Why Isn't Anyone Talking About This?

The National Mobilization Against Sweatshops (NMASS) is a multi-trade, multi-ethnic workers center where working people unite across industry, race, nationality and gender to fight for the changes needed in workplaces, communities and lives.

JoAnn Lum, Karah Newton, and Kai Wen Yang from NMASS joined us from their headquarters in New York City to discuss wage theft, displacement, and their "ambitious" plans for a just future.

"There must exist a paradigm, a practical model of social change that includes an understanding of ways to transform consciousness that are linked to efforts to transform structures." - bell hooks

The MultiCultural Collaborative is a people-of-color-led consulting firm based in Portland, OR empowering communities to build capacity in local governments for equitable public policy decisions and service delivery.

Anita Yap is the founding partner of the MultiCultural Collaborative.

Anita has worked in Oregon's communities for most of her life in public policy, health equity, community development, land use, transportation, natural resources and housing with government, nonprofit and small business.

Vision Zero and Campaign Zero are two platforms describing a path to safer streets. If you'll remember, we were lucky to have Tamika Butler and Keith Benjamin in Episode 5 to talk about the importance of a racial justice lens in Vision Zero work. In this episode, we will build on the 'why' racial equity should be central to this policy (or any policy) discussed earlier, and focus today on the 'how', like, what are the critical next steps to make racial equity central.

Join a conversation with guest co-host Naomi Doerner, Sam Sinyangwe, Nora Liu, Leah Shahum, and co-host Steph Routh.

Naomi Doerner is a social justice and racial equity strategist within the national active transportation community. She is Principal Planner & Equity Strategist for Assembly for Equitable Cities.

Nora Liu is the Racial Equity Here Manager for the Government Alliance on Race and Equity at the Center for Social Inclusion.

Sam Sinyangwe is the Co-Founder of WeTheProtesters, a national advocacy organization equipping activists with cutting-edge tools, research and policy solutions to end police violence in their communities. Examples of their work include MappingPoliceViolence.org, CheckthePolice.org and ProtesterProgress.org.

Leah Shahum is the founder and director of the Vision Zero Network, a national campaign supporting cities working toward Vision Zero—zero traffic fatalities and severe injuries.

Every four years we tune in to the excitement, passion and drama of the Olympic Games. It's hard not to get wrapped up in all the the anticipation and celebration, for one of the most widely watched events in the world. Each successive Olympics seem to be a bigger spectacle than the last, with dramatic and expensive changes to the city itself. What are some of the ways the Olympics transform the physical structure and form of the host city, and who pays for the hefty price tag?

Jules Boykoff is a former professional soccer player, and represented the men's US Olympic soccer team in international play. Jules has extensively researched the politics and activism in the Olympic Games, including the 2010 Winter Games in Vancouver Canada, the 2012 Summer Games in London, the 2014 Winter Games in Sochi Russia, and the upcoming Summer Games in Rio De Janeiro Brazil. His writings on the Olympics include Activism and the Olympics: Dissent at the Games in Vancouver, Celebration Capitalism and the Olympic Games, and the recently published Power Games: A Political History of the Olympics.

Photo credit: Luke & Jules

Where did our housing and homelessness crisis come from, and how do we create solutions as a city and country? How are people talking about housing and homelessness, and how should that narrative change?

Join Street Roots Executive Director, Israel Bayer; Welcome Home Coalition Executive Director, Jes Larson; and "Why Isn't Anyone...?" co-hosts Justin Buri and Steph Routh for a history lesson and a conversation.

(Photo credit: Woodley Wonderworks: https://www.flickr.com/photos/wwworks/2987611025)

Diane Jones of DesignJones, LLC has engaged in planning and design efforts related to the rebuild and recovery of the Lower Ninth Ward, the cypress forest restoration in the Bayou Bienvenue Wetlands Triangle, the dismantling of the I-10 freeway and regeneration of Treme within the Claiborne Avenue Corridor, and rebuilding and restoring the Historic District, post-earthquake Jacmel, Haiti — a district that heavily influenced the architecture and urban design of the French Quarter of New Orleans.

Join Diane and "Why Isn't Anyone...?" host Alexis Gabriel as they explore community planning, post-disaster rebuilding, and what race has to do with it.

Every other year, the Oregon Legislature meets for a short session—35 days—to discuss budgets and other timely issues. This year was a whirlwind for housing advocates and others looking to squeak through some laws.

For this episode of "Why Isn't Anyone...?" Team members Justin Buri and Vivian Satterfield are joined by Kristina Narayan from the Asian Pacific American Network of Oregon to discuss what went down in Salem during February and what that means for inclusionary zoning and other hoped-for changes.

Roll credits:

Today’s show was produced by Justin Buri and Vivian Satterfield, and edited by Eric Klein. Music is by Breuss Arrizabalaga Quintet. You can find us on our Facebook page and on Twitter @whyisntanyone.

If you liked this show, help us keep it going by donating via our website, whyisntanyone.com, where you can also leave us comments, questions, and ideas for future topics. Check out the people who have supported us on Crowdrise!

We are a project of Umbrella, a Portland-based nonprofit that encourages community-based street culture.

In 2012, members of Portland's local National Federation of the Blind Chapter organized an event called, "It's Not Scary to Be Blind: Walk With Me!" as part of Walktober. Folks during this event talked about aspects of our transportation environment that are both helpful and possibly not so helpful for the blind and low vision.

