. And one thing I'm going to do on defying gentrification, whenever I get a chance, I'm going to get black media, their props. I'm going to give them black media, their space. I'm going to quote from black media. I'm going to quote from black journalists. I'm going to quote from other journals of color, like.
00:05:25
Speaker
one of the reasons we know the word gentrification so well in the popular culture is because we journalists have really been we've been one of the people as we talked about in episode one it's journalists most of the time white journalists that end up
00:05:46
Speaker
being seen as people worthy of providing higher class resources as more higher class. Oftentimes journalists become gentrifiers by default, even if we're not like, even with a black or brown, of course, you know, like I said, in homeroom, we're going to talk about whether or not that's actually the case. Can we really gentrify a place if we are the people who gentrification is supposed to be done too? But yes, I want to read this headline for you. The people took on the billionaires, the people won.
00:06:15
Speaker
Kansas City rejects billionaire stadium tax and historic victory. Kansas City voters deliver a powerful blow against billionaire sports franchise owners, rejecting a 40-year stadium tax and the decisive vote for community interests and democratic values over corporate greed. So for those of you who need a little bit more context, so basically this bill that folks in Jackson County
00:06:36
Speaker
Missouri were voting on was the vote for the Kansas City Royal Stadium, which for the longest time there was a covenant to say that the arrowhead stadium gay have feel. I believe that's how they call pronounce it get have filled, which is what is called now I wasn't the get help build part came after I was in Kansas City.
00:06:53
Speaker
But that where the Chiefs play, where the Royals play, they're supposed to share that same parking lot and that same complex. This bill would have brought the Kansas City Royals and now that it's been danced around to bring all the sports teams back into downtown Kansas City, Missouri. The T-Mobile Arena.
00:07:13
Speaker
is already there and we will talk about arenas and downtowns in a moment because we're going to talk about the CT don't think this is just going to be about Kansas City, but the the royals Kaufman stadium effectively was going to move.
00:07:29
Speaker
to the Crossroads region, which is kind of an arts region, kind of a warehouse district. It's kind of like the secondary, one of the secondary downtowns of Kansas City, Missouri, and really one of the secondary downtowns of the region. If you come to Kansas City and you're new to like dense urban environments, visually, you're going to feel like you're still in downtown. Those of you who have seen my, some of my marketing materials and some of my photographs, have you seen the picture of me?
00:07:59
Speaker
like looking out, looking at the downtown Kansas City skyline that used to be on my Twitter account at Black Urbanists. I'm actually at Union Station. I'm standing at the World War I Memorial. That is not technically the crossroads and that is not technically downtown, but as you see, the Vista makes it. And now with the streetcar, all of that is connecting. Of course, that's part of the reason they wanted to move this stadium back downtown.
00:08:26
Speaker
There are talks to move the stadium to the new actually extend the streetcar which does need to happen. build more east west bus connections that's been happening, but basically this was going to move the stadium downtown and.
00:08:43
Speaker
Of course, all the things that people that want to move stadiums and have more control of their stadiums and their taxes, well, not necessarily taxes, but their ability to generate income wanted to do. So those of you who are watching the video version, you will see this lovely sign, Royals Nation Against New Stadium Taxation.
00:09:04
Speaker
I had to pull up the headline from KCUR. And of course, I want to give a shout out to them. I was on KCUR twice when I lived in Kansas City. And I really appreciate you all letting me come on and talk urbanism and talk about some of these issues. And if you're listening to this now, I'm happy to come back and come on the air. But yeah, I just wanted to highlight that that's not the headline. That's not KCUR's headline. KCUR's headline is actually Jackson County Voters Reject Stadium Stales Text.
00:09:33
Speaker
that would fund New Royals Ballpark. But they did use a picture from the Royals Nation Against New Stadium Taxation sign. And of course, that just tickles me and as a wonderful segue to talk about what we are dealing with here in the District of Columbia.
