Latest / Black Fridays: Business Growth for Entrepreneurs, Creators & Professionals / Urban Planner Reveals The Real Reason Communities Fail - Ep. 174 w/ Nina Idemudia

Transcript

Urban Planner Reveals The Real Reason Communities Fail - Ep. 174 w/ Nina Idemudia · Black Fridays: Business Growth for Entrepreneurs, Creators & Professionals

• 0:00
  [SPEAKER_03]: And so part of me even formalizing a planner with a purpose like I mentioned before is me saying let me do this on my own terms.
• 0:07
  [SPEAKER_03]: And like sometimes when you're fighting inside institutions to be heard it takes away from the energy you could be.
• 0:15
  [SPEAKER_03]: giving to just solving the issue, right?
• 0:17
  [SPEAKER_03]: Because people are going to stay, well, you're a problem solver.
• 0:20
  [SPEAKER_03]: Like, I have people are always going to be upset about you trying to solve problems, right?
• 0:26
  [SPEAKER_03]: And so it's kind of like, okay, let me just do it on my own terms, which is why when you ask me what my services were, I'm like, well, I do public speaking.
• 0:32
  [SPEAKER_03]: I do teaching and I like cultivate spaces, but this is the first time them.
• 0:35
  [SPEAKER_03]: Like, you know, I'm doing this on my own.
• 0:38
  [SPEAKER_03]: And, and, and, and, and, and, and with my own,
• 0:41
  [SPEAKER_03]: kind of philosophy and structure creating the spaces that I think need to need to be there.
• 1:07
  [SPEAKER_00]: I'm working professionals, creators, entrepreneurs, I need you out of tap the internet.
• 1:10
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• 1:46
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• 1:49
  [SPEAKER_00]: Now let's go ahead and get back into the episode.
• 1:51
  [SPEAKER_00]: What up, Bill.
• 1:52
  [SPEAKER_00]: Black Friday's family.
• 1:53
  [SPEAKER_00]: Welcome back to another installment of Black Friday's podcast.
• 1:55
  [SPEAKER_00]: Before we get into today's episode, I'd like to button subscribe, drop a comment, make sure you send some videos to family friends and loved ones.
• 2:01
  [SPEAKER_00]: So I'm keep this thing going.
• 2:03
  [SPEAKER_00]: Now that we got that business out of the way, I got somebody on the podcast, who is very intentional about making sure our communities are built with you and my Miss Nina.
• 2:12
  [SPEAKER_00]: Itemudia, how are you today?
• 2:13
  [SPEAKER_00]: I'm good, I'm good, I'm so excited to be here.
• 2:16
  [SPEAKER_00]: for sure, but you're last name that get it right.
• 2:18
  [SPEAKER_00]: No, you got it right.
• 2:18
  [SPEAKER_00]: Oh, you got it right.
• 2:20
  [SPEAKER_03]: Yes.
• 2:20
  [SPEAKER_03]: And really, it's just about trying at this point, because it's some people that don't even try.
• 2:24
  [SPEAKER_03]: But usually, that people can sound it out.
• 2:26
  [SPEAKER_03]: So yes, you did great.
• 2:27
  [SPEAKER_00]: OK, but, and AKA, a planner with a purpose.
• 2:30
  [SPEAKER_03]: Yes, AKA a planner with a purpose.
• 2:32
  [SPEAKER_03]: That is, well, yes, also known as just to be clear, because I am a delta.
• 2:36
  [SPEAKER_03]: So it's my pause.
• 2:40
  [SPEAKER_03]: It's more exciting.
• 2:40
  [SPEAKER_03]: I'm like, yes.
• 2:42
  [SPEAKER_03]: Okay.
• 2:42
  [SPEAKER_03]: But yes.
• 2:43
  [SPEAKER_00]: I am a Delta.
• 2:43
  [SPEAKER_03]: But yes.
• 2:44
  [SPEAKER_03]: Also known as a planet.
• 2:45
  [SPEAKER_00]: What's your purpose?
• 2:46
  [SPEAKER_00]: Yes.
• 2:47
  [SPEAKER_03]: That's me.
• 2:48
  [SPEAKER_00]: For sure.
• 2:50
  [SPEAKER_00]: I'm planning on the purpose.
• 2:51
  [SPEAKER_03]: That's a Delta.
• 2:52
  [SPEAKER_03]: Right.
• 2:53
  [SPEAKER_03]: To be clear.
• 2:54
  [SPEAKER_00]: I don't need nobody in the comments say that I do not know so that does not help, but the relive the relive how to say counter balance is there you go so it terms up so a plan of what a purpose that is from your background in urban planning yes before we go any further I got to ground this conversation first for myself and the audience what is urban planning what does that even mean?
• 3:17
  [SPEAKER_03]: Yeah.
• 3:18
  [SPEAKER_03]: So I'm so glad you asked.
• 3:19
  [SPEAKER_03]: So Urban Planning is just basically when we think about the built environment by the built environment.
• 3:24
  [SPEAKER_03]: It's this building.
• 3:25
  [SPEAKER_03]: It's the street.
• 3:26
  [SPEAKER_03]: It's the bike lane.
• 3:28
  [SPEAKER_03]: It's the turning lane.
• 3:29
  [SPEAKER_03]: It's the park is the dog park versus the children's park.
• 3:32
  [SPEAKER_03]: It is the things around you.
• 3:34
  [SPEAKER_03]: and there are people who get to decide what those things are, how much you get to build, where resources go, right, think about city governments, you have like public works they do with like making sure there's infrastructure in public roads and then you have the playing department where if a business wants to open they have to go there and say hey cannot open this business in this particular place or
• 3:54
  [SPEAKER_03]: somebody wants to build housing, can I build housing in this particular place?
• 3:58
  [SPEAKER_03]: And so these people really control our outcomes in life because as you think about it, there's a statistic about the tie between the zip code that you're born in and your life expectancy.
• 4:09
  [SPEAKER_03]: And that's tied to place, right?
• 4:11
  [SPEAKER_03]: The built environment.
• 4:12
  [SPEAKER_03]: So if you're born in a certain place, you are already pre- you
• 4:18
  [SPEAKER_03]: Outcomes based on like health outcomes based on quality of life based on how much money you make down to even your average credit score like you can predict that just based on the resources that you have and we're born So for me a lot of people for me I feel like everybody's an urban planner because if you've experienced the built-in environment You're experiencing the world you're experiencing saving
• 4:42
  [SPEAKER_03]: taking public transit or getting into a car, your life experience means that you're internalizing how the built-in environment affects your life, whether you have opportunities or don't have opportunities.
• 4:54
  [SPEAKER_03]: And a formal urban planner is really just a translator to make that an ordinance, which is a law, right, or to make that a policy, which enable certain type of actions or for resources specifically money to be distributed in a community in a certain type of way.
• 5:11
  [SPEAKER_00]: And so I would love to know what kicked off your pathway to urban planning.
• 5:16
  [SPEAKER_00]: So we know each other because we went to undergrad.
• 5:18
  [SPEAKER_00]: Yeah, it's a Michigan.
• 5:19
  [SPEAKER_00]: Yeah.
• 5:20
  [SPEAKER_00]: And so remind me what your undergrad degree was in.
• 5:23
  [SPEAKER_00]: Yeah.
• 5:24
  [SPEAKER_00]: And also what started to journey in urban planning for you.
• 5:27
  [SPEAKER_03]: Yeah, so my undergraduate degree is an African immigrant studies in one of the studies.
• 5:31
  [SPEAKER_03]: My mama says, I got a degree in myself, and she's not wrong.
• 5:34
  [SPEAKER_00]: I did.
• 5:35
  [SPEAKER_03]: But for me, it was really important coming in my freshman year because I was in Eastquatt, and I was in the Residential College.
• 5:40
  [SPEAKER_03]: I did not graduate from the Residential College, but I did enter the Residential College.
• 5:43
  [SPEAKER_03]: If you know, you know, um, and so through that experience, I just wanted to immerse myself in our history, in the history of the world, thinking about the why behind decisions, like if this is my current circumstance, how did a series of decisions lead me, Nina, to be in this particular place in time, like that it has always really peaked my interest and when you say like,
• 6:08
  [SPEAKER_03]: What got me interested in urban planning is really back when I was a kid and I'm from Detroit from the East Side and my mother went to prison when I was 10 years old and part of my mother going to prison was my family fell into take care of my sister my brother and I
• 6:24
  [SPEAKER_03]: And so we would use my onto dress in Harperwood and go to Harperwood schools and sell a friend of time.
• 6:31
  [SPEAKER_03]: I was like an elementary school to the day that I graduated.
• 6:35
  [SPEAKER_03]: I went to Harperwood schools and I took the eight mile bus every day.
• 6:40
  [SPEAKER_03]: We will walk from seven mile into Quinder to eight mile into Quinder and get on the eight mile bus, go down to Eastland, get off the bus,
• 6:53
  [SPEAKER_03]: And the Eastland.
• 6:54
  [SPEAKER_03]: All right.
• 6:55
  [SPEAKER_03]: Eastland.
• 6:55
  [SPEAKER_03]: And the Eastland.
• 6:55
  [SPEAKER_00]: And the Eastland.
• 6:55
  [SPEAKER_00]: And the Eastland.
• 6:56
  [SPEAKER_00]: And the Eastland.
• 6:56
  [SPEAKER_00]: And the Eastland.
• 6:57
  [SPEAKER_03]: And the Eastland.
• 6:58
  [SPEAKER_03]: And the Eastland.
• 6:58
  [SPEAKER_00]: And the Eastland.
• 6:59
  [SPEAKER_03]: And the Eastland.
• 6:59
  [SPEAKER_03]: And the Eastland.
• 6:59
  [SPEAKER_03]: And the Eastland.
• 7:00
  [SPEAKER_03]: And the Eastland.
• 7:00
  [SPEAKER_03]: And the Eastland.
• 7:01
  [SPEAKER_03]: And the Eastland.
• 7:01
  [SPEAKER_03]: And the Eastland.
• 7:02
  [SPEAKER_03]: And the Eastland.
• 7:02
  [SPEAKER_03]: And the Eastland.
• 7:03
  [SPEAKER_03]: And the Eastland.
• 7:03
  [SPEAKER_03]: And the Eastland.
• 7:04
  [SPEAKER_03]: And the Eastland.
• 7:04
  [SPEAKER_03]: And the Eastland.
• 7:04
  [SPEAKER_03]: And the Eastland.
• 7:05
  [SPEAKER_03]: And the Eastland.
• 7:06
  [SPEAKER_03]: And the Eastland.
• 7:06
  [SPEAKER_03]: And the Eastland.
• 7:06
  [SPEAKER_03]: And the Eastland.
• 7:07
  [SPEAKER_03]: And the Eastland.
• 7:07
  [SPEAKER_03]: And the Eastland.
• 7:08
  [SPEAKER_03]: And the Eastland.
• 7:08
  [SPEAKER_03]: And the Eastland.
• 7:09
  [SPEAKER_03]: And the Eastland
• 7:10
  [SPEAKER_03]: All right, up and down that road on that bus every day and seeing how the locks would go from empty to being full, how the storefronts would go from being empty to being full, how the locks would be my, you know, overrun, but then manicured and then also understanding that there was this disconnect between how I was going to school and what my peers had available to them and what I had available to me all the way back, you know, at seven mile in the quinder.
• 7:33
  [SPEAKER_03]: Um, and, you know, it's a interesting line to, to be into being a black family that wants the best for you and feeling like the best for you is to ship you off to a white suburban school and, you know, everybody makes their choice is based on what they think is best, but I think seeing that disparity so clearly, definitely for me was like, why?
• 7:56
  [SPEAKER_03]: And so then, as I started to get older, as I started to get more educated, I would take
• 8:01
  [SPEAKER_03]: placed in programs that taught me more about Black History, also just hearing the folks around me, OFOX talking about our experience, my maternal grandparents are from South Lower County, Mississippi, and they came up during the Great Migration and then on my father's side, I'm Nigerian.
• 8:15
  [SPEAKER_03]: And so just listening to the stories of both immigration and migration, and then I started to ask the why.
• 8:21
  [SPEAKER_03]: Well, why did we have to migrate?
• 8:23
  [SPEAKER_03]: Well, why did you come to this country?
• 8:25
  [SPEAKER_03]: Well, okay, why do we live in this neighborhood type of thing?
• 8:28
  [SPEAKER_03]: and so yeah, I decided to take that up in college and it wasn't until my junior year of college that Kathy Weathers, who a lot of people know she was my academic advisor in the African Olympics.
• 8:40
  [SPEAKER_03]: That is, she was like, do you want to be a planner?
• 8:42
  [SPEAKER_03]: They're recruiting from Michigan's like planning school for grad school?
• 8:46
  [SPEAKER_03]: Um, because I graduated 20s will, you know, be economy and you know, so everybody was going to grad school.
• 8:51
  [SPEAKER_03]: And I was like, I don't know where everyone's planning is, but like, let's Google it.
• 8:54
  [SPEAKER_03]: And I remember Googling it into her office.
• 8:56
  [SPEAKER_03]: She read whatever the description was.
• 8:58
  [SPEAKER_03]: This is back when you could trust Google.
• 9:00
  [SPEAKER_03]: And, uh, and whatever she read, I was like, yeah, that sounds interesting.
• 9:05
  [SPEAKER_03]: I think I'm going to do that.
• 9:06
  [SPEAKER_03]: And then I started applying for grad schools.
• 9:08
  [SPEAKER_03]: And then end up getting my masters in planning, moving out to California to go to
• 9:15
  [SPEAKER_03]: Yeah, that's how I got into it.
• 9:17
  [SPEAKER_00]: And you've been working at Urban Planet or it's around Urban Planet ever since you got your degree from from USC.
• 9:24
  [SPEAKER_03]: Yeah, yeah, I would use being somebody who was getting a master's degree in Urban Planning, which is a very white profession historically and even still now.
• 9:35
  [SPEAKER_03]: And then also our adjacent professions are engineering, very white, the architecture, also very white.
• 9:41
  [SPEAKER_03]: development and real estate, also very white.
• 9:45
  [SPEAKER_03]: So even me coming in with my little African America studies degree, my classmates all had degrees in architecture, engineering, where more of those structured sciences than I was coming in, but what I realized once I got there and realized
• 10:02
  [SPEAKER_03]: South Central LA was just Detroit with palm trees in a way like it was like the black lived experience in Detroit and LA are different but the same because of inequity structural inequity and I started to see putting the pieces together and as I started to get into my classes my professors and my fellow students would be saying stuff that was
• 10:26
  [SPEAKER_03]: not of reality of a working class or low-income person right they would be saying you know like oh the open market if you want to go get on the milk you just go to the store you choose and that's the open market and some some places have you know get that market and some places don't and I'm like well what if I don't have a car?
• 10:44
  [SPEAKER_03]: I can't win.
• 10:45
  [SPEAKER_03]: There's no grocery stores within walking distance like how I grew up.
• 10:49
  [SPEAKER_03]: What if the grocery store that I have is not like a full range grocery store like what we know now to be like woke Krugger or back in the day farmer jacks.
• 11:02
  [SPEAKER_03]: But like what if those stores don't aren't in my neighborhood and I just have a like an independently on grocery store that has one type of milk or two types of milk and that's full lactate milk that's 2% or home milk right what if I have diabetes and I have certain you know like so just
• 11:22
  [SPEAKER_03]: Leaning into my lived experience in a way in the classroom that I knew that that that particular set of people had not heard before and really saying like, oh, y'all don't actually y'all are making laws and y'all are making, or you know, all these changes in policy, but you don't actually know what it's like to live in these neighborhoods and have to jump through so many systematic challenges just to get your basic necessities.
• 11:46
  [SPEAKER_03]: And that's when I was like, this is what I need to do for the rest of my life.
• 11:49
  [SPEAKER_03]: like this is this is how I need to show up because we need to be in these rooms having these conversations and making sure that resources are distributed to those who need them most.
• 11:59
  [SPEAKER_00]: Exactly.
• 12:00
  [SPEAKER_00]: And then did that lead you down the pathway of developing your brand and business or planning with the purpose?
• 12:06
  [SPEAKER_03]: Well, not thin, so I was doing it more informally because I hated USC after I got there.
• 12:12
  [SPEAKER_03]: I didn't even know it was a private school.
• 12:14
  [SPEAKER_03]: You know, I, you see around it.
• 12:15
  [SPEAKER_03]: Yes, I had no idea which is embarrassing.
• 12:18
  [SPEAKER_00]: I did not know.
• 12:19
  [SPEAKER_00]: So this happened to me when I went to Miami for grad school.
• 12:21
  [SPEAKER_00]: I did not allow that.
• 12:22
  [SPEAKER_00]: They were private and come on, got there.
• 12:24
  [SPEAKER_00]: I'm like, it all makes sense.
• 12:26
  [SPEAKER_03]: Okay, yes, so I, I don't know.
• 12:27
  [SPEAKER_03]: I just never, it just never occurred to me that it was a private institution, right?
