Hundreds of people showed up in person at the Richmond auditorium and virtually earlier this month for the inaugural "Our Future Economy: Transforming Economies for Communities, Workers and Climate Wellbeing" series we're hosting. The attendees heard from organizers about the strategies, ideas, skills and relationships required to build a future economy in Richmond, CA that ensures the wellbeing of all workers, communities, and ecosystems. Learn more about the series here.
Transcript
Luna:
To kick off our program for today, I want to start us off by welcoming a very special person. We are going to start with a spiritual grounding hosted by Reverend Kamal Hassan. Reverend Kamal Hassan is a radical theologian, insurgent, intellectual, and a committed social troublemaker. He is a pastor seeking to build a worship community that centers the stories and the lives of Black women and is inclusive of queer, trans, and gender non-conforming folks. He is the senior pastor at Sojourner Truth Presbyterian Church. Please join me in welcoming him for our grounding ceremony. Thank you.
Reverend Kamal Hassan:
Thank you, thank you. Good evening, everyone. Ooh. Let's try that again. Good evening, everyone. Thank you, that's much better. I'm Reverend Kamal Hassan. I serve at the Sojourner Truth Presbyterian Church where I have been working since 2008 here in the community, and I've worked in many spaces with many organizations here in Richmond and in the Greater Bay Area. One of the things I've been asked to do today is to kind of help us to be one in the spirit. Particular spirit that I'm talking about, it just depends on what your relationship to spirit is and whatever you name that and whatever tradition that comes from. Or if you don't participate in those kinds of things, we want you to just know that you're welcome here in the spirit of togetherness and in the spirit of love. Our goal is to be united in our intention and our hope for this community.
We want Richmond to be a place where everyone belongs and everyone can thrive. Does anyone share that hope? Does anyone share that hope? Does anyone share that hope? A place where everyone belongs and everyone can thrive. And I'm really feeling right now that I need to say the name of someone that many of you may know, who was committed to those things for a long and beautiful life, recently made his transition, the Reverend Phil Lawson. Anyone know the Reverend Phil Lawson? Who served here at Easter Hill United Methodist Church for many years was one of the long-serving lights of this community and communities beyond, who was committed to the building of beloved community. And so in his name and in the legacy that he stood in that has been passed on to us, I would invite us all to have a moment of silence to unite our hearts and our intentions for a community where everyone belongs and everyone can thrive. Let's take just a minute of silence for the spirit to join us together.
Thank you. We want to talk about how we can use this small installment that the Richmond Refinery has given on the deep debt that they owe this community. A small installment on the deep debt that the Richmond Refinery owes this community. And we want to use it for restoration, for reconciliation, and for revelatory change in our community that is lasting. And we know that we can depend upon one another. We don't need someone else to tell us what we need and what's important. That's why these conversations that we're going to have are so important and why I hope you really... Because we are the ones that we've been waiting for. We have the solutions if we have trust and unity in a community where all belong and all can thrive. Let us attend to this work. Blessings on you.
Luna:
Thank you. Can we get another round of applause for the Reverend? Thank you so much for those kind words. Now, we were supposed to welcome Mayor Martinez of Richmond to say some opening remarks for us, but unfortunately, he is ill and was unable to join us today, but he sends good vibes and I send them back to him and hope that he's recovering well. But I do want to introduce now Sarah Crowell and the Belonging Resident Company for an interactive performance. Sarah Crowell is the former artistic director of the Destiny Arts Center, a youth arts organization, yeah, shout out Destiny Arts, based out of Oakland, whose mission is to empower and ignite social change through the arts. Sarah is now a part of numerous organizations dedicated to freedom and belonging. Sarah is the co-director of the Othering & Belonging Institute's Dance and Theater Company, the Belonging Resident Company, who she will be introducing before they perform for you. Please welcome Sarah and the BRC. Whoop, whoop, whoop!
Sarah Crowell:
Thank you so much, Luna. All right. I roll deep so you know they had to be behind me. Can I invite everybody to take a breath? Breathe in and let it out. Let's make it a little louder on the way out. So breathe in and then out. Because we're carrying a heavy weight right now. One more time, y'all. Breathe in and out. So I'm going to read a quote by Bishop Kim Lucas. She says, "People speak of hope as if it is this delicate, ephemeral thing made of whispers and spiderwebs. It's not. Hope has dirt on her face, blood on her knuckles, and the grit of cobblestone in her hair, and she just spat out a tooth as she got back up and went for another go." That's the kind of hope that we need... Yes, you could get in it. Get into it because the type of hope we need, this persistent, relentless hope.
We must have the courage to love the hell out of this world because love is the only thing that can save us. Can I get an amen, a hallelujah, a right on, a A'sha, a shalom? Whatever it is that you do for call and response, I invite you to be in it because this conversation is important today.
So I'm standing in front of the Belonging Resident Dance Theater Company out of the Othering & Belonging Institute. Woot, woot! They're going to get loose in a second. In fact, you can move around a little bit so we know that we're moving around belonging and thriving. Thank you, Reverend, for that beautiful introduction. So the Belonging Resident Company is a multicultural, multi-generational ensemble of artists and facilitators dedicated to making the revolution irresistible. Our mission is to create spaces for healing, build solidarity, and activate embodied strategies for collective liberation. And my whole thing is, we need to bring movement into movements for justice. We need to bring our bodies into the conversations in order to tap every level of wisdom that's available to us in order to work with what we have in Richmond and what we're dealing with in our country right now. So can I get everybody gently to stand? Stand up. If you can, if you can stand, and just bounce a little bit. Bounce with me, y'all. You got to bounce a little bit.
Bounce with me. Bounce with me. We from the Bay. Come on, bounce with me. Now shake it out a little bit. Now roll your hips a little bit because guess what? That's where everything started anyway. Come on. Roll them around, roll them around, roll them around. Shake it out, shake it all out. Okay, now take your right leg back, take your right leg back, bend your knees a little bit and get into a fighting stance. All right. So what you're going to do is you're going to take your hands out like this, and this right here is your palm heel, right there. And we're going to do a palm heel strike. We're going to practice it together. So you're both hands out. Some of y'all know this. Ready? Push it out like that. Boom. Use the back... See, so it's like your hand is a spring. It comes out and then it comes back.
Oh, that's good. Do it again. Boom! Do it again. Boom! Do it one more time. Ah! Yes, y'all ready to fight for justice, fight for freedom. Yeah! Okay. So now in front of you is a thing that you want to get rid of. You're breaking the obstacle in front of you that's in the way of your freedom, right? Picture it because there's a lot in front of it. There's a lot of obstacles. I can see faces right now. I can see policies right now, right? So we're going to say no to those things. All right? So on three, we're going to go, "No," and we're going to blow up the roof. Ready? One, two, three. One, louder, two, three. One, two, three. One, two, three. One more time. One, two, three. Yeah. Now switch feet. Switch feet. Yes, yes, now you're in it. Bounce around a little bit. And if you're in your seat, you're not up yet, you can say no too, because I'm pretty sure you have stuff to say no to in front of you as well.
So now take the other hand back. Let's practice on this side. So this is your left hand. Yours our right hand, and let's just practice. Take it out. Get your hip into it. Get your hip into it. Bam! Use your hip. Boom! Yes. In martial arts, a palm heel strike actually goes to the nose here, it can kill you. We're not trying to kill anybody. We're trying to push out, push our message, break through stuff, right? So this time, picture something you want to say yes to. What do you want to say yes to? What do you want to build? Sometimes that's harder. Let's take a breath with that. We've become accustomed to saying no and not visioning for what we want. Okay, so that's what we're doing tonight. So we're going to say yes on three. Y'all ready for this? Are you ready for this? Okay, that's what I thought. Ready? One, two, three. One, two, three. One, two, three. One, two, three. And shake it out, shake it out, shake it out.
Okay. And now gently, but fiercely, have a seat. The Belonging Resident Dance Theater Company is going to throw something down for you. Hit it.
Speaker 2:
Coming to me loud and clear. I'd like to bring everyone's attention.
