EP. 4 Pt. 2 Kofi Boone - The Black Landscape

Environmental racism, a product of policy, leading to environmental justice.  The lack of environmental benefits which may be missing in environmental justice.  Democratic design as a part of planning and community design.

Transcript

Wading Deep Podcast

Kofi Boone

Fellow of the American Society of Landscape Architects, The Joseph D. Moore, Distinguished Professor of Landscape Architecture and Environmental Planning at North Carolina State University

SPEAKERS: 2

Speaker 1–Reverend Jemonde Taylor, Rector – St. Ambrose Episcopal Church

Speaker 2–Professor Kofi Boone, Fellow of the American Society of Landscape Architects, The Joseph D. Moore, Distinguished Professor of Landscape Architecture and Environmental Planning at North Carolina State University

SECOND SEGMENT

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Speaker 1

0:07

This is Wading Deep, a podcast that explores the connection between environmental justice and race. I'm your host Reverend Jemonde Taylor, Rector at St. Ambrose Episcopal Church, Raleigh, North Carolina, a congregation with a long history of challenging environmental racism. 

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Speaker 1

0:21

I am honored to welcome today's guest Professor Kofi Boone, a fellow of the American Society of Landscape Architects, who is the Joseph D. Moore Distinguished Professor of Landscape Architecture and Environmental Planning at North Carolina State University. Welcome Professor Boone.

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Speaker 2

1:09

Thank you appreciate the invitation. Great conversation.

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Speaker 1

1:14

I want to get your reaction to a segment of the City of Raleigh strategic plan. This is the governing document for strategic plan of Raleigh, adapted by or adopted by the mayor and the city council. And under the topic of safe, vibrant and healthy communities, which they describe as clean, safe and engaged community. We get that the first objective is to promote a safe and vibrant atmosphere throughout the city of Raleigh. And the first metric or means of doing this is to apply Crime Prevention Through Environmental Design something that's called septic and it says environmental factors, access control, lighting, visibility, and quality of life issues, orderliness, cleanliness, impact real and perceived safety. By employing Crime Prevention Through Environmental Design, septet principles, the City of Raleigh can address environmental factors and quality of life issues at city facilities throughout the city in order to positively impact real and perceived safety. What's your reaction to that?

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Speaker 2

2:35

I have a lot of reactions to it. I think that in technical language, it is an outdated mode of thinking about crime prevention. And I think even septet would agree there's such a thing called septet 3.0, which is a generation beyond the principles that were stated there, which talks about not just dealing with the physical environment that we experience, but the socio cultural, economic and political environment that we exist in. And for lack of a better way of describing it, growing the space for the good behaviors in the community to displace and disperse the negative ones. So investment and community is really the new era of it. The challenges with septet are many, it started from an interesting place, a guy named Oscar Newman, develops a book and a theory called defensible space. In the 60s, there is an HBO movie about this If y'all are interested in it, Show Me A Hero, which is a short series about affordable housing in Yonkers, New York, it's based on a true story, but asking him in that as an accurate lease is represented there. And he talks about the fiscal space in that regard. But at that time, cities were different. And what we knew about people was different. It's hard for people to believe places like New York City, we're not in New York City today, but they weren't. And people were looking for answers to deal with crime. So Newman comes out here and says that we have human behaviors that predate our time and cities, natural learned behaviors to live in the environment. So as a human being on Earth, what we pay attention to well, natural surveillance is an idea, right? The ability to see things without a lot of extra effort. And we know that being observed, right, took the community scale, in some ways creates a connection that prevents people from stepping out and doing sort of illegal activities. Boundaries, right? So this idea of territoriality, like boundaries, right? So this idea that you know, either someone's fence or their wall or line of a building sort of provides a certain sense of territory that we feel like we can prevail and controlling access, right. So either through gates or doors or other things, control that access. So from those three sort of core principles sprung this whole septet methodology, it was adopted by the federal government became a requirement for any of their built environmental investments, and became pervasive in terms like as long as we deal with these tools and bells and whistles. So, of course, these don't exist in a vacuum, they exist in reality. And in our case, where racism is real, and segregation is real, and… and classism is real, and the perception of certain people as criminals, right. And so certain communities having, you know, lighting all the time, fences and walls everywhere. And we know that those environments are not the best places for raising kids, for seniors from people like communities who have to deal with that. Some people have gone so far as to say that those principles were racist. And I don't agree with that. I do think their application that Brian was, like I was saying in the 3/0 version, like the very contemporary version, and they're great examples and how they've modified public housing in New York City, and other places where they really talk to the community directly, had them participate in defining what they consider to be safe, what's not what the environmental features are preventing that from occurring, and participating positively and change of activating these places and celebrating local culture and bringing people together, that that 3.0 version is actually very strong. So my hope for ifs that Raleigh…that they don't just stop there, that they go that next step, and they talk about ways to really authentically engage community and keeping communities safe.

