Defying Gentrification Metro Region Report Card

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What metro region (or part of it) will you be grading today.* This field is required.Please use this guide to metropolitan areas to choose the name of the area you want to highlight https://www.citypopulation.de/en/world/agglomerations/. Note that I will separate Raleigh and Durham, Baltimore and Washington DC, but will keep Minneapolis and Saint Paul, Boston, Los Angeles, Kansas City, Chicago and other similar con-urbanities with prominent core cities together. Let me know if I should break out neighborhoods and core suburbs in future analysis and feel free to grade the part of your region you want to grade.
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Do you live in the region you are currently grading* This field is required.I'll take this into account when doing my next report card on individual metro areas and building the master archive of this data.
YESNO
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Art and creative spaces for all skill and desire levels* This field is required.
Please Select
2- Both amateur and professional artists have somewhere to go that fulfills their need for creativity and a livelihood for their work.
1- Only amateur or only professional artists have somewhere to go to practice their art and craft. There’s also no real pipeline between the two types of artists and professional artists are often not homegrown.
0.5- No art at all, at least not in visible spaces.
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Thriving entrepreneurship and gainful employment are available to more than white, straight, abled, wealthy people.* This field is required.
Please Select
2- Both thriving entrepreneurship and gainful (above a living wage based on the MIT calculator) employment are present in folks who aren’t straight, white, cis, male, and have family wealth
1- Only one or the other is present in non-straight, white, cis, male, and family wealthy folks. Tokens are made of the few people who stand out, because it’s not normal; it's extraordinary.
0.5- Nobody is working or owning businesses besides the straight white cis male with family wealth. Or others are working, but for under a living wage.
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Wraparound medical care* This field is required.
Please Select
2- Yes, with a care center that’s not a hospital, with all specialties present or able to be referred in-house, an urgent care and pharmacy that are open 24 hours, and accept all insurances and genders.
1- Yes, the care center is there, but it’s not all inclusive of hours, specialties, genders, and insurances. Or there’s just a hospital.
0.5- No hospital, no care center.
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Culturally competent non-medical hair and body care* This field is required.
Please Select
2- You have hair salons for all textures, hair care for all textures in all of your beauty supply stores, and you have practitioners of all types of non-medical or quasi-medical body care sensitive to all skin types, tones, and sizes.
1- You have these spaces, but they have documented issues with diverse hair types, skin tones, and body sizes
0.5- No spaces will even accept a non-white, skinny, straight-haired person into their establishments
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Food that provides both joy and basic nutritional needs in all neighborhoods* This field is required.
Please Select
2- The food is fun and nutritious
1 The food is fun or nutritious, not both
0.5- There’s no food at all. This is not a food desert; this is apartheid.
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Comprehensive public transit exists for more than just paratransit users* This field is required.
Please Select
2- Public transit of all types runs 24 hours a day
1- Public transit exists, but outside of paratransit, there are restrictions on its timing, where it takes people, and what type of vehicles/trains there are.
.5- Even disabled folks can’t get transportation
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Spiritual spaces of all faiths that affirm and delight in Black, disabled, feminist and/or queer lives* This field is required.
Please Select
2- All faiths have somewhere to go where their gender, sexual orientation, skin color, size, national origin, and politics are affirmed and loved in the pursuit of good morality or a divine presence. These places also honor that there are different faiths, or lack thereof, and that’s ok. These places respect a gray area, but have clarity on right and wrong that doesn’t dehumanize people.
1- Some houses of faith behave like the above, but they are few and far between, making it harder for people to plug in and the communities to have a positive impact on the community.
0.5-Houses of faith are all hateful, dogmatic, and even actively terrorizing those that don’t believe in their tenets.
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Schools that affirm Black children K-12, no matter their ability level or perceived behavior* This field is required.
Please Select
2- Every school, no matter who runs it or how much that might put a target on their backs, believes that Black children can thrive. This investment in Black kids reaps across all children, as in many schools, they are the most marginalized.
1- Only a handful of schools, and they are ones you have to apply to and/or pay for, are affirming of Black children.
0.5- No schools affirm Black children, and they may be terrorizing them and contributing directly, without shame, to the school-to-prison pipeline.
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Bookstores and Libraries that affirm all authors and all readers* This field is required.
Please Select
2- Specialized bookstores and libraries exist, and the regular ones honor books that aren’t written by white, straight, cis, and male authors.
1- Only specialized bookstores and libraries exist, or the regular ones are hostile to readers that aren’t white, cis, straight, or male.
0.5- No bookstores or libraries exist at all, except for maybe an aisle in Walmart, Target, Dollar Tree, or Dollar General
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Parks, playgrounds waterfronts, and other natural resources/outdoor activities are not closed off to the public* This field is required.
Please Select
2- These resources and activities are free and open to the public.
1- These outdoor resources all have a price tag, or they are partially operated by private entities.
0.5- They don’t exist at all or are all privatized with no kind of public access
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Black, LGBTQ, disabled and feminist community centers and events* This field is required.
Please Select
1- All community centers and events understand that communities overlap and could need support services and culturally competent activities and vendors. They also provide safety for their primary audience of people, while being welcoming.
0.5- Community centers and events for specific groups exist, but they don’t serve others or understand intersectional identities or the need for core community safety.
0- No community centers at all
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Basic housing that doesn’t exceed 30% of one's income at the poverty level and for those under the area median income.* This field is required.
Please Select
2- Housing that meets and exceeds these standards, happily and fully.
1 Housing that meets these standards, but begrudgingly and with an outside emphasis on mixed-income areas and market rate areas, without ensuring those who need housing and have no or low income are housed.
0.- Pe5ople who can pay for housing are unhoused, and of course those who can’t are unhoused by default.
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A way to get out of town that’s not your personal vehicle (if you even have one).* This field is required.
Please Select
2- You have an airport that flies internationally, a train station that can take you to all corners of your country and possibly into others, and you have rental cars, rideshares, bikeshares, and trails connected to other cities.
1- You have a handful of the above, but not everything
0- You have none of this besides private vehicles
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Final Score for Your City(For now!)
Should be Empty: