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P.U.R.E. (Project Urban Renewable Energy) building collaborative sustainable communities, one block at a time. #ActOnClimate

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What's Wrong with Civil Rights Commemorations

THE STRUGGLE CONTINUES IN EVERY GENERATION

“Struggle is a never ending process. Freedom is never really won, you earn it and win it in every generation.” Coretta Scott King

There seems to be a great disconnect between the victory and the struggle.  Yes, a great sacrifice and victory was had in Selma 53 years ago but it clearly didn’t trickle down or translate to the very community where the iconic civil rights victory took place. We do tours and walk the path of those 53 years ago and we have “a moment” and get emotional but what about the reality of the community where Edmund Pettus Bridge is located? We just march past the local residents, we march past their conditions and problems so we can have our own moment and imagine what it was like to be there with Dr. Martin Luther King, Jr. I’m just as guilty of doing this as well, we come to these “sacred” civil rights locations with no context. How do we consider “Bloody Sunday” a success if Selma’s mostly black population has over a 40% poverty rate.  How do we commemorate and have our “moment” when a United Nation’s official in a recent Newsweek article declared Alabama has the worst poverty in the developed world?

“I think it’s very uncommon in the First World. This is not a sight that one normally sees. I’d have to say that I haven’t seen this,” Philip Alston, the U.N.’s Special Rapporteur on extreme poverty and human rights, told Connor Sheets of AL.comearlier this week as they toured a community in Butler County where “raw sewage flows from homes through exposed PVC pipes and into open trenches and pits.”

The tour through Alabama’s rural communities is part of a two-week investigation by the U.N. on poverty and human rights abuses in the United States. (Newsweek)

The March on “Bloody Sunday” from Selma to Montgomery requires you to go through Lowndes County, Alabama where they have a hookworm outbreak due to poor sanitary conditions. Dr. Martin King was assassinated 50 years ago in Memphis while protesting unsanitary conditions for sanitation workers. Yet in 2018 we have poor people suffering from third world conditions and parasites on the very path of the iconic March from Selma to Montgomery.

“It’s shocking that we continue to have these infections of poverty in the United States,” Mejia said.

“The depth and breadth of poverty and disease in Texas, the Gulf Coast and the Southern United States has been consistently underestimated. However, my estimates indicate that up to 12 million or more Americans now live with a neglected tropical disease. The new findings of persistent hookworm infection among the poor living in the American South help to confirm my many concerns about neglected tropical diseases in the U.S.  We still need to account for all of the enabling factors responsible for tropical diseases in the U.S. – clearly extreme poverty is an important factor, but we also need to look at the effects of climate change and other modern 21st century forces,” said Hotez. (Baylor College of Medicine)

Why isn’t the focus corrective policy and legislation to address the issues at these Civil Rights Commemorations? Why doesn’t adequate fund raising and resources ever come out of these civil rights galas and commemorations? I know we probably spent the budget flying all the luminaries and celebrities in to commemorate.  I think it’s damning that we have these inhumane conditions as we’re about to do another commemoration with the upcoming 50th Anniversary of the Poor People’s Campaign and the assassination of Dr. Martin Luther King, jr. How do we celebrate humanity and ignore the conditions of humanity? Talking and praying about it doesn’t equal remediation and restitution. We seem to only care about worshiping the past and the ancestors who are long gone with no regard to those who are still living. Today people are living in dire situations today but we can’t let that get in the way of our planned commemoration.

Perry County Alabama is the birth home of Mrs. Coretta Scott King we have had the continual  toxic dumping of coal ash in the predominantly black community.

“Esther Calhoun crumpled tissue and wiped away tears last week as she told a federal commission what it was like to live next to a mountain of hazardous waste.

“If you come to Uniontown, [Alabama] you’ll see this mountain of coal ash,” Esther said. “You would see that no one should live this close to coal ash. No one in their right mind would want to live this close to coal ash.” Coal ash, the remnants of coal that’s burned in power plants to generate electricity, is a ghastly mix of carcinogens and neurotoxins.

“The U.S. Environmental Protect Agency documented 160 coal ash disposal sites had poisoned drinking water or air. Some 140 million tons of coal ash are generated every year.

Esther lives near the Arrowhead municipal landfill in Uniontown, Ala. It began taking coal ash in 2010 from the largest coal ash spill in history in Kingston, Tenn., where four million cubic yards of coal ash breached an impoundment. Kingston is a majority white community and Uniontown, with a population of 1,700, is nearly 90 percent black.” (earth justice)

When I think about how we typically do these Civil Rights Commemorations it reminds me of the story of the Good Samaratian from the bible. In the story the Priest and the Levite were too busy to stop and help the man in dire circumstances because they had to go do their religious activities.

‘WALK ON BY…’

Luke 10

Parable of the Good Samaritan

30 Jesus replied with a story: “A Jewish man was traveling from Jerusalem down to Jericho, and he was attacked by bandits. They stripped him of his clothes, beat him up, and left him half dead beside the road.

31 “By chance a priest came along. But when he saw the man lying there, he crossed to the other side of the road and passed him by. 32 A Temple assistant[b]walked over and looked at him lying there, but he also passed by on the other side.

33 “Then a despised Samaritan came along, and when he saw the man, he felt compassion for him. 34 Going over to him, the Samaritan soothed his wounds with olive oil and wine and bandaged them. Then he put the man on his own donkey and took him to an inn, where he took care of him. 35 The next day he handed the innkeeper two silver coins,[c] telling him, ‘Take care of this man. If his bill runs higher than this, I’ll pay you the next time I’m here.’

36 “Now which of these three would you say was a neighbor to the man who was attacked by bandits?” Jesus asked.

37 The man replied, “The one who showed him mercy.”

Then Jesus said, “Yes, now go and do the same.”

We can no longer just retract the steps of history during these civil rights commemorations. We have to pay attention to the communities and conditions of the people and show the same mercy the good Samaritan did. We need less galas and celebrations and more substantive work. There is nothing wrong with attending a commemoration but true change happens when you actually do something to change the oppressive conditions that are present in communities today.

    What’s Wrong with Civil Rights Commemorations was originally published on Pure Cities

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The Beloved Community: Building Sustainable Ecosystems in the Black Community.

We cannot talk about rebuilding failed black communities unless we understand we’re not talking about dealing with dilapidated housing, environmental pollution and the absence of fresh food and grocery stores. We must understand we’re dealing with a failed ecosystem in the community. There is a symbiotic relationship between failing schools, depressed housing values, high crime, people living at or below the poverty line, energy poverty and chronic health issues. Everything is interconnected and impacts the ecosystem in the community.

Ecosystem a system, or a group of interconnected elements, formed by the interaction of a community of organisms with their environment and also with their non-living environments. The non-living environments include weather, earth sun, soil, climate and atmosphere.

FOOD ACCESS

In the previous blog “The Death of the Black Community: No Grocery Stores” we highlighted how retail stores like Publix avoid communities designated as Food Deserts. When communities don’t have retail grocery stores this also can mean you will not have the other businesses and stores that attach themselves to a anchor grocery store in a shopping center plaza. These shopping centers attached to grocery stores can mean hundreds of jobs and can lead to further development in the community. The question then is why don’t black communities just open their own grocery stores and have their own businesses in the shopping plaza. In Atlanta there is a thriving Asian community where they are opening their 4th H-Mart store. These stores not only provide fresh food and vegetables but also sell products from asian companies thus creating sustainability for the community. When grocery stores like Kroger are embedded into the ecosystem of a community they help build an acnhor for other businesses to come into the area.

“Businesses can thrive when they locate next to a Kroger-bannered store, and Kroger Real Estate owns many of the shopping centers located adjacent to its stores.  If you’re looking to lease retail space, consider locating your business next to us. Kroger Real Estate can pair you with a great location next to a neighbor that’s one of the best names in business.” (Kroger.com)

 How can you build a good ecosystem in struggling black communities when retain chains are closing stores in underperforming markets and communities and cutting back on expansion? Stores are trying to be more productive.

“You will see, like [CEO] Frank Blake did with Home Depot, fewer stores, higher volume and more productivity, and more profitability per store,” he said. (Supermarket News)

As we come upon the 50th Anniversary of Dr. Martin Luther King, Jr’s  the Poor People’s Campaign in Memphis, Tennessee. The SCLC is pleading with Kroger to keep it’s stores open in struggling black communities.

“We’re asking Kroger corporate and officials to look at another avenue,” an Southern Christian Leadership Conference Memphis Branch President Rev. Walter Womack.

He and other members of the SCLC pleaded to Kroger, where many live in poverty and don’t have transportation.

“It also creates hardship on the citizens in surrounding areas, especially our elderly,” he said. (WREG Memphis)

ENVIRONMENTAL CONCERNS 

Another major component of the ecosystem in the black community is the quality of the environment. Unfortunately the report “Toxic Waste and Race at Twenty,” which found that more than half of all people in the United States who live within 3.0 kilometers (1.86 miles) of a hazardous waste facility are people of color.  “Racial discrimination in zoning and the housing market, along with siting decisions based on following the path of least resistance, may best explain present-day inequities “( Jim Erickson).  Improving fresh food access in the black community without addressing systemic issues with toxic and hazardous waste does not improve the ecosystem.  In Atlanta, GA Green Law has done research illustrating how toxic and hazardous waste pollution is disproportionate in black communities in the city.  “blocks with a minority population 50 percent or higher have more than double the number of pollution points than blocks where minorities make up less than 10 percent of the population” (Green Law)

When you have toxic and hazardous waste facilities in the community ecosystem it not only impacts the health and well being of the residents but lowers housing values.

HEATLH IMPACTS

Not far from the birthplace of Mrs. Coretta Scott King (wife of Dr. Martin Luther King, Jr.) in Lowndes County Alabama we have an unprecedented hookwork epidemic. “Children playing feet away from open pools of raw sewage; drinking water pumped beside cracked pipes of untreated waste; human faeces flushed back into kitchen sinks and bathtubs whenever the rains come; people testing positive for hookworm, an intestinal parasite that thrives on extreme poverty.” (the Guardian)

My wife is from rural Alabama not too far from here and inadequate waste disposal infrastructure is a prevalent issue.  These same areas also have low access to fresh food and produce, combined with toxic and hazardous waste that all impact health and life expectancy. A third of the population live below the poverty line in Lowndes County. This is also where Dr. Martin Luther King, Jr. Marched from Selma to Montgomery and every year people make a symbolic pilgrimage to Edmond Pettus Bridge but we still have Third World conditions in this area while people are celebrating and pontificating about days long past.

