The Pitch: Reclaiming Our Streets
Groundwork NRG Executive Director Rachel Jefferson was recently featured in Pitch Magazine.
The story focused on the ways in which our streets have been taken away from us, and what we can do to take them back. Because investments in walking, biking, and accessible infrastructure are so rarely distributed in an equitable way, the task often falls to residents of the neighborhood most impacted by systemic racism and discrimination to make street improvements a reality.
The good news is that people are starting to take back their streets.
In northeast Kansas City, Kansas, one of the region’s poorest neighborhoods, residents are conducting “walking audits.” They document the conditions of streets and sidewalks, threats from traffic, accessibility to parks and playgrounds, and other quality of life issues. College students tally up the data and neighborhood groups use it to set their priorities.
“Northeast Kansas City, Kansas, is an area that was redlined,” says Rachel Jefferson, executive director of Groundwork Northeast Revitalization Group, a coalition of neighborhoods. “Because of structural racism, it’s an area where people were set up to fail.”
By demanding safer streets and better environments, people are controlling their own destinies, she says. “It’s really about local decision-making being put in the hands of people.”