DC's Stadium Proposal: A Community Debate
00:09:52
Speaker
So those of you who have been following sports stadium news who haven't been involved with the Kansas City decision that was rejected
00:10:02
Speaker
Well, here in the DC, and I would say DC and Virginia parts of the region, because Maryland really hasn't been part of this conversation. Effectively, the Orioles are still going to play at Camden Yards, and the state's going to help with that. And honestly, Prince George's County officials have rested their case with what's now, I think it's just called Commander Stadium.
00:10:27
Speaker
Just like we've had the rightful battle to get rid of the terrible imagery around Washington's football team and now they are the commanders, they no longer play at FedEx field, it is a recent development and honestly they may no longer play at that field period.
00:10:45
Speaker
There is a campaign going to bring them back to their original stadium or K stadium which is in the district limits, but it is squarely in the neighborhood and neighbors have said that they no longer want football like related traffic in the neighborhood.
00:11:00
Speaker
Never mind, there is a metro stop on top of this stadium area, no matter that the original RK stadium is in the process of and that has not been completely demolished. And it's now just sitting there. I'm assuming that there, I think what's been sold to me is that they're doing environmental abatement.
00:11:20
Speaker
and doing that environmental abatement that is taking a little longer than expected to get rid of the old stadium. But either way, there is a campaign. People don't want a stadium in that neighborhood. And they certainly don't want a stadium at Potomac Yard. And honestly, I did not want a stadium at Potomac Yard.
00:11:40
Speaker
Potomac Yard from where we're situated right now in DC, and even prior to us moving to this particular apartment, even in our old apartment, Potomac Yard was where we went to Target, Barnes and Noble, Michaels, Home Goods, all those chain stores. Potomac Yard has a failed Amazon grocery sitting there. Like basically, yes, this is Amazon Central, that side of the region, that side of the riverfront was supposed to be this breakthrough for Amazon,
00:12:10
Speaker
Even though, yes, they do have a presence there, it hasn't played out to be the presence that they expected just for that one company. If anything, it has shown that multiple companies can see the attraction point of being somewhere like a national landing, rebranding and having the neighborhoods of Potomac Yard, Crystal City and Pentagon City work together cohesively. But of course we can't have a podcast talking about the fine transportation and not talk about the fact that
00:12:40
Speaker
those folks that used to live in Crystal City and the folks that used to live at the Pentagon. And of course, I usually like to start with a late acknowledgement, and this is gonna be my time. Yes, I am doing this podcast on the Piscataway lands. Sometimes we'll do it on the Susquehanna lands, so-called Baltimore. And I'm from the Okanichi and the Eno and it's just Shaquarie lands in the so-called North Carolina. And I am the descendant of those who were enslaved and brought over to America.
00:13:09
Speaker
How is that relevant? Thinking about how many times we as taxpayers, and specifically in DC, we don't actually have the decision to decide whether or not
00:13:21
Speaker
money is going to be given to monumental sports because monumental sports have wanted to build this in Potomac Yard and on the Virginia side and those areas were either in the case of Potomac Yard it was a rail yard at one point major rail yard that has completely cleaned up there's nowhere really no warehousing activity there anymore there's a like two
00:13:47
Speaker
like car lots and car like body shops that are left over there and a couple gas stations. But by and large, it is one big asphalt parking lot. They are building like denser like apartment buildings. The metro station has opened there. There is a good walk between the metro station and the shopping district. That Potomac yard area could use a revamp where it's more condensed, there's more housing, there's more opportunity.
00:14:14
Speaker
it is closer to the metro station. Like that part was going to be exciting. The performing arts center that was proposed that could totally still come. Virginia Tech has that big academic building there and some other businesses have built there to be convenient too. Kaiser Permanente has a clinic there right there by the opening of the metro center. I have written about Potomac Yard and the fact that they need to go ahead and open that metro station. They need to have multiple entrances. I wrote about that
00:14:42
Speaker
in one of my early Greater Greater Washington and GG Wash articles. But what we don't need here in D.C. is the fact that we can't vote and not just vote, not just the estate. We do need to be a state. We need the opportunity to be able to vote on more things. In this case, because Virginia stepped in rightfully so and said, hey, we really don't need the stadium here or this arena rather here.
