1. Investing in Women, Investing in the Future: The Wise Fund’s Vision for a Greener World
  2. HOW DID “NIMBY” SUDDENLY BECOME THE NEW “N-WORD?”
  3. The Gentrification Problem: The Environmental Crisis of Unaffordable Housing
  4. The Roots Run Deep: The Environmental Crisis of Unaffordable Housing
  5. There Is No Cost to Live: The Environmental Crisis of Unaffordable Housing
  6. Fixing Up Philly’s Homes: Charles Ellison for WHYY
  7. Punishment Past Prison Walls: Environmental injustice in the Carceral State
  8. RACISM IN THE WATER
  9. THE “INFLATION REDUCTION ACT” IS NOW LAW. SO, HOW DOES IT HELP BLACK PHILLY?
  10. PHILADELPHIA HAS AN AIR TOXIN PROBLEM. WHAT IS THE CITY GOVERNMENT GOING TO DO TO FIX IT?
  11. Want to end gun violence now? Let’s save Philly block by block
  12. Here are steps Philly could take to cool urban heat islands
  13. The gas prices conversation we should be having
  14. Reclaiming Black land is challenging but not impossible
  15. Black clergy: Churches can sway views on climate crisis
  16. Can old Philadelphia refineries be cleaned up and restored?
  17. Here’s how Black Philadelphia can help in the environmental justice battle
  18. City Launches Environmental Justice Advisory Commission
  19. FIXING THE STRUGGLE SPACE
  20. SOLAR POLICIES ARE FALLING BEHIND – SO, HOW DO WE CATCH UP?
  21. IS PHILLY’S “TAP” WATER PROGRAM WORKING?
  22. Ian Harris
  23. Melissa Ostroff
  24. THE WATER BILLS ARE WAY TOO HIGH
  25. THE KEY TO APPROACHING FRONTLINE COMMUNITIES ON ALL THINGS GREEN
  26. ICYMI: Watch highlights, panels at ecoWURD’s 2021 Environmental Justice Summit
  27. BLACK MOTHERS NEED CLEANER & SAFER ENVIRONMENTS – IT’S A PUBLIC HEALTH IMPERATIVE
  28. USING DANCE TO SAVE A RIVER
  29. TRACKING PHILADELPHIA’S AIR QUALITY
  30. GETTING RELIGIOUS ON CLIMATE CRISIS
  31. WE NEED MORE BLACK PEOPLE IN AGRICULTURE
  32. WHEN THERE’S NO CLEAN ENVIRONMENT, WE HAVE NOTHING
  33. A PREMATURE END TO EVICTION MORATORIUMS
  34. THE LACK OF BELIEF IN CLIMATE CRISIS IS JUST AS MUCH A THREAT
  35. YOU CAN’T HAVE RACIAL JUSTICE WITHOUT FAIR HOUSING
  36. RUN OVER THE SYSTEMS: THE FUTURE OF ENVIRONMENTAL ACTIVISM
  37. PENNSYLVANIA IS “WAY BEHIND” ON SOLAR. HOW DOES IT CATCH UP?
  38. Pandemic Relief For Black Farmers Still Is Not Enough
  39. A BLUEPRINT FOR THE NEXT URBANISM
  40. THAT ELECTRONIC & CLOTHING WASTE PILES UP. SO WHERE TO PUT IT?
  41. THE WOMB IS THE FIRST ENVIRONMENT
  42. WILL THERE BE ANY MASS TRANSIT LEFT AFTER PANDEMIC?
  43. A FRIDGE FOR EVERYONE WHO’S HUNGRY
  44. OLD SCHOOL FOSSIL FUEL ECONOMY VS. NEW SCHOOL CLEAN ENERGY ECONOMY
  45. ENVIRONMENTAL INJUSTICE IS THE TOP SOCIAL JUSTICE PRIORITY
  46. IN 2020, DID “BIG GREEN” BECOME LESS WHITE?
  47. CLIMATE ACTION CAN POWER OUR RECOVERY
  48. IN PANDEMIC, AN HBCU DOES IT BETTER
  49. A DANGEROUS LACK OF INFECTIOUS DISEASE PROTECTIONS
  50. HOW FAST CAN A BIDEN PRESIDENCY MOVE ON CLIMATE ISSUES?
  51. CRAFTING A BLACK-DRIVEN CORONAVIRUS AND CLIMATE “STIMULUS” AGENDA
  52. Penn to donate $100 million to Philadelphia school district to help public school children