We cannot talk about building resilient communities especially in the black community unless we deal with the ecosystems of these communities.

TRANSPORTATION ACCESS

“Many low-income people in urban and suburban areas struggle to find reliable transportation. The result is missed appointments and poor illness management, even when care is readily available.” (Imran Cronk The Atlantic)

The lack of reliable public transportation infrastructure is prevalent in the black community. Either not having access to a vehicle or public transportation limits residents from being able to make doctors appointments and get basic treatment. In countries like Singapore which now ranked number 4 in the world in life expectancy the government put an emphasis in putting in infrastructure to insure the health and well being of its citizens.

“In the early years of Singapore’s independence, health issues mainly pertained to poor nutrition and hygiene factors. Health education focused on teaching a largely uneducated population to practice preventive measures like hand-washing and boiling drinking water. As Singapore developed, the government started putting in place accessible and affordable quality health services. The investment in the health system was complemented by further government investments in an effective public health system such as the provision of clean drinking water and good sanitation, the enforcement of food safety standards and pollution control. Singapore also set up an entire government agency, the Health Promotion Board (HPB), which is dedicated to promoting healthy diets, exercise, health education and regular screenings among Singaporeans.” (Healthy Partners.net)

In order for communities to become sustainable and resilient the local, state and federal governments in partnership with public private partnerships must build the ecosystems of the communities starting with the marginalized.

“Let us be dissatisfied until America will no longer have high blood pressure of creeds and an anemia of deeds. Let us be dissatisfied until the tragic walls that separate the outer city of wealth and comfort from the inner city of poverty and despair shall be crushed by the battering rams of the fires of justice. Let us be dissatisfied until they who live on the outskirts of Hope are brought into the metropolis of daily security. Let us be dissatisfied until slums are cast into the junk heap of history and every family will live in a decent, sanitary home. Let us be dissatisfied until the dark yesterdays of segregated schools will be transformed into the bright tomorrows of quality integrated education.” ― Martin Luther King Jr., Where Do We Go from Here: Chaos or Community?

The Beloved Community: Building Sustainable Ecosystems in the Black Community. was originally published on Pure Cities

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The Death of the Black Community: No Grocery Stores

In Birmingham, Alabama an IBM smarter cities study revealed that 80% of the population was living in a food desert. Out of the 151 square miles of the City of Birmingham, 43 square miles is considered to be a “Food Desert”, where over 88,000 people reside. 83% of the residents impacted are Black and Latino with no access to fresh food.  The USDA considers an area a Food Desert where a person has to travel over a mile to get access to fresh fruits, vegetables, whole foods from supermarkets and farmer’s markets. Birmingham is not an anomaly, all across the country the USDA has identified that communities of color are disproportionately cut off from access to fresh food in a food desert. The data shows that if your community doesn’t have actual real grocery stores not Dollar General stores that don’t stock fresh food, not corner stores that stock unhealthy sugary junk food, but actual major grocery store chains, your community will not attract any other business development. The community will be more than a “food desert” but an economic wasteland.

— An Associated Press analysis found that of 73 large grocery stores that opened in Alabama between 2011 and the beginning of 2015, 11 opened in areas that the U.S. Department of Agriculture considers a food desert — or an area with limited access to supermarkets that is home to a relatively high number of low-income residents. (full article “Grocery store chains avoid opening in Alabama food deserts“)

— The nation’s top 75 food retailers opened almost 10,300 stores in new locations from 2011 to the first quarter of 2015, 2,434 of which were grocery stores. Take away convenience stores and “dollar stores,” which generally don’t sell fresh fruits, vegetables or meat, and barely more than 250 of the new supermarkets were in so-called food deserts, or neighborhoods without stores that offer fresh produce and meats.

— As the largest supermarket chains have been slow to build in food deserts, the so-called dollar stores have multiplied rapidly. Three chains — Dollar General (DG), Family Dollar and Dollar Tree (DLTR) — made up two-thirds of new stores in food deserts. (full article “Big grocery chains leave U.S. “food deserts” parched“)

THE KING CENTER, PURE, PROJECT KARMA AND LAKEWOOD CHURCH OF HOPE WORK TO ADDRESS FOOD DESERTS IN ATLANTA

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As stated earlier getting a Dollar General in an area that doesn’t have access to fresh food does not solve the problem because these stores don’t stock fresh food. If we overlay a map of the areas that are food deserts we will see these are the same areas where you find large segments of the population that live below the poverty line.

The Healthy Food Financing Initiative has distributed more than $500 million to increase fresh food access—at the same time that funding for food stamps, a program proven to improve the lives of people living in poverty, was cut to pre-stimulus levels. Since the reductions, food stamp recipients have received just $1.40 per meal per family member. (full article “Food Deserts Aren’t the Problem“)

People still have to be able to afford the fresh food and fresh organic food is expensive. For example in Birmingham, Alabama over 30% of the population lives below the poverty line. So not having access to fresh food is a symptom of the greater issues of poverty and the lack of ownership of grocer store chains.  Grocery stores have a business model and format they don’t want to risk deviation from.

“Agriculture Secretary Tom Vilsack believes stores that open in food deserts need to be attuned to the particulars of their communities to succeed.

“You have to cater to the people who live there. You have to know who they are,” Vilsack said during a recent visit to Orlando.

That’s where the large supermarket chains often run into trouble, since they have rigid formats that often miss the nuances of a community, said Jeff Brown, CEO of Brown’s Super Stores in the Philadelphia area.

“They’re not selling what they should be selling because they don’t understand,” said Brown, whose company has seven stores in underserved neighborhoods.” (article “Grocery chains leave food deserts barren, AP analysis finds“)

According to a report by The Food Trust, access to healthy food also impacts schools and school aged children living in food deserts.

“While research has more frequently examined access to healthy food relative to the home, some recent studies have sought to explore the food environment around schools.156, 188-190 The food environment in many low-income urban communities often comprises primarily convenience stores and smaller markets. Convenience stores located in close proximity to middle and high schools represent an important—yet predominantly unhealthy—source of food for youth, and can have a substantial impact on diets regardless of the quality of food provided in schools.” – The Food Trust (link to full report)

Are there any Black owned large retail grocery store chains that understand the nuances of the black community that could bridge the gap?

The Black Community needs grocery store reparations, there are only 2 black owned grocery chains

  #1 – Calhoun Foods Grocery in Montgomery, AL: has more than five supermarkets and over 300 employees throughout Alabama. It was founded by Greg Calhoun in 1984.

#2 – Apples and Oranges Fresh Market in Baltimore, MD: Michele Speaks-March and her husband went from the funeral business to the grocery business in 2013. Their goal is to provide healthy food choices for residents of East Baltimore and the surrounding area. (full article “The Last Two Black Owned Grocery Stores in America”

Lack of business ownership in grocery retailing is as big as a problem as poverty in these food deserts. It appears there is nothing that can be done. The politicians have been asked to fund programs but the programs can’t make for profit businesses take risks that their business models don’t work for.

Publix is often an anchor tenant as part of a larger shopping center development. The Business model doesn’t fit low-income areas and low income areas are food deserts which are predominately black communities.  Business Development in a community helps brings jobs, large retail grocery stores can bring 150 jobs to a community. These shopping center developments that often have regional and national grocery store chains bring jobs and increase the housing values of the surrounding neighborhoods. Nothing lives long in the desert and if there is no viable solution for food deserts then these mostly black communities will die out or get gentrified with residents who fit the business model to support grocery stores and other businesses.

The Death of the Black Community: No Grocery Stores was originally published on Pure Cities

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A Tale of Two Cities: Atlanta

On the surface you look at the Atlanta Mayoral race and it looks like a race between a two women, one black and one white. A race for the political control of a diverse city that has been democratically led for decades. Can the voters be objective and vote for the independent? Atlanta is in the midst of rapid city wide revitalization as evidenced by the cranes all across the skyline. As “smart city systems” come online who will be able to “Live Work and Play” in Atlanta. How can Atlanta be sustainable and resilient for ALL residents of every demographic and income level? Does having a white mayor end the reality of Atlanta being a “Black Mecca”? Does policy play a bigger role in who thrives or do you have to have black leadership in order for black people to thrive in the “city too busy to hate?” FEAR OF A WHITE MAYOR 

What are we saying in 2017 if we have a white Mayor in a majority black city then it’s going to be bad for black communities? Historically this could be true but we also have to look at historically in Atlanta since 1974, how have traditional black communities fared under black mayors. I wish we could get past “black and white” in the South and deal with policy but unfortunately since the Atlanta Riots in 1906, race has always been a specter in Atlanta politics. My agenda is about putting low to moderate communities at the forefront of the political discussion. One of Atlanta’s most famous citizens said:

“As long as there is poverty in this world, no man can be totally rich even if he has a billion dollars.”- Dr. King, “The American Dream” speech, 1961.

“God never intended for one group of people to live in superfluous inordinate wealth, while others live in abject deadening poverty.” – Dr. King, “Strength to Love”, 1963

When we talk about the future of Atlanta we have to look at this future holistically with every stakeholder in mind from those living below the poverty line to those who are living in Midtown in expensive condos. The idea of “Black Mecca” can’t be just about successful black people in a majority black city, we have to consider what those who are not “prospering” have to say about their own experience in Atlanta. In the video below a black woman tells why she is voting for Mary Norwood.

  THE BAD AND BOUJEE UTOPIA  Is there economic progress in Atlanta well if you look at that the new Mercedes Benz stadium “yes, Atlanta is world class”. Yet I also must ask who gaining progress? There are some people who are advocating to “Keep Atlanta Black” but I ask for which black people? The Bad and Boujee who are eating at Houston’s or everyday black people who are eating at JJ Fish & Chicken? The black folks who are paraded on reality TV from Atlanta don’t represent the majority of people who live in Atlanta. So how do we measure progress? Ponce City Market? I still see the SAME homeless black men outside of Ponce City Market by the Starbucks that were there back in 2006 when it was City Hall East (I used to worked there). The data suggests that unfortunately in too many cases black leadership has not served the everyday people they represent like they do the billionaires and celebs they gala with. What does Atlanta look like where Big Mama lives?.

