Monthly Archives: April 2022

WAVE Project, Welcoming All Valuing Everyone, is a grassroots nonprofit based in Clinton Township, serving metro Detroit. Im one of the co-founders, alongside my wife, Laura, and our friends, as well as the volunteer executive director. I also work as a middle school teacher.

In 2018, while serving together as part of a multi-site church, we saw so many needs. We felt God calling us out to follow him, and to help where we could. We had conversations around this, and found our hearts were close to the homeless, to those who are often left behind, looked over and passed by.

We began to dream about how we could serve this population. There are nonprofits doing wonderful work, and we didnt want to duplicate services, but to find a way to uniquely impact those experiencing homelessness. As we prayed through it, we began to talk with other groups. We were inspired by a San Francisco-based organization called LavaMae, that initially built out a large municipal bus to bring mobile showers and essential care services to the streets.

For over a year, we held monthly community barbecues, spending time with people in the homeless community. It became evident to us what a supreme barrier transportation is for people in need. Being mobile became a foundational principle for us. Our population often has to decide whether to spend their energy, and maybe only bus fare, in getting a meal, temporary shelter or a public shower. As described to us, hygiene can easily fall down the list. The first person who shared her story with me, said she carried so many other immediate concerns, that she sometimes went weeks or months washing in drinking fountains and public bathrooms.

Testimonies like this encouraged us to develop the shower service program we're operating today. We want to love people, first and foremost, and our goal is to go to the need. As metro Detroiters, it's important to our organization and board, that we seek out opportunities in Wayne, Oakland and Macomb County. I'm happy to say that we're in all three every week.

One of our core tenets is to collaborate with others. If people are investing their time and resources to get to the location, we want them to receive support from another nonprofit, whether it be a meal, laundry services, mental health support, substance abuse counseling, etc. We can be there to provide showers, clothes and essentials. Were very intentional to plan these services with our partners along major bus routes.

Consistency is also extremely important. We want the people we're building relationships with to understand we're going to be there for them. So, if at all possible, you can count on WAVE Project being at Teen Wellness Center on the eastside of Detroit every Saturday, rain, shine, challenging circumstances or not. At our locations, we sometimes give 30-40 showers in a few hours , and other times, its just one. We believe in the importance of that one.

Last year, with the help of our supporters, we held 309 events at 11 different sites across Metro Detroit, providing over 1800 showers. We try to have open arms to say, wherever we can, we do. This is a balancing act, as we have no full-time staff. In 2021, we were able to hire two part-time coordinators who run our shower services every Tuesday and Thursday, alongside our part-time Essentials Van coordinator. Saturday, our largest service day, is completely run by volunteers.

When COVID-19 hit, we had to shut down for several months in order to keep our guests and volunteers safe. That broke our hearts, and organizationally it was tough. We were faithful to do what we could, and in those moments, there were opportunities for innovation. We developed a pantry program in Mt. Clemens and in New Baltimore, donated our paper products and cleaning supplies to local shelters and financially supported some of our partners doing frontline work.

We relaunched in August 2020, implementing masks, social distancing, non-contact registration, electrostatic sprayers and timers to allow our shower space to regularly air out. From a volunteer standpoint, my own family included, there was a gap in people feeling safe enough to be on site. It was a big leap of faith to say, Okay, God, we need people who are comfortable or feeling called to do this work. Who will you bring?

We also began dreaming of our Essentials Van, something that wasn't even on our radar before COVID-19. It's designed like a large closet with shirts, pants, underwear, socks, hygiene kits, backpacks, blankets, etc. People walk up to the service window, get their essentials, take a shower and go. Another critical part of that program is providing drop-in services. As we're driving around town, we're intentional to keep an eye out at places where we know our friends are, like MacArthur Park in Mt. Clemens, to see if they need anything. Its been really beautiful.

We do send hundreds of items out that window every single day, a good thing. But our organization isn't large enough to take on many used donations because we can't store them, sort them, etc. For those who want to help us provide essential supplies, we're glad to have you do sohere. We're only able to do what we do because of all the unique and awesome ways were supported, and I cant give God enough glory for this.

Throughout COVID-19, weve seen wonderful people whove long been caring for communities close their doors from a lack of funding and volunteers. This is very concerning to me.Yet, I am encouraged that in this tough, gritty, diverse and beautiful place, there are people hitting the streets trying to love and help others. They arent doing it for the money, and if you give them something, its passed on the very next day. We also have good organizations here saying, go do it. We want to help you, let us know what you need. Thats a story that should be told more.

