Building Community Wealth Through Land Stewardship
Land Stewardship = Community Wealth
Author: Tony Pickett, Urban Land Conservancy VP – Master Site Development
“Building A Cooperative Economy” was the theme of the second annual Denver Community Wealth Building Conference, held Saturday September 27th at the University of Colorado Anschutz Medical Campus. The Urban Land Conservancy (ULC) participated as a conference sponsor, joining invited speakers from across the nation and numerous local regional partners including The Piton Foundation, City of Denver Office of Economic Development, The Denver Foundation, FRESC, Rocky Mountain Farmers Union, Westwood Unidos, Re:Vision International and many others. The “sold out” gathering of 250 participants explored multiple strategies for building pathways to economic opportunity which are owned by and create wealth for low income residents in underserved communities. Topics discussed included worker owned cooperative business models and resources, local food initiatives and creative partnerships with “Anchor” institutions such as local universities and hospitals. Denver has recognized the critical need to build a more inclusive local economy, specifically increasing access to opportunity for local communities of color. Developing new models, resources and tools, which can be applied to achieve a variety of community benefits such as expanding access to employment, affordable housing and healthy foods in underserved neighborhoods, are among the key challenges facing our growing metropolitan region.
On behalf of ULC and its mission driven commitment to achieve a variety of lasting community benefits using place based real estate, I worked with conference planners to organize a breakout session designed to raise local awareness of Community Land Trust (CLT) long term land stewardship efforts, which have proven highly successful both achieving and protecting access to community wealth. We invited special guest speakers Eugene (Gus) Newport and Roger Lewis to share their valuable expertise and perspectives on the unique role of CLTs in building neighborhood prosperity. ULC is part of a growing number of over 250 CLT organizations successfully serving communities across the nation. The CLT model was created during the 1960’s in southwest Georgia, as part of the larger social justice goals of American Civil Rights Movement. The very first CLT organization; New Communities, Inc., was established to achieve true economic independence for rural African American tenant farmers in Albany, GA who lacked basic financial security, typically derived from ownership of land for homes and agriculture, due to the racist attitudes and policies of the time.
The highlight of our CLT breakout session was the opportunity to meet and hear from Gus Newport, who spoke about his nearly 80 years of lifelong commitment to building successful communities. Gus’s personal journey from 1960’s Civil Rights activist, to being elected Mayor of Berkeley, California in 1979, to leading the highly successful non-profit CLT organization; the Dudley Neighbors, Inc. during 1988 in Boston’s multicultural Roxbury community, and his continuing passion for social equity was an inspiration to say the least. His CLT leadership legacy at Dudley Neighbors, Inc. is today a thriving south Boston working class community of over 225 stable homeowners and renters, who have guided the revitalization of their neighborhood since 1987, by achieving local community control of 1,300 vacant land parcels and designing a neighborhood masterplan based on “community-scale village economic development”. Having visited the Dudley neighborhood several times over the last three years, I can confirm that the Dudley transformation is a success and its residents, particularly youth, are proud leaders of their community and committed to the continuation of their revitalization effort. Today more than half of the 1,300 abandoned parcels have been permanently transformed into new high quality affordable homes, a community center, a new charter school, Dudley Town Common, a community greenhouse, parks, playgrounds, gardens, an orchard and other public spaces.
Along with ULC, local CLT efforts in the Denver region include the work of the Colorado Community Land Trust, Rocky Mountain Community Land Trust, Thistle Communities and the City of Boulder Division of Housing HOMEWORKS Program. While a majority of these organizations focus exclusively on providing permanently affordable homeownership as a critical pathway to family prosperity, there is an urgent need for a broader economic development strategy to improve existing communities of color, which often do not attract new investment, lack critical services and provide few employment opportunities. The recent Community Wealth Building Conference has sparked a conversation about the focus and use of CLTs and employee owned cooperative businesses, to positively transform the lives of existing residents in neighborhoods such as Denver’s Westwood, Northeast Park Hill, Globeville and Elyria-Swansea.
ULC invites you to be part of the new Community Wealth Building movement.