THE OTHER ATLANTA

-22.5% of the population in Atlanta, GA (434,759 people) live below the poverty line, a number that is higher than the national average of 14.7%. The largest demographic living in poverty is Female 25-34, followed by Female 18-24 and then Male 18-24. <—THESE ARE BLACK FOLKS!!! (link for data)

-the majority of black folks who have been represented by black city council people —> make less than $25,000 a year, look at the areas below in light blue, this is where black folks live and have been represented by black political leaders. Why can’t we talk about the obvious? Why can’t we expect our elected leadership to do more for our vote besides just get the vote “just cause?”.

Below the map shows the areas in red where people who don’t have access to a vehicle in the Atlanta Metro area. Some affluent people will say “Just ride MARTA” but they may not have had to get around on MARTA before. I have it’s an ordeal as this person describes below.

“MARTA makes my 12-minute commute by car into a two-hour ordeal involving a bus, a train, another bus, and a third bus. . . . I don’t know anyone who rides MARTA by choice. It’s always poor people, disabled people who can’t drive, or people who’ve lost their license due to DUI.” –http://commuting.blog.ajc.com/2015/05/29/how-to-make-marta-even-smarta/

– Again The largest demographic living in poverty is BLACK Female 25-34, followed by Female 18-24 and then Male 18-24.

“The recession in Atlanta was particularly brutal for everyone—rich and poor, city and suburban. The housing market took a beating and dragged the whole metropolitan economy down with it,” says Alan Berube, a senior fellow at Brookings and one of the report’s co-authors. “The region is now recovering, but rather unequally.” The USDA considers “poorly stocked corner stores” as supermarkets. Most of the areas black people live in don’t have a Whole Foods, Sprouts, Fresh Market, or Trader Joe’s or Publix. How is it that black elected leadership doesn’t understand the people they serve need fresh organic healthy food too like the white folks? We can’t “Live Work Play” if we can’t eat healthy? These are not “new issues” and it’s sad that in a Democratic city, a black Mecca that you have these systemic issues impacting traditional neighborhoods for decades. (link to data and maps)

– Home Values the predominately white northside and the predominately black southside is stark: Homes in North Dekalb have appreciated by as much as 40 percent while homes in South DeKalb have depreciated by 40 percent. (link to data)

For example, one homeowner says the home he bought in 2005 for $269,000 was recently valued at $189,000 when he tried to refinance his mortgage.

“It just does not make sense,” he said. “You’ve got doctors, lawyers, teachers, all kinds of professional people, retired military like myself, who’ve done everything right — everything right — and it never seems to work out in our favor.” (Why doesn’t the elected leadership have the answers Sway?)

– The Worst performing schools in GA —> Four school districts in the core metro Atlanta area were represented on the list: Atlanta Public Schools and the DeKalb County School District each had 16, the most of any district in the state; Fulton County had eight and Clayton County had one. (link to data)

– In a region that prides itself on celebrity chefs and lush farmers markets, half a million people live without access to something as basic as a grocery store. (See below)

– the safest neighborhoods in Atlanta are the white neighborhoods not the black neighborhoods who is to blame for this? Republicans who are not in charge? (link to data)

  -There seems to be this HATE for the Homeless in Atlanta has as it was ranked No. 4 “Most Neediest Cities”. Thousands are homeless and Researchers counted approximately 3,374 homeless youth in metro Atlanta — almost triple the number of people counted in previous surveys. The report found three-quarters were African-American and a little more than half were male. A little more than half of the males were between the ages of 20 to 25 years old. Less than 5 percent of the youth were minors. And nearly one-third identified as LGBT. (link to data) BLACK ATLANTA IS A TALE OF TWO CITIES, I love T.I. and all the black celebs but the average black person in Atlanta don’t ride Wraith and live in a mansion YET our politicians too often cater to that black constituency more than Big Mama who lives on Cleveland Ave. We have to define what “Voting Black Means”, who does it benefit? We can’t keep ignoring the reality of everyday folk in order to showcase The Bad and Boujee Utopian Dream in Atlanta. Too much of Atlanta is like the 1970s sitcom “Good Times” where people are “scratching and surviving…Good Times” and the blame can’t be solely placed on republicans. Atlanta’s future is promising but we have to make a more inclusive city for all it’s stakeholders regardless of social class. Atlanta just can’t be a black mecca for a few people in order for it to be the world class city it aims to be. The city has to graduate and be a Mecca for everybody, regardless of shade of skin color (Asians, Latinos, Black White everybody should win) And this blog is #NoShade it’s about considering everybody from the homeless to those in the suites in the new Mercedes Benz Stadium. Let’s be True to Atlanta in the spirit of Honorable Maynard Jackson and include everybody in the progress.

A Tale of Two Cities: Atlanta was originally published on Pure Cities

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GENTRIFICATION: Public Housing, Hipsters and 'The Trap'

When we think about Public Housing and welfare, what images come to mind? the faces of black people, namely single mothers with multiple children. Public Housing was created by the government as a “New Deal” for middle and low income white American citizens. The suburbs through policies of redlining were created to give white people access to home ownership and generational wealth. Whereas black people were denied access and forced to live in black communities which the government marginalized their housing values. Now were seeing the cycle reversed, white hipsters are fleeing the suburbs and returning to fertile gentrified inner city communities, while black residents who were forced to live in these historically black communities are being displaced to the suburbs. The caveat is their being displaced to the black suburbs where housing values still have not recovered from the Housing crisis of 2008.

PUBLIC HOUSING

After the Great Depression there was a shortage of houses in America and the government devised a plan to get middle and low income white people housing. This included public housing and then housing in the suburbs it was all subsidized by the government creating wealth where there had been none due to the Great Depression. This “housing boom” excluding black people except for the few places that started to build separate black housing projects. Even if you were black and in the military and fought for your country you still were denied access to these programs including the G.I. Bill.   So when we think about urban revitalization, smart cities, green building and sustainable development. These concepts are not new, historically the government has always found ways to subsidize and build communities and in the process create wealth. It wasn’t just hard work that got white America off their feet and into the suburbs after the Great Depression but it was many government programs that excluded black people.  What we’re seeing with gentrification across America is history repeating itself. African Americans are unable to have access to the new opportunities in cities across America systematically.

“So it was the Federal Housing Administration that depopulated public housing of white families, while the public housing authorities were charged with the responsibility of housing African-Americans who were increasingly too poor to pay the full cost of their rent.”- Terry Gross (NPR)

Let’s look at gentrification in Atlanta because in a lot of ways Atlanta was a test case city. The first public housing in the United States was Techwood Homes created in 1935 and was built in Atlanta to help white people living in the slums called Techwood Flats to have a better life. In this videoDerrick Boazman explains what Gentrification looks like in the black community, specifically in Atlanta. How does gentrification impact Big Mama, tradition neighborhoods and institutions like the church? Urban Revitalization often looks like billion dollar stadiums and the construction of new centers to “Live, Work and Play” but who can afford to live in these new developments?  This panel discussion “Gentrification, Displacement and Urban Economic Development” takes place during the Rainbow PUSH Coalition & Citizenship Education Fund 18th Annual Creating Opportunity Conference in Atlanta, GA.

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HIGH RENT DISTRICT

 We have to not just look at gentrification as an event of displacement but understand why is it happening in Atlanta and cities across America. The real issue is poverty and income inequality, which Atlanta leads the nation for the second year in row in income inequality. A brooking Institute study cites:

“The study looks at households in the 95th percentile of income — which in Atlanta averages out to about $288,000 — compared against what the 20th percent of households receive for their paychecks — a little less than $15,000 on average. According to the findings, which are based on data from the 2013 American Community Survey, the city’s income inequality levels are more than twice the national average.” Max Bleu (Creative Loafing, “Atlanta, once again the nation’s leader in income inequality“)

If your income does not increase to keep pace with increasing expenses in cites that are going through revitalization you will eventually have to move. Gentrification is not such much about “getting rid of black people”, it’s that traditional black neighborhoods become unaffordable.

“According to the Housing Strategy for the City of Atlanta, in 2012 40% of renters and 53% of homeowners were “cost burdened” meaning they spent more than 30% of their income on housing.” (Atlanta Magazine)  

Housing values are going up in many areas but not incomes, so how do people afford to pay the increased taxes? We all want increased home values because it builds equity and wealth but if you can’t pay the taxes, then you have to sell or move.

 “Data from Zillow shows that between December 2011 and December 2015, the median home value rose from $168,000 to $258,000 in Cabbagetown, from $281,000 to $428,000 in Inman Park, and from $460,000 to $695,000 in Morningside/Lenox Park” (Atlanta Magazine) 

Maya Dillard Smith explains how gentrification is impacting traditional black communities from Oakland to Atlanta in this video from the “Gentrification, Displacement and Urban Economic Development” takes place during the Rainbow PUSH Coalition & Citizenship Education Fund 18th Annual Creating Opportunity Conference in Atlanta, GA.

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THE TRAP

In the hood they call it “the trap” the place where all kinds of illegal transactions take place from drug sells to prostitution. It’s the only way to survive for many individuals who are locked out of the job market and trapped in neighborhoods with failing schools, trapped in a food dessert often located by clustered toxic and hazardous waste facilities. Once these areas become desirable again then all of the sudden police patrols pick up and city services increase as white people begin to move back into the community. So what happens if you’re on a fixed income in one of these communities that are in the midst of “revitalization”? The real issue of gentrification is poverty and stagnated incomes to offset the ever increasing cost of living. We have to find ways to incorporate social sustainability into our smart city building and urban revitalization and that means job opportunities with higher income levels. We have to provide incentives and for people to go into business just like we provide incentives for big developers. Atlanta is the first city to eliminate all it’s public housing but it doesn’t mean it actually solved any of the systemic problems. We have to be more inclusive in our city planning and find ways to subsidize people who are trying to stay in their communities the same way we get creative to subsidize Billionaires when they want to build new stadiums.

GENTRIFICATION: Public Housing, Hipsters and ‘The Trap’ was originally published on Pure Cities

[purecities]

Equity and Opportunity in the Green Economy

Can we designate a city as a “Smart City” if equity is not a central component of the sustainable development goals? Will opportunity be available to all stakeholders in the community? I recently had the honor of moderating a panel for the national NAACP conference for the Environmental and Climate Justice (ECJ) Program Workshop, Bridging the Gap: Connecting Communities of Color to the Green Economy. Where we addressed the issues of equity and opportunity in the “Green Economy”.