Speaker 1:
So belonging is both how you feel. I feel like this is my place. I feel like this is my place. I feel like I can exhale and I'm safe. But it goes further than that. We're talking about at the group level, at the institutional level. So what that looks like is that I get to co-create the thing I belong to. It's not something at someone else's school or someone else's house. It's our house, it's our nation. And we get to co-create. And those conditions of co-creating made a sense of belonging. So that requires agency, that requires voice, that requires power, love, responsibility, and we co-create for everyone. So the word belonging and the concept of belonging shows up everywhere in psychology, in political science, in health, in medicine and education. And people have experience of belonging. But oftentimes the way people construct their group is by attacking some other group. So my belonging is predicated on another group not belonging. My belonging is predicated on my othering some other group. But we talk about belonging without othering. We talk about belonging where everyone belongs.
MUSIC:
Long live the king, you a king, you know it
King already, already, you know it
Top everything, everything, you know it
King already, already, you know it
Mind, body, soul, got a king body
Body gon' shine, bling bling, body
Callin' all the shots, ring ring, body
Crown on your head, got a king body
Long live the king, you a king, you know it
King already, my baby, you know it
Top everything, everything, you know it
King already, already, you know it
Shine already, it's time already
The line already, it's time already
Shine already, it's time already
The line already, it's time already
Try to stop it, me say no, no, no
Royalty, say don't you know, know, know
Try to stop it, me say go, go, go, go
Bubble up and watch it grow, grow, grow, grow
Every king be ruler, be ruler, yeah
Every warrior, dey conquer, yeah
Every king be stronger, yeah
King, dey rule them longer, yeah (Osh)
Remember who you are, ooh (Osh)
Real king always win, oh (Osh)
You for be brave, oh (Osh)
And show your people more love (Osh)
It's time already, I say it's time already (Osh)
In line already, I say in line already (Osh)
Only you got the remedy, I say you got the remedy (Osh)
Shine your body, shine your body
Long live the king, you a king, you know it.
King already, already, you know it
Top everything, everything, you know it
King already, already, you know it
Mind, body, soul, got a king body
Body gon' shine, bling bling, body
Callin' all the shots, ring ring, body
Crown on your head, got a king body
Long live the king, you a king, you know it
King already, my baby, you know it
Top everything, everything, you know it
King already, already, you know it
Shine already (Already), it's time already (Already)
In line already (Already), it's time already (Already)
Shine already (Already), it's time already (Already)
In line already (Already), it's time already (Already)
Shine already (Already), it's time already (Already)
In line already (Already), it's time already (Already)
Shine already (Already), it's time already (Already)
In line already (Already), it's time already
Try to stop it, me say no, no, no
Royalty, say don't you know, know, know
Try to stop it, me say go, go, go, go
Bubble up and watch it grow, grow, grow, grow
Luna:
We get another round of a applause for the Belonging Resident Company? Woo! That is exactly the energy I needed. Oh, my God. Thank you so much, y'all. All right, well, up next we're going to start our speaker segment. But before that, I did want to make a quick note that there has been more catering that arrived. There is turkey, chicken and veggie options, food in the back in those brown boxes and drinks if you'd like to get some. I will not be offended if you get up right now while I'm talking and get some. Yeah, hopefully all you get fed. Cool. So for our speaker segment, we have some wonderful speakers ahead of us. We're going to learn a lot about some ideas and examples of real world transformations and new ways of existing together. We're going to hear from Eli Moore on the Good Life and what it means to work towards regenerative economic relationships, both at scale and through sectors.
We're going to hear from Taj James and expand our realm of possibilities by sharing real life examples of the economic transformations like the ones we're talking about today. And before we start that, I want to ground us in the work already happening in Richmond. I want to share a little bit about a project that I was a part of with some colleagues to help us get a sneak peek of an understanding of how the people and the communities of Richmond are affected by the climate crisis, but also how the community of Richmond is starting to build and envision a world that centers environmental and economic justice. I have some slides that I'm going to go through. I want to start us off with a question that hopefully all of us have spent a good amount of time thinking about before coming today or at this point in our lives.
What does climate justice mean to you? What does it look like for us to live in a more just world? What does that look like in your community, in your family, in your context? A couple of years ago, to try and understand how the community of Richmond is thinking about this question, a couple of friends and I organized The Richmond Listening Project to help understand how the community thinks about questions like these. What sort of role should industry play in helping us build beyond climate catastrophe? What sort of impacts do our families in Richmond feel as it relates to the climate crisis? As a part of this project, we surveyed over 400 community members in Richmond to ask exactly these questions. 40 of those interviews were then selected to be followed up by oral interviews and asking very similar questions, and these oral interviews presented to us what became the foundation for what we created The Listening Project podcast.
And this podcast was meant to be a sort of guided tour to help us understand the web of harms and dependencies that exist between the fossil fuel industry and obviously the Richmond refinery that operates here in Richmond and the people of Richmond to help us better understand that relationship. What I want to share with us today is a couple of snippets from some of those interviews that I will read for us to better help us today ground ourselves in an understanding for how, from the research that I've done and my colleagues, how are the people of thinking about the problem at hand and what are the sort of solutions that they would like to see.
I'm going to start us off with a quote by Dr. Amanda Milstein. Dr. Milstein is a primary care physician working here in Richmond with children. She is an incredible person that we had the privilege of interviewing, and she shared with us that all of the health impacts... I'm sorry. Give me one second, I'm going to read this for us. "The health impacts of all of these processes involving the drilling, refining, and burning of fossil fuels are very, very real. The reality is that the vast majority of those health impacts have been borne by marginalized communities that have been affected by systemic racism." I appreciate this conversation with Dr. Milstein because she really highlighted for us that the impacts of climate change, the impacts of climate catastrophe, and of the industries whose practices are driving the climate crisis affect, first and foremost, communities like Richmond, communities that are historically low income, Black and brown communities, that at the end of the day, all of these kind of systems are tied to systemic racism.
Another person we spoke to is TJ Sykes, a Richmond native, author, poet, entrepreneur, all around incredible person that I've had the privilege of sharing a lot of space with. TJ shared with us that, "In a perfect world, Chevron would not be in operation and would make efforts to support the community, the environment, and use the resources that they have to funnel money into low income communities that have been poverty-stricken with crime rates and high asthma rates. We all need some resources put into natural healing medicines and the restoration of our soil and water." I appreciate this conversation with TJ because he really highlighted for us the vision that he has for a Richmond beyond fossil fuels. One where communities like ours are actually given the resources they need to thrive and a future in which we operate in relationships as people, to each other, as people to the land that are restorative, that are regenerative and healthy.
Another conversation I want to share is a conversation we had with a youth called Lizbeth Ibarra. Lizbeth is also a Richmond native, a community leader. She is a student at Harvard University now all the way from Richmond, which... Yes, shout out to Lizbeth. She is incredible. And she shares with us that, "Chevron has a much bigger impact than any of us realize when you look at where all of their investments lie. The role that they're playing is making climate change move faster and faster, pushing down many, many different communities and Indigenous people, and not just by pumping oil. All of their operations also mean deforestation. It also means waterways are messed up and covered in algae. It's all connected at the end of the day." I appreciate that Lizbeth reminds us that pollution and corporate pollution and the impacts of unsustainable and extractive industries know no borders. These industries know no fence line and the pollution that comes from these practices don't respect fence lines.
All of the things that we do, all of our economic relationships all have an effect on us and on people in and out of Richmond. And today, I think it's great to see that the city of Richmond and the people of Richmond are beyond simply recognizing that environment racism a thing, and beyond recognizing that these impacts exist. Today, the city is investing a lot of time and energy into building a future for Richmond that centers equity and centers justice. I want to share now some projects that highlight the sort of vision and values that I think will drive us forward, many of which hopefully I think all of you will be familiar with. I want to start off by talking about the RYSE Commons as a great example for those of you that aren't familiar, RYSE... Yes, big shout out to RYSE.
RYSE hosts a youth programming space and resilience hub. They work to transform systems to respond better to the needs of Black and Indigenous youth of color. They work to help young people feel loved, listened, and powerful. Through their programming, they offer free opportunities for youth to organize, to learn together about expressive freedom, about identity, and create new and meaningful connections with one another.