00:15:07
Speaker
It kicked back over to D.C. Monumental Sports ended up taking the D.C. offer and the D.C. offer is effectively $515 million of funding out of the capital budget of the District of Columbia spread out over three years with a whole laundry list of like caveats, including
00:15:28
Speaker
A bus station that needs to be moved 7H right above the Chinatown arch for those of you who are familiar with the DC geography. We don't need to move that and in fact.
00:15:39
Speaker
the metro station that is on there, that's one of the things we were saying makes having their arena stay at where it is, it's beneficial. There's museums, there's a nice library, there's already food places, there's the convention center, and there's the metro, it's right there by the mall. It's centrally located to a lot of other things, but yes, this is an opportunity to not only continue to maybe
00:16:08
Speaker
rebuild the cultural connections of Chinatown. Because of course, gallery places first on the metro name. Oftentimes you just say gallery place in Chinatowns in Africa. To be honest, most of the Asian population in DC has moved on. That is a former gentrification. We will definitely talk about that in our next segment. And that's a good segue. So I'm going to end my segment.
00:16:38
Speaker
street corner segment here today with, it's okay for sports stadiums to exist. I love being able to get off a Metro and walk the next park. I love being at the ACC tournament, watching my Wolfpack win and watching that Ryan has started. And hopefully by the time you're listening to this, we are national champions. At the very least we had a good showing in the final four, but
00:17:00
Speaker
What we don't need is for taxpayer money to be pledged to people, billionaires who can afford to make the changes that they are asking cities to do, but they are shaking out cities and districts across the country to do that.
00:17:17
Speaker
I've heard people say, oh no, you're not gonna get your downtown Royal stadium. They'll just move to another place. Oh no, like if we don't give them, give the team a new stadium in the DC area, there will be no more Washington commanders. I don't think so, because there's still enough people wanting to go to sporting events. Audie Field and Nax Park are doing just fine. And yes, I realized that there was incentives involved in that, but people would still come to these places
00:17:47
Speaker
people would still do these things. But there's affordable housing, there's transit. The $515 million deal is still being negotiated. The DC deal is still being negotiated. Now, the Kansas City bill has to also go back to the drawing board. Both bills, both proposals are going to go back to the drawing board. They're going to be refined. But I love how in Kansas City there was a big coalition of tenants rights groups and others
00:18:17
Speaker
united to form a multi-class, multi-racial, multicultural coalition to help people understand what was being asked of them, pointing out how there were other failed stadium projects, like there was the West Bottom Stadium that just is kind of sitting there. I know people are using it now, and it was under different ownership. I think it's even under Black ownership, if I'm not mistaken, but those kinds of activities are
00:18:46
Speaker
like we don't need them. And so when we come back from our break, when we go into our homeroom, we'll talk about how gentrification is often something done to us, just like oftentimes tax spending is done to us and why those of us who are, whose culture is often monetized, we don't get the necessarily controlled direction of our destiny.
Understanding Gentrification: Cultural and Financial Impacts
00:19:15
Speaker
But there are things we can do and things we should do. And of course, we're going to set the stage for our next episode after Homeroom as to why we need to eradicate gentrification. Once again, this is the Define Gentrification podcast with Kristen Jeffers. We'll be right back.
00:19:29
Speaker
So in the next segment of podcasts, I'm gonna be talking about like the things I do to defy gentrification. And actually one of those things in particular is that I craft. I actually really like crafting. And so when my crafting really kind of exploded during the height of the COVID pandemic, which by the way, we're still in,
00:19:53
Speaker
Anyway, I, and the days I have to stay at home because my body has said, you're still in a pandemic, Kristen. You can't take me out every day.