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Speaker 1

6:50

I appreciate your thoughts. I found out about the strategic planning from Raleigh stormwater Commission, the chair of what we call (SMAC) Stormwater Management Advisory Commission, and we were getting given an update. And when I saw septet, it I couldn't believe it. One because the operation of white supremacy is to dominate. And the roots of white supremacy are in the Western Christian tradition. You had two Pope's to 15th century Pope's The first was Pope Nicholas the fifth, who wrote the document Doom des Versailles, in which he authorized Christians to conquer Muslims and what he called all other pagans and consigned them to perpetual servitude. This is the basis we get for the transatlantic slave trade, the capturing and enslaving of Africans bringing them… bringing us to the Western Hemisphere. The second document was about Pope Alexander the sixth, into Cutera, which he said that land not inhabited by Christians was available to be discovered, claimed or exploited by Christian rulers. So these two Pope's really set forth a document the taking of people, which is enslavement, and then taking them land, which is gentrification, and gentrify and genocide. And so that really is the domestication of space. And so when I read septet, it, obviously, I'm not an expert in this category, it just rings of the operation of white supremacy to dominate space. And really, to some extent, to the exclusion of environmental benefits, as you said, in your opening comments, by creating are making space safe, you move the unsafe portions out. And as a resident and leader of a congregation in southeast Raleigh, I see that operation through gentrification - areas that were my not over policed. Now that the community is beginning to change becoming more white and less black, and black people be moved out to other areas, we see that there is new attention giving and that the policing changes, and that that the space is becoming, quote, unquote, safer. So I agree with you, I do hope and I've expressed my concern to those and leadership in the city of Raleigh, that they just not rest on Septate. I'm glad to say it's an outdated comms concept and philosophy. It needs to change and evolve so that environmental benefits can be experienced by all just not a particular demographic.

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Speaker 2

9:44

100% And I'm hopeful that that occurs, I think, you know, it's.. it's no new news to you, but to the listeners. Some people consider policing -  safety. It's not the same thing. So, or fencing or walls or other defensive mechanisms. At… at best, they don't always work but at best, they're, they're like the last line of defense or a lot of things you can do before that and all of the research points towards community building, getting to know your neighbors, spending time out in the public realm, engaging with one another, between generations, rituals, activities, all these things that we kind of take for granted when we talk about a healthy functioning community really are the best ways to promote safety and a lack of harm to our communities.

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Speaker 1

10:43

Yeah, when I read about Septate, I'm a student of hip hop, love hip hop, I thought about a Goody Mob therapy and VAs that great line. And every now and then I wonder if the gate was put up to keep crime out or keep ourselves in this right. Keep ourselves in that peek and in my window Powell nobody now. So you know, when I look at Septate I mean, through the lens of Goody Mob, you know, why was this gate put up? Was it put up to really keep crime out? Or keep black folk caged in? So appreciate that and glad to have a fellow Hip Hop head? Cast? Do you mind talking about how you see or view the City of Raleigh through the lens of your research and lived experience?

