You Don't Have to Leave Your Neighborhood to Live in a Better One | Majora Carter | TED

Successful companies don't invest in talent

so the competition can hire them away.

They keep their people motivated to grow with the company

and inspire those around them to lean in with them.

I believe that talent retention,

the same tool used to grow successful companies,

can be used to build great neighborhoods for the people born and raised in them.

My hometown is the South Bronx in New York City,

(Cheers)

holla --

(Applause)

And it’s the kind of neighborhood

that, some might say, actually has a talent repulsion strategy.

Back in the 1980s,

I walked by this crack house on the way to the subway

that would take me to my high school, one of the best in the country,

the Bronx High School of Science.

Alright, figured there'd be at least some of you in here.

Neighborhoods like mine are places where inequality is assumed

by the people who live there

and by everyone else on the outside looking in.

These are places where the schools, public health, air and water,

parks and trees, food options,

career opportunities are worse than in other parts of the same town.

Government subsidized rental housing and health clinics,

homeless shelters, liquor stores, dollar stores predominate.

Few banks,

but plenty of check cashing stores

or pawnshops that charge you to use the money you may have.

I refer to these communities as low-status.

I don’t call them poor or underprivileged because frankly,

status implies something larger and deeper at work

and that inequality is a well-established fact.

Think of the communities like that near you.

They're everywhere, they're inner cities,

they're reservations, white Rust Belt towns

and all over the world.

And bright kids who grow up in them are expected to measure success

by how far they get away from them.

I was one of those kids,

and now I’m a real estate developer and strategy consultant.

And I work nationally,

but the South Bronx is my research and development laboratory,

where I actually practice restorative community development.

And that same corner that was once a crack house

is now the home of my hip hop cafe -- award-winning hip hop cafe --

excuse me,

The Boogie Down Grind.

(Applause and cheers)

And it's two blocks away from the house I grew up in

and around the corner from where I live right now.

So I have embraced my inner capitalist and my inner socialist

and my inner libertarian among a bunch of other things, however.

But I'd like to talk now about how capitalism,

and the spirit behind it,

and it's application,

that's what determines its outcomes.

US capitalism supported slavery.

And it's supported Black Wall Streets,

those communities of Black folks formerly enslaved

or just one generation out of it.

And where they built great businesses and wealth and communities.

And the most famous of which was the town of Greenwood

in Tulsa, Oklahoma.

Black Wall Streets were destroyed,

burned down,

and the Black people in them murdered by white mobs, savagely

and without consequence.

Now was that capitalism's fault

or some kind of white cultural flaw?

Or distinction that has gone unaddressed to this day?

Now, I know some people don't like hearing about it,

but imagine what it feels like to experience it.

I mean, America has had a talent retention strategy

or something like it in place since 1619.

Slavery provided white Americans with all the benefits of that barbaric

and predatory industry.

And although Black Wall Streets were built

on the sustainable ideals of life,

liberty and the pursuit of happiness and property ownership,

Black Wall Streets were destroyed

because the people who built them were not white.

Same system, very different outcomes.

Citigroup estimates that the racial wealth gap in the US

has actually cost us 16 trillion dollars over the last 20 years alone.

Now, let's just think about that for just a moment,

the money that could have gone into the economy but didn't

because of systemic racism that defined who benefited from America's growth.

There's no need to reinvent the wheel here.

If we want to make America as good as its promise,

then we should apply the same tools of capitalism that built white wealth

to build wealth in low-status communities.

Especially --

(Applause)

Especially in terms of property ownership and real estate development,

because real estate development in low-status communities in the US

currently takes one of two paths.

You know, first, poverty maintenance,

wherein you'll see things like

the concentration of things,

such as health clinics

and government subsidized housing,

excuse me, rental housing,

pharmacies, philanthropic and government dollars pour in,

and the nonprofit industrial complex seems to view poverty

sort of as an authentic cultural attribute of the area.

And thus you'll see all sorts of programs

that are designed to sort of manage that poverty,

but the communities do not improve.

Money will be made, lots of it, but not for the local people.

And in fact, one can view many of the well-intentioned programs

as talent extraction,

because the promising talent is encouraged to grow up and be somebody,

but certainly not in their own hood.

(Applause)

And the other type is gentrification displacement.

When urban populations grow,

even some politicians and even some activists

will resist greater density.

So you have rising demand and limited supply.

And then prices go up.

And gentrification generally means outsiders coming in to a community

in order to build one that suits their needs and their desires,

and it's not for the needs and desires of the people

that are already in that community.

But let's just be real,

it's not always mutually exclusive,

because people in those communities want nice things, too.

They do.

And that's why they leave whenever they can

in order to experience them.

So capitalism can fuel gentrification and displacement

or poverty maintenance,

but neither of these strategies actually help,

the people in those communities live in the kind of neighborhoods

that we all deserve.

What if we looked at low-status communities

as though they were struggling companies?

How would we turn them around?

How would a talent retention model work on a neighborhood scale?

So municipalities, they hand out corporate retention deals

because they believe that the economic activity that it will produce

is actually worth the subsidy that they pay out.

And so we'll need to do the same thing in low-status communities

for the people that were led to believe that they need to measure success

by how far they get away from those places.

You know, we can't really force anybody to stay,

but we can nudge them with lifestyle infrastructure,

the type of stuff that we learned through our own market research

that people told us that they wanted.

Places like cafes and bars and bookstores

and farmer's markets and, you know,

the places that, frankly, you probably all like to go to, too.

They build positive community interactions

and make people feel really cool.