  53. BLACK ECOLOGIES IN TIDEWATER VIRGINIA
  54. WHAT IS “FROM THE SOURCE REPORTING?”
  55. LEADERSHIP IN ENVIRONMENTAL JUSTICE
  56. THE ECOWURD SUMMIT LAUNCH
  57. National Geographic Virtual Photo Camp: Earth Stories Aimed to Elevate Indigenous Youth Voices
  58. ecoWURD Environmental Justice Summit 2020
  59. THE PLAN FOR A 100 PERCENT CLEAN FUTURE IS SAVING NATURE
  60. WHAT SHOULD A PRESIDENT’S ENVIRONMENTAL JUSTICE AGENDA LOOK LIKE?
  61. THE NEED FOR ABOLITIONIST TEACHING
  62. PUBLIC LANDS & SAVING NATURE
  63. TOO MANY NATURAL GAS SPILLS
  64. GREEN IS THE NEW BLACK
  65. BLACK VOTERS ARE THE ECO-VOTERS CLIMATE ACTIVISTS ARE LOOKING FOR
  66. CANNABIS PROFIT & BLACK ECONOMY
  67. THE NATURE GAP
  68. BLACK PEOPLE NEED NATURE
  69. WHAT IS TREEPHILLY?
  70. IS AN OBSCURE ENVIRONMENT COMMITTEE IN HARRISBURG DOING ENOUGH?
  71. AMERICAN ENVIRONMENTALISM’S RACIST ROOTS
  72. “THERE’S REALLY A LOT OF QUIET SUFFERING OUT THERE
  73. “WE NEED TO GET INTO THE SUPPLY CHAIN”
  74. “AN ENVIRONMENTAL LAW THAT GIVES YOU A VOICE”
  75. URBAN PLANNING AS A TOOL FOR WHITE SUPREMACY
  76. HEAT WAVES REMIND US CLIMATE CHANGE IS STILL HERE
  77. Farming While Black: Soul Fire Farm’s Practical Guide to Liberation on the Land
  78. IN PANDEMIC, MAKING SURE PEOPLE EAT & HOW HBCUs HELP
  79. WE’RE NOT DONE, YET – MORE ACCOUNTABILITY IS NEEDED AT THE PES REFINERY SITE
  80. COVID-19 IS LAYING WASTE TO RECYCLING PROGRAMS
  81. THE PHILADELPHIA HEALTH EQUITY GAPS THAT COVID-19 EXPOSED
  82. THE POWER OF NEW HERBALISM
  83. THERE’S NO RECIPE FOR SUCCESS
  84. ecoWURD Earth Day Summit
  85. ecoWURD Earth Day Summit 2020 Press Release
  86. Too Much Food At Farms, Too Little Food At Stores
  87. THE LINK BETWEEN AIR POLLUTION & COVID-19
  88. CORONAVIRUS REVEALS WHY ENVIRONMENTAL JUSTICE IS STILL THE CRITICAL ISSUE OF OUR TIME
  89. FROM KATRINA TO CORONAVIRUS, WHAT HAVE WE LEARNED?
  90. COVID-19 SHOWS A BIGGER IMPACT WHERE BLACK PEOPLE LIVE
  91. THE CORONAVIRUS CONVERSATION HAS GOT TO GET A LOT MORE INCLUSIVE THAN THIS
  92. MEDIA’S CLIMATE CHANGE COVERAGE KEEPS BLACK PEOPLE OUT OF IT
  93. “WE DON’T HAVE A CULTURE OF PREPAREDNESS”
  94. PHILADELPHIA HAS A FOOD ECONOMY
  95. HOW URBAN AGRICULTURE CAN IMPROVE FOOD SECURITY IN U.S. CITIES
  96. MAPPING THE LINK BETWEEN INCARCERATION & FOOD INSECURITY
  97. PHILLY’S JAILS ARE, LITERALLY, MAKING PEOPLE SICK
  98. ecoWURD Environmental Justice Summit 2019
  99. ecoWURD Environmental Justice Summit
  100. “We Can’t Breathe: Zulene Mayfield’s Lifelong War with Waste ‘Managers’”
  101. “Is The Black Press Reporting on Environmental Issues?” by David Love
  102. “The Dangerous Connection Between Climate Change & Food” an interview with Jacqueline Patterson and Adrienne Hollis
  103. “An Oil Refinery Explosion That Was Never Isolated” by Charles Ellison
  104. “Philly Should Be Going ‘Community Solar'” an interview w/ PA Rep. Donna Bullock
  105. “Is The Litter Index Enough?” an interview w/ Nic Esposito