NAACP’S Bridging the Gap: Connecting Communities of Color to the Green Economy 

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Building Green Utopias across in America are idealistic but we have to deal with the underlying realities of inequity in our cities first. For example Houston is in the midst of trying to recovering from Hurricane Harvey, a category 4 hurricane that has caused estimates of 180  billion dollars in damage. 

“About 37,000 refugees stayed overnight in 270 shelters in Texas plus another 2,000 in seven Louisiana shelters, the highest number reported so far by the American Red Cross.

Some 84,700 homes and businesses were without power on Sunday, down from a peak of around 300,000, according to the region’s major electric companies.” (reuters)

Overnight, Houston’s main shelter at the city’s convention center filled to its initial capacity, even as thousands who are being rescued from Hurricane Harvey across southeast Texas need places to stay. NBC’s Jacob Rascon reports on life inside the shelters for TODAY.

Inequity Before the Storm and After?

Valanda Streets, 45, a mother of three, meets with a counselor Hoang Nguyen to go over the number of credits needed to complete her associate arts degree at Houston Community College Northeast, Monday, May 11, 2015, in Houston, Texas. Streets was not satisfied with the information she received on the credits needed to graduate. It is difficult for Valanda, who makes $24,000 a year as a certified nursing assistant at the Woman’s Hospital of Texas, to raise three children on her own. She hopes to continue her education and complete a four-year degree to provide a better life for herself and children

Before Hurricane Harvey hit the city, Houston ranks as the 15th most unequal in terms of income and wage disparity among the nation’s 50 largest cities, according to the Brookings Institution. In Houston the top 5 percent of households earn about 12 times more than the bottom 20 percent. When people say people in Houston should have just left once receiving warning about the impending Hurricane we don’t understand that 156,000 of the city’s households have an income under $18,759. So you tell me if they have a disaster preparedness plan? People are trying to survive day to day. So when we talk about Houston recovering from the storm we have to consider what the social economic conditions were like before the storm. According to the U.S. Census Bureau, the number of African-Americans in the Greater Third Ward has shrunk by more than 10 percent over the past decade as the white population has doubled in the area. This community that once housed traditional, single-family or shotgun homes, are now vacant lots or now have new townhomes that are too expensive for the current Third Ward residents who have an average income of under $20,000 a year.

“Approximately three years ago, there was a lot pressure being placed on Third Ward, Medical Center, and downtown area homeowners to sell their homes. Residents began placing signs in their yard saying, ‘My home is not for sale.’ As a result, developers, recognizing the demand, began building exclusive loft and condominium complexes that the average Third Ward resident cannot afford.” – Gerald Womack, President and CEO of Womack Development & Investment Realtors ( article The Third Ward: The White Invasion)

What Clean Up?

  Before the storm we have to recognize the city of Houston is home to over 500 industrial sites and many cause toxic and hazardous waste disporportionatley in communities of color. So before we can talk about recovery and building green in Houston we have more than storm damage to clean if we’re going to rebuild the city.

Daymon Thomas, 7, says he can smell the chemicals at the abandoned hazardous waste site from the front yard of his home in south Houston.

In the aftermath of Hurricane Katrina a lot of green development was initiated but who benefited? Many of the residents who were displaced by Hurricane Katrina were unable to return to New Orleans. Post Katrina in New Orleans Many of the formally black neighborhoods are now majority white.  Will “Green and Sustainable Development” equal the displacement of African Americans and the poor?

What appeared to be an oil slick was visible on Houston floodwaters on Wednesday. Credit Andrew Burton for The New York Times

THE OPPORTUNITIES

Houston is just an example of the complexity of sustainable development and equity that many of of urban cities are facing today in light of Climate Change. If we don’t see sustainable development through the lens of social equity then we will allow the least of these among us to fall through the cracks as we build “smart cities”. Who will get a chance to get access to these “clean green jobs” that we have been hearing about for the last decade. African Americans make about 12% of the U.S. Labor force but only make up the 5.9% of the solar industry labor force according to U.S. Bureau of Labor Statistics. We contrast that with the Latinos who make up 15.6% of the solar work force and 6.7% for Asians. This is equivalent to their percentage of their percentage of the population. According to the Environmental and Study Institute the study reports that 3,384,834 Americans were directly employed by the clean energy industry (which includes the energy efficiency, smart grid, and energy storage industries; electric power generation from renewables; renewable fuels production; and the electric, hybrid, and hydrogen-based vehicle industries). There is an opportunity for individuals who have a trade and craftsman skills like plumber and HVAC technician to transfer those skills over to Green Jobs in the Energy Efficiency sector. We just need to partner with renewable and green companies with trade schools and community colleges to help get citizens the necessary technical skills and training.

I recently was able to speak to the U.S. Green Buildings Counsel of Georgia  and my message was clear that we have to view sustainable development through the lens of social equity. If we are going to build the Beloved Community we have to value all members of society and all stakeholders a place at the table in the Green / Low Carbon Economy.

Djuan Coleon of PURE speaking at the Building sustainable communities through social equity (USGBC Georgia) event.

  Upcoming Event in Atlanta with Rainbow PUSH Coalition

  Equity and Opportunity in the Green Economy was originally published on Pure Cities

[purecities]

Can America Fight Energy Poverty with Solar Power?

Energy Poverty is defined as when a household spends more than 10% of their income on energy costs. In America there are several places shown on a map using census and federal energy data shows where energy costs are 50% of the incomes. The poor cannot afford higher energy costs. Can America fight Energy Poverty with Solar Power? The average cost to install residential solar power is almost $17,000 in 2017. Who living below the poverty line has an extra $17,000 laying around?

(Volunteers install solar on Grid Alternatives first multifamily affordable housing project in Washington D.C.)

How do we insure low to moderate income communities have access to solar at a affordable rate to reduce their energy costs. Low to moderate-income households (about 40 percent of the country) make up only 5 percent of the rooftop solar market in 2013. One of the major obstacles is that most are renters and don’t have control over the roof of the home. This is part of the problem that my team is faced with in Brunswick, GA,  a city on the coast of Georgia with a 42% Poverty rate. Our team PURE Brunswick recently was selected by the Department of Energy to design and implement a project to give access to solar to LMI (Low to Moderate Income) communities.

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“The federal government’s Low Income Home Energy Assistance Program, or LIHEAP, provides by far the largest source of funding in the nation to help the poor with power bills, most of that going to home heating costs. LIHEAP provided $3.39 billion in funding in 2015. The nonpartisan Congressional Research Service estimates only 22 percent of those eligible for LIHEAP assistance receive it.” – Dan Boyce  and Jordan Wirfs-Brock

  What are the options to reduce energy costs for low to moderate income communities? Besides investing in renewable energy sources, local governments like in New York are deciding to attempt to offset energy costs for it’s citizens. Governor Cuomo and the New York State Public Service Commission approved the state’s first Energy Affordability Policy. This will provide almost two million low-income New Yorkers with $248 million in direct to offset energy costs. This new policy limits energy costs to no more than 6 percent of the household income for low-income New Yorkers a 50% discount to what current rates are.

SOLAR TO THE RESCUE

U.S. Department of Housing and Urban Development’s (HUD) Renew300 Program has been promoting solar installations with Public Housing Authority.

Link to full report: https://www.hudexchange.info/course-content/solar-project-development-for-public-housing-authorities-webinar/Solar-Project-Development-for-PHAs-webinar-slides.pdf

As much as we believe solar to be the answer to our energy needs. We must also realize solar is a business. Solar power is not FREE and people living below the poverty line are not going to have upfront capital to get access to solar. The city of Santa Barbara, California provided an excellent solution to not only help lower energy costs they also provided access to solar power. The Housing Authority of Santa Barbara did a 100% offsetting of energy consumption for their 21 properties. This was done with the installation of 1,700 solar photovoltaic panels on 253 building units producing 1.7 mega-watts of power. The project utilized California renewable energy incentives, federal grants and renewable investment tax credit provisions enacted by the American Recovery and Reinvestment Act, and HUD’s Energy Performance Contract (EPC), about 50% of the costs were offset by federal sources. In order to make this type of installation work it required working with the local utilities, city government and federal government resources and partnerships. In order for America to address Energy Poverty in communities that are often poor and historically frontline communities for toxic and hazardous waste. We must be creative in our approach to not only bring solar to these communities but also eliminate the pollution in the areas.

“YOU’VE PROBABLY NOTICED THAT FACTORIES, POWER PLANTS, AND SUPERFUND SITES TEND TO CLUSTER IN COMMUNITIES ALREADY BURDENED WITH SOCIAL STRESSES; IT’S A VICIOUS CYCLE WHERE BEING POOR MEANS YOUR ENVIRONMENT IS TERRIBLE, AND POVERTY PLUS THE TERRIBLE ENVIRONMENT MAKES YOU MORE SICK, WHICH IN TURN CAN KEEP YOU POOR. THANKS, CAPITALISM!” — BY JESS ZIMMERMAN

So addressing energy needs of the poor is something we cannot do in a vacuum we must look at systemic issues as well in order to be effective. We have to be willing to form public private partnerships and work with all stakeholders including utilities to get access to the grid. In Brunswick, GA we are not just looking at ways to bring solar power to LMI communities but how can we build a green ecosystem to address multiple issues that affect the poor.

    Can America Fight Energy Poverty with Solar Power? was originally published on Pure Cities

[purecities]

Smart Cities, Big Data and The Matrix

As I sit in this session “Defining Smart City Governance — Architectures of Co-creation and Integration” hosted by Georgia Tech’s Serve Learn Sustain we discussed how to frame smart cities and connected communities. This session was apart of the  Integrated Network for Social Sustainability 2017 Conference. We collaborated with live feeds from conference sites in Lima, Peru; Baltimore, Maryland; Atlanta, Georgia; and Charlotte, North Carolina.  We are faced with the challenges of utilizing big data to build better communities but if were not careful the data can further marginalize frontline communities.  How do we avoid system failure? How do we know the difference between good data and bad data? What is the objective of the data accumulation and who owns the data and has access to it? The “machines”, all these millions of sensors connected to the internet of things are monitoring everything from our movement in the cities, the impacts of climate change to geosurveillance.  The data gathered from the machines present outcomes to decision makers who often are driven by economic outcomes not human outcomes.

