The Story of a Neighborhood Grocery Store

On January 21st 2011, a newspaper in the Boston neighborhood of Jamaica Plain broke the story.  The 47-year old Hi Lo Hispanic grocery store would be closing, and a Whole Foods Market would be moving in. The news was polarizing.

City councillors spoke at town meetings, alliances formed, and one thing became clear.  Gentrification pits against each other two conflicting values, both at the heart of the American identity.

Produced by Emily Corwin, and with images by Kelly Creedon, this story was funded by the Knight News Challenge project Virtual Street Corners, and was created as multimedia content for the SOTRU website.

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Emily Corwin works at the Public Radio Exchange (PRX) where she produces and curates for Public Radio Remix.  She also produces independently in Boston, MA and is the former producer and host of The Neighborhood at MIT’s WMBR 88.1FM in Cambridge.

Mobile Technology, African-Americans and Civic Engagement

The other day it was raining, I was getting out of my car. I had my keys in one hand and the cell phones rings. I grapple for the slippery, bullet-shaped metallic object (obviously not a smart phone) and it squirts out of my hand like a banana from a peel, rockets into the air and swan dives into the pavement, hitting the concrete curb with a sickening thud and breaking into three parts, the phone, the back and the battery skittering in different directions.

This was not an actual event, by the way, but a dramatization combining several real cell phone mishaps in one dramatic scenario to illustrate a point: I’m not a particular fan when it comes to cell phones. But as a civic engagement industry professional, I can’t afford to indulge my inner techno-fogey, so reluctantly I’m beginning to warm to the potential of mobile technology.

Consider this intriguing factoid from the Pew Research Center for the People and the Press: about 26 percent of Americans used their cell phones to learn about or participate in the 2010 midterm elections. By far, the highest numbers were among African-Americans, about 36 percent.

Then consider this equally intriguing (and perhaps related?) factoid: in what was otherwise a dismal turnout among youthful voters in 2010 there was one bright spot. The African-American voter turnout was higher than other groups of 18-29 year-olds, about 27.5 percent, compared to 24.9 percent of whites and 17.6 percent of Latinos.

Cell phones, in fact, may be the great exception to the “digital divide” between historically under-served or disaffected groups and more affluent Americans. African-Americans lag way behind white American when it comes to personal household wealth but are actually more likely to have cell phones and to use them for Internet access.

“I think there is great power in these tools,” says Rashad Robinson, executive director of ColorOfChange.org. “When you account for cell phone usage, for instance, there is literally no digital divide between black folks and other communities. The ways in which black folks are using cell phone technology and getting on the Internet to engage in participation opportunities was really evident during these last two elections cycles. A lot of that was because they were being engaged through cell phones and through technology around voting.”

The online organizing group formed after Hurricane Katrina when African-Americans and many others were outraged by the failure of government at all levels to come to the aid of low income residents of New Orleans. Members of ColorOfChange.org have united behind a simple pledge: to do all they can to make sure all Americans are represented, served, and protected, regardless of race or class.

“We know that young people are not living in places where they are going to get their doors knocked on,” says Robinson. “They’re not necessarily living at permanent addresses. You aren’t reaching them by calling their homes.”

Robinson is convinced, as well, that using mobile technology sets up a different kind of communication. “It’s very different in terms of how people provide information back and forth,” he explains. “You can provide everything from locations to maps via cell phones to give people the tools to be able to quickly figure out, not just whether people are registered, but where they actually vote, what their polling location was, and they can report problems they may have at the polls.”

We all know how important new media and technology were in the dramatic events that unfolded last spring in the Middle East. But here in the U.S. the potential for civic change through mobile technology is only beginning to show.

“I was on a subway platform in New York City right before the (2008) election and I saw what appeared to be high school watching the Yes We Can! video on their phones. They were having an experience around participation that has nothing to do with adults, that has nothing to do with a political party, really. They were having an experience around how to participate that was completely rooted in where we have gone with technology.”

An Update on the Atlantic Yards Development Saga

In our first season we visited Brooklyn, where the borough’s largest development project, Atlantic Yards, was getting underway. If you missed the episode, here’s a quick rundown of the story:  Atlantic Yards is a 5-billion dollar, 22-acre project that will make it the densest residential community in the country. The promise of new jobs, housing and entertainment sounded like a positive change for the community, but in order to create this new community, another had to be destroyed. In the episode, Al spoke with residents who described how their lives have been altered by having their neighborhood ripped from their hands by way of ‘eminent domain’, and others who felt that the project was the perfect way to reinvigorate their neighborhood. Both groups loved the community they lived in, but disagreed on the best way to make it all it could be.

Listen to the story here:
Atlantic Yards Segment

One of the promises made by the project’s developer, Forest City Ratner, was the creation of construction jobs for residents of Brooklyn. But at a recent meeting, Ratner said that of the 500 workers currently employed at Atlantic yards, 60 were from Brooklyn and only 38 from neighborhoods surrounding the project.