  106. “How Sugarcane Fires in Florida Are Making Black People Sick” an interview w/ Frank Biden
  107. Philly Farm Social – Video and Pictures
  108. #PHILLYFARMSOCIAL GETS REAL IN THE FIELD
  109. THE LACK OF DIVERSE LEADERS IN THE GREEN SPACE Environmental Advocacy Organizations – especially the “Big Green” – Really Need More Black & Brown People in Senior Positions
  110. PLASTIC BAG BANS CAN BACKFIRE … WHEN YOU HAVE OTHER PLASTICS TO CHOOSE FROM
  111. WE REALLY NEED POLITICAL STRATEGISTS LEADING ON CLIMATE CHANGE – NOT ACADEMICS
  112. EMERGENCY PREPAREDNESS IN A MUCH MORE CLIMATIC WORLD
  113. A SMALL GERMANTOWN NON-PROFIT “TRADES FOR A DIFFERENCE”
  114. IS PHILLY BLAMING ITS TRASH & RECYCLING CRISIS ON BLACK PEOPLE?
  115. BUT WHAT DOES THE GREEN NEW DEAL MEAN FOR BLACK PEOPLE?
  116. HOW GREEN IS PHILLY’S “GREENWORKS” PLAN?
  117. The Future of Work in Philly’s Green Economy event recap #ecoWURD #phillyisgreen
  118. Bike-friendly cities should be designed for everyone, not just for wealthy white cyclists
  119. RENAMING “GENTRIFICATION”
  120. FOUR GOVERNORS, ONE URBAN WATERSHED IN NEED OF ACTION
  121. JUST HOW BAD IS THE AIR HURTING PHILLY’S BLACK FAMILIES?
  122. EcoWURD Presents:The Future of Work in Philly’s Green Economy
  123. IF YOU ARE LOW-INCOME OR HOMELESS, THE POLAR VORTEX IS LIKE A FORM OF CAPITAL PUNISHMENT
  124. NOT JUST FLINT: THE WATER CRISIS IN THE BLACK COMMUNITY
  125. DO THE TRAINS STOP RUNNING? THE SHUTDOWN’S IMPACT ON MASS TRANSIT
  126. BLACK WOMEN & THE TROUBLE WITH BABY POWDER
  127. A WHITE COLLAR CRIME VICTIMIZING NICETOWN
  128. IN NORTH CAROLINA, CLIMATE CHANGE & VOTER SUPPRESSION WORKED HAND-IN-HAND
  129. LOW-INCOME NEIGHBORHOODS WOULD GAIN THE MOST FROM GREEN ROOFS
  130. YOUR OWN HOOD: CLOSING THE GENERATIONAL GREEN DIVIDE IN BLACK PHILADELPHIA
  131. THE PRICE OF WATER: LITERAL & FIGURATIVE THIRST AT WORK
  132. THAT CLIMATE CHANGE REPORT TRUMP DIDN’T WANT YOU TO SEE? YEAH, WELL, IT’S THE LAW
  133. RACIAL & ETHNIC MINORITIES ARE MORE VULNERABLE TO WILDFIRES
  134. NO IFS, ANDS OR BUTTS Philly Has a Cigarette Butt Problem
  135. HOW SUSTAINABLE CAN PHILLY GET?
  136. USING AFROFUTURISM TO BUILD THE KIND OF WORLD YOU WANT
  137. UNCOVERING PHILLY’S HIDDEN TOXIC DANGERS …
  138. WILL THE ENVIRONMENT DRIVE VOTERS TO THE POLLS? (PART I)
  139. ARE PHILLY SCHOOLS READY FOR CLIMATE CHANGE?
  140. 🎧 SEPTA CREATES A GAS PROBLEM IN NORTH PHILLY
  141. 🎧 BREAKING THE GREEN RETAIL CEILING
  142. That’s Nasty: The Cost of Trash in Philly
  143. 🎧 How Can You Solarize Philly?
  144. 🎧 “The Environment Should Be an Active, Living Experience”
  145. Philly’s Lead Crisis Is Larger Than Flint’s
  146. Despite What You Heard, Black Millennials Do Care About the Environment
  147. Hurricanes Always Hurt Black Folks the Most
  148. Are You Going to Drink That?
  149. The Origins of ecoWURD
  150. We Seriously Need More Black Climate Disaster Films
  151. 🎧 Why Should Philly Care About a Pipeline?
  152. 🎧 Not Just Hotter Days Ahead… Costly Ones Too
  153. Philly’s Big and Dangerous Hot Mess
Tuesday, May 30, 2023
