My reward was the crystallization of a major multi-faceted approach to real community development.
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| MC Tracey J. Shanklin with BSA founder, Melvin White at the MLK Legacy Dinner |
On Friday, Sept. 9th, I was
awarded the 2016 MLK Legacy Award for “Outstanding Service in the Community.”
About four other individuals were also honored during The Beloved Streets of
America’s first annual MLK Legacy Dinner. It’s always nice to be recognized for
trying to do something positive but, for me, the true reward was the event
itself and the realization that I am a part of a game-changing group with
unrecognized potential.
I have to be honest, I’ve been besieged
with doubt about the Sweet Potato Project (SPP). Our mission is basic but
powerful. For the past five years, we’ve been working with at-risk teens to
show them how to become self-sufficient and make money in their own
neighborhoods. Students plant produce on vacant lots, after harvesting they
turn produce into products.
Simple right?
I’ve been besieged with doubt about the Sweet Potato Project...Our funding has decreased significantly within the past two years...
Our bigger mission is to help low-income
people gain access to vacant lots, grow food and develop ways to sell through
farmer’s markets, direct delivery or by selling food-based products like our
sweet potato cookies. If hundreds of poor folk are growing and thousands are
buying from local urban farmers, we have a shot at creating a real economic
engine in North St. Louis.
Powerful, right?
Well, not so much-at least not for SPP.
Our funding has decreased significantly within the past two years. Our students
made it through the summer, with the help of a few individuals who hosted
fund-raisers for us. However, it’s become painfully obvious that we can’t
continue operating with a tiny staff, limited funds on a shoestring budget.
If hundreds of poor folk are growing and thousands are buying from local urban farmers, we have a shot at creating a real economic engine in North St. Louis.
So that was the sort of funk I was in
when I arrived at Friday’s event. The real reward, though, came in the form of
inspiration through the activities of other awardees and some extraordinary ordinary
people I know who are also striving to enact social and economic change in the
black community.
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| Melvin White founder of Beloved Streets of America |
First, let’s start with Melvin White,
the founder of Beloved Streets of America. Melvin is a postal worker who saw a
need and seeks to address it. After visiting the Delmar Loop area one day, he
asked himself why couldn’t the street named after Dr. Martin Luther King, Jr.
be just as robust and dynamic? That simple question fueled his mission to bring
economic revitalization not only to the MLK strip from Wellston to East St.
Louis but all over the country.
Even though Melvin, for some
inexplicable reason, has been ostracized by some black aldermen, his idea has
been recognized nationally. Harvard University was so intrigued with the
concept that they sent a professor and a team of grad students here to explore
its possibilities. That visit led to a
partnership between Harvard and Washington University called “A Divided City:
Urban Humanities Initiative,” designed to dissect and dismantle
segregation in our region and across the country.
Even though Melvin, for some inexplicable reason, has been ostracized by some black aldermen, his idea has been recognized nationally
Malik
and Deborah Ahmed, founders of Better Family Life, Inc., were also recipients
of a community service award Friday night. The 33-year-old organization is
legendary for its work in crime reduction, home ownership, employment training and the general social and economic elevation of low income families. The
Ahmeds were not only a strong reminder of what good things may come from being
persistent, they reinforced my oft-forgotten belief that the black community
already has the players and solutions needed to dramatically reinvigorate North
St. Louis.
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| Deborah & Malik Ahmed with other BSA honorees |
I sat at a table with Robert Powell, founder of the now
shuttered Portfolio Art Gallery in the Grand Arts District. His wife Carol and
Eddie Davis, former UE executive and founder of the Center for the Acceleration
of African American Businesses (CAAAB) were also at the table. Robert is
working to build an African American Arts District that will showcase, support
and enhance black art and black artists in our region. Eddie’s organization
trains people to open and successfully operate business ventures.
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| Robert Powell |
My reward of that night was the crystallization of a major
multi-faceted approach to community development. After accepting my award, I
asked the audience to dream with me. Imagine a vibrant and refurbished MLK
(Beloved Streets), I said, where people own homes (BFL); with dozens of black-owned
storefronts (CAAAB) in an area like the U. City Loop where art and culture is
part of the neighborhood’s fabric (Portfolio); where economically empowered landowners
grow food that supplies the entire region (SPP).
The real reward was inspiration via some extraordinary ordinary people I know striving to enact change in the black community.
I was also reminded of the five or so food-related entities
already working in the Greater Ville area on or near MLK Blvd. St. Louis
University recently applied for a USDA grant to help fund these agencies. SPP
is a part of that collaborative. If funded, there will be a food market,
industrial kitchen to develop “value-added” food products and more urban farms
in the area. If more funds were directed to these entities and organizations
recognized at the Beloved Streets event, we’d have a huge swath of MLK in North
St. Louis dedicated to empowering low-income youth and adults, job creation,
home and land ownership and small business growth-which can all lead to
neighborhood safety and sustainability.
There are basically two obstacles that impede this grand
vision. First, as Malik Ahmed noted after he and Deborah received their awards,
black organizations must collaborate, strategize and go after funding as a
collective. The second challenge is the lack of vision among politicians, city
planners, nonprofit funders and corporations. St. Louis leaders seem to have
one model for community develop: “Let’s give these rich guys and powerful
entities millions upon millions in state, local and federal tax breaks and
public money and, hopefully, their success will trickle down to people in poor
communities.”
Politicians have exuberantly signed off on developments such
as the $16 million failed attempt to keep the Rams in St. Louis along with the billion-dollars
to build them a new football stadium. Then there’s Paul McKee’s Northside Regeneration
project which will receive up to $390 million in tax-increment financing. The estimated $2.1
billion Cortex District and the $1.75 billion National
Geospatial-Intelligence Agency’s headquarters are all buoyed by tax incentives,
deferred taxes and public money.
There are basically two obstacles that impede this grand vision: black organizations not collaborating and the lack of vision among politicians and city planners...
This is all well and good, I suppose,
but if we’re leveraging the city’s tax base for the rich, implementing
gentrification in North St. Louis and short-changing public schools dependent
on tax dollars, shouldn’t a fraction of the public money go to
sacrificing, struggling black organizations that are dedicated to empowering
residents, educating young people and building businesses within the most
disadvantaged and ignored areas of our city?
If we’re leveraging the city’s tax base for the rich, implementing gentrification in North St. Louis and short-changing public schools dependent on tax dollars, shouldn’t a fraction of the public money go to sacrificing, struggling black organizations
When it comes to sharing public money
and investing in the black community, we’re up against a decades-old, stubborn,
segregationist mindset in St. Louis. Still, I have hope. Can
politicians-particularly black and progressive politicians-simply call for a
time-out on doling out dollars to the rich and powerful? Can’t they insist on a
little quid-pro-quo for their loyalty and demand that elitist city planners
include black organizations in the mix? If those of us dedicated to enacting
real, people-centered change worked together, perhaps we can help introduce a
new template for development that actually empowers people to do-for-self
economically.
These things and more are the fruits of
an award that emphasized the potential rewards right here, today, within our
midst.
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