• 12:31
  [SPEAKER_03]: Because they have a whole bunch of use, you see.
• 12:33
  [SPEAKER_03]: Um, so anyway, I got there and I was like, it's in the middle of South Central and it's in this bubble and it literally has a fence around it and it's all white rich wealthy people and I was just like, wow, this is even more stark than Michigan where you know, it wasn't so it was obviously let lots of racial issues.
• 12:51
  [SPEAKER_03]: But it wasn't such a start, but you wanted to go with kids from the old areas.
• 12:55
  [SPEAKER_03]: Right, it's a little bit more mixed up, but you're like, it's literally a fence around in the hood, keeping these white kids and the community around it from intersecting.
• 13:04
  [SPEAKER_03]: And so I was miserable and I was like, I hated here, y'all are not like doing anything that I think it should be doing, which often do.
• 13:13
  [SPEAKER_03]: But I was like, y'all should be working with you thin at the time, I was working with gear up.
• 13:17
  [SPEAKER_03]: When I was in undergrad, I was working with Gear Up, which is a pre college program, and they had a branch in LA.
• 13:22
  [SPEAKER_03]: And of course, I couldn't move to LA when I did job.
• 13:25
  [SPEAKER_03]: So I had already gotten a Gear Up job at in the LA-USD school district, which is the LA school district.
• 13:32
  [SPEAKER_03]: And so anyway, I was working with kids, and then also going to school full-time.
• 13:35
  [SPEAKER_03]: So I was saying, hey, what if we brought the kids to USC and taught them about planning?
• 13:40
  [SPEAKER_03]: And then they were like, okay, cool, do it, make it.
• 13:43
  [SPEAKER_03]: We'll pay for it.
• 13:44
  [SPEAKER_03]: Because they were tired of me complaining that we weren't doing enough.
• 13:47
  [SPEAKER_03]: And I was like, dang, now I'm how to do this.
• 13:48
  [SPEAKER_03]: But then, that's when I created my first program, it was called Planning for College.
• 13:52
  [SPEAKER_03]: And we brought a hundred middle schoolers to USC over two different uh, field trips and taught them about planning.
• 13:59
  [SPEAKER_03]: And I put it together.
• 14:00
  [SPEAKER_03]: I
• 14:01
  [SPEAKER_03]: worked with the grad students to make the facilitators.
• 14:04
  [SPEAKER_03]: We got all these different things.
• 14:05
  [SPEAKER_03]: Had the students thinking about planning as a career.
• 14:09
  [SPEAKER_03]: And that program really taught me that again, leaning into what I know how to do best and creating experiences so that the next generation of people not only know how to interject themselves into the systems that exist, but also know how to change the systems that exist.
• 14:24
  [SPEAKER_03]: That was my jam.
• 14:26
  [SPEAKER_03]: So did that?
• 14:26
  [SPEAKER_03]: What my first planning award got recruited to the city of LA?
• 14:31
  [SPEAKER_03]: made another youth program for them.
• 14:33
  [SPEAKER_03]: One of the second planning it weren't.
• 14:34
  [SPEAKER_03]: So like I never made it formal like up to then, but I had always been creating these spaces.
• 14:40
  [SPEAKER_03]: And it actually, I did not make a plan with a purpose formal until December of last year, like as in a couple months ago.
• 14:46
  [SPEAKER_03]: Yeah.
• 14:46
  [SPEAKER_03]: And then I decided to make it more formal because it had kind of become a moniker based on meat that won seed to the next seed, to the next thing, to the next thing.
• 14:57
  [SPEAKER_03]: And I'm like, oh, I'm good at this.
• 14:59
  [SPEAKER_03]: Like, let me make it a business.
• 15:01
  [SPEAKER_03]: Not in the sense that I'm hoping to get out of the urban planning game, but I want to be able to control the type of art I create through planning, and I want to be able to do it on my own terms, which is why I decided to make it a business.
• 15:16
  [SPEAKER_03]: And to bring these types of, like, conversations to the people that need to be a part of them.
• 15:23
  [SPEAKER_00]: for sure.
• 15:25
  [SPEAKER_00]: As a business, could you tell us what it is that you offer from a planner with the service?
• 15:29
  [SPEAKER_00]: A planner with a purpose.
• 15:31
  [SPEAKER_03]: So right now, I don't really, I'm doing this activation as a passion project, which is to create different experiences, cultivate different conversations around planners, black planners, specifically planners of color, and also community members
• 15:50
  [SPEAKER_03]: change the systems that are affecting them.
• 15:54
  [SPEAKER_03]: I do a lot of public speaking, I teach at the University of Chicago, sorry University of Illinois, Chicago, UIC, a class for about leadership.
• 16:04
  [SPEAKER_03]: And so I do a lot of leadership coaching, informally, I do a lot of speaking engagements kind of sharing the knowledge that I have about leadership and how to create and operationalize equity within the built environment.
• 16:18
  [SPEAKER_03]: And I'm still growing what that service looks like, but right now, it looks like me creating these experiences and making connections with folks in a way that there's no barrier to entry, which is why having this activation be completely free.
• 16:35
  [SPEAKER_03]: So this is multiple events, multiple speakers, multiple venues and having it be completely free.
• 16:48
  [SPEAKER_03]: You know, if you are in our profession, you know, you're paying what we call the white man tax, which is like certifications, right?
• 16:56
  [SPEAKER_03]: You're paying for the membership, you're paying for all the things to prove to our industry that you deserve to be heard from.
• 17:03
  [SPEAKER_03]: And I don't want this to be one of those things that you have to pay for in order to get something from it.
• 17:08
  [SPEAKER_00]: So, loving it.
• 17:10
  [SPEAKER_00]: We're gonna talk more about that in a minute, but I got an introduction to my favorite part which is freestyle Friday.
• 17:15
  [SPEAKER_01]: Okay.
• 17:21
  [SPEAKER_00]: So I know you didn't come here all the way from Chicago even though you back home, but I'm gonna borrow it, so we don't hit, okay, okay, let's see you So it's yours.
• 17:31
  [SPEAKER_00]: It's free style.
• 17:32
  [SPEAKER_00]: Yeah, go crazy.
• 17:33
  [SPEAKER_00]: You can sing.
• 17:33
  [SPEAKER_04]: Thank you.
• 17:38
  [SPEAKER_04]: Oh, okay, okay, okay, okay
• 17:43
  [SPEAKER_03]: All right, come to the activation.
• 17:46
  [SPEAKER_03]: You won't want to miss it or else you'll be shurned.
• 17:49
  [SPEAKER_03]: I don't know what you're doing.
• 17:52
  [SPEAKER_03]: It ain't pro but you should come through and really give it some fun.
• 17:56
  [SPEAKER_03]: It's gonna be a life and we're gonna be like the B.
• 18:02
  [SPEAKER_03]: Have up in the clouds and I'm gonna stop now.
• 18:13
  [SPEAKER_03]: Two minutes to write some down.
• 18:15
  [SPEAKER_00]: You wouldn't worry.
• 18:15
  [SPEAKER_03]: I would have been coming up in here like me to style you or something.
• 18:20
  [SPEAKER_00]: Shout out to you.
• 18:21
  [SPEAKER_00]: Well, I'm going to be doing some bars.
• 18:23
  [SPEAKER_03]: Careful.
• 18:24
  [SPEAKER_03]: Oh, my God.
• 18:24
  [SPEAKER_00]: I don't know what the perfect mixed state comes up.
• 18:26
  [SPEAKER_00]: Oh, not at all.
• 18:27
  [SPEAKER_00]: Yeah.
• 18:28
  [SPEAKER_03]: Yeah.
• 18:31
  [UNKNOWN]: Yeah.
• 18:31
  [SPEAKER_03]: I should have been prepared for that.
• 18:33
  [SPEAKER_03]: I know why it was not.
• 18:34
  [SPEAKER_00]: No, it's all good.
• 18:34
  [SPEAKER_00]: It's all good.
• 18:35
  [SPEAKER_00]: We don't everybody don't take us up on the challenge.
• 18:37
  [SPEAKER_00]: So we are grateful that you did come from the windy city with some pride.
• 18:41
  [SPEAKER_00]: I did.
• 18:41
  [SPEAKER_00]: I did.
• 18:43
  [SPEAKER_00]: But if y'all mind, I still want to ask you a couple of rapid fire questions.
• 18:47
  [SPEAKER_00]: So we get to know you a little bit more.
• 18:49
  [SPEAKER_00]: So books podcast that you listen to right now what was something that you that sticks out to you.
• 18:54
  [SPEAKER_03]: I've been listening to the read for years.