  1. Investing in Women, Investing in the Future: The Wise Fund’s Vision for a Greener World
  2. HOW DID “NIMBY” SUDDENLY BECOME THE NEW “N-WORD?”
  3. The Gentrification Problem: The Environmental Crisis of Unaffordable Housing
  4. The Roots Run Deep: The Environmental Crisis of Unaffordable Housing
  5. There Is No Cost to Live: The Environmental Crisis of Unaffordable Housing
  6. Fixing Up Philly’s Homes: Charles Ellison for WHYY
  7. Punishment Past Prison Walls: Environmental injustice in the Carceral State
  8. RACISM IN THE WATER
  9. THE “INFLATION REDUCTION ACT” IS NOW LAW. SO, HOW DOES IT HELP BLACK PHILLY?
  10. PHILADELPHIA HAS AN AIR TOXIN PROBLEM. WHAT IS THE CITY GOVERNMENT GOING TO DO TO FIX IT?
  11. Want to end gun violence now? Let’s save Philly block by block
  12. Here are steps Philly could take to cool urban heat islands
  13. The gas prices conversation we should be having
  14. Reclaiming Black land is challenging but not impossible
  15. Black clergy: Churches can sway views on climate crisis
  16. Can old Philadelphia refineries be cleaned up and restored?
  17. Here’s how Black Philadelphia can help in the environmental justice battle
  18. City Launches Environmental Justice Advisory Commission
  19. FIXING THE STRUGGLE SPACE
  20. SOLAR POLICIES ARE FALLING BEHIND – SO, HOW DO WE CATCH UP?
  21. IS PHILLY’S “TAP” WATER PROGRAM WORKING?
  22. Ian Harris
  23. Melissa Ostroff
  24. THE WATER BILLS ARE WAY TOO HIGH
  25. THE KEY TO APPROACHING FRONTLINE COMMUNITIES ON ALL THINGS GREEN
  26. ICYMI: Watch highlights, panels at ecoWURD’s 2021 Environmental Justice Summit
  27. BLACK MOTHERS NEED CLEANER & SAFER ENVIRONMENTS – IT’S A PUBLIC HEALTH IMPERATIVE
  28. USING DANCE TO SAVE A RIVER
  29. TRACKING PHILADELPHIA’S AIR QUALITY
  30. GETTING RELIGIOUS ON CLIMATE CRISIS
  31. WE NEED MORE BLACK PEOPLE IN AGRICULTURE
  32. WHEN THERE’S NO CLEAN ENVIRONMENT, WE HAVE NOTHING
  33. A PREMATURE END TO EVICTION MORATORIUMS
  34. THE LACK OF BELIEF IN CLIMATE CRISIS IS JUST AS MUCH A THREAT
  35. YOU CAN’T HAVE RACIAL JUSTICE WITHOUT FAIR HOUSING
  36. RUN OVER THE SYSTEMS: THE FUTURE OF ENVIRONMENTAL ACTIVISM
  37. PENNSYLVANIA IS “WAY BEHIND” ON SOLAR. HOW DOES IT CATCH UP?
  38. Pandemic Relief For Black Farmers Still Is Not Enough
  39. A BLUEPRINT FOR THE NEXT URBANISM
  40. THAT ELECTRONIC & CLOTHING WASTE PILES UP. SO WHERE TO PUT IT?
  41. THE WOMB IS THE FIRST ENVIRONMENT
  42. WILL THERE BE ANY MASS TRANSIT LEFT AFTER PANDEMIC?
  43. A FRIDGE FOR EVERYONE WHO’S HUNGRY
  44. OLD SCHOOL FOSSIL FUEL ECONOMY VS. NEW SCHOOL CLEAN ENERGY ECONOMY
  45. ENVIRONMENTAL INJUSTICE IS THE TOP SOCIAL JUSTICE PRIORITY
  46. IN 2020, DID “BIG GREEN” BECOME LESS WHITE?
  47. CLIMATE ACTION CAN POWER OUR RECOVERY
  48. IN PANDEMIC, AN HBCU DOES IT BETTER
  49. A DANGEROUS LACK OF INFECTIOUS DISEASE PROTECTIONS
  50. HOW FAST CAN A BIDEN PRESIDENCY MOVE ON CLIMATE ISSUES?
  51. CRAFTING A BLACK-DRIVEN CORONAVIRUS AND CLIMATE “STIMULUS” AGENDA