Machine City – The Matrix Revolutions (2003)

We live, work and play in cities that are ever increasingly driven by data. The Internet of things and the millions of sensors connected in a network across systems in our cities is how we measure how “Smart” a city can be. It reminds me of the movie the Matrix where the machines monitored and controlled human existence, the system relentlessly sought efficiency. The machines and sensors and the aggregation of data is how they see people they don’t see the humanity. Sadly the system does not properly compute the human quotient. This is problematic because humans are “wired” to react to stimuli often in emotional ways. Police brutality, lead poisoning, climate change are stimuli we have a emotional reaction to but the leadership in our cities look to the “machines” to give them cold emotionless data to address our needs. We have to reconcile the need for economic gains and efficiency and the gains that humanity receives from this modernization.

EQUITY, DATA AND SMART CITIES

We have to look holistically at how data can be used systematically to create outcomes that can be detrimental to different stakeholders. One example is the issue of the wealth gap between black families and white families in America in these cities. In 2009, the median black family’s net worth was one tenth of the median white family’s, resulting in a wealth gap of $236,500 (Shapiro 2013). As we deal with computing equity in our smart cites one must consider home ownership and home values. Do housing values drop when black families move in? How will the decision makers look at this data? Will this lead to less investment in a community because the property values are down? The data may suggest a property value depressed area needs community revitalization but that often creates gentrification which in turn increases the property values for the new residents but how was equity addressed? 

“the market penalizes integration: the higher the percentage of blacks in the neighborhood, the less the home is worth, even when researchers control for age, social class, household structure and geography.” Dorothy Brown, Professor of Tax Law Emory University

How does the data compute for long time systemic racism? Understanding how to offset inherent system bias will be critical to creating equity in smart cities. When we implement geosurveillance systems what communities and populations will to subject to the kinds of monitoring that leads to more interaction with the police? For instance if the sensors pick up a gunshot in a part of town that has historical data for high crime will the data sway the interaction the police have with the citizens?

“Continuous geosurveillance relies on the production of spatial big data, and in particular the notion of the “smart city” takes center stage, that is, urban landscapes that can be monitored, managed and regulated in real-time using ICT infrastructure and ubiquitous computing. Such instrumented cities are promoted as providing enhanced and more efficient and effective city services, ensuring safety and security, and providing resilience to economic and environmental shocks, but they also seriously infringe upon citizen’s privacy and are being used to profile and socially sort people, enact forms of anticipatory governance, and enable control creep, that is re-appropriation for uses beyond their initial design.” – Rob Kitchen 

Will there be an over dependence on data with real time ubiquitous computing systems? There is an argument being made in the sports world today about the use of analytics to predict performance but old school players say the machines cannot measure human emotion. Will the superstar player shrink under pressure or rise to the occasion and sink the big shot. The machines cannot measure the “heart” of a player like Michael Jordan who may have a terrible shooting night and then all of the sudden score the last 10 points to win the game.

TAKING ACTION

If we are serious about creating equity in our smart cities then we must allow input from all stakeholders. We must include the input of traditionally marginalized and frontline communities. We have to make the data accessible for everyone. How will grassroots organizations and everyday citizens be able to digest and leverage the data to be able to give input to the system? For example during COP 21 and the subsequent Paris Agreement leaders decided on 2.0 Celsius as the maximum global rise in temperature based on the data. Yet the same data to  citizens that represent frontline communities advocate for 1.5 degree temperature rise because a 2.0 rise has catastrophic effects on countries in the Caribbean.

“for us in small island developing states, climate change requires a redirection of development towards resilience and sustainability in the face of increasing temperatures, more extreme meteorological events, sea level rise, biodiversity loss and the progressive disappearance of critical potable water resources.” – Minister of State for the Environment Simon 

film ‘1.5 – Stay Alive’ for Caribbean Islands and HBCU students at COP 21 in Paris

The end results was that equity prevailed and small island nations and developing nations were able have  1.5 degrees as the new target. This is an excellent example of how stakeholder engagement should operate in Smart Cities. During the Paris Accord small countries that do not have economic or political clout but still had their voice heard and got their inputs to the system addressed. If we’re to create smart equitable cities we must commit to holistic evaluation and application of the data so that all community stakeholders have input and get their needs addressed. Sustainable Development cannot be done in a vacuum or focused on aspirational projects like autonomous vehicles. Smart cities are about connectivity and access but what happens when more machines are connected than people? Over half of working class families in America are disconnected. Smart Cities will have to commit to addressing the digital divide.

“Disparities in health, education, and employment are exacerbated by lack of access to online resources.” – James Walker, Founder CEO of Informative Technologies.

Equity must be at the core of  Smart Cites and Sustainable Development that provides access and connectivity for all social economic groups. Big data is not inherently bad but we must make sure the data serves the needs of all stakeholders and not exclude or further marginalize stakeholders in our communities. When communities have access to the data they can properly voice their needs and can move towards policy change through legislation that benefit the communities.

            Smart Cities, Big Data and The Matrix was originally published on Pure Cities

[purecities]

The Link Between Energy Security and Building Sustainability

ENERGY POVERTY

“Energy planning often takes place far from those without energy access; leaving them unseen, unheard and under-represented. ” -Helen Clark Administrator United Nations Development Programme

In the photo a woman is stacking Yak Dung to use as fuel for all energy needs including cooking as shown with the child in front of a pot of food. As we frame this global green economy and envision all the jobs that are going to be created. How does this impact the over two billion people around the globe who are in energy poverty? The discussion about Energy security must be framed beyond just reliable, uninterrupted energy supply and clean energy sources but also access. There are costs associated with leaving marginalized populations out of access to energy sources. For instance according to the Poor People’s Energy Outlook 2016 nearly 50% of the health facilities in India don’t have access to electricity which is about 580 million people. When hospital facilities don’t have access to energy it exacerbates the health issues of the people subject to treatment by these facilities.

In Kenya, for example, only 25% of facilities have a reliable energy supply, and blackouts happen at least six times a month, for an average of 4.5 hours at a time. This “directly affects services such as childbirth and emergency treatment, and limits night-time services. It can also lead to wasted vaccines, blood and medicines that require constant storage temperatures. Backup generators can be extremely expensive,” –Claire Provost

ENERGY SECURITY AND WATER POVERTY

United Nations Sustainable Development Goal number 1 is to end poverty. Global energy goals to reduce our carbon footprint utilize renewable energy sources should not be mutually exclusive to ending poverty. Let us consider that 90% of power generation is water intensive.

“Global water withdrawals for energy production in 2010 were estimated at 583 billion cubic metres (bcm), or some 15% of the world’s total water withdrawals. Of that, water consumption – the volume withdrawn but not returned to its source – was 66 bcm. In the New Policies Scenario, withdrawals increase by about 20% between 2010 and 2035, but consumption rises by a more dramatic 85%. These trends are driven by a shift towards higher efficiency power plants with more advanced cooling systems (that reduce withdrawals but increase consumption per unit of electricity produced) and by expanding biofuels production. ” (report International Energy Agency)

If we continue to require more water to produce energy then how does this affect water security? What about marginalized populations who have scarce access to clean water? According to a United Nations report over 783 million people do not have access to clean water globally.  It is estimated that almost 8 million people a year die from water related diseases and natural disasters. Natural disasters are on the rise due to Climate Change and its impacts that disproportionally affect marginalized populations. Everything leads back to dealing with the challenges of poverty. The U.S. Department of State Energy Security and the Georgia Council of International Visitors invited me to have a dialogue about Energy Security and Sustainability as a global issue.

ENERGY SECURITY IN AMERICA?

The United States is not exempt from the complexities and challenges of dealing with Energy Security and Energy Poverty.

The United States is not exempt from the complexities and challenges of dealing with Energy Security and Energy Poverty. Today marks 1,222 days and the City of Flint Michigan, in these United States STILL does not have access to clean drinking water. The lack of access to clean water is going to leave lasting negative health impacts on the citizens of Flint. Compounding the health issues in Flint is the attempts by our government to repeal the Affordable Care Act. We will pass more legislation like the 2009 AMERICAN RECOVERY AND REINVESTMENT ACT that allowed low to moderate income communities be able to bridge the gap and get access to energy efficiency programs and funding to modernize their homes and cut energy costs?

“Much of the U.S. energy system predates the turn of the 21st century. Most electric transmission and distribution lines were constructed in the 1950s and 1960s with a 50-year life expectancy, and the more than 640,000 miles of high-voltage transmission lines in the lower 48 states’ power grids are at full capacity. Energy infrastructure is undergoing increased investment to ensure long-term capacity and sustainability; in 2015, 40% of additional power generation came from natural gas and renewable systems. Without greater attention to aging equipment, capacity bottlenecks, and increased demand, as well as increasing storm and climate impacts, Americans will likely experience longer and more frequent power interruptions.” (American Society of Civil Engineers, Infrastructure Report Card)

CLEAN ENERGY OVERNIGHT?

When we realistically look at the state of our energy infrastructure in America we cannot believe that we can “flip a switch” and change our energy grid to completely renewable energy sources overnight. Recently the City of Atlanta became the 27th city in America to commit to be 100% renewable energy municipality. The timeframe is by 2035 so in the interim we are going to have to work together with all stakeholders in the communities from the utility companies to the residents in LMI communities to make sure everybody benefits in the transition.  We have to be willing to explore new approaches and technologies like microgrids to increase resiliency and sustainability in our cities as well as the developing world with marginalized populations.

“From a global sustainability macro-perspective, the real work that needs to be done is in the developing world, the people that will determine the fate of our planet. If countries in Africa and Asia follow in our past footsteps when it comes to energy infrastructure, we are doomed. Clearly, instead of dumping our rejected products and technologies in emerging economies, ideas such as the microgrid would instead place these regions of the world at the forefront of appropriate scale technologies that solve, rather than create, problems. ” – Peter Asmus Associate Director, Energy Navigant Research

LOCAL APPLICATION

The City of Brunswick Georgia has a poverty rate of 42% and our team wanted to figure out a way to provide solar access to the residents in the city. A team that includes the city of Brunswick, PURE and Georgia Power was selected to participate in the U.S. Department of Energy’s Solar in Your Community Challenge in an effort to make solar energy accessible to those in the low-to-moderate income communities.

