Metropolitics

Starve the Beast: Community-Owned and Community-Controlled Composting as an Alternative to Incineration in Baltimore

Nicole Fabricant — 2022-05-31T05:00:00Z

Nicole Fabricant documents organizing efforts in Baltimore, led by youth of color, against a trash-to-energy incinerator in one of the most environmentally unhealthy communities in the United States. In doing so, these youths created a movement for fair development. Fabricant shows the power of young people to create change in a city that, like most deindustrialized, impoverished, and majority-Black cities, caters to private developers and bankers, promoting a development model that does not

- From the Field / waste, waste management, Maryland, United States, Baltimore, community organizing, youth organizing

Fighting for Housing Justice: An Interview with Two Youth Organizers in Curtis Bay, Baltimore

Nicole Fabricant & Carlos Sanchez & Terriq Thompson — 2021-03-16T06:00:00Z

Two Baltimore youth organizers discuss the importance of community land trusts, for housing and beyond.
---- Series: Contemporary Housing Struggles: Crises, Activism, and Critical Research Free Your Voice began as an informal after-school program inside Baltimore's Benjamin Franklin High School. It has evolved into a powerful youth-led movement to end incineration, build community land trusts, and push for zero waste and just transition in Baltimore.
The group organized between 2012 and

- Interviews / community land trusts, community organizing, activism, mobilization, youth, youth organizing, housing, affordable housing, housing justice, Baltimore, United States, Maryland, land use, land rights

Demystifying Urban Agriculture in Detroit

Flaminia Paddeu — 2017-12-14T05:30:00Z

Urban agriculture projects in North American shrinking cities have been the subject of much media attention in recent years. Taking the example of Detroit as her starting point, Flaminia Paddeu asks what the real benefits of this practice are for the residents of cities in decline.
---- Series: Shrinking Cities The French documentary Demain, showcasing a world tour of ecological alternatives and viewed by more than a million people to date, depicts the city of Detroit as a Mecca of

- From the Field / deindustrialization, Rust Belt, Baltimore, urban agriculture, agriculture, farming, Detroit, Philadelphia, vacant lots, urban decay, shrinking cities, urban decline, Cleveland, smart shrinkage, urban shrinkage, degrowth, shrinkage, wasteland, revegetation, ecological transition, socio-ecological transition

Disarm the Police

Gregory Smithsimon — 2015-09-29T05:00:00Z

In the current political debates about discriminatory policing, there has been a lack of serious discussion of disarmament. Gregory Smithsimon argues that disarming the police is not only an obvious way to avoid more deaths at the hands of officers, but also a means towards cultivating more respectful relationships between the police and communities of color.
Responding to protests against repeated, blatant police abuse, politicians have met demands for meaningful change with an array of

- Debates / inequalities, police, discrimination, violence, brutality, disarmament, civil rights, police violence, Ferguson, Missouri, New York, Oakland, Baltimore, Featured

Arts Districts Without Artists

Meghan Ashlin Rich — 2015-03-23T05:55:00Z

Numerous studies have examined gentrification's harmful effects for low-income residents, but few examine the consequences for its “pioneers,” the artists who jump-start the process. Focusing on a Baltimore neighborhood turned “Arts & Entertainment District,” sociologist Meghan Ashlin Rich shows what happens when artists' work intertwines with the city's agenda for revitalization.
A “naturally occurring” Arts & Entertainment District is born in Baltimore
Baltimore's Station North

- From the Field / gentrification, culture, United States, Baltimore, culture-based economy, artist, arts, Arts & Entertainment District, cultural district, arts district, arts-centered development