  52. Penn to donate $100 million to Philadelphia school district to help public school children
  53. BLACK ECOLOGIES IN TIDEWATER VIRGINIA
  54. WHAT IS “FROM THE SOURCE REPORTING?”
  55. LEADERSHIP IN ENVIRONMENTAL JUSTICE
  56. THE ECOWURD SUMMIT LAUNCH
  57. National Geographic Virtual Photo Camp: Earth Stories Aimed to Elevate Indigenous Youth Voices
  58. ecoWURD Environmental Justice Summit 2020
  59. THE PLAN FOR A 100 PERCENT CLEAN FUTURE IS SAVING NATURE
  60. WHAT SHOULD A PRESIDENT’S ENVIRONMENTAL JUSTICE AGENDA LOOK LIKE?
  61. THE NEED FOR ABOLITIONIST TEACHING
  62. PUBLIC LANDS & SAVING NATURE
  63. TOO MANY NATURAL GAS SPILLS
  64. GREEN IS THE NEW BLACK
  65. BLACK VOTERS ARE THE ECO-VOTERS CLIMATE ACTIVISTS ARE LOOKING FOR
  66. CANNABIS PROFIT & BLACK ECONOMY
  67. THE NATURE GAP
  68. BLACK PEOPLE NEED NATURE
  69. WHAT IS TREEPHILLY?
  70. IS AN OBSCURE ENVIRONMENT COMMITTEE IN HARRISBURG DOING ENOUGH?
  71. AMERICAN ENVIRONMENTALISM’S RACIST ROOTS
  72. “THERE’S REALLY A LOT OF QUIET SUFFERING OUT THERE
  73. “WE NEED TO GET INTO THE SUPPLY CHAIN”
  74. “AN ENVIRONMENTAL LAW THAT GIVES YOU A VOICE”
  75. URBAN PLANNING AS A TOOL FOR WHITE SUPREMACY
  76. HEAT WAVES REMIND US CLIMATE CHANGE IS STILL HERE
  77. Farming While Black: Soul Fire Farm’s Practical Guide to Liberation on the Land
  78. IN PANDEMIC, MAKING SURE PEOPLE EAT & HOW HBCUs HELP
  79. WE’RE NOT DONE, YET – MORE ACCOUNTABILITY IS NEEDED AT THE PES REFINERY SITE
  80. COVID-19 IS LAYING WASTE TO RECYCLING PROGRAMS
  81. THE PHILADELPHIA HEALTH EQUITY GAPS THAT COVID-19 EXPOSED
  82. THE POWER OF NEW HERBALISM
  83. THERE’S NO RECIPE FOR SUCCESS
  84. ecoWURD Earth Day Summit
  85. ecoWURD Earth Day Summit 2020 Press Release
  86. Too Much Food At Farms, Too Little Food At Stores
  87. THE LINK BETWEEN AIR POLLUTION & COVID-19
  88. CORONAVIRUS REVEALS WHY ENVIRONMENTAL JUSTICE IS STILL THE CRITICAL ISSUE OF OUR TIME
  89. FROM KATRINA TO CORONAVIRUS, WHAT HAVE WE LEARNED?
  90. COVID-19 SHOWS A BIGGER IMPACT WHERE BLACK PEOPLE LIVE
  91. THE CORONAVIRUS CONVERSATION HAS GOT TO GET A LOT MORE INCLUSIVE THAN THIS
  92. MEDIA’S CLIMATE CHANGE COVERAGE KEEPS BLACK PEOPLE OUT OF IT
  93. “WE DON’T HAVE A CULTURE OF PREPAREDNESS”
  94. PHILADELPHIA HAS A FOOD ECONOMY
  95. HOW URBAN AGRICULTURE CAN IMPROVE FOOD SECURITY IN U.S. CITIES
  96. MAPPING THE LINK BETWEEN INCARCERATION & FOOD INSECURITY
  97. PHILLY’S JAILS ARE, LITERALLY, MAKING PEOPLE SICK
  98. ecoWURD Environmental Justice Summit 2019
  99. ecoWURD Environmental Justice Summit
  100. “We Can’t Breathe: Zulene Mayfield’s Lifelong War with Waste ‘Managers’”
  101. “Is The Black Press Reporting on Environmental Issues?” by David Love
  102. “The Dangerous Connection Between Climate Change & Food” an interview with Jacqueline Patterson and Adrienne Hollis
  103. “An Oil Refinery Explosion That Was Never Isolated” by Charles Ellison
  104. “Philly Should Be Going ‘Community Solar'” an interview w/ PA Rep. Donna Bullock
  105. “Is The Litter Index Enough?” an interview w/ Nic Esposito