Called PUREBrunswick, the team also includes PURE Cities — an organization with a focus on climate justice and sustainable development — the Roosevelt Lawrence Community Center and the Boys and Girls Club.

“We are thrilled that our team was selected to join the challenge,” said Djuan Coleon of PURE Cities located in Atlanta. “Our project will benefit the people of the city of Brunswick and the Golden Isles and increase the area’s solar energy by producing 100 kilowatts of solar power, demonstrate an innovative new business model that can scale nationwide and also demonstrate that solar is a viable option for low and moderate (income) residents in our state.”  When dealing with the challenges of energy we also must realize an address the challenges of poverty and access if we are truly going to be able to build resilient and sustainable communities.

PUREBrunswick Solar Initiative

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  The Link Between Energy Security and Building Sustainability was originally published on Pure Cities

[purecities]

Smart Cities Innovation and the role of Energy

Smart Cites is a concept that is not coming but it’s already here. Cities all over the globe and in America are in the process of transforming their urban centers into more efficient, resilient, sustainable and livable spaces for citizens to be able to “Live, Work and Play” in. The Smart Cities Council defines a smart city as one that has digital technology embedded across all city functions. The challenge is not just getting these functions to work in sync but how do we “power” everything? The last 8 years the government promoted a Clean Power Plan as the energy solution to build our smart city frameworks. . Is switching energy sources simple as switching one Lego block for another is it “plug and play”.Can cities just swap out their entire electric power grids to renewable energy? Would that be “smart” to do?

The Navajo Generating Station. (Ross D. Franklin / Associated Press)

CHALLENGES AHEAD

The American Society of Engineers 2017 Energy Infrastructure Report card grade is: D+

“Much of the U.S. energy system predates the turn of the 20th century. Most electric transmission and distribution lines were constructed in the 1950s and 1960s with a 50-year life expectancy, and the more than 640,000 miles of high-voltage transmission lines in the lower 48 states’ power grids are at full capacity.”

One of the major components of a Smart City is the energy grid. In the next 4 to 8 years cities will have to be innovative in upgrading their energy sources juxtaposed with President Trump vowing to revive the coal industry jobs and the fossil fuels industry. City leadership will have to decide how to keep the power on with the level of consistency we’re used to with fossil fuels and at the same time reduce the carbon footprint? Are American cities going to be able to be powered 100% by renewable energy sources anytime soon?  The pitch has been so simplistic “coal is bad, save the planet with solar”. Fossil Fuels are not the only culprit of pollution as we have seen lead in the water in cities like Flint. Smart Cities have to not just build but be innovative in toxic and hazardous waste disposal.

“In metropolitan areas, where four of every five hazardous waste facilities are located, people of color percentages in hazardous waste host neighborhoods are significantly greater than those in non­host areas (57% vs. 33%). One hundred and five of the 149 metropolitan areas with facilities (70%) have host neighborhoods with disproportionately high percentages of people of color, and 46 of these metro areas (31%) have majority people of color host neighborhoods.” (Toxic Wastes and Race at Twenty: 1987-2007)

Cancer Alley, Louisiana

  Smart Cities are not just about “cool” new LEED certified buildings and beautiful parks and green spaces. We must find ways to make energy affordable because solar is still not an option for many of our working families and those living below the poverty line. Do cities have in plans how to include low to moderate income communities. Maybe the hope is all those people will be displaced by gentrification. Who pays for LMI communities to get renewable energy when they can’t afford to get it themselves? According to a Brookings Report income disparity and income inequality is on the rise in our urban cities.

Studies show the incomes in our cities are going down or stagnated inflation of the price of everything is going up. Every city in America can’t build or rehab communities for “expected guests” from other cities to relocate. We have to include traditional minority communities in our smart city migration process.  How we power our cities is critical to who lives in our cities.

KEEP THE POWER ON THROUGH COLLABORATION 

Can we realistically keep the power on and switch to solar overnight and save the planet? In reality it took Las Vegas 10 years to switch 140 buildings over to 100% renewable energy. Yet the city of Las Vegas did not completely leave out the utility company. Las Vegas was able to create a smart city energy grid in collaboration with NV Energy the utility company in Las Vegas.

“Boulder Solar II is the 14th solar energy resource to serve customers in Nevada, and one of 43 diverse renewable energy projects that are helping to meet the electricity needs of NV Energy customers” 

How Las Vegas wants to power its neon. (Jason Reed / Reuters)

Las Vegas’s population is about 549,000 with a 10% African American population and a 30% Hispanic population. The median income is $22,429 down -5.3%.  How many cities can duplicate the energy mix of Las Vegas which is a combination of solar panels, hydroelectric turbines and the Hoover Dam    So the burden of “switching the grid” was not soley on the tax payers. One of the key aspects of “smart cities” is collaboration with all stakeholders including the utility companies. The utilities own the grid and even the lighting systems in many municipalities. Cities have to figure out how to work together like Las Vegas did to improve their infrastructure more than ever since the government under President Trump is not going to be supporting renewable energy with federal dollars as the previous administration. How will cities pay for the improvements? Will they raise taxes? Will the utilities be forced to raise rates? How does this benefit the citizens whom the smart city are supposed to benefit? There is is only one city in America that is completely 100% renewable and that is. The first city to switch their grid over to 100% renewable energy is Burlington, Vermont (pop. 42,000), but you have to look at how they did it. Burlington implement a solar farm, wind power from the mountains and a dam on the local river. The city of Burlington owns it’s own power grid but this does not mean the cities residents get “free” energy from the grid. Renewable energy even 100% renewable is not going to be free to consumers, they will still get energy bills. Will these costs be lower that fossil fuels? Just because your city becomes powered by 100% renewable energy this does not mean the residents will also be “off the grid”. If the residents can’t afford to invest in generating their own energy source they will be reliant on the smart city options the city provides for them for a cost. Renewable energy is as much about reducing the carbon footprint as it is changing and increasing revenue models for cities who no longer want to see utility companies make profits off of providing energy to it’s citizens.  Cities are not all created the same and don’t have the same access to natural resources as others. City planners will have to be strategic on what is the right mix of energy sources for their demographics of citizens based on income levels and accessibility.

SMART UTILITIES

Utility companies do more than provide energy, one of the critical components of a smart city is data management of energy resources. Providing energy has to be a coordinated collaborative effort in a smart city because in order to serve the needs of the citizens you need to be able to anticipate needs based on historical data. Electricity, Water and Natural Gas utilities are in the process of modernizing their own part to the overall “smart city” grid. All the the data collected has to be able to communicated through sensors across the grid for greater system intelligence. Municipalities cannot do these tasks alone without the help of utilities. According to a Smart Cities Utility report by

Forty percent of respondents indicated they are waiting for assets to wear out before upgrading— suggesting adherence to the old adage,“If it ain’t broken, don’t fix it.” (Black and Veatch)

The modern age is as much industrial revolution as it is human evolution, and with this maturity come new value streams. – Edward Sutton (Grid Modernization Shifting to A Digital Grid Takes System-wide Grid Modernization)

As we undertake this Smart City revolution across America we have to not just think dollars and sense but environmental stewardship. And with environmental stewardship that means the actual people being impacted by the environment. So often in the “green climate change” discourse there is not enough consideration for the communities who are impacted negatively by our environmental choices. Are we building new urban utopias and leaving out whole swaths of the population? Will cities seek to forge the fourth industrial revolution alone or will they collaborate with long time utility companies? One thing is for certain a smart city has to not only engage all stake holders at every level but holistically include everyone in the discussion. We cannot let the machines and senors make all the decisions, we must remember a smart city is about building a better way of life for all the people in the cities.

  Smart Cities Innovation and the role of Energy was originally published on Pure Cities

[purecities]

Building Sustainability with Refugee Populations #SDG11

In an effort to help achieve the United Nations Global Goals, our coalition focused on goal #11 “SUSTAINABLE CITIES AND COMMUNITIES” – Make cities and human settlements inclusive, safe, resilient and sustainable. Clarkston, GA is a refugee resettlement enclave right outside of Atlanta, Ga. Areas within this Clarkston neighborhood lie outside the Clarkston city and in the unincorporated county, and as a result there is a fundamental lack of any support for regular public maintenance. Currently, the sidewalks and paths our children try to use to walk to and from school (both Indian Creek Elementary and Clarkston High School) have become nothing more than a pile of mud and pine needle detritus a foot deep in places. Join PURE  and our partners Georgia Tech Serve and Learn, Friends of Refugees and the King Center for a special service project as we highlight the larger struggle for transportation and pedestrian safety with our county leadership, while modeling the act of taking responsibility for the immediate solution in the midst of seeking a permanent change.

Please watch the video of the service project:

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  Building Sustainability with Refugee Populations #SDG11 was originally published on Pure Cities

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Will "Climate Change" Under President Donald Trump?

President Obama spent 8 years trying to lead the world in reducing it’s carbon footprint. Will President Elect Donald Trump even acknowledge there is such a thing as Climate Change? How will Trump’s appointments at the EPA and the Department affect the direction of the country on the environment?

House Republicans shut down investigation into Flint water crisis, blame EPA instead , the ongoing blame game in Flint has ended with the musical chairs stopping at the EPA. The Republicans have not always been on the right side of the Climate Change debate but in the case of Flint, I believe the EPA dropped the ball. The EPA under President Obama was aggressive to override the states when it came to enforcing the Clean Power Plan mandates and cutting back carbon pollution from coal plants. There has been a strong push to make solar, the preferred energy choice of the future. Now when it came to keeping our water supply clean like our air, the EPA in places like Flint did not take the same aggressive action to make states like Michigan in Flint more compliant. The EPA could have done a better job to enforce the Safe Drinking Water Act (1974). So on one hand environmentalist fear a Trump presidency but Flint and the Standing Rock Pipeline protests happened under President Obama’s watch. President Obama nor the EPA did much of anything to stop the pollution from Oil companies the last 8 years.  Now the real concern for the environmental is a policy moving forward is will Trump reverse President Obama’s overall renewable energy stance. Under President Trump energy independence is not found under renewables but fossil fuels.