• 18:57
  [SPEAKER_03]: Oh, another one that I like really a lot is diabolical lies and it really breaks down different things like capitalism or eating disorders, body positivity.
• 19:08
  [SPEAKER_03]: I really like that and then when it comes to books,
• 19:12
  [SPEAKER_03]: I'm not really necessarily a book person.
• 19:15
  [SPEAKER_03]: I am like more of a podcast person.
• 19:17
  [SPEAKER_03]: So yeah, between diabolical lies and um yeah, I think that's it.
• 19:23
  [SPEAKER_03]: Oh, this is Black Friday podcast.
• 19:26
  [SPEAKER_03]: A. Oh, and the four degrees to the streets podcast is an urban planning podcast.
• 19:33
  [SPEAKER_03]: Also, the streets are planning is a black urban planning podcast at least two.
• 19:36
  [SPEAKER_03]: Also, my podcast, a queen tone with my co-host Dana Cole is also a great podcast.
• 19:42
  [SPEAKER_03]: I'm always listening to those.
• 19:44
  [SPEAKER_00]: Thank you for that.
• 19:47
  [SPEAKER_03]: How could I forget?
• 19:48
  [SPEAKER_00]: Murphy, what do you have in rotation music was?
• 19:51
  [SPEAKER_03]: Oh, Jill Scott.
• 19:53
  [SPEAKER_03]: So I'm taking, I'm going to Jill Scott, me and my partner got our tickets already.
• 19:58
  [SPEAKER_03]: So I've been listening to her new album and Cardi, because I'm going to see Cardi, actually.
• 20:04
  [SPEAKER_03]: That's why I'm in the city.
• 20:05
  [SPEAKER_03]: That's part of the reason I'm in the city.
• 20:07
  [SPEAKER_03]: So I love Cardi B and make this diet always.
• 20:10
  [SPEAKER_03]: That BBB is just the BBB remix I just can't.
• 20:14
  [SPEAKER_00]: I love it so much.
• 20:15
  [SPEAKER_00]: Yes.
• 20:15
  [SPEAKER_00]: For sure and that other urban planner is there a city.
• 20:19
  [SPEAKER_00]: I know no city is perfect But in your experience is there a city that you feel like is well constructed and in consideration of the people
• 20:29
  [SPEAKER_03]: Yeah, you know it, the living in Chicago, so I lived in that late for seven years and I lived I've lived in Chicago almost just as long I'm coming up on seven years and I will say although I miss LA and probably would pick LA any time if I had the money to Chicago is a beautiful city like the downtown the walk it built and not even just downtown the walkability of most of the neighborhoods like I live in Pronsville I also have lived in archer heights where on a home and just investing back in the community like seeing the small businesses.
• 20:57
  [SPEAKER_03]: the lakefront.
• 20:59
  [SPEAKER_03]: You can't beat the lakefront and although I'm not sure it's a beach.
• 21:03
  [SPEAKER_03]: I know you'll be calling it beach.
• 21:04
  [SPEAKER_03]: I don't know what it's a beach.
• 21:08
  [SPEAKER_03]: But yeah, I would say Chicago's walkable, the architecture is beautiful and yeah, people are cool.
• 21:14
  [SPEAKER_00]: Got you.
• 21:15
  [SPEAKER_00]: For sure.
• 21:16
  [SPEAKER_00]: Well, thank you for partaking and free style for our days and we've actually got free style out of the deal.
• 21:19
  [SPEAKER_00]: So okay.
• 21:20
  [SPEAKER_00]: Okay.
• 21:21
  [SPEAKER_00]: Thank you very much So go on back into a planner with the purpose you have alluded to the activation that you have coming up Yes, it's going to be during the national planners conference and so first tell us what it what is NPC and then also Tell us what you'll be doing with the planner with a planner with the purpose during that time
• 21:41
  [SPEAKER_03]: Yeah, so the National Planning Conference is the largest planning conference in the nation.
• 21:45
  [SPEAKER_03]: The American Planning Association is also the largest membership base planning organization in the nation.
• 21:51
  [SPEAKER_03]: I think we have over 50,000 members.
• 21:54
  [SPEAKER_03]: Most states have a chapter like Michigan has a chapter.
• 21:56
  [SPEAKER_03]: I actually was the first black person of the Illinois chapter and then I was also on the National Board of the American Planning Association.
• 22:02
  [SPEAKER_03]: But I recently resigned about halfway through my tenure there and part of it was because of thinking about institutions and how we show up as black folks inside institutions and how they treat us and also how we can either yield those institutions to further our missions, but then also decide to back out of them when we decide that you know this is the harm is too much and so part of me even formalizing a planner with a purpose like I mentioned before is me saying let me do this on my own terms.
• 22:31
  [SPEAKER_03]: Um, and like sometimes when you're fighting inside institutions to be heard, it takes away from the energy you could be giving to just solving the issue right because people are going to stay well you're a problem solver like I have people are always going to be upset about you trying to solve problems right.
• 22:51
  [SPEAKER_03]: And so it's kind of like, okay, let me just do it on my own terms, which is why when you ask me what my services where I'm like, well, I do public speaking, I do teaching and I like call today spaces, but this is the first time that I'm like, you know, I'm doing this on my own and and with my own kind of philosophy and structure creating the spaces that I think need to need to be there.
• 23:12
  [SPEAKER_03]: Um, and so I'm really excited about that.
• 23:15
  [SPEAKER_03]: And so the National Planning Conference was always going to be in Detroit.
• 23:18
  [SPEAKER_03]: And I was always going to do something.
• 23:19
  [SPEAKER_03]: I just didn't know what.
• 23:21
  [SPEAKER_03]: Um, and so I decided like, okay, what do people need right now?
• 23:26
  [SPEAKER_03]: Um, I am the CEO of a nonprofit in Chicago.
• 23:29
  [SPEAKER_03]: We're a national nonprofit.
• 23:31
  [SPEAKER_03]: We've existed for 50 years.
• 23:32
  [SPEAKER_03]: It's called the Center for Neighborhood Technology.
• 23:34
  [SPEAKER_03]: And we had to do layoffs earlier in 2025, which was really heart-frenching for an organization that won.
• 23:41
  [SPEAKER_03]: We didn't have any money issues.
• 23:42
  [SPEAKER_03]: In fact, 2024 was a great year.
• 23:44
  [SPEAKER_03]: But with this Trump administration and the executive orders that came down, that stopped contracts of work, not grants, but contracts with federal agencies to really be embedding equity into the built environment.
• 23:56
  [SPEAKER_03]: This is like, you know, making sure that communities are getting the resources that they need.
• 24:01
  [SPEAKER_03]: And so after going through that, I understand that the economy and the turmoil of a lot of our industries, whether you're in tech or you're in planning, they're being attacked.
• 24:12
  [SPEAKER_03]: And so one of the first things in this activation is a personal finance class.
• 24:17
  [SPEAKER_03]: And I don't know how many times you go to professional conferences and they offer personal finance advice, but I felt like you we can't take care of the communities that we want to take care of we are not in order if we have our partners being laid off some of us you know partners were laid off, you know, where you down to one medical insurance you're trying to figure it out so we have Dr. Darle Bishop who's also literally my sister.
• 24:41
  [SPEAKER_03]: She has a PhD in public health and finances right at finances on Instagram and you know Again the way we grew up.
• 24:51
  [SPEAKER_03]: She really had to we got it out the mud as they like to say the kids say and she has this acrimon for finance and she wrote a book called how to pay for everything.
• 25:00
  [SPEAKER_03]: How's it for everything?
• 25:02
  [SPEAKER_03]: Sorry, darling don't kill me
• 25:04
  [SPEAKER_03]: Um, so we're having her do a personal finance workshop, so that's just an example of the type of thought and care that's really been put into this multi day activation.
• 25:12
  [SPEAKER_03]: It's four days we're going to do a bus tour of black businesses.
• 25:17
  [SPEAKER_03]: I'm honestly is Detroit.
• 25:18
  [SPEAKER_03]: So every business is like,
• 25:19
  [SPEAKER_03]: But like a curated tour so that these planners who are coming from all over the country can get out of the city center and really hear the stories of business owners and neighborhoods that where they were fulfilling a need whether the system was going to allow them to do that or not right like you think about small business owners and I'm sure on your show people talk about this of when you want to open a business in a certain zip code, you know, trying to get that business loan is even that much harder and so like the way you look.
• 25:48
  [SPEAKER_03]: All right, just the way you look, right?
• 25:50
  [SPEAKER_03]: And so like, it's about getting to that community-centered information that these practitioners, again, who are creating the circumstances for everybody's future and getting them to understand and absorb and go back and be able to make change in their neighborhood.