So today, dozens of Brooklyn residents gathered to protest at the worksite. Among them, community activists who were once supportive of the Atlantic Yards project, now say they feel like “suckers” because they put their support behind the development.

You can watch a video and read more about today’s protest in the Fort Green-Clinton Hill Patch.

Listen to the whole “Brooklyn – Change Happens” episode, and see videos, pictures and letters by visiting the Brooklyn page of our website.

We want to hear from you. Let us know what you think of the Atlantic Yards development in the comment section below.

Part 4 of a 4 Part Series

In Part 1, Rise to Greatness, the aspects creating an extraordinary small town are discovered, from the townspeople to the allure and exclusivity enjoyed by affluent visitors. Part 2 explores the grim outlook of Ticonderoga Today, and additional challenges affronting the town. In Part 3, Birthplace of the Alliance reveals the resolute people behind the Ticonderoga Revitalization Alliance who are fervidly working to find a progressive solution to the town’s dilemma. The last installment of this series, What Sets Us Apart, dissects and explores the reasons and resources of why the town can be successful in its revitalization, providing hope and a blueprint for other small towns.

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THE TICONDEROGA STORY – PART 4

What Sets Us Apart

In Ticonderoga, we have a reasonable chance at making the cut and, many say, serving as a successful model for other parts of the North Country — principally because we understand these issues and, thereby, the goals that must be set.  We are not intimidated by our smallness in population.  A key to our success will be our ability to re-value and leverage our natural capital and our vacant real estate to create a vibrant tourist destination anchored by an entrepreneurial backbone and academic links aimed at attracting the higher paying jobs.

Also, our approach to revitalization appears to be different in a handful of profound ways:

(1) It includes a powerful citizen’s movement at its heart,
(2) supported, initially, by its principle corporate citizens,
(3) dependent, in the long run, on a kind of market discipline through the use of public/private partnerships, whereby private investors and operating partners are incented to drive the financial and operating components of the individual projects,
(4) where increased diversity and substantially expanded academic links to the community have become essential revitalization strategies and
(5)  where the “footprint” is broad enough and capable of being expanded further to assure real reform.

The dilemma of Ticonderoga shows us the flaws and holes existing in the fabric making up our society. With the continued economic state, this is becoming more and more of a common thread binding the human spirit together. Ticonderoga is the looking glass of our nation’s heart: its will to survive easily outweighs its empty coffers.

That’s how hope works. It was a fortress of hope for citizens during a grim time of war, and now with financial turmoil threatening its existence, the town of Ticonderoga calls upon the strength of character that helped secure our nation in its humble and tumultuous beginning. Embodying the fortitude portrayed in James Fennimore Cooper’s Last of the Mohicans, Ticonderoga, too, will fight to survive. Believing in something gives rise to the spirit lying dormant in humankind. So, pondering the story of Ticonderoga, does it take “new blood” for a town to come back from the brink of extinction? Or have those at the Alliance formulated an anecdote for the resuscitation of our small towns across the nation: spirit, fortitude, and a willful defiance not to fade away from future history?

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The alliance has produced video interviews with residents and alliance members alike so that you can hear about their experience and fascinating stories first hand. This is Debra Malaney, Supervisor of the town of Ticonderoga. Below is part one of a three part interview. Visit the Ticonderoga Revitalization Alliance website to watch the other part, the other interviews, and to see the incredible photographs and other inspiring features.

Interviews conducted and produced by Josh Clement. Contact Josh here.

State of the Re:Union would like to thank Alex Levitch for contacting us, and the Ticonderoga Revitalization Alliance for sharing their history and stories with our audience. This extraordinary group of citizens rallied together to revitalize and reinvent their town, illustrating just how powerful a determined community can be.

Tell us your thoughts on Ticonderoga and the TRA’s efforts in the comment box below.

On July 18, I officially became 21 years old. In the eyes of the law, I was now an adult. I could marry anyone without permission, gamble, be tried as an adult under the law, and could also drink alcohol without a parent basically babysitting my behavior. Naturally, people expected me to gamble away my entire life savings, drink an obscene amount of Eugene’s famous handcrafted beers, and wake up the next morning with a (second) tattoo.

But I did no such thing. Sure, I visited a few bars with my boyfriend. But we ended up watching Mad Men on my couch, and he went back home to go to bed at 10 p.m.. He had work in seven hours from then, and I had class in nine.

Probably by a lot of accounts, that was a pretty lame 21st birthday. It’s summer! I should be out in the sun, celebrating the sunny weather, instead of being taking classes in the summer and hardly ever going out.

But I’m not alone among people my age. For a lot of people in their 20s in Oregon, life is beginning to slow down. There’s less drinking on porches in the summer, more studying for summer classes in the library. More working overtime, less wild partying.

Why? This isn’t because we’re a state full of dorks, necessarily. Students are looking at future work opportunities now, so they will be able to transition into full-time employment after graduation. Many of my friends have full-time jobs already, in the midst of going to school.
There’s something profound about young people acting more responsible because they are afraid of what will happen when they reach the “real world.” And I see this attitude in more places than just Oregon.