Another really cool project is Urban Tilth's North Richmond Farm. Also shout out to them. Urban Tilth works to promote food justice here in Richmond and...
Luna:
... works to promote food justice here in Richmond and move us closer to an end to food apartheid locally and ensure access to healthy food for all Richmond residents through localized food production in neighborhoods, in our schools, in parks, and of course in the North Richmond Farm. They work to center sustainable farming practices that foster meaningful relationships to the land and to each other.
Another series of projects I want to highlight is, for example, the Transformative Climate Communities grant projects. These TCC projects are a series of projects that work to fund infrastructure investments that help uplift Richmond's climate adaptation status, projects that hopefully some of us are familiar with, like the Richmond Greenway, the Richmond Wellness Trail. Those two are examples of projects that help build in more pedestrian and bicyclist safety. Other projects support water efficiency and energy efficiency projects through in-home retrofits. And all of these operate with a goal of helping us build a more resilient and a more connected community. And most importantly, I think they're reinvesting millions of dollars into Richmond's historically Black neighborhoods.
Now I want us to sit on a question. I'm going to go into another question in a little bit, but I want us to really sit with the question of what does it look like? What does a future where everyone you know is protected and treated with dignity look like?
Now, before we go into our two talks for today, I want to start us off with a little hybrid discussion. So today we're going to be using this program called Padlet that hopefully folks are familiar with. I assume most folks are not familiar with. But what I'm going to ask you to do is pull out your cell phone and open up the camera app. And what we're going to do is I'm going to ask you to scan the first QR code on the papers in front of you, and that will take you to a page that looks like this on the right of the screen, on the top right of the screen, where you'll be prompted to insert responses to this question that I will read out loud for us. And then later on we'll have some time to discuss amongst ourselves the thoughts that came up.
So the question is, what is already happening in your community that we can build on for an economy that works for the well-being of all? Projects like the ones I just spoke of, but I'm sure we all know of projects in our neighborhood, citywide, regional, that are helping us create an economy that is more fair, where everyone can thrive.
Our next speaker for today is Eli Moore. Eli is the Director of Community Power and Policy Partnerships Program at the Othering and Belonging Institute. Over the last 20 years, Eli has facilitated numerous participatory action research processes and published various reports and strategy papers supporting local, national, and international policymaking bodies. Please join me in welcoming Eli Moore to talk about the good life, scale, and sectors.
Eli Moore:
Thanks, y'all for bearing with us. We got a virtual event going on. We got an in-person event going on. We're trying to create access in all types of ways. I'm going to try to start getting us thinking about that future economy and what each of our own sense is of the life that we want to build collectively. What does the good life mean to us? And then how can we start to think about economic strategies that start to move us there? The economy is not some like weather system that just happens to us. We can't just leave it up to others to decide. But what does it actually mean to start to set goals and strategies for that?
I wanted to start with this quote from Teresa who was interviewed by the Listening Project that Luna was talking about. She says, "I think all of us should picture our best selves, and we should start living in what that way is right now. So living in the future right now brings us the future faster." So what is that future that we want to be living? What's that best self that we want to become?
In this next quote I thought was really powerful. This is when Shawn Fein, the leader of the United Auto Workers, was talking to Congress last year, and he said, "I know when my members look back on their lives, they never say, 'I wish I would've worked more.' When people reach the end of their lives, they never say, 'I wish I made more money.' ,What they wish for is they wish they had more time. That's what work does. We're paid for our time and when we work, we're sacrificing time with other people, with family and friends and time for other things we wish to do. But time, just like every precious resource in this society, is not freely given to the working class." Time. Time to just chill, time to heal, time to grieve, time to create. What would you do with the free time? What would you do say you had three hours of free time every day? It's crazy that that's so crazy to even imagine, right? But what would you do?
But there are a lot of things that keep us from having that time, right? Let's get real. Life is really expensive. So the MIT living wage calculator for Contra Costa County says that an adult and a child in this county need to earn $111,000 a year to have a good living. Housing, child care, health care, transportation, these are all essentials, but they're big ticket items. They're huge expenses every month. If we can't make these things more affordable, then we can't have that time. We can't have that good life.
But that's not all. It's not just those big ticket items, it's also the real bare necessities, the actual essentials of living. We have to breathe every few seconds. We have to have safe water, climate, free from fires, free from drought, a caring community to have spaces, connections, to be cared for, the energy to charge our cell phones, and do things like that. So these are some of the essentials that the economy has to provide, has to support, has to protect.
But we're all tied up in this fossil fuel economy. In so many different ways, and some have already been mentioned, but I just want to point out a few. So we've heard about the refinery. It's nearly 3000 acres, over 3000 jobs, quarter of the city's revenue. What's the future purpose of that land, those workers?
Mechanics. A gas powered car has twice as many parts as an electric car. There's no radiator, there's no alternator. There are all these parts that don't even exist in electric car. So what does that mean for the 80 odd mechanics in our city and the mechanics in other cities?
The port. We have a port here. Guess what? That port's main businesses is, is importing cars.
Gas stations. What's happening with the gas stations? They have underground tanks that contaminate the soil, have to be cleaned up. What happens with that land? What's the purpose with that land? What are the workers doing?
The streets themselves, most cities, a quarter of their land is made up by city streets. So what are the streets of the future? What's the purpose? What's the use? We need to start imagining these things, planning for these transitions, get specific because these dependencies hold us back. They trap us.
So let's talk about strategy. Let's talk about how we can start thinking about where we go. And one of the things I really think we have to do is to understand how we're interdependent at different scales, from the city to the global level, from the individual to the neighborhood, to the regional level. But what does that mean?
So who here knows where your drinking water comes from? Somebody shout it out. Yes, the Mokelumne River. Anybody know where that is? The Sierra Foothills, yes. Now we're talking.
There's a map. About 90 miles east of here is a watershed, and that's where drinking water comes from. How's the land doing there? How's the water? How are the people there? Who lives there now? Who's historic land was it? That's not in our city boundaries, but it's absolutely essential for our future.
But let's think even bigger. Let's think about our global interdependence. So if California was a nation, we'd be 24th in greenhouse gas emissions, and the second-largest stationary source of pollution, source of climate pollution, in the state is the refinery right here in Richmond. So what's our responsibility to global well-being? What does honoring that interdependence mean? So there are these different scales of interdependence we have to focus on.
But let's also think about supply chains. We started to learn about supply chains during the pandemic, remember? And lately we've been learning about supply chains through eggs. What's your supply chain for your eggs? Which image is it? Is it that backyard chicken coop right there, or is it the industrial chicken farm? Or are you really not sure?
Let's talk about supply chains. I know this is a little bit nerdy, but I just got to. So our food system is made up of supply chains, right? Starts with food being grown, even before that, seeds are developed, food is harvested, packaged and processed, distributed, sold, enjoyed. Then it becomes waste, compost, reused. Starting to think about supply chains helps us understand, well, what are the steps? What are the businesses? How do they connect to each other? What are the different workers involved? What are the places that rely on each other, right? Then that allows us to develop strategy.
So let's think about another thing we need much more of, renewable energy. What's the supply chain for that? So if you can see this, it starts with the research and development. So there's, for instance, researchers has developed floating wind turbines that can be in the ocean generating electricity from the wind in the ocean. Then it goes to the materials, the steel and other materials, manufacturing, developing the windmills, marketing, connecting consumers, sales, distribution, operations and use, and then recycling and reuse. So these are these different steps, but think about another. So what's a part of your vision of good life? What's a product or a service that's essential? And what's that supply chain? And then how do we start to think about strategies to make that serve the well-being of all?
So I'll end on this. If we're going to shape the economy to serve the well-being of all, a lot of what it comes down to is who's making the decisions? Who's got the power? Who's governing? And when it comes to the economy, supply chains will be shaped towards our values if we have that power through unions, through worker cooperatives, through ownership, ownership by public entities, by nonprofit entities that can hold the public good as the value that's being prioritized, and then a diversity and resilience of the producers. So it's not monoculture, it's not a monopoly, but it's a diverse set of producers and networks. What else? What else? What do you want to lift up?