For this episode of "Why Isn't Anyone...?" we were lucky to have a few active members of the Portland Central Chapter of National Federation of the Blind to talk about blindness in the built environment: Jim Jackson is Co-founder of the local Portland Central Chapter of National Federation of the Blind; Trevor Attenberg is the local chapter's Treasurer; and Nik Petersson is Senior Accessibility Consultant with Miles Access Skills Training, LLC. The National Federation of the Blind is the organization that believes in the full capacity of blind people, and has the power, influence, diversity, and determination to help transform their dreams into reality.

Today’s show was produced by me, Steph Routh; and edited by Eric Klein. You can find us on our Facebook page and on Twitter @whyisntanyone. Subscribe to the show on iTunes, Stitcher, or your feed of choice.

If you liked this show, help us keep it going by donating via our website, whyisntanyone.com, where you can also leave us comments, questions, and ideas for future topics. Here are the people who have supported us on Crowdrise: Aaron Brown, Abra McNair, Alan Kessler, Amos, Anonymous, Audrey Addison, Breesa Culver, Caroline and Paul Z, Carolynn Szczepanski, Chris Smith, CJ Walker, Cory Dodt, Dan Gebhart, Doug Klotz, Emily N, fool, Heidi Guenin, Jessica Holliday, K. Bott, Kailin, Kim Harrison, Mark Lear, Matt Luce, Michael Andersen, Mychal Tetteh, Peter Welte, Pogo Crowe, Starlene Rankin, Steph Routh, Stephanie Noll, Steve Bozzone, Susan Peithman, The Sprocket Podcast, Thomas Ngo, Timo Forsberg, Timothy Zork, and Vivian Satterfield.

We are a project of Umbrella, a Portland-based nonprofit that encourages community-based street culture. We’ll be back with another episode in two weeks. In the meantime, keep asking, “Why isn’t anyone talking about this?” Because they should, and we are.

“What Is Equity?” Everyone uses this word. What does it mean, how is it used, and where should we be going with it? This is such a big word that we will be exploring this as a special two-parter series. Here we have Part 2.

In the studio for this episode, we have four of the 10-person team at Why Isn’t Anyone Talking About This—Adonia Lugo, Alexis Gabriel, Joy Davis and Steph Routh.

Today’s show was produced by the whole Team; edited by Steph Routh, and hosted by Adonia, Alexis, Joy, and Steph. Music is by Breuss Arrizabalaga Quintet. You can find us on our Facebook page and on Twitter@whyisntanyone.

If you liked this show, help us keep it going by donating via our website, whyisntanyone.com, where you can also leave us comments, questions, and ideas for future topics. Check out the people who have supported us on Crowdrise!

We are a project of Umbrella, a Portland-based nonprofit that encourages community-based street culture.

Vision Zero is a street safety campaign that seeks to reduce the number of traffic fatalities in a local jurisdiction to zero by a set time period.

The idea that people shouldn’t die when occupying the right of way isn’t a new one - in fact, it is nearly as old in the United States as cars themselves.

Because gun violence, drug overdoses, and traffic fatalities remain the top-three preventable public health scourges of modern American society, transportation advocates understandably feel a sense of urgency in making our streets safer for everyone.

But does street safety only refer to traffic safety?

Thanks to the work of #BlackLivesMatter activists, there is an increasing awareness to death, discrimination, and disproportionate enforcement experienced by Black people, as well as other marginalized populations, at the hands of police forces throughout our country on our streets every day. How does Vision Zero intersect with a broader call to street safety? Where can we go together?

Naomi Doerner is an transportation planner and mobility advocate. Over the last decade, she has developed and implemented effective community participation strategies that have led to more equitable transportation planning outcomes in the public and private sectors. Drawing upon her experience of being from and working in and with traditionally underrepresented groups--youth, women, low-income communities, and multi-cultural and communities of color, Naomi has worked with bike and walk advocates across the country helping them develop equity-based advocacy campaigns in their communities and the movement at-large. She does this work because she believes safe, accessible, and affordable transportation are essential to economic mobility and social equity.

Tamika Butler joined the LACBC staff as the Executive Director in December 2014. Prior to leading LACBC Tamika was the Director of Social Change Strategies at Liberty Hill Foundation, where she oversaw the foundation’s boys and men of color program and the foundation’s LGBTQ grant strategy. Before Liberty Hill, Tamika worked at Young Invincibles as the California Director. As the CA Director, she was responsible for the development of all of Young Invincibles’ programs in California. Tamika was responsible for building out Young Invincibles’ operations on the West Coast and grew the office to the largest regional office outside of their DC headquarters. She transitioned to policy work after litigating for three years as an employment lawyer at Legal Aid Society-Employment Law Center.

Keith Benjamin is a focused, action-oriented leader who has dedicated much of his time towards the creation and cultivation of communities that politically, socially, and economically thrive in the most equitable manner. He has traveled the world identifying the keys to increasing livability, accesses, mobility and health of populations most disproportionately affected. He currently serves as the Community Partnership Manager for the Safe Routes to School National Partnership and has worked in 8 states and 40 cities on offering placemaking as a solution to better physical activity, safety, mobility and opportunity.

Roll Credits:

Today’s show was produced by Mychal Tetteh; and edited by Eric Klein. You can find us on our Facebook page and on Twitter @whyisntanyone. Subscribe to the show on iTunes, Stitcher, or your feed of choice.

If you liked this show, help us keep it going by donating via our website, whyisntanyone.com, where you can also leave us comments, questions, and ideas for future topics.

We are a project of Umbrella, a Portland-based nonprofit that encourages community-based street culture. We’ll be back with another episode in two weeks. In the meantime, keep asking, “Why isn’t anyone talking about this?” Because they should, and we are.