People who are now in their 20s were young children when the Twin Towers were attacked. We heard adults around us call each other horrible names more and more often whenever elections came along. We saw how differently people with college degrees were treated in this country, as opposed to people who were not able to afford a college education. And we all witnessed the arrival of the Great Recession.

We young folk began to grow nervous. What kind of world were we about to inherit? According to a study conducted by the the Pew Research Center last year, 45 percent of all adults surveyed said that they thought their children’s standard of living would either be worse or stay the same than how it was for them in 2010. Ouch.

The youth of Eugene were afraid of a substandard future, so they acted accordingly. Student-run publications kept close tabs on tuition rates for students so that we would know exactly how much money we would need to put aside for the future. We held “love-ins” to provide a public response to homophobic remarks made in editorials to the newspaper. Select groups of young people journeyed to the capital to protest for lower tuition rates for Oregon students.

But perhaps the most important thing of all young people did in Oregon have kept our heads in our books. We want a more secure future than the present that we’re living in, and we’re prepared to work for it. In a way, the young people of Eugene are rebelling against our parents just like many generations of youth before. We’re being rebellious by not being outrageous. For Millennials, rebellion is stability.

So my boyfriend and I weren’t “lame” by being low-key the night I turned 21. We were being considerate of our respective futures, and of each other’s. And by not being extravagant in our celebration, we were helping the world of tomorrow become a much more productive place to live. I’d drink to that any day.

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We Want to Know:

• How did you spend your 21st birthday?
• Is this how you see 20-somethings in our country?

Start the discussion below in the comment section!

Do you feel like your elected representatives are listening to you?

Americans from all walks of life are concerned about whether those in Washington will reach a bipartisan agreement to raise the debt ceiling. There’s only 12 days left, and yet we’ve seen the same old partisan games and political posturing.

The negotiations in Washington can make the debate seem miles away from your hometown, but the lawmakers in D.C. were elected by us to work for us, and we at No Labels believe they should be held accountable for their actions. So, amidst war, a debt crisis and high unemployment weighing us down, who should be steering our lawmakers toward progress? In our dynamic democracy, it’s important to remember that viable change comes ultimately and thankfully from the constituents – real people, back home, speaking up for what they believe in and making their voices heard.

Those that make the most noise nowadays tend to be on the far right and the far left, and that’s reflected in the behavior of our politicians. They’re constantly bashing the other side, issuing an ultimatum here, signing a pledge there. Rampant hyper-partisanship is impeding the bipartisan solutions our nation so desperately needs right now.

It doesn’t have to be that way. The vast majority of Americans are tired of the petty partisan gridlock. They want their leaders to work together to find bipartisan solutions and know that compromise is essential to progress. We at No Labels want to amplify those voices so our elected officials begin to hear them loud and clear.

It’s going to take people at the local level to clean up this toxic political atmosphere. Change happens from the bottom up, and since we launched in December No Labels has been working everyday to grow our citizen-led movement.

We’re organizing in all 435 congressional districts in all 50 states, and we’ve made great progress. No Labels is 100,000 members strong, and we have 350 grassroots Citizen Leaders in 230 unique congressional districts. These Citizen Leaders are building support for the bipartisan No Labels approach — from Lisle, Illinois and Bowling Green, Kentucky to Oakland, California and Boston, Massachusetts. Each day, new No Labels Citizen Leaders join the movement to advocate for compromise in their own communities.

This Monday, July 18th, No Labels hosted a National Citizen Leadership Meeting where over 150 leaders from 35 states traveled to D.C. for a day of empowering citizen leaders to organize and energize their communities around the nation. This was a chance for No Labels founding leaders and staff to meet face-to-face with the individuals who are working to make change happen at every level of the political spectrum by speaking up and speaking out. The day culminated with a demonstration against hyper-partisan gridlock and in support of a bipartisan solution to our debt crisis.

If politicians are hearing from enough voices at the local level, they will listen and they will react. In order to get compromise, politicians must see that there is a constituency for compromise. That’s what the leaders in our citizen-led movement are building towards with the support of other like-minded people in their area.

No Labels Citizen Leader Carol Dietz of Lisle, Illinois, put it well, explaining that she joined No Labels as a grassroots leader “because we are at a critical juncture for the future of our country. We can no longer let the extremes of either party block the rational compromise we need to solve our problems. We can no longer be silent bystanders – we must make our voices heard!”

Reviving our political process may seem an impossible task, but think about it – most Americans already want their lawmakers to work together, just like they work with others at their jobs every day. In the end, we elect our representatives in Washington — it’s up to us to step up and make our voices heard. The real power lies with us.

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State of the Re:Union is thrilled to be working with No Labels. Politics can feel so toxic at times and can be a source of division. So many of these political battles are played out on a national stage, but from spending time in so many wonderful communities throughout the country, we know how much the end result of this type of partisanship can hit locally. Although No Labels discusses D.C. a good deal, their reach, their message, their mission is permeating through communities small and large throughout the country. Be sure to look for their pieces, appearing regularly on the State of the Re:Union website.