So I want to just start that conversation about what's that good life that we're aiming for, that is our collective North Star? What are the supply chains that are going to produce the goods, the services, the conditions in that good life? And what are the scales of interdependence that we need to be aware of and conscious of and honoring as we're doing that? And I'm really excited to hear Taj share some stories that bring this more down to earth and give some concrete examples. So thank you for your time.
Luna:
All right, well thank you so much for that, Eli. Hopefully, let's see, so next we're going to do a little practice to make sure we're processing all of this information. I have the pleasure of introducing Sangita Kumar, the other Director of the Belonging Resident Company, who will lead us in a playback theater practice. Sangita is a results-based organizational development and somatic coach, the Founder of BA Change, working to support movements to bring in libratory practices to all of their work, Sangita and the Belonging Resident Company.
Sangita Kumar:
Thank you. Hello, everybody. Yeah, you can say hello. Come on, say hello, make some noise.
We're going to ask for an act of kindness. This looks like a kind group of people. We are going to ask you, those of you that are sitting all the way back there, we're going to make some change right now. This is not the right environment for a community conversation. Y'all feel how spread out we are? What's wrong with us? Everybody back there, can you please get your stuff? Get your chairs, bring your food.
Kelsey Gregory:
There are chairs here. You don't have to bring.
Sangita Kumar:
I see you looking-
Lorenzo Jones:
We need to feel you.
Suzy Lundy:
Thank you.
Lorenzo Jones:
We need to see you.
Sangita Kumar:
Recruit the people. Come on.
Kelsey Gregory:
Come on up.
Lorenzo Jones:
We're cozy. We're cozy. Here we go.
Sangita Kumar:
There we go.
Suzy Lundy:
Come on down.
Kelsey Gregory:
Pick up the energy.
Suzy Lundy:
Come on down.
Sangita Kumar:
If you're sitting at a table where where you don't know who's at your table, just take a second to say hello. And we're going to warm us up to some storytelling, so we need some connection. So just talk amongst yourselves. What have you heard that inspired you so far? While these folks move up. Thank you. Let's give it up for these community builders.
Suzy Lundy:
Thank you, thank you, thank you, thank you.
Lorenzo Jones:
Thank you everyone for moving up.
Sangita Kumar:
If you all can just scooch a little bit, maybe that would help us. Just scooch your tables and chairs. Just come a little, look at this whole empty table here. Whole empty tables up here. Maybe some of you who are sitting back there can come a little closer. Look, I'm begging. I'm begging.
Kelsey Gregory:
We have a bunch of chairs right here. Right there.
Lorenzo Jones:
We won't bite. We promise.
Kelsey Gregory:
Over here.
Sangita Kumar:
Next time, we'll eliminate those back tables.
Kelsey Gregory:
The whole front row is open.
Sangita Kumar:
There you go.
Suzy Lundy:
Mama keeps telling me no.
Kelsey Gregory:
The VIP section up here.
Suzy Lundy:
That's my body.
Sangita Kumar:
Excellent. All right, thank you.
Okay, friends. So my name is Sangita Kumar. I'm here with some incredible people. Can we just introduce ourselves real quick?
Kelsey Gregory:
I'm Kelsey Gregory.
Lorenzo Jones:
Hello, I'm Lorenzo Jones.
Suzy Lundy:
I'm Suzy Lundy.
Sangita Kumar:
And we're going to invite you into a process to help us connect our heads to our bodies because this is a lot of talking about supply chains and rivers and mass scales of stuff. I didn't even get all the vocabulary words.
So let's just start by asking folks. We're going to ask you all, we're going to ask some questions. This is interactive, and we are going to bring it to life through a form of art called Playback Theater. And that's why we want you to be close, because I'm still worried that y'all back there in that corner, and you might not be able to see and then you're going to be so sad because it's going to be really good. So you might want to move. Yes. See? Look, she knows. She knows what's up.
Okay, so the question I want to ask you all, let me ask, and we're going to run the mics. So can we move the mics around? Why are you here tonight? What made you come out? It's raining outside, it's late, it's dark. What made you come out here tonight for? Who wants to answer? Let's hear. Just bring some voices in the room. Tell us your name and tell us why you're here.
Naija:
Hi, I am Naija. I'm a community organizer intern with the Young Women's Freedom Center.
Sangita Kumar:
All right, Naija. Community Organizing intern. Y'all heard that? Come on. Why are you here?
Naija:
You guys made my day, so just to have a good end of the day, just to come and learn new things.
Sangita Kumar:
To learn some new things and to have a good end of the day. All right. We're going to give you that. Thank you for sharing that. Who else wants to share?
Nivea:
Hi, my name is Nivea, and I'm not with the internship, but I do work with them. And honestly, all jokes aside, I'm here because I'm getting paid to be here.
Sangita Kumar:
We're not mad at that.
Lorenzo Jones:
That works.
Kelsey Gregory:
Fully valid. Fully valid.
Sangita Kumar:
Yes. We need those resources to be redistributed. Yes. Who else? Who else? Anybody else?
Lorenzo Jones:
I've got a mic. Here we go.
Wenda:
Hi, everybody. I'm Wenda. I live two blocks away, and I thought, "I have no excuse." And I heard that Richmond's getting a bunch of money from Chevron, and I wanted to see who wanted to show up and figure out what to do with that money, so it's nice to see all these faces.
Sangita Kumar:
Beautiful.
Wenda:
And meet some neighbors.
Sangita Kumar:
And meet some neighbors. Okay. One more from that side of the room. You go ahead. Go ahead. Why don't we pass it to someone?
Gina:
Hi, everyone. My name's Gina. I also live a few blocks away from here. I came tonight because I wanted to see who was a part of this community that I belong to. I feel like I spend so much time inside, and I'm like, "Yo, who's around? Who's trying to fight for a just future?" That's why I'm here.
Sangita Kumar:
Who's trying to fight for a just future? That's what's up.
Suzy Lundy:
Come on, this side. You're making me look bad.
Sangita Kumar:
One more. Let's get one more.
Suzy Lundy:
Anyone? Why are you here?
Sangita Kumar:
Back there, Susan.
Tracy:
Hi, I'm Tracy. I'm a big fan of Richmond. I'm an El Cerrito resident. I've been to probably half of the TCC meetings, maybe more, and I'm excited to see Richmond be the first transformation to live in the future.
Sangita Kumar:
All right. Okay. So let's bring our ensemble back up here, and we're going to play this back for you. So we heard a lot of different reasons why people are here in the room, and we know there's a lot of people who have more reasons than that, so we're just going to give you what we call a sculpture garden to bring this to life.
Lorenzo Jones:
Who's here? Who is here? Who's here? Who's here? I am here with my friends and my community. Oh my God, I love this.
Kelsey Gregory:
Ooh, this day. Oh, oh, that too? Oh. Oh, wait. Really? Really that too? How much more messed up can it get? How much more bad news do I need to hear? How much more stress do I need? Can I just get a positive end to my day please?
Suzy Lundy:
Cash rules everything around me. Get the dollar, dollar bill, y'all. Cash rules everything around me. Get the dollar, dollar bill, y'all.
Sangita Kumar:
I'm here to learn all the big words that Eli can put on a slide. I'm going to take some pictures. I'm going to take some notes. I'm going to learn some things. I'm going to have a new vocabulary to help me make radical change in the world. Flare.
Lorenzo Jones:
I'm here in the community. I'm so happy I'm here. I'm so glad to be a part of this.
Kelsey Gregory:
Good vibes. Some good news.
Lorenzo Jones:
This is where I belong.
Kelsey Gregory:
Good energy.
Lorenzo Jones:
With all of you.
Woo.
Sangita Kumar:
Okay, so this is Playback Theater. So we're going to solicit some feedback and then we're going to bring it to life. So now I want a deeper story. So I'm going to invite you to turn to the people who are sitting close to you. And maybe you've already met the people at your table a bunch of times, you're best friends already because that's what we do here in Richmond. We've become neighbors. Maybe you'll turn to the people, maybe at the table kind of behind you. Who has been a part of a process like this before? Community folks coming together, thinking about content. And so if you have, what have you experienced that makes them good or that makes them kind of like rah-rah? So just turn to someone who's sitting next to you. Check in and then we're going to hear one or two stories.