00:20:04
Speaker
But even if you just want to dabble, and you want some hobbies, and you want some resting, my Chris Hatter DIY and crafting list over on Bookshop is the perfect place for you. In fact, I'm going to walk you through it over here. So if you go to, once again, bookshop.org slash Kristin E. Jeffers. If you scroll down on the Kristin Slee Kristin Jeffers Media, you'll see the picture of me in Kansas City looking at skylights. Scroll down.
00:20:32
Speaker
Then there's another list and on this list are some new classes on this crisp pattern craft DIY and design inspirations It's this kind of takes you away. It's kind of more of my fiber arty themed book list But Trisha Hershey's rest is resistant a manifesto is right there and everybody even if you do not pick up a knitting needle a crochet hook or set up a sewing machine You need this book
00:21:00
Speaker
especially if you are a black person in America and honestly globally because we all, we all can use them. Another good one, this long thread. It's by, it's a, Jen Hewitt is a collaborator. And of course I have two of her books. I have her process book print pattern. And so on the Chris Natter list, I also have this long thread where she spoke with a number of my crafty friends of color, many of them who I interact with over on the Chris pattern page, some of who I have
00:21:30
Speaker
had the chance to meet in real life and craft with. And it's been such a wonderful way to cultivate community cultivation. And it's very convenient to order these books on Bookshop.org slash Kristin E. Jeffers. And also, I get faith. I throw my faith in myself to live a happy life that's like transportation.
00:21:58
Speaker
by reading books like Rest is Resistance. And I got to meet the woman who wrote Black Girls Sew, which is also on the list. And then I was on IG Live with Brandi Cheyenne Harper, who is pretty dope. Another queer, proudly black queer knitter who's written knitting for radical self-care. Now I'm still working on my knitting. I'm eventually going to get there. I also want to highlight the Tunisian Crocheting Handbook by Tony Letsey.
00:22:24
Speaker
another wonderful black crocheter who's merging in knit and then in the company of women just motivation motivation even though it's like at least in this book is mostly cis women this was written back in 2016
00:22:41
Speaker
There's something in it for everyone. So once again, an opportunity. Head over to bookshop.arch slash Kristin E. Jeffers. If you need a break from me even talking about gentrification, you just need some inspiration, need some faith to cultivate and create and have your convenience. And we're going to talk about why those things are important right here, right now in our very next segment. So stay tuned.
00:23:15
Speaker
And welcome back to the Defying Gentrification Podcast with Kristin Jeffers. I'm Kristin Jeffers, and now we have moved on into our Homeroom section. In Homeroom, we are going to school, folks, and we are going to school today on the topic of how do you define gentrification.
00:23:33
Speaker
Before you get started and think about, think you're going to like strut out there as an ally and defy gentrification, yes and no. Um, generally black indigenous and other folks of color can participate in, but not fully gentrified places. Gentrification assumes that you can shape finances and culture. Often we can shape culture, but our finances are thwarted and our culture is stolen for profit.
00:24:01
Speaker
And I see that globally. It may not be the same in every single country and certain non-white groups do get messed with or stolen from or built on on top of or displaced or genocide happens to certain groups. But generally it is very rare that you see Anglo-Saxon groups be
00:24:31
Speaker
pillar. Y'all can cancel me all that you want to, but look at the research, look at even today in the United States. We have so many bills that are pushing back against opportunities for black people, specifically black Americans in Mexico right now.
00:24:52
Speaker
Black Americans are only being saved. Unfortunately, some are still being kidnapped, but they're only being saved because they can pull out their blue passport and they're Americans, but if they were Haitian and they didn't have our blue American passport, they're in bad shape. Likewise, it's been known globally that Black Americans have thrived in Europe, but migrants from North Africa,
00:25:17
Speaker
and Egypt and Sudan and Congo and some of our other countries on the continent that have been colonized over are not very well. And of course, Palestine. I am not, I'm in full support of the return of Palestine to its people. Why are we still living, why are we still allowing a country not only to just segregate people blatantly, but also like annihilate people
00:25:46
Speaker
blatantly like a workers blatantly like this there's a blatant this that is happening and there's a blatant this is we when we see real estate.