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Speaker 2

11:38

Yeah, you know, it's complicated. I think coming to the south from the Midwest, was a bit of a culture shock for me, I had a whole bias and perception of what the South was about growing up in a big Midwestern city. And so I had to dismantle a lot of my stereotypes and biases and figure it out. But on the flip side, there were some things that were confirmed, you know, and so having grown up in a black majority city with black mayor, you know, black Captain industry, on down the line, black school, black teachers, and not really having to really deal with the identity issue, when I was growing up, it was affirmation all the way along that, you know, I can do whatever. And there was a role model, every place was coming here where, you know, that wasn't the message that I received, when I first got that, that there may not have been overt, but there were a lot of messages sent that there was a caste system between black and white, from where we are, you know, and so that's one of the basic principles that make race still important to bring it back to the problem of justice is segregation. And what Dr. Bullard goes so far as say, is residential, apartheid and kind of borrowing from the the… the language of South Africa and saying that Raleigh is extremely segregated. And that when you look at where people are historically, with relation to the city center, relegating that certain cases to land that was not as desirable at the time of the founding, the city, which put black and brown communities, largely on low lying areas where they could acquire land from the freedmen on down, and who have made the best of it, but we're fighting an uphill battle all the way to make that happen.  So that's one observation that's tied to my research that I think about a lot, which is the cost, right? The idea that lowland areas more prone to flooding, are more prone to various environmental risks and behaviors more likely to attract what are known as locally on one at land uses or Lulus. So reuse is at other communities resistant by end up in particular areas. But what I was inspired about this was sort of a learning moment for me being in Raleigh, including the lessons from your church, that's under your leadership was how people didn't just take that line down, that there was always resistance, and that in fact, people were able to find spin benefits out of that, that crisis. So everything from the Walnut Creek Wetlands to the Norman and Betty Camp and Education Center went on down the line are the physical legacy of people discovering the opportunities and things that people see as… as negatives. And so it was really an education for me to not just lump it all into one category that was all positive, negative, but say even within what we perceived as a negative people were innovating and creating, growing, nurturing. So that's something that I've learned and that's something that I try and hold on to with… with my research.

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Speaker 1

15:02

Appreciate it, you're using this term, residential apartheid. And it is so true. As Saint Ambrose found in 1868, right after the Civil War in Smoky Hollow, which was a place free black people live during the institution of slavery, and it gets its name from his proximity to the train depot. And because all the smoke would be in this low lying area, they called it Smoky Hollow, we don't have reports, but we have to imagine that breathing and respiratory rates and illnesses were higher there because all of this noxious gas was in the air. So that land which was undesirable, and residential apartheid, then becomes I guess what I could call domesticated or reclaimed. The Minerals Cotton Mill comes in. And because of that, Saint Ambrose or our land was sold from under us. So the land was sold from under up under us. And then the two color lines meant we had to move. So we moved to Shaw, I guess to the war, Third Ward. And then, in 1965, we choose to move to Walnut Creek again, in 1956-57, the City of Raleigh zone, this area where the city dump sewage for 80 years and garbage and now you dump negros and so this area is zoned for black people to live. And this land, which floods, it's now becoming desirable, and folk, black people who were forced to live there in segregation now, because of its proximity to the city center. We see gentrification coming through. And I'm just wondering, as we look through Raleigh we see where residential apartheid happened. And then I don't know what the reverse of that is, I call it domestication is probably a more official term, can you speak a little bit about that of land that was once undesirable, becoming desirable, and how things change that make it really live into a space of having environmental benefits.

