PolicyLink’s Post

I’ve been reflecting on my work with DREAM School and KindeziCare as spatial techniques that bridge the seen and unseen. To create this bridge, we built a language—one that relies on symbols and a relational system that gives those symbols meaning. In DREAM School, our symbols came from dreams, and the relational system was storytelling, guided by our ancestors. In KindeziCare, the symbols were communal care practices, and the relational system was a community business ecosystem. For the past five years, this work has been a study in spatial technologies, raising profound questions: 💎 Where is home? 💎 What lessons has our family learned about home? 💎 How can we create safety? These questions guide us as we consider: how do we wish to govern ourselves? When new technologies emerge, how do we embrace our sovereignty, ensuring we remain the shapers of technology rather than letting it shape us? Technology that does not serve its users becomes obsolete. As a Black Indigenous consultant working with multi-billion dollar technology companies to advance AI, LLM, and ML, I find it is my roots—my home—that serve me most amidst Big Tech. #AI #SpatialTechnology #AIGovernance #Security #Home

Reparative spatial justice offers us a way of confronting past harms so that we can begin the task of designing our futures. However, we urgently need to scale this work up to confront the structural nature of the problem. The spirit of repair has always been embedded in our work and solidarity with everyday people. That is why I am so thrilled about our Spatial Futures Initiative. Confronting the violence of this country’s history launches us right into the whitewater of democracy. Yet, we cannot get to equity without repair, and we cannot get to repair without love. That much is beyond debate. This is soul work, and it will require all of us. https://lnkd.in/eTRv-u6v

🎧 Listen: In this Science of Where, James Cowan, CEO for The HALO Trust, explains how his humanitarian org modernized efforts to remove landmines & revitalize communities. Esri’s John Lenahan explores HALO’s mission to help families rebuild their lives. https://ow.ly/YptK50TO4ZJ

fascinating 10 minute video about public space, urban development, and more, well worth a watch/listen https://lnkd.in/eSn-aR3Y

🎧 Listen: In this Science of Where, James Cowan, CEO for The HALO Trust, explains how his humanitarian org modernized efforts to remove landmines & revitalize communities. Esri’s John Lenahan explores HALO’s mission to help families rebuild their lives. https://ow.ly/fXbv50TKZNp

Many owners and developers are finding that C-PACE is a particularly efficient tool to finance the #repositioning and adaptive reuse of historic buildings – and it works well alongside #HTCs (Historic Tax Credits).   Read our latest blog post to learn more: https://lnkd.in/eypCU6kE

11 Days of 11 Most: Minute Man National Historical Park, Walden, and Nearby Landmarks, Massachusetts Minute Man National Historical Park (MMNHP), Henry David Thoreau’s Walden Pond and Woods, and nearby areas of Concord, Lexington, Lincoln, and Bedford are home to places of great significance in American history. The 1775 “shot heard round the world” that began the Revolutionary War took place in what is now MMNHP, and the area includes preserved homes such as Orchard House, where Louisa May Alcott wrote and set Little Women, the Robbins House, commemorating a formerly enslaved Revolutionary War veteran, and Henry David Thoreau’s Walden Pond and Woods. However, a proposed major expansion of Hanscom Field Airport, which directly abuts MMNHP, could significantly increase aviation activity over nearby historic and natural landscapes. Advocates are concerned that the development could lead to increased noise disruption—already, park programming is often interrupted by noise from jet traffic—as well as increased vehicular traffic and negative environmental and climate impacts of private jets. In 2003, MMNHP and nearby historic sites were on the 11 Most Endangered Historic Places list, threatened then as now by proposed changes to Hanscom Field. A strong coalition has formed in opposition to the new proposed expansion, advocating that this extraordinarily important historic area that witnessed the beginning of the United States’ struggle for independence is not the right place for a development of this scale and potential impact, and the National Trust is once again joining these efforts. Pictured: The North Bridge where the British Soldiers encountered the Minute Men on April 19th, 1775. Minute Man National Historical Park interpreters engage with visitors to recount the history of the area and the conflict that arose that sparked the revolution that led to the formation of a new nation. Photo courtesy Terry Robinson/Flickr

What has contributed to green space inequities in U.S. cities? Rexford Osei Owusu and I answer this question in a new review paper published in the Journal of Planning Literature. We found that two macro-mechanisms interact to create inequities: residential segregation and uneven green space investments. To our knowledge, this is the first review to synthesize this growing body of research. Link here: https://lnkd.in/gnwaThQK

I’m happy to finally share this new article published in Journal of Planning Literature together with Alessandro Rigolon. We answer the question – What has contributed to green space inequities in U.S. cities? We found that two interrelated macro-mechanisms shape green space inequities: residential segregation and unequal green space investments. Advancing green space equity requires addressing both historical and current mechanisms. To our knowledge, this is the first review to holistically synthesize and connect these mechanisms. Link to article: https://lnkd.in/gw4MfuPm

Libertecture - our article is now formally out in Urban Studies, libertarian is alive and embedded in the built environments charted in this, our 'catalogue' of libertarian space: https://lnkd.in/eGu9-aH9 For a quick rendition of the key points a blog based on the article can be found here: https://lnkd.in/gVW7ps9W