00:25:58
Speaker
and what is happening with gentrification. It's not as blatant. It's not as ugly at times until you're the one getting evicted until you're the one that can't afford things. And so we, as I am a firm believer and that is, that is the basis of this podcast. So if you're listening to this podcast, if you're listening to the first episode and you're listening to this episode, I want to make it clear gentrification is something done to people of color.
00:26:26
Speaker
It looks different based on where you live, but that's why ultimately people, I'm calling on my folks of color, specifically black Americans, because that's the context I know. I'm a black American and I've seen how this has happened with black Americans, but those of you who can relate to this, and yes, I know there are gonna be some white presenting ethnic groups that can also relate to this, but that's based on your country.
00:26:57
Speaker
The test for me is home purchasing, specifically in the States, in the States. And let me roll back to this, cause I'm still kind of on this point in the States with the way mortgages are set up with the way credit scores are set up. All these things are set up. We try buying a house. When you try to buy a house, that gives you a sense of where you are in the so-called systemic packing order.
00:27:26
Speaker
That will give you a sense of how you're racialized. That will give like how much money you have to have, how much you have to do, what kind of programs are available to you, how many banks you have to go to. And then on top of that, that also gets into like the kinds of jobs that you're getting. Like how much have you had to go through? How much are you having to perform to have a job that will pay for the homes? Like where can you, you can maybe move to a cheaper area. People tell you to move to a cheaper area.
00:27:56
Speaker
Is that cheaper area honor you as the person that you are or are you the person that's like loved and accepted? Like you come to this new area and people are asking you and maybe you're not, you don't have like racist conservative politics, but your people are telling you those racist conservative politics, thinking that you're their friend. Those are the kinds of ways that you can know who you are in the so-called pecking order.
00:28:26
Speaker
of society. And I do feel like we can and many of us do. And of course, my cousin is one person like we can possess property. We can be landlords. We can be successful at that. But ultimately, at the end of the day, are we really the ones that are managing how much things cost? Are we the one setting the culture? Some of the conversation we are having around Cowboy Carter. And I think what Beyonce is trying to have a conversation about specifically
00:28:56
Speaker
And of course there's conversations that we want her to have and she's not having but the conversation she is having around who is country. Who gets to be country, what does that even mean.
00:29:10
Speaker
who gets to hold this flag. Now, I take it a step further and ask, is this a flag that we even want to hold? But just people are disturbed by seeing her holding that flag. People are disturbed still by her skin tone and her willingness to say what the things that she has said are disturbing enough for some people. That's part of what she's going through and what's different by what she is doing.
00:29:40
Speaker
That's why I do believe that we can't fully, we as people of color, depending on where we are, we can participate in, we can get, we can be billionaires, but we're like, there's always gonna be an asterisk next to Beyonce and Oprah and Tyler Perry and any other black billionaire. And they may have not been able to make their billions without the culture. Their billions are made producing culture. Rihanna is the same way.
00:30:09
Speaker
She beauty like black folks have and black folks, people of the Asian diaspora and in Asia, as well as folks in indigenous folks to the Americas and all of the cultures that have resulted in those who are indigenous to Turtle Island in the Americas. All of us have these cultures and our culture, like our clothing, our hairstyles, our music,
00:30:39
Speaker
Our food is valued. It's what's considered exoticized, but it's not always, but at the end of the day, can we live next to each other? And there's always, and there's all this energy around splitting up minority groups and their minority groups in many countries and then putting them against each other.
00:31:01
Speaker
there's that expectation for us to assimilate, but there's no expectation that we assimilate back. Like when you assimilate back, you're just somebody hanging out. But when you go into that space, then that's like, there's a cultural, there's a financial extraction that comes from that. So that is why I believe we can't, like we as people of color cannot gentrify, we are gentrified upon.