• 26:10
  [SPEAKER_03]: So I'm really excited for the activation and all the things we have to offer.
• 26:15
  [SPEAKER_00]: And so can people who are not a part of the conference or planners or take in the festivities that you've been going to?
• 26:21
  [SPEAKER_03]: Yes, they can.
• 26:22
  [SPEAKER_03]: So we're going to open registration on a event Brian actually next Friday, which is March 20th.
• 26:28
  [SPEAKER_03]: And so we have several of, we do want community members there.
• 26:31
  [SPEAKER_03]: We do want people in the room because we want to be able to have these conversations together.
• 26:35
  [SPEAKER_03]: Specifically, we have two events at night.
• 26:38
  [SPEAKER_03]: On Thursday night, we're having an event about a book called, it's about community banking.
• 26:45
  [SPEAKER_03]: And it's about how community banking's black banks really do need more support.
• 26:50
  [SPEAKER_03]: So then we can have the capital that we need in the in the places that we need in order to have the development.
• 26:56
  [SPEAKER_03]: And that is going to be at the Detroit Historical Society auditorium, which is a bigger space.
• 27:00
  [SPEAKER_03]: And so that will be open completely to the public.
• 27:03
  [SPEAKER_03]: And the next night, Queen Tone is doing a live podcast, bye, bye, bye, bye.
• 27:06
  [SPEAKER_03]: Um, and so, yes, we are inviting all of our camp folk out to, yeah, come celebrate with us.
• 27:13
  [SPEAKER_03]: So yeah, all the, there are parts of the activation that are completely open and there's other parts that are closed, but you will see that on the event break, what is open and what's not?
• 27:22
  [SPEAKER_00]: Got you and what what's exciting you in terms of this opportunity because I know like obviously you get a chance to do it in your own backyard and come back home and do something Is it that is it the fact that it'll be your first time doing this in terms of curated these experiences under your own Tray marker under your own brand
• 27:44
  [SPEAKER_03]: Yeah, I think that is, that is the exciting part definitely, but I think even seeing the messages that I've gotten so far, because I started a sub stack as well.
• 27:53
  [SPEAKER_03]: So I, I also coach through kind of like writing these essays, talking about my experiences and the questions that I have had to ask myself being a black woman in this field.
• 28:04
  [SPEAKER_03]: And it's been the messages from so many
• 28:06
  [SPEAKER_03]: black women who are like, thank you so much for writing this essay or providing this opportunity or for, you know, starting this conversation because it has helped me in x y and z way.
• 28:20
  [SPEAKER_03]: Like that is why I do it.
• 28:21
  [SPEAKER_03]: That's my purpose.
• 28:22
  [SPEAKER_03]: My purpose has always been to make more opportunities for the little Nina's in the world.
• 28:26
  [SPEAKER_03]: And whether I'm a waitress at Chili's or I'm a CEO of a
• 28:30
  [SPEAKER_03]: You know, 50 year old nonprofit, my purpose has been consistent even though those tools have been different.
• 28:35
  [SPEAKER_03]: And so I think I really am living in my purpose by creating spaces for people and also stewarding people in the right way of their purpose.
• 28:44
  [SPEAKER_03]: And so I'm excited to like have that be that love and that energy that I have to be invested in Detroit, especially since I've never been a professional planner in the city of Detroit.
• 28:55
  [SPEAKER_03]: and so much of my philosophy about planning comes from being from this city.
• 29:00
  [SPEAKER_03]: I think the best planners you can ever get are likely going to be born and bred from this city because of the way we think about abundance, not as as material things, but as community.
• 29:13
  [SPEAKER_03]: And that's how I was raised and that's how we were raised, I feel.
• 29:16
  [SPEAKER_03]: And there's nothing else like it.
• 29:18
  [SPEAKER_03]: Every time I talk to somebody in the first five minutes, they know I'm from Detroit.
• 29:21
  [SPEAKER_03]: because no matter what room I walk into, I'm deferential to their experience, whether in LA or Chicago, I love both.
• 29:29
  [SPEAKER_03]: All my can folk in all of these cities and all these places, I love them and I'm deferential to them and I love that they love their city.
• 29:35
  [SPEAKER_03]: And it's kind of like, yes, your cities aren't amazing.
• 29:39
  [SPEAKER_03]: Like Chicago is amazing and it's like, I still love Detroit.
• 29:41
  [SPEAKER_03]: You know, like I'm just proud of it and nobody else has to care about it but I'm always gonna be proud of it and that's the type of thing that the energy that I like to permeate.
• 29:49
  [SPEAKER_00]: for sure.
• 29:50
  [SPEAKER_00]: What would you say giving your expertise and knowledge of the city?
• 29:54
  [SPEAKER_00]: What are some things from an urban planning perspective?
• 29:57
  [SPEAKER_00]: The city of Detroit could leverage?
• 29:58
  [SPEAKER_00]: And I'm sure you probably might get splattered at things, but like it from first things that come to mind, what would you say those are?
• 30:05
  [SPEAKER_03]: Well, I think it's Detroit and just the Midwest generally is such a rich place for kind of evolution.
• 30:13
  [SPEAKER_03]: And what I mean by that is even coming downtown every time I come downtown is something different.
• 30:18
  [SPEAKER_03]: Like, I'm like, oh wait, where does this come from?
• 30:19
  [SPEAKER_03]: Wait, why people jogging out here?
• 30:20
  [SPEAKER_03]: What's going on?
• 30:21
  [SPEAKER_03]: And this bitter speed is bitter seat because our neighborhoods, the neighborhood that my auntie live in and neighborhoods that my family live in, they generally look the same or worse than they did when we were growing up.
• 30:30
  [SPEAKER_03]: And so I think that's an opportunity to leverage the success that an attention that downtown has brought the city and migrating that into the neighborhoods and it's not that the playing department in the city in the city of Detroit isn't working on that, but it now has a little bit a definitely a foundation to grow into.
• 30:50
  [SPEAKER_03]: with our first mayor, our first black woman mayor is really exciting, a guest of yours.
• 30:57
  [SPEAKER_03]: And now she can, you know, continue to evolve.
• 31:03
  [SPEAKER_03]: And I use the word evolve on purpose, because obviously, I've worked, I've worked in mayorial cabinets and been appointed to things.
• 31:12
  [SPEAKER_03]: I think when you have something good, you want to build off of it.
• 31:15
  [SPEAKER_03]: You don't throw the baby out with the bathwater.
• 31:16
  [SPEAKER_03]: I'm sure there's a better saying.
• 31:18
  [SPEAKER_03]: But you know, like, just because so and so did it, if it was a good, if it was a, if it was a generally good choice, how do you make that your own or if it started out like, okay, I could see where this is going, but how do I make this more equitable or actually, I don't like any of that because it's actually exacerbating a problem, I want to throw that out.
• 31:44
  [SPEAKER_03]: these other neighborhoods that are growing and as the population continues to grow in the region generally, thinking about what other interventions would help with that like the expansion of public transit, you know, the queue line, I know people laugh, it just goes up and it goes up and down, but it's made a major change in how people can beat downtown and then get to midtown or also the
• 32:08
  [SPEAKER_00]: Yeah.
• 32:09
  [SPEAKER_00]: Now you got to be intentional about what you put there if you want people right in.
• 32:12
  [SPEAKER_00]: Exactly.
• 32:14
  [SPEAKER_00]: Whatever you call it.
• 32:15
  [SPEAKER_03]: Yeah, the line, right?
• 32:16
  [SPEAKER_03]: And there's so many attractions around in and what we call that is equitable transit oriented development.
• 32:22
  [SPEAKER_03]: And so now downtown Detroit has kind of that that thing happening and how do you again take that template and apply it to different places is expanding that light rail system in a way or a rapid bus system.
• 32:36
  [SPEAKER_03]: that is reliable because like I grew up taking public transit, public transit is the door to opportunity in a lot of our neighborhood.
• 32:45
  [SPEAKER_03]: So we have to invest in it and it has to be fast and it has to be reliable because that's how the economy adjust and how it stays stable, right?
• 32:54
  [SPEAKER_03]: And so like the more that the people of Detroit acts for what they deserve and are open-minded to evolving
• 33:03
  [SPEAKER_03]: is only up, is only up from here.
• 33:07
  [SPEAKER_03]: And I want to see more Detroiters and including myself spending more time here and investing in here because I don't want our stories to be erased for the people who have had the means to come to this city and be kind of the face of the change I still want our stories to be held and you know, appreciate it.