Sarah:
I am a Richmond community organizer.
Sangita Kumar:
[inaudible 00:52:37].
Sarah:
Thanks. And I would say some of my experiences in being a part of spaces these is sometimes it gets tiring to often express community needs. It feels like a lot of the times it's repetitive, and I just want to be a part of something that is actually going to be transformative for me and to my peers.
Sangita Kumar:
Thank you for that. All right, so we heard that, right? Sometimes processes like these can be exhausting and repetitive, and folks who have needs keep showing up to say their needs. Okay, I'm going to ask for one more person. Who else wants to share? Who has been a part of processes like these? And maybe they're good or maybe they're bad. All right. Tell us your name.
Lucia:
My name is Lucia.
Sangita Kumar:
Okay. You want to take the mic?
Lucia:
Thanks.
Sangita Kumar:
All right, tell us what's your experience?
Lucia:
My experience was in, well, I won't give too many specifics, but it was in a neighborhood that was dealing with a group that had a lot of money and wanted to do a development, and it seemed like perhaps the stress and pressure of coming up against a big organization like that started to create some infighting.
Sangita Kumar:
Infighting amongst the people there.
Lucia:
Amongst community members.
Sangita Kumar:
And say one more word. What was the stress?
Lucia:
... community members. Yeah.
Sangita Kumar:
Say one more word. What was the stress? What created the stress?
Lucia:
I think the power dynamics and fear that it was going to be... That they were just not ultimately going to be able to get the neighborhood that they were dreaming of.
Sangita Kumar:
Okay, okay. So, infighting, people who want something so badly and the levels of power, the positional power, the different levels of influence that are in the room, that creates stress and impacts the ability for authentic relationships and then starts to cave in on the group. Yeah? Thank you, Lucia. One more person who wants to share an experience, a lesson learned from a process like this? I'm looking to this side of the room. Okay, this side is losing, by the way. It's not a competition, but you're losing.
Speaker 6:
We're going to make a comeback. We're going to make a comeback.
Sangita Kumar:
Where? Who was the person? Come on.
Matias:
Hi, everyone. My name is Matias. I work on the Transformative...
Sangita Kumar:
Yeah, go closer.
Matias:
Okay. Hello, everyone. My name is Matias. I work on the Transformative Climate Communities program for the city of Richmond. And I think having a clear connection to next steps and progress is really important, because it's awesome to talk about values, but it can go in a circle sometimes. And I think to continue that forward, it's good to have accountable progress.
Sangita Kumar:
All right. Okay, so we heard a couple of things. Let's play this back, you all. Let's play this as a tree. I'll sit back here.
Speaker 3:
What do you mean I don't belong here? I want to be here as well. This is for me. I deserve just as much as you do. Let me live here.
Speaker 4:
Here we go, round, and round, and round, and round, in the same conversations over, and over, and over again, but when is the transformation finally going to happen?
Speaker 5:
This shit is environmentally racist. On Monday, I was hell a mad. On Tuesday, my cousin died. On Wednesday, my water was turned off because I couldn't pay the bill because I live in a place that I can't afford to anymore. On Wednesday, I was hell a mad too. And on Thursday, I was hell a sad because I realized that the people who live here can't get the care that they need. Yo, what are we going to do on the weekend though? What are we going to do on the weekend? What are we going to do? What we going to do?
Speaker 3:
Is it my color?
Speaker 5:
Let's move it forward.
Speaker 4:
Okay? Is it finally making some progress?
Speaker 5:
[inaudible 00:57:35].
Speaker 3:
Is it me?
Speaker 4:
Progress.
Speaker 3:
Is it me? Is it my color?
Speaker 4:
Progress. Progress. We're fighting each other.
Speaker 3:
Why can't I live here?
Speaker 5:
Environmentally racist.
Speaker 3:
I deserve as much as you do.
Speaker 4:
Something's got to give.
Sangita Kumar:
Thank you, actors. All right, friends. So we're going to move into the deeper conversation of tonight and let's just hold all of these lessons learned in mind. We're not going to cave in on each other and start infighting. Maybe we will, but we'll try not to. We're not going to trauma porn and invite people who are experiencing challenge after challenge after challenge to share their stories in a way that feels extractive and draining. And especially then if they do, we're not going to let it go nowhere and we're going to be aware that we are fighting big forces. It's a little bit of money, as we heard. It feels like a lot and it's a drop. And to figure out how to transform this moment into something useful, we've got to figure out some next steps. So I'm going to turn it back to you to take us into the next portion. Thank you.
Luna:
Thank you. Another hand of applause for the Belonging Resident Company. So up next, I am going to introduce our next speaker, Taj James. Taj is a father, a poet, a strategist, designer, philanthropic and capital advisor. Taj thrives on connecting community stewards and capital stewards to bring financial value into alignment with sacred values in ways that build community wealth. Taj is a principal with Full Spectrum Capital Partners, co-founder and senior advisor at the Movement Strategy Center. Please join me in welcoming Taj to share stories of economic transformation.
Taj James:
Such an honor to be with you. I'm from Oakland. My heart is in Oakland, but I'm going to tell you a secret and some of my Oakland people are here, but don't let it get out. I work with communities around the country and around the world, who come together in rooms like this, to talk about what's breaking our heart and what we want for our kids, what we want for our elders, what we want for the river, what we want for the ocean, and just figure it out and get it done. So that's how I spend my time. And in a lot of those places, in most of those places, I talk about Richmond because this place, I mean you're from here. You may not appreciate it, but this is a very, very special place. And some of y'all know that. You're like, yeah, you don't need to tell me.
You don't need to tell me, we know. But if you don't know, you need to know that. You need to know that this is a very special place and there's people all over the world that know about what this community is doing and what this community has done and what this community will do. So if you don't feel that pride in your rich city, just take a little bit of it with you because I'm your cheerleader. I'm your student. I'm your Stan. I am riding hard for Richmond. This is a special, special place, because as Eli said, this place has done a lot of work, has been doing a lot of work and is carrying a heavy load.
There's a lot of people that work really hard in this community and there's a burden here that you all feel very directly. It impacts your health, it impacts your well-being, but it has an impact on the whole world. And so what you do here doesn't just affect you, your families, your neighbors, your coworkers. It has an effect on the world. And that's why, I think, one of the reasons why the people here, the heart, the creativity, the fight is so strong and so powerful. Some of y'all... We were giving some props to the Rise folks, the Rise Center, and how many of y'all have been into the Rise Center?
And as we just talked about, when you walk into that space and you can feel it, everything about that space is a result of what the young people said they wanted in that space. Because the leaders in that space know how to bring their community together and bring out their creativity, bring out their energy, and do it in the right way. So those young people who were involved in that planning, they get to go in that building and say, "Hey, that is that way because we wanted it that way and we got it that way. And now we got that." You go on the farm at Urban Tilt, same thing. This is a community organization by organization, leader by leader. You all don't just have these conversations in times like this. You're having these conversations all the time. What do we need? What's working? How do we do better? How do we do more? And that is a real big part of what makes this community so strong.
So I'm not going to tell y'all about yourself because y'all know about yourself. I'm going to talk about some of the communities, your sister communities that are on this journey with you and a little bit about where they're at and where they're going and how y'all can help each other. Because one of the beautiful things is, there's leaders from Richmond who spend time in some of these other communities just sharing, sharing stories, sharing lessons, figuring out how we can get through this together. Because unfortunately, big corporations, the Costco's, bless them with their DEI, not the Targets. We got to forget about that one. But the Costco's, the Chevron's, they're not just here. They're in a bunch of places. They're in a bunch of different communities doing a bunch of different things. And just like they're talking to each other about the stuff they're doing and all the places where they're doing whatever they're doing, as leaders in community, we got to connect with each other too and help each other out and have that support and solidarity.
So I'm going to talk a little bit about what's happening in some of these other communities that I get a chance to work with. You know what the problems are. You know what the solutions are. And folks have been fighting hard for a long time for that to be recognized, for that, to be given respect. And folks have been working to be seen and to be heard and to be powerful so that you can shape the decisions that affect your lives. And that's something that is happening in a lot of communities and Richmond is really leading that forward. So some of y'all alluded to this in your reflections, but when we think about the ability to make something happen, that's about power, like the power to stand here, the power to hold this mic, the power to speak to you.