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Speaker 2

17:09

Yeah, it's a, it's a tough question. And I would say, even though, most of my students are landscape architecture, students, often the number one thing they want to talk about is this process of gentrification and displacement, because they don't want to be seen as enablers of it. And in some ways, our profession has been aligned with it, which is to say, if a community receives a new sidewalk, or bike lane, or planting new trees or a new park, you know, then people start the clock, you know, to see how long they can be able to stay where they live before they get displaced, right. So they're afraid they don't want to participate in that process. But you know, what you bring up is complex. And, you know, the simplest way I can describe it is that when most of these cities were founded, Raleigh was an anomaly because it really wasn't on any major trade routes. Not near the water, it was a planned capital city. But even when they did it, you know, they picked the high ground. So the original capital building was on the high ground to Walnut Creek and Crabtree Creek that was on purpose, right. So they decided that even at that time, before satellites, before sophisticated mapping and ecological understanding, now we need to stay away from you know, what's gonna be near the low laying areas, all the stuff, right? So Raleigh, as planned actually makes sense. Like if I was starting Raleigh, I will put on the high ground to that's where I want everybody live. But of course, that occurred during slavery, and a period of enslavement. And so you knew certain people, Smokey Hollow, as… as a great exception, you know, they weren't thinking about the living conditions and definitely not within the city limits of that city. So there's a long period where the city didn't grow, then it grew again in the early 20th century. Up until World War Two after World War Two, it really boomed become a suburban sprawling city. But sprawling meaning that disinvestment in the city center where a lot of our people were so from South Park to southeast Raleigh to name it out to suburban areas with restrictive zoning and restrictive access to home loans. And so essentially, a white middle class growth takes the place of urban centered, urban center to become transformed to compete with suburban growth goes through urban renewal. So the destruction of the First Ward of Raleigh and the implementation of freeways. You know, a lot of these things have been have done great harm to our communities occurs. But that being said, it's hard for people to believe 50 years ago, it was not desirable as a country to live in city centers. And so that became sort of the last refuge for a lot of people with modest means. The cheapest rents, the… the lowest land prices and that sort of thing as the suburban regions were exploiting that inverts in the beginning of the 21st century, and really accelerates in our era now were the children of the people that grew up in the suburbs, who had the benefit of educational investment and resources, who had the benefit of sort of supportive environments, political stability, lack of crime, and high safety, who could benefit from their parents equity that they built in their homes in the suburban region, choose lifestyles where they want to be able to walk to work, they want to be able to take transit and bike, they want to be able to go to restaurants and go to the shops, they don't want to go back out to the suburbs, where their parents live. So armed with that passion, and with low cost, land comparatively and buildings to other regions. They… they they flood, the area, and the city finds itself in very difficult position. Matter of fact, all cities are because it's not just rally this dealing with this. But the point I'm making is that the components, the ability to own land and property, and hold on to it even when that land and property was not very profitable during the downturn of American cities, the benefits that people get access to because of higher quality education, and generational wealth. Investment passed on through the value of homes elsewhere in suburban regions, brought back to cities, that unless there are mitigating factors, right, unless the city really asserts, or through partnerships, asserts a certain attitude that says that we're going to put a primacy on holding on to property to land owning to cultivating local people building wealth, if you leave it up to the market, this is what happens. And so we're in the middle of one of the worst housing crisis in recent memory, where even renting and anywhere near the city center in Raleigh and other places is becoming close to impossible, without a lot of wealth and a lot of income. And it's something that is really, really important to do.

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Speaker 1

22:12

You absolutely right. ONE WAKE, the community organizing group that Saint Ambrose helped birth, did a study just a few months ago, and in Wake County, there were 92 homes on the market that were under $500,000. Which is an unbelievable statistic - 92 under a half million dollars, when you spoke about bike lanes and… and these signals of quote unquote, progress with air quotes and change. I just think about Rochester Heights. I remember when the LED streetlight lamps, the new LED streetlights came in. I remember when I saw the new ADA ramps on sidewalks. And then I remember sitting in a meeting, hearing from one of the bike commissioners or the Raleigh bike commission talk talking about putting bike lanes on State Street. And they would have white pylons. And I remember just asking had “Have you talked to the religious leaders?”, there's a church, state three churches, there. And on Sunday, people park on the street. If you put quite pylons church members cannot park on the street. And some of this just really seems disingenuous. When I inquired about why the bike lanes with the pylon, they said that this was for this was a speed calming metric, that by putting in the bike lanes with the pylons, it will cause people to drive slower. Well, my background is in automotive engineering. And I know we have the zero to 60 tests and a quarter mile test on cars. And the distance between two stop signs on State Street is a half mile. So it's twice a quarter mile. So putting up Bike lanes are not going to be a speed calming measure when you have such a great distance. And in my read, as I told the bike commission, I feel like as someone who leads the congregation in his black community, that you're putting the bike lanes up to push white people through in order to push black people out. That the bike access of white people riding through this black neighborhood is going to be a catalyst for gentrification which is going to further push black people out. So as I was interested to hear your talk about these signs you can set your clock or to stop watch by the signs like bike lanes? What would you say? Are some of the most challenging environmental justice or environmental racism issues?

