Ep #83: Reclaiming Your Community: You Don’t Have to Move out of Your Neighborhood to Live in a Better One with Majora Carter

Sunni and Lisa are joined by Majora Carter who talks about her
book, Reclaiming Your Community: You Don’t Have to Move out of
Your Neighborhood to Live in a Better One.

Majora Carter is a real estate developer, urban revitalization
strategy consultant, MacArthur Fellow and Peabody Award winning
broadcaster. She is responsible for the creation and successful
implementation of numerous economic developments, technology
& green-infrastructure projects, policies and job training
& placement systems.


Carter applies her corporate consulting practice focused on
talent-retention to reducing Brain Drain in American low-status
communities. She has firsthand experience pioneering sustainable
economic development in one of America's most storied low-status
communities: the South Bronx. 


She and her teams develop vision, strategies and the type of
development that transforms low-status communities into thriving
mixed-use local economies. Her approach harnesses capital flows
resulting from American re-urbanization to help increase wealth
building opportunities across demographics left out of all
historic financial tide changes. Majora's work produces long term
fiscal benefits for governments, residents, and private real
estate developments throughout North America. 


In 2017, she launched the Boogie Down Grind, a Hip Hop themed
speciality coffee & craft beer spot, and the first commercial
“3rd Space” in the Hunts Point section


of the South Bronx since the mid-1980s. This venture also
provides a rare opportunity for local families to invest through
SEC approved online investment platforms. 


Majora is quoted on the walls of the Smithsonian Museum of
African-American History and Culture in DC:


"Nobody should have to move out of their neighborhood to live in
a better one”.


Her ability to shepherd projects through seemingly conflicted
socio-economic currents has garnered her 8 honorary PhD's and
awards such as: 100 Most Intriguing Entrepreneurs by Goldman
Sachs, Silicon Alley 100 by Business Insider, Liberty Medal for
Lifetime Achievement by News Corp, and other honors from the
National Building Museum, International Interior Design
Association, Center for American Progress, as well as her TEDtalk
(one of six to launch that site in 2006).


She has served on the boards of the US Green Building Council,
Ceres, The Wilderness Society, and the Andrew Goodman
Foundation. 


Majora was born, raised and continues to live in the South Bronx.
She is a graduate of the Bronx High School of Science (1984),
Wesleyan University (1988 BA, Distinguished Alum) and New York
University (MFA). After establishing Sustainable South Bronx
(2001) and Green For All (2007), among other organizations, she
opened this private consulting firm (2008) - which was named Best
for the World by B-Corp in 2014.


While at Sustainable South Bronx, Carter deployed MIT’s first
ever Mobile Fab-Lab (digital fabrication laboratory) to the South
Bronx - where it served as an early iteration of the
“Maker-Spaces” found elsewhere today. The project drew residents
and visitors together for guided and creative
collaborations. 


In addition, Majora Carter launched StartUp Box, a
ground-breaking tech social enterprise that provided entry-level
tech jobs in the South Bronx, operating it from 2014-2018. Majora
Carter has helped connect tech industry pioneers such as Etsy,
Gust, FreshDirect, Google, and Cisco to diverse communities at
all levels.

BOOK DESCRIPTION: Reclaiming Your Community: You Don’t Have to
Move out of Your Neighborhood to Live in a Better One

How can we solve the problem of persistent poverty in low-status
communities? Majora Carter argues that these areas need a
talent-retention strategy, just like the ones companies have.
Retaining homegrown talent is a critical part of creating a
strong local economy that can resist gentrification. But too