“I think that the environmental movement has been proclaiming doom right around the corner since it was founded in the late 1960s,” he said. “It’s how they fund the environmental movement. It’s how they attract political support, by saying we have this crisis. We’ve had one crisis after another. Many of them were real problems, but not crises.” – Myron Ebell (Donald Trump Transition head EPA) 

The Sierra Club has vowed to dig in and fight even harder for a pro-climate change agenda in Washington.

“When it comes to the remaining Cabinet positions, including Secretary of Energy, Secretary of the Interior, and Secretary of State, we urge Donald Trump to quickly realize the errors of his ways and nominates people who are truly fit for the job, those who accept climate science, and to protect our public lands, air, water and climate.” – Melinda Pierce (“Trump’s Cabinet of Fossil Fuels”)

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President Elect Donald Trump met with former Vice President Al Gore and there is some optimism that President Trump would be open to consider the realities of Climate Change.  Both sides of this energy debate are mobilizing and drawing lines in the sand. I believe the next four years will be very contentious on Climate Change and the environment.  Forty-eight U.S. Mayors have signed an open letter to President Elect Donald Trump urging him to keep President Obama’s mandates.

“While we are prepared to forge ahead even in the absence of federal support, we know that if we stand united on this issue, we can make change that will resonate for generations,” they wrote. “We have no choice and no room to doubt our resolve. The time for bold leadership and action is now. There is absolutely a sense of urgency about our cities and our world today,” he said. “Cities bear the brunt of climate change, and cities produce the biggest part of the emissions in the world. So this will be up to cities to solve.” – Mayor Eric Garcetti of Los Angeles

IS THERE MIDDLE GROUND?

Nuclear power is considered a clean energy source and they’re four new nuclear plants under construction in the United States. Nuclear power creates over 60% of all emission free electricity in America.  If the energy debate is truly about clean energy options and not just business interests, should not nuclear be a viable option?

“Congress, states, federal agencies and the Nuclear Regulatory Commission should work more closely with utilities to maintain our existing reactors when it is safe to do so and build more reactors, because without nuclear power, it’ll be much harder to reduce carbon emissions,” – U.S. Sen. Lamar Alexander, R-Tenn (article Economic, environmental bliss hinge on nuclear energy)

  Can policy makers, utilities and environmental groups come together and do what’s right for the people in the community? Can a realistic energy options between reducing our carbon footprint and what is affordable to every stakeholder in the community be agreed upon in 2017? Well I suspect a greater divide between the sides and more environmental protests in 2017 before we come together on the future of energy in this country.

  Will “Climate Change” Under President Donald Trump? was originally published on Pure Cities

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Smart Cities and Sustainable Transport: Will Everyone Be Able To Ride?

Sustainable Development Goal number 11 has a target that by 2030, “provide access to safe, affordable, accessible and sustainable transport systems for all, improving road safety, notably by expanding public transport, with special attention to the needs of those in vulnerable situations, women, children, persons with disabilities and older persons.” Is it harder for marginalized populations to “catch a ride” in Smart Cites?

Smart City Transport, what are the options? Well we have smart street car projects in cities like Atlanta.  In Austin, Texas there are plans for connected automated cars, smart stations and mobility marketplaces. Columbus, Ohio is focused on creating Real-time transportation systems and smart transportation corridors. In Birmingham, Alabama they have electric assist bike sharing programs. Kansas City, Missouri is planning to use sensors that have the ability to measure that will monitor mobility, emissions and safety. If you factor in the usage of electric cars, Smart Cities will look like Tomorrowland at Disney Land.

So Who Gets Transported?

Public transportation has historically failed poor and marginalized communities in America. All of these Smart City transport innovations are touted to be public transport solutions.  In Washington, D.C. the Metro system is facing systematic cuts in service in a time when cities are supposed to providing more transport options.

“Slashing services could help the system with operating costs, but at a profound cost to the city in terms of social equity. As 11 of the stations targeted for cuts are located in Ward 7, Ward 8, and P.G. County, the proposal would disproportionately hamper D.C.’s poorest and blackest communities.” -Kriston Kapps 

Instead of investing in the Metro system, D.C. has rolled out a bike sharing program. On the surface ideas like bike share programs seem like great ways to give people access or are these innovations just options for those who already have options? For example in Washington D.C. studies show that majority of users of the bike share programs are white, male and 50% make of $100,000 a year. Bike share programs are not free and often for poor and marginalized communities those bikes are not available in their area of town. In Atlanta on the Westside of the city, women have to use a old school innovation called “the ride man”. The “ride man” is like Uber for the poor who don’t have a personal vehicle. The Westside of Atlanta is largely a food desert and food swamp and without a car it is hard to get to grocery stores out of the immediate area. So I was at a community meeting where they talked about women paying $35 a ride to the “ride man” (a man with a car that picks them up to take them grocery shopping) round trip to take them to get groceries. Unless you live a gentrified area of town and you are poor you don’t have “smart options” to the new transportation options. The Atlanta smart street cars don’t travel down to West End side of town into the neighborhoods.

December 30, 2014 Atlanta – Crowds gather as an Atlanta Streetcar arrives during a grand opening ceremony at Woodruff Park on Tuesday, December 30, 2014. After escalating costs and a series of delays, the Atlanta street car finally rolled through a stretch of downtown Atlanta. President Obama’s transportation legacy hinges on his ability to move the nation toward rail, and the streetcar is one of the first completed projects aimed at making the nation more rail oriented. And the city sees the streetcar as the first of many streetcars that will create an auxiliary transit system over time, attracting investment and creating jobs. HYOSUB SHIN / [email protected]

How do you convince citizens that you “smart sensors” in the road will help manage and monitor emissions and safety when they still have trouble getting pop holes repaired? We are planning how to manage self driving cars when many in marginalized communities don’t have access to regular cars. We have technological progress and moral ineptitude. When we think and plan Smart City transport systems the focus can’t just be on options and access but inclusion and equity. Studies have shown links between upward mobility, poverty and public transportation. A Harvard study has revealed in cities like Atlanta, Boston, New York Los Angeles and Birmingham, Al  that there is a connection between long commute times and poverty. So what will we do to expand the scope of Smart City Transport beyond the “high rent district” to marginalized communities that desperately need affordable options?  If we don’t find equitable solutions in Smart City Transport then many of the poor may end up out of service.

An out-of-service transit bus rolls through Somerville, Mass.,Tuesday, Feb. 10, 2015. The storm left the Boston-area with another two feet of snow and forced the MBTA to buses on a limited basis, and suspended all rail service for the day Tuesday to clean tracks and repair equipment. (AP Photo/Josh Reynolds)

  Smart Cities and Sustainable Transport: Will Everyone Be Able To Ride? was originally published on Pure Cities

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Smart Cities: Solar Power and Lead Poisoning

How do we reconcile the virtues of Smart Cities and renewable energy sources such as solar power juxtaposed with lead poisoning in our cities? Solar power is set to grow by 94% in 2016. In the first quarter solar accounted for 64% of new electric capacity additions enough to power 5.7 million homes. Yet at the other end of the spectrum we are seeing lead poisoning proliferate in low income communities of Cleveland, Chicago, and of course Flint.

  How does Solar power and lead poisoning fit within the framework of the United Nations 17 Sustainable Development goals?  United Nations Sustainable Development Goal #11 “Make cities and human settlements inclusive, safe, resilient and sustainable”.  As we build Smart Cities and modernize our urban infrastructure we cannot allow certain segments of the population to fall through the proverbial cracks. As LEED certified green building designs continues to grow, we still have lingering issues of lead poisoning in existing buildings in American urban cities. In Cleveland, Ohio almost 3 times as many children are affected by lead poisoning as compared to Flint, Michigan. The culprit is lead paint in the homes of several communities in Cleveland.  In East Chicago the EPA is requiring 1000 children and adults to relocate from their homes because of  toxic levels of lead in the soil. The level found is 227 times the allowable amount of lead in the soil. Cities like Cleveland, Chicago and Pittsburgh where once smelting centers where factories were located to process various metals. Decades later these contaminants can be found still in the soil. As we changed from an economy of manufacturing in the twentieth century to now smart cities based on technology. We still have to collectively address out old economy problems.

SMART WATER SYSTEMS?

For the first time in history the majority of the world’s population lives in a city. By 2050 70% of the world’s population will live in an urban city. One of the challenges is managing the water system in these cities where the populations are ever increasing.  Smart water systems are critical to helping to insure the sustainable management of water. I used to be a project manger on several watershed management projects in the city of Atlanta and the surrounded areas for several years. Water system management is as important as energy management, the two are actually connected. Water systems can have high energy costs to a city.  Focusing on just reducing our carbon footprint without equal effort on water security and management is not “smart”. The human body is made up of almost 65% water so it is important for citizens to have access to reliable clean water. Some of the ways cities are cresting Smart Water systems is through sensor technology, data analytics, automation and control devices.

“From a survey conducted by the U.S. Environmental Protection Agency, The Drinking Water Infrastructure Needs Survey and Assessment, projected needed upgrades to pipes, treatment plants and water distribution systems. The report, which by law must be submitted to Congress every four years, examined 73,400 water systems. In many cases, drinking water infrastructure was reported to be 50 to 100 years old.” – Bobbi Harris Principal consultant, Smart Water Smart City 

The United States according to the EPA  needs $384 Billion in water infrastructure upgrades.

“A safe and adequate supply of drinking water in our homes, schools and businesses is essential to the health and prosperity of every American,” said EPA Acting Administrator Bob Perciasepe.

Yet to this date the residents of Flint, Michigan STILL do not have lead free drinking water, nor have any infrastructure improvements been done. There seems to more awareness and resources put towards “clean air” while some people have to drink polluted water in cities like Flint with very little available resources. How does clean air and solar panels on the roof help you when you don’t have clean water coming out your faucets? One of the problems in the green movement is that there is not a lot of holistic thinking. We don’t seem to connect the dots across the board. Do we need the same kind of state and local incentives that solar has in order to get a movement for clean water?  This week in Milwaukee, Wisconsin the Mayor is ordering residents whose homes were built before 1951 to add certified filters to their faucets to remove the lead from their water.  Senators in the state of Michigan are still haggling over $100 million dollars in funding to do infrastructure upgrades and replacements to the water system in places like Flint. We have to insure as we build Smart Cities and Smart Grids that we just don’t focus solely on solar power at the expense of water systems.  Reducing lead is poisoning is just as important as reducing our carbon footprint. We have to work and think holistically for the betterment of all stakeholders.