00:31:26
Speaker
And that is why I want us, if you're listening to this, to find out the solutions to the fine gentrification. For me, it's focused on having faith that you matter, that you're worthy, that you don't need to be doing anything else besides breathing. And even then, even if you're on a respirator right now, you're still magically listening to me, you're still worthy because you still have a soul. You still have a body. Bodies are worthy for existence.
00:31:54
Speaker
They don't need to perform. They don't need to do anything. They just are like getting back to the fact that we have one earth and humans are on the earth and creatures are on the earth. We have that and then we all have different needs.
00:32:09
Speaker
And it's okay to get our needs met. And there's a way to cultivate our needs in communal spaces. And that comes from believing that we all have inherent value. And when we believe we all have an inherent value, we don't have these needs of crime. We don't have these same needs of cultivating.
00:32:30
Speaker
And then yeah different cities and regions have different vibes they have different flavors they have different levels of gentrification of racism discrimination. Of course, as someone who is non binary pansexual like I have a I have different needs my partner has different needs my you know people.
00:32:51
Speaker
my disability is invisible. You won't necessarily know that I'm disabled when you look at me and oftentimes I'm able to mask and function in the world without needing to disclose my particular disability. Of course, I may speak of that later on in the podcast, but right now I have different needs, but I don't have necessarily mobility needs, but people with mobility needs absolutely need to be living in a building like mine where there's an elevator versus a building with steps.
00:33:19
Speaker
So that is those are the three ways to sum it up the three ways that I believe we define gentrification are having faith.
00:33:29
Speaker
faith in ourselves, faith in our worth, faith in our inherent value, then we cultivate what we need. And that isn't necessarily like, oh, we need to spend money. It's sitting around and thinking about the people that we know. Googling and searching in groups online to find people that have our interests and hobbies. And then we go and then we decide what needs to be convenient for us.
00:33:56
Speaker
So for me, I at least wanted to have a grocery store and a public transportation stop near me. I wanted to be able to have people I could call that would go with me to the hospital, go with my partner to the hospital. My partner wanted to be particularly in this quadrant of DC when they moved here.
00:34:16
Speaker
because they wanted they liked it they liked how close everything was so you know we're living our best life right now where we're living we may by the time you listen to this if you're listening to this way in the future we may not be living where we are but we are living in another place that has things of convenience to us one of the things that i'm hoping that will become more convenient for me
00:34:39
Speaker
is to have my fiber craft places more convenient. Right now, yes, technically I could take the bus to, today I'm recording, the day on the recording this, I usually go to a fiber meetup. But to go to that fiber meetup, I have to, I usually get in the car because sometimes I have my rigid head of lume. Sometimes I have a lot of yarn because I can't decide what yarn I want to work on that week.
00:35:02
Speaker
So I have all those resources with me. I have all those materials with me. And I would love to be able to walk or at least have a more direct transit ride. It's a 20 minute drive and it's a hour and a half trip for me to go. But there are people that come to my yarn because there's a bus right out front.
Convenience in Communities: Resources and Living Spaces
00:35:23
Speaker
They get on the bus and they go right home and they have a 30 minute trip on the bus. Their trip is just 20 minutes.
00:35:31
Speaker
even though I want to maybe move closer, there is a convenience of that and our spaces deserve convenience. And so that is where when we talk about eradicating gentrification and we talk about, and for me those things are providing the care, access, and infrastructure for things to be convenient, for us to be able to cultivate the people and the things we need.
00:35:55
Speaker
and to feel worthy and have the faith to be, continue to be a human in the world, those are the things we need. And so with that, we're actually at the end of the episode and I, if any of this that you've heard today is kind of spinning around in your head and you're like, yeah, I think I wanna have another chance to talk this over, join us in the fellowship, the Defined Gentrification Fellowship.
