Everyday, I am encouraged more and more by the amazing stories of everyday people who champion positive change daily. Humanity at it’s best is a symbol of love, compassion, unity, and light to say the least. With schools closing, education systems failing, economies collapsing, social unrest, political corruption, and the cycle of ongoing violence the world can seem bleak at times.
Ade
“ Our ability to see problems
means nothing if we never use our ability to solve those same problems.”
Marshall Hatch
‘It is no accident that Chicago
is now an international symbol of urban violence. Chicago has suffered 20 years
of neglect, failing schools, economic disinvestment and disconnect
from power and decision-making in city government.”
Perhaps the most underrated
resource is human capital. The founding fathers of America where smart enough
to distance themselves from perhaps the largest super power of that age (Great
Britain). They decided to rebel against a government they felt was
imperialistic, corrupt, and dishonest. Please understand, I am by no means
suggesting a rebellion of any sort against the government. I am however
suggesting that we must start to examine ourselves as a nation, people, and,
most importantly our individual efforts to positively impact the world.
There are countless examples of
undervalued communities full of undervalued people who are overlooked daily. I
believe that if we learn how to value ourselves and each other, we can make a
major difference in the world. We can no longer isolate ourselves away from
each other or avoid connecting within our communities. If we focused on
creating better communities where we lived instead of shipping out to gated
communities imagine how great this world could be.
In Chicago an amazing woman by the name of Diane Latiker didn’t
run away from her so-called bad neighborhood. The youth in her neighborhood
where being impacted by everything from drugs, gangs, and violence arising in
the community. Instead of complaining Diane decided to take action and created
an incubator of positive change by the name of Kids Off The Block In 2003.
After reading a 2006 report that mapped food deserts
in Chicago, a group of community activists banded together to work on a
solution. Steven Casey and Jeff Pinzino were soon joined by Sheelah
Muhammad. The three of them combined their skills and talents making Fresh
Moves a reality.
They understood that opening a traditional market would not address
the needs of numerous underserved neighborhoods quickly or efficiently. Instead
they created a cost efficient way to meet the needs of several communities at
once. Their solution was to put the whole thing on wheels and bring the market
to the people.
WWW.CLOUD77PRO.COM TM ©August 2013
by Ade
Reinvigorating A Detroit
Neighborhood, Block By Block
July 28, 2013 5:40 AM
Woodward
Avenue runs through Midtown, a Detroit neighborhood that is reviving in the
midst of the larger city's decline. In the background is downtown Detroit.
Carlos Osorio/AP
The debt-laden city of Detroit
has been an incubator for new strategies in urban revitalization, including a
downtown People Mover, casinos, urban farms, artist colonies and large scale
down-sizing.
In the wake of the city's
bankruptcy, many in the community are thinking small.
Just outside of downtown Detroit
is a neighborhood called Midtown. Like many hip, urban neighborhoods, it's got
hipsters on fixed geared bikes, yoga studios, boutiques for dogs.
And while urban neighborhoods in
other cities have been redeveloping for a decade or more, things here are just
now starting to take off.
Part of the reason is a woman
who's often called the Mayor of Midtown.
Sue Mosey is president of Midtown Detroit Inc., a
non-profit planning and economic development agency that works to encourage new
business and housing and preserve the history of the neighborhood about two
miles north of downtown.
"It's been an area that's
experienced a lot of disinvestment over the last 60 years," Mosey says.
"But over the last 10 to 20 years there's been a lot of reinvestment
coming back into the neighborhood."
The neighborhood is anchored by
Wayne State University — a large public university — and the Detroit Institute
of Arts. It has two major health care systems, the Detroit Medical Center and
the Henry Ford Hospital; and there's also the College of Creative Studies.
Walk around Midtown with Mosey,
and you realize how large Detroit is. By square miles, it's one of the nation's
biggest.
"In Detroit, because you had
this very, very large footprint where all these assets were built, that really
is something that has worked against us today when you're really trying to
create dense urban fabric," Mosey says.
But as we walk, we see many many
parts of Midtown showing signs of life.
"We have a whole set of
small businesses over here, everything from small women's boutiques to small
organic markets, and our big organic bakery is there for the
neighborhood."
A Whole Foods opened a store in
Midtown in June. Mosey says 26 more new businesses will open within the year.
This is a key to Detroit's economic survival — or the survival of any city:
Commercial real estate taxes can make up as much as 70 percent of the revenues
for a city.
With Detroit, when the people
left — and nearly a million have left the city — the businesses followed them.
Mosey has been working in this
neighborhood for nearly for 26 years, and she says now, finally, things are
turning around, with Mosey's organization working block-by-block to encourage
development.
That strategy, even though it
takes a long, long time, is one that could work in other parts of Detroit,
Mosey says.
"Regardless of the
bankruptcy and the finance thing — and it's not like that's really new news to
people here — I mean, we've had a city that we've known has not been able to
fund basic services for years," she says. "But I do think that for
parts of the city, certain neighborhoods, and certainly this corridor and
downtown, that there's definitely more optimism than ever."
Detroiters are increasingly
looking at smaller projects to solve their economic woes, rather than the big
developments that were favored 10 or 20 years ago.
"How can we just create a
smaller, more efficient, better run, more interesting city, and bring back
basic services for the residents who are here and want to be here," Mosey
says. "It's a tall order, but it is the only order. I mean what other
order are you going to have?"