  106. “How Sugarcane Fires in Florida Are Making Black People Sick” an interview w/ Frank Biden
  107. Philly Farm Social – Video and Pictures
  108. #PHILLYFARMSOCIAL GETS REAL IN THE FIELD
  109. THE LACK OF DIVERSE LEADERS IN THE GREEN SPACE Environmental Advocacy Organizations – especially the “Big Green” – Really Need More Black & Brown People in Senior Positions
  110. PLASTIC BAG BANS CAN BACKFIRE … WHEN YOU HAVE OTHER PLASTICS TO CHOOSE FROM
  111. WE REALLY NEED POLITICAL STRATEGISTS LEADING ON CLIMATE CHANGE – NOT ACADEMICS
  112. EMERGENCY PREPAREDNESS IN A MUCH MORE CLIMATIC WORLD
  113. A SMALL GERMANTOWN NON-PROFIT “TRADES FOR A DIFFERENCE”
  114. IS PHILLY BLAMING ITS TRASH & RECYCLING CRISIS ON BLACK PEOPLE?
  115. BUT WHAT DOES THE GREEN NEW DEAL MEAN FOR BLACK PEOPLE?
  116. HOW GREEN IS PHILLY’S “GREENWORKS” PLAN?
  117. The Future of Work in Philly’s Green Economy event recap #ecoWURD #phillyisgreen
  118. Bike-friendly cities should be designed for everyone, not just for wealthy white cyclists
  119. RENAMING “GENTRIFICATION”
  120. FOUR GOVERNORS, ONE URBAN WATERSHED IN NEED OF ACTION
  121. JUST HOW BAD IS THE AIR HURTING PHILLY’S BLACK FAMILIES?
  122. EcoWURD Presents:The Future of Work in Philly’s Green Economy
  123. IF YOU ARE LOW-INCOME OR HOMELESS, THE POLAR VORTEX IS LIKE A FORM OF CAPITAL PUNISHMENT
  124. NOT JUST FLINT: THE WATER CRISIS IN THE BLACK COMMUNITY
  125. DO THE TRAINS STOP RUNNING? THE SHUTDOWN’S IMPACT ON MASS TRANSIT
  126. BLACK WOMEN & THE TROUBLE WITH BABY POWDER
  127. A WHITE COLLAR CRIME VICTIMIZING NICETOWN
  128. IN NORTH CAROLINA, CLIMATE CHANGE & VOTER SUPPRESSION WORKED HAND-IN-HAND
  129. LOW-INCOME NEIGHBORHOODS WOULD GAIN THE MOST FROM GREEN ROOFS
  130. YOUR OWN HOOD: CLOSING THE GENERATIONAL GREEN DIVIDE IN BLACK PHILADELPHIA
  131. THE PRICE OF WATER: LITERAL & FIGURATIVE THIRST AT WORK
  132. THAT CLIMATE CHANGE REPORT TRUMP DIDN’T WANT YOU TO SEE? YEAH, WELL, IT’S THE LAW
  133. RACIAL & ETHNIC MINORITIES ARE MORE VULNERABLE TO WILDFIRES
  134. NO IFS, ANDS OR BUTTS Philly Has a Cigarette Butt Problem
  135. HOW SUSTAINABLE CAN PHILLY GET?
  136. USING AFROFUTURISM TO BUILD THE KIND OF WORLD YOU WANT
  137. UNCOVERING PHILLY’S HIDDEN TOXIC DANGERS …
  138. WILL THE ENVIRONMENT DRIVE VOTERS TO THE POLLS? (PART I)
  139. ARE PHILLY SCHOOLS READY FOR CLIMATE CHANGE?
  140. 🎧 SEPTA CREATES A GAS PROBLEM IN NORTH PHILLY
  141. 🎧 BREAKING THE GREEN RETAIL CEILING
  142. That’s Nasty: The Cost of Trash in Philly
  143. 🎧 How Can You Solarize Philly?
  144. 🎧 “The Environment Should Be an Active, Living Experience”
  145. Philly’s Lead Crisis Is Larger Than Flint’s
  146. Despite What You Heard, Black Millennials Do Care About the Environment
  147. Hurricanes Always Hurt Black Folks the Most
  148. Are You Going to Drink That?
  149. The Origins of ecoWURD
  150. We Seriously Need More Black Climate Disaster Films
  151. 🎧 Why Should Philly Care About a Pipeline?
  152. 🎧 Not Just Hotter Days Ahead… Costly Ones Too
  153. Philly’s Big and Dangerous Hot Mess