  Smart Cities: Solar Power and Lead Poisoning was originally published on Pure Cities

[purecities]

Smart Cities: Connected Things and Disconnected Citizens

Forecasters predict there will be over 1.7 Billion connected things in use in our cities by 2018. The Internet of Things (IoT) allows everything from LED street lighting to your refrigerator to communicate and share data. In a move to be more efficient and leverage data municipalities are aggressively planning how to be more connected. The issue is what happens when the humans that are supposed to be benefiting by this technological advancement are left out of the information loop, disengaged and disconnected?

HIGH CONNECTIVITY AND LOW ENGAGEMENT 

The United Nations Sustainable Development Goal 11 is to make cities inclusive, safe, resilient and sustainable. In order to do that I believe it must involve some input and engagement with the targeted citizens as to what they feel is inclusive, safe, resilient and sustainable. Is the concept of a “Smart City” just a measurable of the various technological systems working together or is there a human component? How does the average citizen have a say in the technology or how it will be used in their community? These sensors will be collecting data and leveraging that data in many ways from traffic monitoring to power usage in the home. How are the everyday people finding out about these changes? If the purpose is to improve how we “Live, Work and Play” would it not behove us to get more community engagement in the process of smart city implementation?  In a survey done by Citylab 70% of the residents are satisfied with the current offerings of service by their local government. Yet when it comes to black residents, 44% lack confidence and or trust their local government.

When we are dealing with urban centers with higher concentrations of minority residents they want more improvements in transportation, public schools and public safety. How do we sell these improvements to the energy grid and smart city tech as helping their quality of life? Simple we have to do a better job of connecting the dots between Smart City technology and everyday life touch points. For example LED Street Lighting projects can help improve with public safety. Companies like GE are employing technology in LED street lights that can detect gunfire and autonomously alert the police. In Los Angeles Phillips is employing their SmartPole technology lighting systems that employ a number of services for citizens including broadband services. If we connect the dots and educate citizens on how the technologies can improve their quality of life then we get more engaged stakeholders in our cities.

A MACHINE WORLD

In the movie series “The Matrix” the machines took over the world and used the energy of humans to create sustainability. There is this fear that comes with not knowing. People fear what they don’t know and some populations are not getting informed. Smart Cities are in different implementation phases all over the world and citizens may feel like the technology is intrusive or too controlling.

(the machines harvesting the energy of humans in The Matrix)

We cannot measure progress in a vacuum not all citizens are able to benefit from Smart City infrastructure upgrades. We may be enamored with the idea of intelligent appliances being able to reduce utility bills like Pantelligent’s smart frying pan.

    How do smart frying pans that can help you cook the perfect salmon while saving energy relate to citizens that live in a food desert with no access to fresh salmon? Over 23 million people mostly low income and minority live in food deserts across America.  If we can effectively connect the dots to the technology to the needs of different social economic groups of citizens then collectively the city would “get smarter”. The problem is low income and elderly citizens get left out of the loop and left feeling disconnected from the process. Low income residents are disporportionatley affected to toxic and hazardous waste in their community. Will American cities employ sensors to monitor air quality like they’re doing in Santander, Spain? These monitoring systems have real time monitoring capability with display maps citizens can readily see and be informed about their environment.

In order to insure the success of “Smart Cities” we must not just focus on data management and efficiency with out thought to citizen engagement. I wouldn’t want to live in a city where the appliances and frying pans were better connected and informed than the people who use them.

    Smart Cities: Connected Things and Disconnected Citizens was originally published on Pure Cities

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Turn The Lights On, Smart Cities and LED Street Lighting

“Build Resilient Infrastructure” is Sustainable Development Goal number 9 out of 17 United Nations Sustainable Development Goals for the world’s cities to achieve by 2032. Flint, Michigan and it’s water security crisis has is just one reason why cities need resilient infrastructure.  Roads, bridges, LEED certified buildings are just some of infrastructure improvements that cities need to make in order to transition to smart cities. I believe one of the first improvements cities have to make is upgrading their high-pressure sodium lighting or mercury vapor lamp street lighting systems to more energy efficient LED lights.  

TURN THE LIGHTS ON

The City of Los Angeles has seen their electricity bill reduced by over 40% by replacing their street lights with LEDs.  The city of Boston saves $2.8 million a year with its upgraded lighting and the project has paid for itself in a year and a half.

Mayor William Bell of Birmingham, Alabama spoke at the recent NAACP Convention in Cincinnati. Mayor Bell talked about the city’s partnership with Phillips and Alabama Power for a LED street lighting project the city of Birmingham is undertaking. The City of Birmingham is replacing over 30,000 lights including 1500 lights in five public housing communities.

In Detroit a lot of the street lights no longer work and According to Public Lighting Authority of Detroit (PLA), “. . . approximately 40 percent of the old streetlights were not in operation due to burned out bulbs, deteriorated infrastructure, or theft of copper.” Dark or poorly lit city streets are major safety concern for both motorists and pedestrians.

(Boston LED Lighting Project)

In Detroit a lot of the street lights no longer work and According to Public Lighting Authority of Detroit (PLA), “. . . approximately 40 percent of the old streetlights were not in operation due to burned out bulbs, deteriorated infrastructure, or theft of copper.” Dark or poorly lit city streets are major safety concern for both motorists and pedestrians.

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ENGAGE THE COMMUNITY

I believe municipalities have an opportunity to engage communities as part of the process of installing LED lighting projects. One of the challenges is when cities do infrastructure projects oftentimes all the stakeholders are not involved or given a voice in the process. Low income communities seem to not get the memo when these kinds of vital projects are being planned and implemented in their community. Smart Cities should mean smarter citizens thus we should include every stake holder in the the process. How can cities focus on a network of “things” connected by sensors communicating and collaborating and not include the people in the feedback loop?  LED lighting projects can help build a framework to a digital network in municipalities. LEDs have the scalability to add electronic communication devices, sensors and software intelligence for Big Data usage.  For example LED street lighting can monitor traffic on highways or be used for emergency broadcasting services. In communities LEDs can be used to help deter crime and be used by local police and fire departments for monitoring and response. Communities need to understand how LEDs will help improve their quality life and how the technology is connected to building smart cities, in order to take ownership. In the retail shopping space LEDs are being used in Indoor Location- Based Services. Engaging the community in all infrastructure decisions helps build trust and community cohesion. People deserve to know how and why their tax dollars are being used. When it comes to LED lighting projects there have been some studies that show that there could be some negative effects. We also must consider the community when installing LED street lighting projects because various new studies have come out that call for concern of “light pollution” from LEDs.

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        Turn The Lights On, Smart Cities and LED Street Lighting was originally published on Pure Cities

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Will Smart Cities be Equitable Cities?

In 2015 the United Nations held the Sustainable Development Summit with world leaders who adopted the 2030 Agenda for Sustainable Development. A set of 17 Sustainable Development Goals (SDGs) were adopted to end poverty, fight inequality and injustice, and tackle climate change by 2030. The SDG’s help frame the world’s cities goals to build Smart Cities and provide greater connectivity via The Internet of Things (IoT). What cannot get lost in society is still wrestling archaic constructs of race and class. How do we build Smart Cities juxtaposed with systemic issues of police brutality, environmental and social justice?   

The United Nations has adopted 17 Sustainable Development Goals and I believe goal number 16 “Peace, Justice and Strong Institutions” is paramount in building sustainability in communities and cities.

“Promote peaceful and inclusive societies for sustainable development, provide access to justice for all and build effective, accountable and inclusive institutions at all levels” (Global Goals Peace and Justice) 

Building “Smart Cities” is not just about upgrading the infrastructure, adding green spaces and increasing transportation options. Citizens of every demographic have to feel included in the process as well as included in society. Right now we have such a divide in America when it comes to law enforcement and how policing is done in black, white and brown communities.

“African-Americans make up only 13 percent of the population, yet they are the victims in 26 percent of all police shootings. That is nearly 3 times the rate of whites.” ( Matt Agorist “The Free Thought Project” )

  We just can’t be concerned about improving transportation options for citizens but we also have to improve police and community relations so there is equity.

The U.S. Department of Transportation issued a “Smart City Challenge” to integrate and connect technology – self-driving cars, connected vehicles, and smart sensors – into their transportation network. Yet there seems to be this obliviousness to the challenge that low income and disadvantaged communities don’t have adequate access to regular bus and rail service. 

“Without really good public transportation, it’s very difficult to deal with inequality,” Kanter said. Access to just about everything associated with upward mobility and economic progress—jobs, quality food, and goods (at reasonable prices), healthcare, and schooling— relies on the ability to get around in an efficient way, and for an affordable price.” ( Rosabeth Moss Kanter The Atlantic ). 

Smart city innovations are great but will there be equity innovation? One of the new trends in city is Bike sharing programs but studies have shown over the 800 plus programs across America. The majority of the users of the bike sharing program are white and half of these users have incomes over $100,00 a year.

“Bike share is still very much the domain of white upper-class males,” said transportation researcher Elliot Fishman, who contributed to 2014 findings that revealed members of bike-share programs skew male, wealthy, educated, and Caucasian. ( Take Part )

In June of 2016 Atlanta just started a bike sharing program and the costs start at $8 an Hour or $15 a month for an hour use per day. ( Atlanta Bike Sharing Program )

  The Department of Transportation recently awarded Columbus, Ohio $40 Million dollars to come up with creative ways to integrate new technologies into the city’s infrastructure. One innovation was creating “neighborhood hubs” where people can connect via smart phones and get real time information on bus routes and bike sharing availability. I always go back to equity in sustainable development. Low income and minority communities struggle to get access to bike sharing programs and expanded transportation options. As cities like Atlanta are rolling out Google Fiber networks, some residents don’t have access to the internet or have very slow connection speeds.

“More than 13 percent of low-income areas in the United States don’t have access to broadband, compared to fewer than 3 percent of the wealthiest areas” (center for public integrity)

   One of the main objectives of the United Nations Sustainable Development Goals is that “no one is left behind”. I would surmise that whole segments of society will be left behind if we don’t factor equity into the equation for “Smart Cities” and sustainable development. 

          Will Smart Cities be Equitable Cities? was originally published on Pure Cities