So another nudge would be real access to property ownership

and business ownership

that keeps people vested in their neighborhoods.

These are like benefits, you know, and company stock options,

so when the community does well,

so do the residents.

It's kind of like the employees of a hot start-up.

So how do we make sure that these benefits and stock options

get in the right hands and appreciate and value for them?

Now in the US,

if you're accused of a crime and can't afford legal counsel,

a public defender will be assigned to you.

The same can be done for local property owners.

Before a real estate transaction goes forward within a low-status community,

the seller should receive quality legal and financial counsel,

so they are fully aware of the value of their land

and how they could maximize it through sensible refinancing,

by building, you know, vertical additions for rentals

and also accessory dwelling units

and also using the value to do sensible refinancing,

put their kids through college, build a business.

You know, or maybe,

you know, property owners might even be considered a protected class

by the United States Securities and Exchange Commission

in order to protect Black wealth in particular

and other low-status community wealth

from the continuing liquidation that they still deal with.

Because it is common for people who do own property

in low-status communities

to be approached all the time for quick cash offers.

These are actual solicitations that I've received at my home.

These can be very enticing to people who have never been led to believe

that there's any real value in their community.

And the thing is, it's all legal.

And real estate companies, big and small,

as well as private equity,

have done a very effective job of increasing wealth inequality in the US

by separating financially unsavvy people

from any hope of generational wealth potential.

So, you know --

(Applause)

The SEC recently proposed new rules

requiring businesses to report their greenhouse gas emissions

in an effort to increase transparency of the risk to its investors.

Maybe they should do the same thing for taxpayers.

We know real estate and private equity firms

can engage in predatory practices at the expense of taxpayers

by privatizing the profits and socializing the costs.

And this is because a business model

that reduces opportunities for home ownership

also creates more landless renters,

exacerbates the concentration of poverty,

and statistically increases poverty's ill effects,

including higher rates of bad policing and incarceration

and lower health and educational outcomes.

Their message shut out aspiring homeowners from the American dream.

It comes at a cost to all of us,

and so it should come at a far greater cost

to those who do business like that.

Another issue is that some renters actually pay more in rent

than they would on a mortgage.

But most of us who actually need a mortgage

cannot compete with the speed

at which predatory speculators show up with all-cash deals.

Period.

A possible solution is for philanthropic organizations to buy properties

at market value from those who actually choose to sell --

once they’re fully aware of what they’re selling ...

and then hold them

so that other folks within the communities

have the time

to get financing and then buy.

That's a valuable cushion of time for people,

and it gives people a chance to participate in the American dream.

And it's a low-risk place to park capital.

These are some examples of just how we can build

a restorative economic approach to capitalism.

It's still capitalism,

but with rules and practices

that favor the outcomes that we need as a nation.

But folks on the ground, they are not waiting.

They're absolutely not waiting.

In West Oakland, California,

third generation West Oaklander Noni Session

leads the East Bay Permanent Real Estate Cooperative.

They have recently acquired property collectively

to build a permanent, affordable,

mixed-use real estate development that benefits its resident owners.

The cooperative offers these lunchtime learning sessions

so people can fully understand things about investment and development.

And their current membership includes about 500 community, investor,

resident and staff owners.

And they have, to date, raised five million dollars

for their community, landing and housing fund.

(Applause)

In Philadelphia, a community development program called Jumpstart,

started by Ken Weinstein.

He’s a commercial real estate developer,

and the program provides training, mentoring and loans

to aspiring local residential developers,

mostly women and people of color.

Since 2015, they’ve trained more than 2,500 people,

more than 350 loans totaling more than 40 million dollars

that have actually rehabbed more than 350 units,

had been totally rehabilitated.

Their respective activities actually improve the value

of each other's properties.

And they're reducing blight in Philly

neighborhood by neighborhood, from the inside out.

Jumpstart's now in more than 13 communities around the country.

And Dune Lankard is a member of the Eyak tribe in Alaska.

And what he's working on is securing livelihoods

for aspiring Native youth and women,

you know, where he's from.

And he's doing it through kelp farming in ancestral native waters.

Kelp is a traditional food source, number one,

and it also has important commercial components in bioplastics,

in pharmaceuticals.

And also they use it as an additive in cow feed

to reduce the methane in it.

I mean, it's amazing what it could do.

But he is competing against multinational companies

to actually own a piece of this emerging ocean industry for his people.

He's going to be up against it, but he's got to be doing this.

It's so important.

And in the South Bronx,

there's this historic rail station, that brought my daddy,

who was a Pullman porter,

into the neighborhood where I was born and raised.

Back in the 1940s, it was even harder to get a mortgage while Black.

And he won 15,000 dollars in a horse race

and carried it in a satchel back across the country

and purchased a home near that rail station for his family.

And that rail station has recently been acquired by his baby daughter, me,

who is --

(Applause and cheers)

transforming it into a multi-use performance venue,

an event hall for music and weddings

and quinceañeras and gaming tournaments.

And I ...

(Applause and cheers)

I am the manifestation of my mommy and daddy's wildest dreams.

(Applause and cheers)

I'm not saying that talent retention is going to solve all the problems

associated with poverty maintenance

or displacement and gentrification,

or solve all the wrongs of capitalism.

But I know we are not going to solve any of those problems without it.

We don't have to keep building monuments

that honor the shameful practices

that created the inequality that low status-communities experience.

If we use the tools of capitalism that we have,

but in a much more restorative way,

we can help people in low-status communities show

that you don't have to move out of our neighborhoods

to live in better ones.

Thank you.

(Applause and cheers)