And in the work that we do, we kind of think about power in a couple different dimensions. There's do we know who we are? Can we tell our own story? Can we speak for ourselves? Can we be represented accurately in our dignity, in our beauty? That's cultural power. That's the ability to tell our own stories, speak our own truths, and have that acknowledged, honored, and respected. There are organizations here, the folks who've just been working with us, art, culture, creativity. That's where we build that strength and remember and honor who we are.
Mayor couldn't be here, but one of the things that's really special about this community, and it's not the same in a lot of communities I work with, to be honest, you have political leadership in this community that is of the community, by the community and for the community. Of the community, by the community and for the community. And you cannot take that for granted. I will tell you, I go to places in the Central Valley and I look at who's in leadership, and then I go out into the community and there's no relationship, I can see, between all the people in the community and the people who are making the decisions, very little. That's a hard situation to be in. That's not the situation here. Y'all have worked hard to make sure that you have political leadership that's accountable to your community and from your community and that really matters.
The big part of this change that we're talking about has to do with the economic dimension of power, which we kind of think about as having these four pillars. It's about our relationship to the land. What is our relationship to the land? It's about the relationship to our labor and our work and our time. And it's about dollar, dollar bill, y'all, the money, right? Because to make anything happen, to make the farm happen, to make the Rise Center happen, you got to combine those three things. You need the land, you need the people, and you need some money and you need to know how to put those things together. If you've got those four things, then those are the foundations of economic self-determination. And when we think about the shift that's happening from the economics that we have now, to the economics that we dream about, the changes that you all are making are really about gaining more community control and self-determination over the land, over your time and your labor, and over your money, over your money.
So these are questions. Who are the folks who are really taking good care of the people and the land, the stewards? When you all get together, what are the dreams and hopes and visions that you have? And what are the projects that are going to bring that forward? And what's it going to cost to get that done? And then the last question is, do we have the vehicles that we need to implement the ideas we have? So this is the question of like, okay, we got a plan. Great, but how long is it going to take for that plan to become reality? Am I going to see it in my lifetime? Is my little brother going to be able to benefit from that? How long is it? We need to speed it up because it's great to have good ideas, but we need solutions now. So these are some of the aspects of how you all are moving through these challenges.
Let's see. So I want to talk about, just tell a few stories from a few different communities that we work with, who are, again, on a similar path and communities that are in a very similar position to the one that you're in, which is this community is winning in all kinds of ways. $500 million settlement from Chevron because organizations in this community fought for it and won it, right? Right! Huge, unprecedented, amazing because the power of organizing and the power of residents coming together and demanding respect. The farm, the Rise Center, there's a long list of projects through which the community's identified a priority, come up with a solution and been able to implement that solution.
And now you're on the edge of this question of, okay, at some point that refinery is not going to be here. What's going to replace it? What's our vision? What's our best dream, our best vision for what's going to replace that, right? Who's going to clean it up, first of all. It's a big mess. A lot of questions to answer, but you all are sort of faced with that. And so the communities that I'm talking about are in a similar way, starting to grapple with some of those bigger economic questions.
I won't go through all of them, but this is some of the folks. I think we're going to start with, how many of you heard of the Keystone XL Pipeline? So this is another fossil fuel community, the Standing Rock Tribe in the Dakotas. And for those of you who don't know, there was an oil company that said, "Hey, we've decided we're going to run an oil pipe around right through the middle of your community. We were going to run it through where all the white people live, but we decided to be better if we ran through where all the indigenous people live. We just think that'd be better." So that's what they decided to do. And the whole world went to Standing Rock, right? Thousands and thousands of people went there, for many months, and said no to this pipeline. And as a result of this fight, one of the things that happened was some wind developers, outside wind developers outside wind money came in and said, "Hey, can we have some of your land to put up some windmills and we'll pay you maybe a few hundred thousand dollars a year to rent the land and we'll make a few hundred million dollars, but can we just do that?"
And in their wisdom, the tribal leadership was like, no, thank you. We'll do it ourselves. We will do it ourselves. So they embarked on a project to build a very large, the first ever tribally owned, tribally built, tribally run, utility scale wind farm. And no other tribe had done this before and it was a really big ambitious project, and they're still in the middle of it, but they're making some really significant progress. And they have organizations in their community that are similar to some of the organizations you have in your community, that pull together meetings like this to ask the community what their visions and dreams are. And they've come up with, "we want renewable energy and we want regenerative agriculture and we've got housing needs and we want to bring back the buffalo." So they have a big comprehensive vision, transformation, economic plan for what they want to do. But the question is how do we pay for it?
So what's interesting for them is this wind farm, which is going to generate a lot of renewable energy, is also, essentially, going to be the bank for the community. Because instead of getting a hundred, few hundred thousand dollars a year for the leases on the turbines, this project's going to generate about $230, $250 million of revenue for the tribe. So they went from a few hundred thousand dollars a year to $250 million in revenue. And what that means is, the power and the money generated from these wind turbines, allow them to be the bank for everything else they want to do.
So this is a moment in which, if you could replace that refinery with renewable energy infrastructure that this community owns and controls, you haven't just cleaned up a mess, but you've also put yourself in a position where that $500 million that you won, you're going to have a source of ongoing revenue to make the dreams that the community has a reality. So knowing what you would do with all that money if you had it, is the first task. And then grabbing the bag is the second task, and you're already $500 million on your way there. Goodness. I mean, you're in a very strong position as a community. This one project is going to going to increase the GDP of the tribe by about 6% a year. It's a really significant source of revenue.
Let's see. Okay. So in North Carolina, there's a group there called The Industrial Commons. Again, kind of a sister organization to a bunch of the organizations that you all have here. Similar process. Let's bring the people together, let's have a big bold vision for what we want and what we want to do, and then let's start raising money and bringing in infrastructure to do it, right. And they're really inspired by some of these places in the world where communities have really transformed their economies through worker ownership and community ownership and cooperative development. And so that's kind of the model that they're using to build out their regional economic strategy.
And this community is interesting in the sense that there's kind of heavy industry and light industry that has gone or has left, but sort of left a big mess and it's behind. And no one wants to clean up the mess that's left behind. And they're thinking about, "okay, well how can we turn that problem into an asset for us? It's already here. It's already a mess. We got to do something with it. So let's do something with it that works for us." And at the center of their strategy, and you're going to see a pattern here, is they're like, "Hey, we're going to build this big campus. And this campus is going to be like our greenhouse for all of our dreams, for all of our small business, for all our co-ops, for all the things we want to build. We're going to create a place where we can grow the economy we want."
And that's a big piece of it. And then the other piece of it is housing and agriculture integrated because we got to work, we got to eat, we got to sleep, we got to play. So what you'll find is, some communities may say, "oh, hey, and we're going to also manufacture some wind turbines." Great, but you still got to eat. You still got to work, you still got to play, you still got to sleep. So whatever your plan is, it's got to address the essentials. You got to learn. So a part of every community's plan is sort of the essentials, and then what else are we going to do? What else are we going to do? What's the right fit for us? What's the right fit for this community? And that's part of what you all are exploring in this process. So this community in North Carolina has got some interesting parallels to you all.
Okay. Going into the Central Valley, there's a few different communities we work with in the Central Valley, and Beam Circular is kind of a similar organization. And what they're looking at is, how to sort of take agriculture and, in particular, waste in agriculture, things that get thrown away that nobody wants, and turn that into the engine of a regional economy, which is something folks in this community have been talking about as well. How do we turn trash into money, basically? We're not going to burn it because we're burning too much stuff. We're not going to do that, but we can do a lot with it. And so there's all this untapped resource. So similar to this, they had a whole regional planning process and they got a bunch of people in a room and asked the community what do they want? They put together their plan, and then they identified some priorities.