• 33:28
  [SPEAKER_00]: Absolutely, and so let me at you the perfect person to ask this because I know some people who are on the front lines of being able to change the
• 33:38
  [SPEAKER_00]: impact and perception around public transit because in the city like so I mean the but I want no Uber's back to him, but either still I was going to bus, bus to me everywhere.
• 33:49
  [SPEAKER_00]: So I was out there easily and I was fairly and I went to Northland all off the bus taken multiple buses.
• 33:53
  [SPEAKER_00]: I was I was outside, but with my with my couple dollars in my student card.
• 33:59
  [SPEAKER_02]: But it can't be a good idea.
• 34:01
  [SPEAKER_00]: So, but what I came to realize is that there is a, and the person I was talking to about this, they realize as well, there is even though there's nothing wrong with public transit.
• 34:12
  [SPEAKER_00]: I feel like in a city like Detroit, it's a few different layers to us.
• 34:17
  [SPEAKER_00]: Let me try to sort through it.
• 34:18
  [SPEAKER_00]: So number one, I feel like there's negative connotation with people.
• 34:21
  [SPEAKER_00]: The people who do get on the bus and type people that type of bus.
• 34:24
  [SPEAKER_00]: And then you know how we are, prideful and flashiest we can be, even if I am on the bus, I'm be trying to have all my crispiest gear on the bus.
• 34:33
  [SPEAKER_00]: But there's a negative connotation with people who do take the bus.
• 34:36
  [SPEAKER_00]: That's one that's one layer and then also this is Motown mode city so therefore you have like there's a huge emphasis on you need to have a car you probably wanted to well at least from what I understand
• 34:50
  [SPEAKER_00]: We like one of them places where people got spare cars in a in that in the house.
• 34:54
  [SPEAKER_00]: Oh, it's like you've got two cars in the backyard.
• 34:56
  [SPEAKER_00]: Right, you got one in the background that don't work, but you got them there.
• 35:02
  [SPEAKER_00]: Yes, and then of course you got to actual car that takes you from eight to eight and then people got shooters and then you got the one that's been broken down forever.
• 35:10
  [SPEAKER_00]: Because that's Uncle James car whatever it gets to be.
• 35:12
  [SPEAKER_00]: So I feel like those things kind of compound into what we have and also reliability in terms of trends and things like that in a connection to suburban transit systems and things like that that hasn't always been the cleanest.
• 35:26
  [SPEAKER_00]: So yeah, I guess my question is we'll have to know your perspective around those things and do if you feel like they're valid as to how we can be able to expand our rather, at least from a public transit standpoint with your background
• 35:40
  [SPEAKER_03]: Yeah.
• 35:41
  [SPEAKER_03]: No, I love this question.
• 35:42
  [SPEAKER_03]: And I always want to start when I talk to especially people from the city is like start with the why.
• 35:47
  [SPEAKER_03]: So why is it that the bus system is as unreliable to go from the city to the suburbs?
• 35:52
  [SPEAKER_03]: Well, it's probably unreliable because investing in that system, the suburbs we like doing, I'm getting undesirable being able to move it to access my city.
• 36:02
  [SPEAKER_03]: and therefore they'll lobby to make sure that the public transit system doesn't get funded to as full as capability is super high.
• 36:09
  [SPEAKER_03]: Yeah.
• 36:10
  [SPEAKER_03]: Why is it that the city has so it's the income equality is so disparate.
• 36:17
  [SPEAKER_03]: Well, okay, in the 1960s, before the 1960s, obviously, in restored, we had a monochonomy.
• 36:25
  [SPEAKER_03]: It was only cars.
• 36:26
  [SPEAKER_03]: And then we had the 2008 recession.
• 36:29
  [SPEAKER_03]: We had many, you know, we had Wi-Fi in the 60s after the 1967 uprisings.
• 36:34
  [SPEAKER_03]: There was lots of reasons why Wi-Fi folks moved out in a city and started to go to the suburbs.
• 36:38
  [SPEAKER_03]: So the tax base became, you know, lower.
• 36:41
  [SPEAKER_03]: Therefore, again, investment in public transit and things that, you know, cities need start to get lower and lower.
• 36:46
  [SPEAKER_03]: So I say I give those two examples as to say what you get to the why it's not that public transit is bad or cumbersome because when you look at a city like Chicago or New York or Washington, you see they invested in public transit and never stopped.
• 37:01
  [SPEAKER_03]: Um, so it's possible to have a well-connected city.
• 37:05
  [SPEAKER_03]: It's that we in Michigan because of the economic implications.
• 37:09
  [SPEAKER_03]: All of our who don't got it's a family that worked.
• 37:11
  [SPEAKER_03]: In fact, it would be easier for people who did not work in the auto industry than the people who did.
• 37:16
  [SPEAKER_03]: You did, right?
• 37:18
  [SPEAKER_03]: And so it's like that is on purpose to this is a very car centric city.
• 37:22
  [SPEAKER_03]: And the reason I'd like to use the word evolve is not to disrespect or degrade that history because for some of us having those, the first time that we could have a factory paying job, like a good job, stable job, that was when the economy, you could have one person working in the household and nobody else working and you were bringing home a living wage.
• 37:41
  [SPEAKER_03]: That did help to uplift a lot of black and brown household, specifically black households
• 37:46
  [SPEAKER_03]: But also, we can evolve our thinking and say, hey, we no longer have a monochonomy around cars, but we would like to, but we do know that transportation not only brings commerce, but it brings businesses, right?
• 37:59
  [SPEAKER_03]: And if we were to develop both housing around transit, like lead people are more likely to use that transit, right?
• 38:05
  [SPEAKER_03]: And then also if we bring in amenities around transit that those businesses are likely to benefit from not only having housing near them, but also having transit by them, right?
• 38:16
  [SPEAKER_03]: And so we have to say, what are we willing to, how are we willing to shift our mindset as the next generations of Detroiters to talk to our parents and say, hey, I actually do want that bike lane.
• 38:27
  [SPEAKER_03]: I actually do want that community, that community garden actually do want that apartment building to come you know around the way because like that's what I want I mean like that's that's what I think is actually beneficial to the future I see for myself and Detroit because I also know a lot of my friends we end up going to the suburbs sometimes like when coming back to the city because all of this wasn't here.
• 38:49
  [SPEAKER_03]: Um, and so when it comes to transportation, I think a few years ago that the state, uh, there was a referendum on the state ballot to create like a south Southwest transportation agency.
• 39:02
  [SPEAKER_03]: I hope I'm saying that right and end up getting voted down and I was watching it.
• 39:05
  [SPEAKER_03]: And I think it's just people's mindsets to say like, well, I don't, I don't walk anywhere.
• 39:09
  [SPEAKER_03]: So why would I need that?
• 39:10
  [SPEAKER_03]: But it's because that there's a, you know, you don't walk anywhere because the transit's not there.
• 39:14
  [SPEAKER_03]: You don't walk anywhere because when you try to cross the street, you're literally crossing eight lanes, of course.
• 39:21
  [SPEAKER_03]: Playing for a crossing eight lanes to get to the bus.
• 39:24
  [SPEAKER_03]: Me and my wife, we died almost every time.
• 39:27
  [SPEAKER_03]: You're gonna cross the bus.
• 39:29
  [SPEAKER_03]: Like, and yeah, so asking the why, why, and then going backwards and being like, damn, okay, if the infrastructure was there, I would probably walk.
• 39:36
  [SPEAKER_03]: Just like people walking around the arena, I'm about to go to Cardi B tomorrow.
• 39:40
  [SPEAKER_03]: I'm a walk from where I'm staying in Midtown.
• 39:42
  [SPEAKER_03]: I'm gonna take the Qline one stop and go to the arena.
• 39:46
  [SPEAKER_00]: Yeah.
• 39:47
  [SPEAKER_03]: Why can't that be on the east side or the end or the west side?
• 39:49
  [SPEAKER_03]: It's just a matter of thinking of being able, not thinking, sorry, not to say like that, but being able to imagine that it doesn't just have to be downtown.
• 39:58
  [SPEAKER_03]: these things are applicable in our neighborhoods.
• 40:01
  [SPEAKER_03]: And also, I think there's a reality, this is the last thing I'll say.
• 40:04
  [SPEAKER_03]: There's a reality that Detroit is much bigger, area-wise than probably the tax base, or like, yes, services like what you think about, like, um, uh, street, um, Sweden.
• 40:18
  [SPEAKER_03]: sleep in or maintenance or whatever like there's a big area to cover and so doing more what we call in fill where we get a little bit closer to the city sector a little bit closer to more populated areas and start infilling and creating opportunities for housing and things there is another way to make sure that it's reasonable for a city to keep up with the amount of people that are there but then also the services that we all want for ourselves.
