Despite uncharacteristically chilly weather, on Wednesday, February 27th, many residents of the Baptist Town neighborhood joined in an outdoor community meeting. Though many of these meetings have occurred over the roughly ten years that this project has been in the works, this was my first, and I am grateful that residents haven’t given up hope that new buildings and community initiatives are eventually going to be realized.

Topics discussed included:

• The location of new homes, and how to apply to purchase a home.
• Two proposed locations for a community center.
• Two proposed locations for an outdoor community gathering space.
• A neighborhood logo to be displayed on printed material and signs.

In addition to productive conversations throughout the evening, residents wrote comments on post-it notes sharing their opinions. This feedback helped clarify the locations to pursue for construction of the community center and the gathering space. Less clear, was the contentious conversation over two initial proposals for a neighborhood logo. More work, and significantly more feedback from Baptist Town residents, will be required before a decision can be reached.

Last, multiple residents submitted their names to be contacted about potentially purchasing one of the new homes to be installed this summer. This is a first step toward qualifying home owners, and making safe, healthy, affordable housing available to families in Baptist Town.

The inaugural Mississippi River Marathon was held by Teach for America in Greenville, MS this weekend. I ran the half-marathon, crossing the Mississippi River from Arkansas into Mississippi within the first few miles, and cruising along the flattest land you can imagine for the remaining 10 miles. The race was well organized and benefits TFA’s admirable work. Fellow runners helped me keep up my pace and this quote, “The gap that exists between low-income students in the Delta and their more affluent peers is one of the most fundamental injustices in our region today,” will keep me motivated as I work on a community center in weeks to come.

Most people are familiar with the term GNP (gross national product). Similarly, GWP is gross world product, and the graph below shows that while it remained basically stagnant for hundreds of years, it has sky-rocketed since 1820 and the advent of the industrial revolution. Why is this good news? Two reasons: First, the forty-nine fold increase shown over the last 180 years makes one thing abundantly clear: arguments that economic growth in developing countries threatens developed countries are false. GWP is not a zero-sum equation. Second, as daunting as the work of making a dent in global inequalities can be, the problems are not age-old and therefore unlikely to be resolved. We have only being tackling these issues for a couple of generations, giving Jeffrey Sachs, author of The End of Poverty, and myself, quite a bit of hope.

Sachs, Jeffrey. The End of Poverty. New York: Penguin. 2006.

Newly arrived in Mississippi, I was introduced as “Greenwood’s Rose Fellow” multiple times over the last couple of weeks. I still feel a little thrill when I hear those words. I am so excited to be here in this capacity. Read the description of the Rose Fellowship, and my work plan here in Greenwood. Many more posts to come about this inspiring part of the world and the work taking place here.

It sounds so simple, but a lot of “community led” or “public interest” design projects take place with very little interaction, and often no control, by the people it is meant to serve. This video shows a group who doesn’t have this problem.