And what they're really sort of looking at, just like Eli laid out in that sort of stages of development, is to create a regional economy. What are the different stages and phases of what we need to do and who would need to do what and how do you put the pieces together? And then they identified these five pillars. We need the people, we need the infrastructure, we need the money. Sound familiar? We need the creativity. You put them all together and you can start to, not just generate more economic activity, but the big change that is being made here is the people in the community are deciding what that activity is, and they're generating it themselves for themselves, as opposed to people from someone else coming in and deciding what they want to happen in your community. So that's one of the really powerful things that's happening in relationship to this strategy in the Central Valley.
And then I'm running out of time. Allensworth, another Central Valley community, which I will not talk about because we don't have time, but a sister community to Richmond in many ways. A very small community who, the thing I'll say about them is, when we had a budget surplus in California a few years ago, this very small community, because they had a plan, because they had a plan, was able to get $40 million out of the state budget surplus for their community and the projects, their plan. I think there's like 500 people who live in Allensworth. So that was a G move. And right, it was reparations move because if you don't know who Colonel Allensworth was, look up Colonel Allensworth. Go visit Colonel Allensworth State Park. And it is an important part of our history that's there, just like in the shipyards, there's an important part of our history there too, that everyone needs to know. Last story I'm going to tell is across the bay in San Francisco-
Taj James:
Last story I'm going to tell is across the bay in San Francisco, there's a group called Friendship House created by three Diné Navajo women, who were put in the boarding schools by this government, separated from their families, and were not allowed to return home after they were sent out to the boarding schools. They were sent to San Francisco. They started the Friendship House, which is a healing and recovery center for indigenous folks. So Helen Wakazu, Miss Helen, she had a vision that there would be this village in San Francisco that would bring the communities together, and this is what they're building. It's a $100 million. It's a beautiful thing. You just look it up, learn a lot about it.
But the reason why I'm mentioning this is oftentimes when you're doing this kind of work, you need a big anchor project like the RICE Center, or the farm, that gets people to pay attention. Like, "Oh, this community can get stuff done. Look at that. Look at that. Look at that. Look at that." So $100 million. From this a $100 million project they built a $2 billion economic development plan. They said, "Oh, we're going to create a American Indian cultural district in the mission, and we're going to take seven acres of Golden Gate Park and turn it into a thing. And we might take that golf course too. And, and, and, and." Native Americans are a very small percentage of the population in San Francisco, and they are going hard with a $2 billion economic development plan.
And they got a bunch of money from the state to do it, and a bunch of money from the city to do it, and a bunch of money from philanthropy to do it. Oh, and by the way, we're going to buy up all this housing and we're going to create about 3000 units of affordable housing for our folks, for our Latino brothers and sisters. We're going to make sure that folks are housed. So you start with one project and then from there, you just keep going. You just keep going and you don't stop. And Richmond's doing it. Richmond's doing it. And I'm way over time. And so that's all I have to say. But thank you, thank you, thank you. And if you want to hear what I say about Richmond when I go around, let me know. I'm happy to tell you, but thank you Richmond.
Luna:
All right. Can we get another round of applause for Taj? Thank you. All right. I'm curious what this graphic was about, but we'll have to come back to that. I'm going to lead us into our second discussion of the night. We are going to go back on Padlet, that thing we were doing on our phones, and just like last time, I'm going to ask you to scan now the second QR code, the one right in the middle, and that will take you to a second page similar to the first one that we used. And this time, what I want us to think about and write about in our prompts before we go into discussing it with the people at our tables, is, what is your vision for the good life? For your family, your community, for the planet? What ideas do you have for your economy that can be transformed to make the good life possible? Similar to what we just heard Taj talk about, that we've been talking about all day.
What are these needs, programs that can be created to fit the needs of your community and help us build towards a place where we can all experience the good life? I'll give us two, three minutes to write down some ideas and I'll share the Padlet up on our screen. And then we'll have some discussion time among our tables. Let's see what we're looking at. Okay, got time to chill with your chosen family. Recording oral histories. Oh, so much, more play, more rest. You see visions for improving the quality of life in the community. Those Richmond-owned windmill manufacturing, businesses with unions with local jobs. Love what I'm seeing. Sustained funding to make sure that community programs can spend time in community, rather than so much time fundraising. Love all of the ideas, folks, that are popping into people's heads. And I'll give us some time to chat.
If anyone is having trouble figuring out how to use the Padlet, just raise your hand and we'll get someone to help you out. Oh, local foods, more time. I see art. Oh, universal basic health care and income. More music. I'm all for more venues, honestly. Oh, local foods. Seeing the majority of food grown here locally. Oh, access to capital, that's a big one. Resources. Resources to build our dreams. Green infrastructure. Yes, green spaces, natural spaces to dance and enjoy real food. It's funny. Okay, well, as we continue to populate our ideas, what I want us to do is have a conversation with the people at your table. If you're at a smaller table, feel free to move to another table, congregate together, and spend some time going one by one, sharing your answers, your ideas to the first question. And then once you've all had a chance to go on to the second question and yeah, have a conversation, talk to your neighbors.
Richard Aviles:
Hello everyone. Thank you all for holding in. If folks want to share here virtually, if folks have any ideas, this is also our space, the time to check in. We'll have another round of discussions coming up as well, but if anyone has anything they want to share top of mind, please feel free to do so. I saw some pretty good ideas here. Sarah, I saw that you came off camera. Want to share something?
Sarah:
I'm just feeling really grateful for so much of what you're holding there, and creating, and have felt connected to many elders who are crossing to the other side. And holding that space feels like an important thing to name here as part of my good life of touching these dollars and spaces in ways that supports these elders. And so I want to name that and bring all of that into all of you and us. Thank you.
Richard Aviles:
Thank you for sharing that. And yes, a lot of times we call that, in some spaces, the right to age in place. And I think it's something we forget that we all have the right and deserve the dignity to age in place, especially in times of mass displacements locally, all over the world. And truly, we do have a very international conversation. I'm from Los Angeles, but I'm based in Mexico City, and a lot of the things that are happening here in Mexico City are happening in the US. They're just happening in Spanish, but very similar. So thank you for naming that, Sarah. Does anyone else want to share what they wrote in the Padlets? Either this one or the first one? I know y'all folks are chatting in the chat, about to start naming some people I've seen in the chat. I heard someone come off mic.
Jennifer:
Yes. It just took me a minute to figure out how to do that.
Richard Aviles:
No, thank you, Jennifer.
Jennifer:
Thank you. I'm on my phone and also using my computer for the Padlet. So the thing that I mentioned is the dream that I have had since I was a seven-year-old was to have parks that had fruit trees and vegetables, and different things that was open to the public where people would just come and harvest and have food for their table. And my dream is that we can do this in Richmond. And they recently did this in Georgia. So that's on the Padlet from me.
Richard Aviles:
Thank you so much, Jennifer. And yes, I really enjoyed looking and hearing from folks also on the ground, in person that so much of the conversation is also turning... Well, not turning, but emphasizing the need for interdependence between people and land. And of course a good intermediary between people and land is food. And so that dream that you have Jennifer of parks with access to food, that's amazing. Yes to food forest. Yes, we need that, right. And I think now more than ever are we feeling the repercussions of corporate supply chains that are impacting food distribution and food production. I also see that, I'm going to say it's J, please forgiveness if I mispronounced it. They say we have a couple of public orchards in Portland and they also shared a link to Portlandfruit.org. So there is another example in precedent. No for the discussion.
One of the things that I'm going to be asking about, we've heard a lot about what is going on on the ground in Richmond and also visions for what can happen in Richmond. I know not all of us on the call are based in Richmond. I think there are some folks that are based on the call that are in Richmond. I'm curious to hear from folks who maybe are not from Richmond, what are some of the other factors or impacts that are particular or barriers to really transitioning to a just economy, based on where you are? We know that, for example, talking about a just economy looks very differently in Los Angeles versus it looked like in New York, in Portland, in Georgia, in Mexico City. So I'm curious to hear from you all just to queue you up when we go into that greater conversation. What are some of these factors that you are considering?