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Speaker 2

25:10

It's hard. It's a hard question. There's so many. You know, to piggyback off of your story, my mother had the same story in Detroit, regarding bike lanes back home, and her not being able to park in front of the post office anymore. And so to me, there's just remains a huge disconnect, where people are applying methods rather than engaging communities and CO creating the solutions. And so just sort of more broadly, that's an environmental justice issue, in my opinion, is we, we don't value local knowledge like you should, we don't value indigenous experience of people who are affected on the frontlines of the issues that we're facing. But, you know, I think that there's a couple ways to cut it. I mean, in North Carolina, eastern North Carolina, is ravaged with the legacy of poultry and pork production. So hog lagoons in particular, have and coal ash ponds, particularly Duke Energy, are located in places and are treated in ways that really harm the health of environmental systems, and human systems. There's decreased life expectancy, there's increased as asthma and respiratory diseases. There's even downwind from these facilities a depressing effect on property values, where people basically don't want to live within a certain distance, and they can't really build businesses or do anything that engages the outside. So that's something we don't really pay attention to in the Triangle region. But on the scale of direct harm, to communities in our state, that's probably number one. And that's difficult, because that's pushing against some major economic development drivers statewide in terms of our agricultural legacy. I would also say, climate justice issues, which are being exacerbated by climate change, and increased hurricanes, flooding, drought, we're in the middle of a heatwave right now in North Carolina. So even heat exhaustion and heat exposure harms many people in our community at that time. So at the bigger picture, those are the ones but you know, I would say, you know, really dealing with the legacy of these fast growing urban areas, and finding ways to keep our communities in place. And to participate in the benefits of changes in our communities and not always be displaced by them, is the one that's probably a driver in our region, because there's no end in sight between Durham and Raleigh and Chapel Hill and many other communities in the Triangle growing. And that's exciting, in some ways, when you can participate, right, where you have access to the educational benefits, the transportation benefits to the public amenities, benefits, you can own property and enjoy increasing equity and wealth as well. But when you can't, it's wrong. And so I think in our region, really dealing with issues of growth are the number one concern that we need to face.

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Speaker 1

28:41

What gives you hope? 

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Speaker 2

28:52

A lot of things give me hope. As my mother reminds me, this isn't the worst it's been.

And take that for granted. I think we're in some difficult times for sure. And because of social media and the immediacy of the way we get our information we can get inundated with… with signals that may trigger us to feel a certain amount of trauma and feel hopeless. But we also on the other side, had the potential to do things that previous generations just couldn't do. And even since my time teaching, there's been a sea change in terms of our students, the push from them in terms of their hunger and what they want. So when I first started teaching, you know, most of our students wanted to do something really beautiful that won a bunch of awards on the cover of a book and they can retire and be famous. But we got students coming from countries that are will be completely underwater in a generation if we don't do anything, or cities that will or places where it'll just be too hot and dry to provide enough food and people are gonna have to migrate. So there are real human concerns that are driving this next generation. I find them to be just like everybody, they get frustrated with Gen Z folks and that sort of thing. So there's those kinds of frustrations. But I've never seen a generation with a stronger social imperative than the one right now. And if some of these are generational transformations that need to occur in terms of mindset, or collaborations and openness to partnerships, or breaking down old biases, I think this is the one. This is the generation that's going to do it. So it gives me hope every day going into the classroom.

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Speaker 1

30:34

That is good to hear, because what you said sounds very hopeful. I want to thank Professor Kofi Boone, for being with us. Thank you for sharing.

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Speaker 2

30:46

Thank you. It's a pleasure to be with you all and admire you and the church a great deal and wish you well as you move forward.

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Speaker 1

30:54

Thank you. Today's guest was Professor Kofi Boone, a fellow of the American Society of Landscape Architects, who is the Joseph D more Distinguished Professor of Landscape Architecture and Environmental Planning at North Carolina State University.

The Wading Deep podcast comes to you from a place we affectionately call The Brose, Saint

Ambrose Episcopal Church, Raleigh, North Carolina. Follow us on Facebook, YouTube, The BroseNC on Twitter and TheBrose1868 on Instagram. 

I am your host, the Reverend Jemonde Taylor. God is going to trouble the water of environmental racism, resurrecting a river of life clear as crystal. 

Shalom, Salaam, Peace