Joining the Defying Gentrification Fellowship
00:36:21
Speaker
You can find the link for that in the show notes
00:36:24
Speaker
as well as on DefiningGentrification.com will go take you directly there. Not only will you have these podcast episodes archived, you can click on the fellowship and start writing our fellowship. And we're going to be, I'll be lecturing in the fellowship on Monday on, I'll be digging deeper onto, into the what is gentrification question. And actually I forget, you may be listening to this in the future. If you're listening to this in the future, the fellowship is there for you. There may be more courses, but if you're listening in real time,
00:36:52
Speaker
If you're listening on April 5th of 2024, when I originally record and release this, we'll be starting the lectures in the fellowship on Monday, April 8th. There is a fee to it. It is a special like fellowship fan club. It starts at $10 a month for 12 months, or you can just pay 120 upfront and you will have.
00:37:13
Speaker
Lifetime access. If we do decide to move to a different platform, I will let you know. I'm not just going to drop you like a hot potato. You will be able to come with me and continue to learn with me. And you'll also have a chance to, after you've been through at least four monthly cycles, which I can track because I can see the date that you joined the fellowship. Then you'll get an opportunity to meet with me one-on-one to talk through the things that are going on with you that you need to defy gentrification.
00:37:38
Speaker
So with that, I'm going to pause for one more ad break and then we'll come back and I will kind of talk about next, uh, what's next on the podcast. So Kristen, I know you've been telling me these last couple ads to buy from your bookshop store, but Kristen, I'm on a budget. So I'm listening to your podcast for free.
00:38:02
Speaker
But I got something for you if you want to still support me for free. Let me show you another website that you can literally go and support me for free and I will show you how. So a few weeks ago I was approached by a collective of lovely people to be part of this website called
00:38:21
Speaker
resident urbanist and right here on the screen and what you were seeing is my first full article on resident urbanist called crafting my way out of urbanism guilt and if you're just listening yeah you should go over to resident urbanist search for crafting my way out of urbanism guilt it's by me Kristen Jeffers I put it out in February you scroll down you see a nice picture of me
00:38:44
Speaker
This is, I was actually in Durham over Thanksgiving. I had on my, I am a black urbanist hoodie, and I was holding my sweater that I've been working on forever. Maybe one day it'll be finished. Now that I'm doing this podcast, I have extra time because I'm doing it.
00:39:00
Speaker
Anyway, you can read this article and you can subscribe when you subscribe, that builds up our subscriber numbers. And when that builds up our subscriber numbers, ads like to advertise there. And not only do I get something from when you buy from your bookshop, I get something when you subscribe and ads come and I do get the ad revenue.
00:39:21
Speaker
from this site. There's also some other great takes of urbanism from other independent writing newsletter urbanists like myself from all walks of life from all parts of the country.
Support for Resident Urbanist: Article Promotion
00:39:35
Speaker
One thing that kind of we have in common is that we're coming from the millennial perspective and yeah it's definitely a millennial middle class perspective but
00:39:42
Speaker
It is free for you to go on the site and support us and build up our subscriber numbers. We have over 50,000 folks over there and you could be the next one of them and you can show ads by companies like Fable that this is a good investment.
00:39:59
Speaker
And so yes, I am an advisor of this site, Disclosure, but supporting me here is free and you get to learn something else too. So head over to urbanist.com and then yeah, click on my name and also read all the other wonderful articles over there. And to that, let's go to the end of my show.
00:40:38
Speaker
All right, so, y'all, it's been a good time talking with you again.
Episode Conclusion and Next Preview
00:40:43
Speaker
I really love doing this show. I know this might be stirring up some ideas, but, you know, some of us, some things are for entertainment and some things for us to think about and think through. Defining gentrification is a publication of Kristen Jeffers Media. That's just me.
00:40:58
Speaker
I am Kristen Jeffers and next time we will be talking about eradicating gentrification. In the meantime you can find me at Black Urbanists on Instagram and the site formerly known as Twitter and you can find me on LinkedIn. You can just search Kristen Jeffers and I'm the one who's black. Until next time folks, take care of yourselves and keep on defying gentrification.