In the meantime, I'll turn it back to the main group, to the in-person. Hello folks. So there is no audio coming through because folks are still discussing, and so we don't have mics for the tables. So again, this is another opportunity for you to ask any questions pertaining... I'm going to read some of the comments that came in. I see that David wrote, "I love the whole conversation and ideas. One thing I love, enjoying in as a lifestyle and enjoying supporting our local businesses, cooperatives, etc. There's a place somehow for larger companies for some products, but we really need to figure out how to better support small and medium businesses, cooperatives, employee owned companies, etc." David, would you like to expand on that or share a little bit about that? I don't want to necessarily put words in your mouth.
David:
Sure, I could. I don't know if the light is going to come through here. I have been long having the sense that there's an obsession, especially around the Bay Area, but in much of the world with venture backed and venture backable companies, thinking that the answer to all of our woes, let's have more startups solving problems. Except that venture capital and venture backed companies, even those when they're doing something good often tend towards greater inequality. And so really in my mind, the question is, how can we build towards more human flourishing and the foundation of so many communities and families and economies of healthy communities and healthy economies are the small and medium businesses, are the cooperatives, are employee owned companies.
And so how do we change this dynamic of who can we support? Let's figure out how to better accelerate things in the direction of the world that we actually want to live in. And so yeah, I'm really curious about this idea. I run community based and social impact accelerators, but really that can be for these small and medium businesses or even for nonprofits, et cetera. How can we do more of that? How can we really think earnestly, what is the world we want to live in? And then let's think how can we be running more programs and providing more support to the organizations and the entities that are helping us go in that direction of the world we want to live in?
Richard Aviles:
Thank you for sharing that, David. What I'm hearing, it's a little bit of that double-edged sword. One of the comments that came up in the Padlet in person was around needing more capital. And it seems like there were between that, it's this weird liminal space, a purgatory space for the lack of a better word, of needing more capital because we're envisioning new systems while also being mindful that we exist under a current system. So it's a dismantling of sorts while we're reimagining at the same time.
So it's like a little bit of figuring out if there are some sort of systems and ways of approaching each other or relating to one another that currently exist, how do we flip them on their head so that we can better support one another? I'm curious to hear from other folks on the ground. Do you have any ideas or examples of how you can think of ways where we can better support at an accelerated rate in some regards or with more capital, some small businesses or other local economies? I'm curious to hear if folks have any examples. Okay, there are some good examples and experiments of cooperative finance that could be worth exploring. Amazing. Thank you Abigail.
David:
Hey Abigail, if you have some links or further info on that, I would love more details on that or if you'd be up for hopping on a call separately, definitely let me know. Going back to your comment, Richard-
Richard Aviles:
One second, David. I think Abigail just came offline, so I'm going to give them a spot.
Abigail:
Very quickly, would love to connect with anybody that's interested in this idea. I think it's really important. I know Richmond has had a lot of historical activism around cooperatives led by past mayors and other members of the community. But one model just throwing out there if people are interested to Google is the Rescoop.eu. It started out as an energy renewable-focused network of energy cooperatives that really-
Luna:
Oh, right. Let's start wrapping up our conversations. Thank you everybody for engaging in these conversations with us, for participating on the Padlet and talking to your neighbors. Before we close out, I want to ask for one or two volunteers to share a highlight from the conversation that you just had, a high point, a question that came up, points of excitement. Yeah, anybody here? I'll be the mic runner for this.
Tumani:
Hello everyone. My name is Tumani. Coming from the Young Women's Freedom Center and the excitement that came from this conversation or this experience I was sharing with our table that me and Nay not too long ago was talking about the impact that electric cars have on our planet. And she was saying, "Oh, people can make gas with waste." It was just one of those conversations that we were just hopping over different topics. So to bring community here and expose ourselves to the possibilities of creating these regenerative resources and just opening up our mind to what is possible. We don't need to rely, I never thought, I thought we always had to have gas. We always rely on Chevron. So it was exciting to be like, "Oh wow, you know some things, and we could really make some things happen." So yeah, that was cool.
Luna:
Thank you so much. I love this. Thinking outside the box, thinking of new creative, imaginative ways of thinking and not just what the billionaires want us to think for our future. Let's see. Can I get one more volunteer to talk about how your convo went? Is that a hand? Share your name also.
Sarah:
Hey everyone, it's Sarah again. Our main conversation that I brought up to Taj was about participatory budgeting, and really being intentional with how the city is allocating these funds, ensuring transparency and accountability and community voice is centered throughout these processes and the future process of what this allocation process will look like. And so I know there are a few community orgs already working on envisioning what that would look like for the city of Richmond. I run the Contra Costa Budget Justice Coalition. And in partnership with CBE, we've been envisioning what that could look like for the city of Richmond. And so really excited to continue these conversations. But yeah, I think the theme is transparency and accountability, for sure.
Luna:
Thank you so much. I love this themes of deep democracy. Really what we want to get to is making sure... Oh, we got one more volunteer. Okay. Making sure that we are at the forefront of decision-making processes. They say if it ain't bias, it ain't for us. Did we get a hand over here? Kendall has a great point.
Kendall:
Hey everyone. I got voluntold to share. So one thing that I highlighted for some potential is access to land. I think a lot of times it gets, we green spaces or housing or things for economic development, but I think access to land and decisions that are made around who can do what with the shared space that we all have is really only for rich folks. And so I think we should prioritize giving poor people access to housing and land specifically. And I know the California Green New Deal has a statewide effort called Green Social Housing. So prioritizing land and housing projects that are community owned and led. And I want to echo about the participatory budgeting, I think a lot of times people's basic needs aren't being met, and so there's a lot of really important longer-term strategies, but if people don't have stable access to land and housing, a lot of other parts of visioning and collaboration are hard.
Luna:
Thank you so much, Kendall. All right. I love all these ideas, all these themes that we're talking about. I see even on the screen stuff about financial literacy, about economic freedom, about what Kendall was just saying, of having access to the land, the resources, the capital to make the future that we want to see happen possible. And with that, thank you so much for joining us for this first event in this series. I hope that all of you really learned a lot from today. I hope you had wonderful conversations. I want to take a second to thank all of our speakers, Reverend Hassan, Sarah Kroll, Sangeeta Kumar, Eli Moore, Taj James, and all of our partners that made this event possible.
There's a slide with all of them that I was just going to show, but just to name a few thank you to the city of Richmond, to Cooperation Richmond, the East Bay Center for Performing Arts, to Healthy Contra Costa, Full Spectrum Labs, Urban Tilth, urban Habitat, the RICE Center, Rising Juntos, and all of the partners that are on board for this event and these conversations. Please feel free to carry these conversations into your work, into your everyday life, and I hope we can continue to stay connected in this work to build for ourselves the future that we want to see. Thank you everybody for joining us.
Richard Aviles:
Hey everybody. So now we'll do a little bit of close-out here virtually. Thank you all for joining us virtually. We really appreciate that you came along for the ride as we were doing our first little hybrid event at OBI. Again, this is the first of a couple of series that we'll be doing. If you have registered for the series, you'll be-
Luna:
Also, feel free to grab any of the spare food or drinks. It's all for y'all.
Richard Aviles:
Also, my apologies y'all that we still haven't figured out how I can send some food and drinks virtually to you all, but there will definitely be next steps. So we will definitely have another seminar. What we're going to do is that we're going to share some hides from our in-person folks. We will share next steps. We got a couple of the Padlets, I'll get the links to those and we'll share them so you can continue to see what people are commenting and how they're responding to the prompts. I took some of the notes from the chat to the prompts that we asked to the questions. I'll send those together. Also, such a live to virtual dance. Yes, that was really pretty fun. Good to see you all dancing, that was fun. And then also what we'll do, I heard a little bit in the chat about receiving slides and links that were shared by the speakers.
We will put out a request from the speakers to share that with us and we'll send a follow-up. So if you already registered to this event, you will be receiving all of the follow-ups for all the subsequent events. Again, also what I'll do, I will share my email in the chat so you have it. If you have any future questions that may come up or if you have any comments or feedbacks around, again, doing the hybrid event, the virtual versus the live, please feel free to email me if you have any questions. I enjoy talking and shooting the shit and throwing the chismes, so call me. We can have a conversation. It's the beautiful part about my job that I get to talk, and to have conversations. We'll stop the recording at this moment and thank you all for joining us.
