Create the Village

A year ago, we published an episode of Create the Village entitled, “Has ‘Infrastructure Week’ Finally Arrived?” There was plenty of conversation, rolling into a national election, that supported the idea that the time had finally come…that after years of neglect and procrastinating, Washington was ready to enact a massive program to address crumbling highways, a patchwork of high-speed internet access, and inadequate public transit systems. Twelve months later, we’re still waiting for the federal government to adopt and fund a massively overdue investment in our national infrastructure. This week’s episode is a conversation with David Leininger and Jack Wierzenski, executives with the Dallas Area Rapid Transit. David is DART’s Interim President and Chief Executive Officer Dallas Area Rapid Transit, and Jack is DART’s Director of Economic Development & Planning.

In the wake of hurricanes Katrina and Rita in 2005, Dr. Calvin Mackie was appointed to the 33-member board of the Louisiana Recovery Authority. In 2009, he was appointed to the Louisiana Council on the Social Status of Black Boys and Black Men. Recently, Mackie was appointed to the Coastal Protection and Restoration Authority Board. In 2014, Dr. Mackie founded STEM NOLA, a non-profit organization created to expose, inspire, and engage communities in the opportunities in Science, Technology, Engineering, and Mathematics (STEM). To date, the non-profit has engaged more than 50,000 K-12 students in hands-on project-based STEM activities.

Sherri Powell founded the Rural America Chamber of Commerce in 2021. She's working to empower rural entrepreneurs and to advocate for their economies and communities, and she's not stopping there. Not afraid to dig into the real issues, she's helping them talk about things like racism in America.

Deidre Woollard, an Editor at Million Acres, a division of Motley Fool, returns to Create The Village to discuss the ongoing market confusion and looming problems facing the real estate and banking industries and local and state governments.

President and chief executive officer of the YMCA of Metro Atlanta, Lauren Koontz, discusses her leadership in the midst of a worldwide pandemic and period of national racial awareness.

This week’s episode of Create the Village is a potent conversation about some of the issues of inequality facing the U.S. and some of the policy initiatives designed to raise awareness. Linda Goler Blount is President and CEO of the Black Women’s Health Imperative, the only national organization focused on Black women’s emotional, physical and financial health and wellness. After one year of pandemic, the conversation between Blount and host Egbert Perry includes a review of the COVID-19 pandemic and its impact on the Black community.

Mary Means is an award-winning community planner and innovator who has led the movement in Main Street Revitalization for more than four decades. She has been dubbed the Queen of Main Street by her colleagues and industry leaders. Today, Mary is a popular conference speaker and continues to help public interest clients envision and build consensus to make their communities better places to live and work.

When discussing Mary Means, The American Planning Association identified her as a “Planning Pioneer” and described her this way:

“An award-winning community planner and innovator, Mary Means sparked and has led the movement in main street revitalization for nearly four decades.

While working at the National Trust for Historic Preservation in the 1970s as shopping centers were emptying downtowns, Means could see small towns needed tools to bring life back to historic town centers. She conceived of a three-town pilot project, then led the team that took it to scale nationally. Now known as Main Street America, the program provides an integrated framework to help communities transform their economies, leverage local leadership, and improve residents' quality of life.”

Through Means's efforts over nearly four decades, the Main Street movement has proved that downtowns are the heart of communities, and communities are only as strong as their core. The program she spearheaded laid the foundation for improving and revitalizing small towns and older town centers for many years to come.”

Guest: John O’Callaghan, President and CEO of Atlanta Neighborhood Development Partnership (ANDP). Atlanta is famous for the ebb and flow of its real estate market. And, while some parts of the metro area are certainly doing well, some parts of the market are still feeling the impact of the 2008 foreclosure crisis.

Atlanta is famous for the ebb and flow of its real estate market. And, while some parts of the metro area are certainly doing well, some parts of the market are still feeling the impact of the 2008 foreclosure crisis.

@ANDPINC

#2KBY25

Jill Barshay and Egbert Perry discuss the barriers to educational attainment for children from modest-income households during the pandemic and the lasting impact of a lost generation of students.

Barshay is a staff writer and editor who writes the weekly “Proof Points” column about education research and data for Hechinger Report. Topic: During a worldwide pandemic, educational contrast between wealthy and modest-income families and between the races.

Select readings include:

1. https://hechingerreport.org/white-and-female-teachers-show-racial-bias-in-evaluating-second-grade-writing/

Egbert Perry, CEO of Integral, and Hollis Towns, VP of local news at Gannett, discuss the recent Georgia special election, the assault on the US Capitol, and what the public can expect from media companies during this era.