• 40:43
  [SPEAKER_00]: for sure, for sure.
• 40:45
  [SPEAKER_00]: And, um, has your, what is your, because I'm always curious, when people move away from the city, what has your journey taught you in terms of, uh, when you happen come back to the city, yeah, uh, yeah, yeah, yeah, yeah, yeah, yeah, yeah, yeah, yeah, but so far what you have learned from the other places to do of live, um, how is that impacted the way that you kind of see what Detroit could
• 41:08
  [SPEAKER_03]: I think if anything, I see a lot more maybe opportunity for community collaboration, not saying that that doesn't happen in Detroit because there is obviously lots of community institutions, but because the places that lived are a lot more populated, it's...
• 41:29
  [SPEAKER_03]: Um, you could throw a stone and hit a like community group.
• 41:33
  [SPEAKER_03]: Right.
• 41:34
  [SPEAKER_03]: Um, and it's a little bit easier for people to confer and then have like a thought about what to do or how to approach like an issue that they say in an neighborhood.
• 41:43
  [SPEAKER_03]: And here I'm sure there has to just be a little bit more intentional like kind of approaching people with the information that they need and then coming back and coming to a conclusion and coming together.
• 41:53
  [SPEAKER_03]: But on the flip side of that, I think Detroiters are very creative in the processes and the innovation of problem solving.
• 42:06
  [SPEAKER_03]: And I always like to use that ingenuity like that Detroit hustle spirit to solve pretty much any problem.
• 42:13
  [SPEAKER_03]: I like to use that as I'm working with other groups because that's like something I think is unique and special.
• 42:19
  [SPEAKER_00]: you put your cardies on, and get the work done.
• 42:22
  [SPEAKER_03]: When you want to get the real cardies out of my favorite cardies, that's Seemo, we move, we move whatever it's hard.
• 42:30
  [SPEAKER_00]: One of the things that you have mentioned, like your mom had made a joke, like you got a degree in the stuff.
• 42:34
  [SPEAKER_00]: Yeah, but I feel like that is a very, it applies to the work that you're doing now, because I would love to be able to know what has been some of those challenges being in the space as a black woman, because I,
• 42:47
  [SPEAKER_00]: It's pretty clear, you all are not the majority.
• 42:49
  [SPEAKER_00]: So what has that, what have those challenges been like and have you been able to navigate those?
• 42:53
  [SPEAKER_03]: Yeah, I think having this intersectional identity has definitely given me multiple consciousness and thinking about how to approach the work, the matrix of things that systems of oppression and things like that.
• 43:08
  [SPEAKER_03]: I think within the industry, I have definitely met lots of challenges
• 43:15
  [SPEAKER_03]: Um, but at the same time, I think having a village around me of amazing black women, whether their planners are not and my village, my village is amazing, um, like that is how I've survived being able to go to someone and them not have to, I mean, not having to explain if they just get it like they understand because we've had to sustain ourselves in the
• 43:42
  [SPEAKER_03]: And kind of see each other and I feel like that's why my target audience
• 43:48
  [SPEAKER_03]: are usually women, but specifically black women, because I think there is a nuance to how the world sees us and perceives us and also how we see ourselves and how we show up and always having to counter balance like even for me I'm a millennial I'm a black woman and I'm queer I'm all these different things I run a 50 year old nonprofit pretty much everybody who.
• 44:12
  [SPEAKER_03]: super like our supervisors younger than he is older than me except for like the youngest people like the the like associates in our organization and like what does that look like versus you know when I'm just amongst the other CEOs I'm also usually the only one right and so like what is that dynamic um and then like went in the philanthropic industrial complex right and I'm a CEO I'm a black woman CEO who works on environmental issues and transportation issues
• 44:41
  [SPEAKER_03]: And I'm going into white rooms, you know, asking for money.
• 44:44
  [SPEAKER_03]: Um, so there's all these different inputs of how my identity, you know, like, um, shapes my experiences and all three of those rooms and it's nice to be able to have other black women to explore that with, dissect that with, cry about that with, and then bring each other up.
• 45:00
  [SPEAKER_03]: Um, and so yeah, it's it's not about they're not being any challenges because they're definitely will be, but I hope that the work that I'm doing and the work that the women around me are doing will make the next, again, the little Nina's experience that much easier just like the, my predecessors made it easier for me.
• 45:28
  [SPEAKER_03]: I would tell her that, um, you know, trust her instincts, be unapologetically her wishy already is, but she just needs to know that a little bit earlier.
• 45:38
  [SPEAKER_03]: Um, also, uh, your confidence is going to come and it, you don't got to wait until, uh, after college to get it like, you're that girl now.
• 45:50
  [SPEAKER_03]: Um, and also just like, you have the life that you
• 45:56
  [SPEAKER_03]: in the sense that I worked for it, I manifested it, and here I am, and so yeah, just should trust her, but also, you gay, but you all know what it is.
• 46:13
  [SPEAKER_03]: I mean, you know it.
• 46:14
  [SPEAKER_03]: I mean, because you like all Beyonce, like, but it's not just because
• 46:26
  [SPEAKER_01]: he had to put it during your talk.
• 46:29
  [SPEAKER_03]: You know, you got embrace who you are.
• 46:30
  [SPEAKER_03]: I feel like it hadn't been 36 now.
• 46:34
  [SPEAKER_03]: And it wasn't until like I got 30.
• 46:36
  [SPEAKER_03]: I'm like, hmm, what do I want out of life?
• 46:38
  [SPEAKER_03]: Like, I worked so hard in my 20s.
• 46:41
  [SPEAKER_03]: Like, you know, long nights.
• 46:42
  [SPEAKER_03]: And I know you did consults.
• 46:43
  [SPEAKER_03]: Like, you know, the long nights and the work in.
• 46:46
  [SPEAKER_03]: working a way off the ladder and not getting asleep and, you know, taking disrespect and all that.
• 46:52
  [SPEAKER_03]: And then I was like, hmm, what am I doing all this?
• 46:55
  [SPEAKER_03]: And just have to like really unpack that.
• 46:56
  [SPEAKER_03]: And then I found out that I ADHD and that I'm dyslexic and that, you know, again, I'm gay.
• 47:01
  [SPEAKER_03]: Um, and all these different things like, oh, that didn't, why didn't I wait till now?
• 47:06
  [SPEAKER_03]: I mean, but it's, you know, it's how life moves.
• 47:08
  [SPEAKER_03]: It comes as she fast, but embrace it, like embrace living, embrace not just being like, oh, I need to get to the next thing and the next thing.
• 47:17
  [SPEAKER_03]: That's what I was doing and I was missing life.
• 47:20
  [SPEAKER_03]: Um, and so I'm really happy to be in this part of my life because I've never been happier.
• 47:23
  [SPEAKER_00]: Yeah, that's amazing.
• 47:25
  [SPEAKER_00]: I doubt to be a world-wind of gems for if a little needed to be To take but yeah, if you could drop that and then just disappear after the five minutes.
• 47:35
  [SPEAKER_00]: I think that
• 47:37
  [SPEAKER_00]: You're like, okay, yeah, yeah, yeah, yeah, yeah, yeah, yeah, yeah, yeah, yeah, yeah, yeah, yeah, yeah, yeah, yeah, yeah, yeah, yeah, yeah, yeah, yeah, yeah, yeah, yeah, yeah, yeah, yeah, yeah, yeah, yeah, yeah, yeah, yeah, yeah, yeah, yeah, yeah, yeah, yeah, yeah, yeah, yeah, yeah, yeah, yeah, yeah, yeah, yeah, yeah, yeah, yeah, yeah, yeah, yeah, yeah, yeah, yeah, yeah, yeah, yeah, yeah, yeah, yeah, yeah, yeah, yeah, yeah, yeah, yeah, yeah, yeah, yeah, yeah, yeah, yeah, yeah, yeah, yeah, yeah, yeah, yeah, yeah, yeah, yeah, yeah, yeah, yeah, yeah, yeah, yeah, yeah, yeah, yeah, yeah, yeah, yeah, yeah, yeah, yeah, yeah, yeah, yeah, yeah, yeah, yeah, yeah, yeah, yeah
• 48:06
  [SPEAKER_03]: You know, I'm really excited to see what moves me.
• 48:09
  [SPEAKER_03]: I think the, so recently I was reading about, follow me here.
• 48:13
  [SPEAKER_03]: I was reading about reconstruction because I was like, how did black folks?
• 48:18
  [SPEAKER_03]: Navigate times like this.