The other lesson from Minneapolis, besides the tragic murder of George Floyd, is how urban planning is weaponized against Black people.

 

Julian Agyeman | The Conversation

 

The legacy of structural racism in Minneapolis was laid bare to the world at the intersection of Chicago Avenue and East 38th Street, the location where George Floyd’s neck was pinned to the ground by a police officer’s knee. But it is also imprinted in streets, parks and neighborhoods across the city – the result of urban planning that utilized segregation as a tool of white supremacy.

 

Today, Minneapolis is seen to be one of the most liberal cities in the U.S. But if you scratch away the progressive veneer of the U.S.‘s most cyclable city, the city with the best park system and sixth-highest quality of life, you find what Kirsten Delegard, a Minneapolis historian, describes as “darker truths about the city.”

 

As co-founder of the University of Minnesota’s Mapping Prejudice project, Delegard and her colleagues have been shedding new light on the role that racist barriers to home ownership have had on segregation in the city.

‘Racial cordon’

 

Segregation in Minneapolis, like elsewhere in the U.S., is the result of historic practices such as the issuing of racialized real estate covenants that kept nonwhite people from buying or occupying land.

 

These covenants began appearing in U.S. cities from the early 1900s. Before their use in Minneapolis, the city was “more or less integrated, with a small but evenly distributed African American population.” But covenants changed the cityscape. Racist wording from the city’s first racially restrictive covenant in 1910 stated bluntly that the premises named “shall not at any time be conveyed, mortgaged or leased to any person or persons of Chinese, Japanese, Moorish, Turkish, Negro, Mongolian or African blood or descent.”

 

As a result, African Americans, especially, were pushed into a few small areas of the city such as the Near North neighborhood, leaving large parts of the city predominantly white. Some of the city’s most desirable parks were ringed by white residential districts. The result was an invisible “racial cordon” around some of the city’s celebrated parks and commons.

 

A Minneapolis police officer in a predominantly black area during unrest in 1967. AP Photo/Robert Walsh

 

‘By design, not acccident’

 

As a scholar of urban planning, I know that Minneapolis, far from being an outlier in segregation, represents the norm. Across the U.S., urban planning is still used by some as the spatial toolkit, consisting of a set of policies and practices, for maintaining white supremacy. But urban planners of color, especially, are pointing out ways to reimagine inclusive urban spaces by dismantling the legacy of racist planning, housing and infrastructure policies.

 

Racial segregation was not the byproduct of urban planning; it was, in many cases, its intention – it was “not by accident, but by design,” Adrien Weibgen, senior policy fellow at the Association for Neighborhood and Housing Development, explained in a 2019 New York Daily News article.

 

The effect was and still is devastating.

 

The Urban Institute, an independent think tank, noted in a 2017 report that higher levels of racial segregation were linked to lower incomes for Black residents, as well worse educational outcomes for both white and Black students. Other studies have found that racial segregation leads to Black Americans being excluded from high-performing schools. In Minnesota – which ranks as the fourth most segregated statethe gap between the performance of white students and students of color is among the highest in the U.S. Likewise, segregation limits access to transportation, employment and quality health care.

Income and wealth gaps

 

According to the U.S. Census Bureau, in Minneapolis the median Black family income in 2018 was US$36,000, compared to nearly $83,000 among white families. After Milwaukee, this is the biggest gap of the 100 largest metropolitan areas in the U.S. Mirroring the city’s income gap is a huge wealth gap. Minneapolis now has the lowest rate of homeownership among Black American households of any city.

 

Residential segregation in Minneapolis and elsewhere is still stubbornly high despite more than 50 years since the passing of the 1968 Fair Housing Act, which prohibited discrimination in the sale, rental and financing of housing based on race, among other factors. But while some residential segregation is now income-based, racial segregation across the U.S. is more ingrained and pervasive than economic segregation.

Zoning out

 

Residential racial segregation continues to exist because of specific government policies enacted through urban planning. A key tool is zoning – the process of dividing urban land into areas for specific uses, such as residential or industrial. In the introduction to her 2014 book “Zoned in the USA,” urban planning professor Sonia Hirt argues that zoning is about government power to shape “ideals” by imposing a “moral geography” on cities. In Minneapolis and elsewhere, this has meant excluding “undersirables” – namely the poor, immigrants of color and African Americans.

 

With explicit racialized zoning long outlawed in the U.S. – the U.S. Supreme Court ended the practice in 1917 – many local governments instead turned to “exclusionary” zoning policies, making it illegal to build anything except single-family homes. This “back door racism” had a similar effect to outright racial exclusions: It kept out most Black and low-income people who could not afford expensive single-family homes.

 

In Minneapolis, single-family zoning amounted to 70% of residential space, compared to 15% in New York. Buttressing this, redlining – the denial of mortgages and loans to people of color by government and the private sector – ensured the continuance of segregation.

Anti-racist planning

 

Minneapolis is trying hard to reverse these racist policies. In 2018, it became the first large city to vote to end single-family zoning, allowing “upzoning”: the conversion of single-family lots into more affordable duplexes and triplexes.

 

This, together with “inclusionary zoning” – requiring that new apartment projects hold at least 10% of units for low- to moderate-income households – is part of the Minneapolis 2040 Plan. Central to that vision is a goal to eliminate disparities in wealth, housing and opportunity “regardless of race, ethnicity, gender, country of origin, religion, or zip code” within 20 years.

 

In the aftermath of George Floyd’s death, Minneapolis City Council acted quickly in advancing plans to dismantle the city’s police force. Dismantling the legacy of by-design segregation will require the tools of urban planning being utilized to find solutions after decades of being part of the problem.

 

 

JULIAN AGYEMAN is Professor of Urban and Environmental Policy and Planning, Tufts University