• 48:19
  [SPEAKER_03]: So I started remat and then once you get past Reconstruction, you get Mr. Jim Crow, and then you start getting into like the Renaissance period.
• 48:27
  [SPEAKER_03]: And Alan Locke talking about Black is beautiful and just make art not to prove that you are artists but to make art just because and your humanity will come out of it.
• 48:37
  [SPEAKER_03]: Like, don't try to prove anything to anybody.
• 48:39
  [SPEAKER_03]: And then I think about the artist that I love, like Beyonce.
• 48:43
  [SPEAKER_03]: Um, but Beyonce, because she, like, if you look at anything she does, lover a hater, she talked, she, the detail, the passion, the, the references, the story is you can see how passionate she is just by looking at the art that she's putting out.
• 48:57
  [SPEAKER_03]: Um, and I think the same of Ryan Kogler.
• 48:58
  [SPEAKER_03]: Right, he's making art not to prove anything to a white audience.
• 49:03
  [SPEAKER_03]: He's making art that is passionate to him and important to him and like it's beautiful and it's digestible and everybody regardless if their black can find something in there.
• 49:15
  [SPEAKER_03]: And that's how I want to see this next phase of my life and this is how I want to see like a planner with a purpose grow where I just make art and my art is creating these experiences creating activations.
• 49:27
  [SPEAKER_03]: So it's not to say that I know what my next project will be because I think it will kind of present itself to me, but I think the future of a planner with a purpose is to continue to do kind of speaking engagements going in front of audiences and saying like this is how we solve really tough problems.
• 49:42
  [SPEAKER_03]: In the built environment, this is how you lean into your identity to see the future that we want to see and then also creating creating places where people can connect and build a bigger network of support.
• 49:55
  [SPEAKER_03]: As we all try to survive this moment and thrive in the next right.
• 50:02
  [SPEAKER_03]: So yeah, that's kind of what I see for a planner with a purpose.
• 50:05
  [SPEAKER_03]: uh yeah i i'm always doing public speaking honestly so if you look at my link did like i have a public speaking engagement next week so you know that that will continue but i think i can be more intentional and a little bit more kind of uh uh forward coming about like the types of places i want to speak in the messages that i that i want to create other than being asked to speak on a specific topic if they're make sense.
• 50:28
  [SPEAKER_00]: random, but because of your current job, that's your CEO it.
• 50:32
  [SPEAKER_00]: Are you, you do Africa?
• 50:33
  [SPEAKER_00]: Are you going on Africa?
• 50:34
  [SPEAKER_03]: No, so I, so I don't take since since for a neighborhood technology.
• 50:38
  [SPEAKER_03]: No, you know, we never participated in Africa, because we are more focused on like community power solutions.
• 50:44
  [SPEAKER_03]: That's what we, yeah.
• 50:44
  [SPEAKER_03]: But, I mean, but we do create like tools and data bases that we do a lot of data, that's a whole other thing.
• 50:52
  [SPEAKER_03]: But you know, maybe I'll just go, because my best way of data goes, because she's an engineer.
• 50:55
  [SPEAKER_03]: So maybe I need to follow it on Korea, right now.
• 50:58
  [SPEAKER_03]: to make my way down here.
• 51:00
  [SPEAKER_00]: Yeah, for sure.
• 51:01
  [SPEAKER_00]: Get your, my end up on the stage.
• 51:03
  [SPEAKER_03]: Yeah, yeah, yeah.
• 51:04
  [SPEAKER_03]: Those are the type of places I'm trying to bring a message.
• 51:06
  [SPEAKER_03]: So that, you know, like, I think regardless of industry, like I said at the beginning of this when you ask more urban planning is it affects everybody.
• 51:13
  [SPEAKER_03]: So this message of how to digest information and then use that to see the change that you want to see in your community in real time, I'm able to make that more plain and accessible for people and I want to be able to lean into that.
• 51:25
  [SPEAKER_00]: for sure so Nina working to people tapping with you especially if they want to be able to partake in this a planner with the purpose weekend that you have curated in an April or if they just want to follow the journey they want to join the surf bag and want to get you to speak.
• 51:38
  [SPEAKER_00]: Work in a fun journey.
• 51:39
  [SPEAKER_03]: I'm at a planner with a purpose, a planner with a purpose on any platform that I want you to find me on.
• 51:47
  [SPEAKER_03]: I have a TikTok, I have an Instagram and my sub stack.
• 51:51
  [SPEAKER_03]: If you want to catch up with me or anything now, I'm doing including this activation, please subscribe to my sub stack.
• 51:57
  [SPEAKER_03]: It's free.
• 51:58
  [SPEAKER_03]: excuse me, but that's where I disseminate a lot of information, more especially around the registration because it'll be on an event right, but that information will be all across on my socials and LinkedIn.
• 52:10
  [SPEAKER_03]: I'm unfortunately one of the people who posted the link that I sent out for, she's because it makes me cringe sometimes.
• 52:16
  [SPEAKER_00]: Um, but it's only cringey if you just be on there.
• 52:19
  [SPEAKER_00]: I'm like, I won this award today.
• 52:20
  [SPEAKER_00]: Right.
• 52:21
  [SPEAKER_00]: Yeah.
• 52:21
  [SPEAKER_00]: If I can spit, yeah, yeah, yeah, yeah, yeah.
• 52:23
  [SPEAKER_03]: There was a meme that I saw that was like, um, LinkedIn be like, I spilled coffee on myself today.
• 52:28
  [SPEAKER_03]: And it taught me a leadership lesson.
• 52:29
  [SPEAKER_03]: Did you see that?
• 52:30
  [SPEAKER_03]: Yes.
• 52:30
  [SPEAKER_03]: And I was like, thank God, I'm not that.
• 52:31
  [SPEAKER_03]: Like, I'm very, I'm at least very conscious.
• 52:34
  [SPEAKER_03]: So, and I, even, I think one time I was like, I know this is kind of a key, but like, I have this thing to say.
• 52:40
  [SPEAKER_03]: I'm like, do a cheeseburger and what I learned about the cheese is the heck in the hook up like one like this doesn't feel human, but I also do think it is a way to connect in a way that other platforms it doesn't it doesn't happen and so to have again people I have people reached out to me on LinkedIn and are now helping to partner with me on this activation like just purely meeting and being like I see you and I like what you doing what can we do together.
• 53:09
  [SPEAKER_03]: I'm very much a worker cross person.
• 53:11
  [SPEAKER_03]: I love that.
• 53:12
  [SPEAKER_03]: And again, I think that's just the pedagogy of how you build community.
• 53:15
  [SPEAKER_03]: And so like LinkedIn is one place that I do that.
• 53:18
  [SPEAKER_03]: So yeah, message me on LinkedIn.
• 53:19
  [SPEAKER_03]: I do have like a book and link.
• 53:20
  [SPEAKER_03]: I've been giving people my time.
• 53:22
  [SPEAKER_03]: Because you know, you can't make friends when you need them.
• 53:24
  [SPEAKER_03]: You got to be out there.
• 53:26
  [SPEAKER_03]: You got to be connected with people.
• 53:27
  [SPEAKER_03]: And then opportunities will come when it's aligned.
• 53:30
  [SPEAKER_00]: You got to tell more people in the city that, okay, okay, okay, okay, okay, okay, okay, okay, okay, okay, okay, okay, okay, okay, okay, okay, okay, okay, okay, okay, okay, okay, okay, okay, okay, okay, okay, okay, okay, okay, okay, okay, okay, okay, okay, okay, okay, okay, okay, okay, okay, okay, okay, okay, okay, okay, okay, okay, okay, okay, okay, okay, okay, okay, okay, okay, okay, okay, okay, okay, okay, okay, okay, okay, okay, okay, okay, okay, okay, okay, okay, okay, okay, okay, okay, okay, okay, okay, okay, okay, okay, okay, okay, okay, okay, okay, okay, okay, okay, okay, okay, okay, okay, okay, okay, okay, okay, okay, okay, okay, okay, okay, okay, okay, okay, okay,
• 53:48
  [SPEAKER_00]: the space is that you take space in for the sake of showing up for the people in the community people that look like us and and Loneena.
• 53:56
  [SPEAKER_03]: Yes, Loneena.
• 53:57
  [SPEAKER_03]: Yes, yes, yes, thank you so much for having me and you know hope to see all the activation April 23rd through April 27th.
• 54:05
  [SPEAKER_00]: For sure, it's going to be a good time.
• 54:07
  [SPEAKER_00]: It's going to be a good time for sure.
• 54:08
  [SPEAKER_00]: I can I can fill it.
• 54:08
  [SPEAKER_03]: Yep.
• 54:09
  [SPEAKER_00]: All right.