In caring for individuals, it can be a challenge when people want to know your measurable outcomes. Some potential funders have asked, how are you helping people experiencing homelessness no longer be homeless? And in a vacuum, if I were looking to fund a program, thats a very thoughtful way of quantifying it. But, when somebody asks me how we're helping people not be homeless, I say, we're not. That's not why we exist. We exist to love people first.

Todd Gordon is the executive director of WAVE Project, serving homeless communities across metro Detroit.This entry is part of ourNonprofit Journal Project, an initiative inviting nonprofit leaders across Metro Detroit to contribute their thoughts via journal entries on how COVID-19, a heightened awareness of racial injustice and inequality, issues of climate change and more are affecting their work--and how they are responding. This series is made possible with the generous support of our partners, the Michigan Nonprofit Association and Co.act Detroit.

Read more:

WAVE Project brings showers and essentials, including love and kindness to metro Detroiters in need - Second Wave Media

For better or worse, geographical boundaries separate local jurisdictions and define parameters within which local governments can operate. The land and its value dictate tax revenueland thats rich in natural resources, or that close to important destinations, demands more value than that which is remote.

Itsa finite resource that must be thoughtfully managed. As localities densify and the world spins further into the digital era, outdated land management strategies are becoming strikingly obvious. Oftentimes, land use plans dont account for the monetary impact certain features will have over the long term, according to the latest paper published in the Rethinking Revenue project, a joint venture of the Government Finance Officers Association and the International City/County Management Association withsupport from the American Planning Association, the National Academy of Public Administration, the National League of Cities, the Government Finance Research Center and The University of Chicagos Harris School of Public Policy.

The project is focused on rethinking the way local governments fund themselves through novel revenue ideas and alternative taxation norms that are more in-line with modern business practices. Previous publications have outlined the problem with current revenue systems and developed a criterion for evaluating the effectiveness of proposed changes.

Historical land use decisions did not provide for sufficient taxable activities to pay the cost of maintaining the infrastructure that was built to serve the development, reads the report, The root of local government revenues, which outlines the importance of land use, and unpacks the relationship between land and revenue. At least in part, this lack of forethought explains why many local governments face difficulties funding infrastructure maintenance and replacement.

As an example, the report describes the expansion of South Bend, Ind.s sewer system. In 1960, the system served a population of 132,000 people, and expanded over the years by adding more lift stations and water mains. Today, however, the population has shrunken to a little over 100,000, and the city is facing a challenge like that faced by many cities across the United Sates: Land use development patterns that are incompatible with long-term financial realities. Sprawling, lower-density development patterns cause infrastructure to grow beyond the citys ability to generate revenue to maintain it.

In this modern era, the onus is on local governments to think beyond the immediate expenditure of a given project, the report argues. They must seek a long-term, dependable solution to their structural revenue and expenditure imbalances, and become more intentional about making financially savvy land use decisions.

A major hurdle local governments face in expanding current land use practices centers around precedence: Is it appropriate for governments to change the way they bring in revenue? Traditionally, public services are perceived by constituents as entirely altruistic and for the broader good. But while this perspective might be accurate in theory, it fails to consider the mechanics of responsible management practices.

Another sticking point, as noted in the paper, is that higher revenues per acre will usually require denser, more intensive development per acre than many communities tend to support. This historical aversion to denser development may lead to objections to local government using its regulatory power to encourage higher revenue per acre.

On its own, the private market might not evolve in a way that supports local government, and constituents dont understand the complexities of municipal managementeven when its in their best interest, or in the best interest of their children.

In many communities, there isnt enough revenue per acre in the community to fund the upkeep of infrastructure that has been built to serve less dense areas, the report says. These areas require more lane miles, linear feet of water pipe, etc., to serve the same number of people. Insufficient revenue per acre means that the maintenance and replacement costs are deferred to future generations. Hence, current consumption is subsidized by future taxpayers.

Density is dictated by zoning, and the researchers argue thatits within local administrators purview to leverage regulatory power in ways that promote a public policy goal of financially sustainable local government. A financially healthy local government a better maintain transit, public safety, and other public services.

To that end, the report outlines concrete steps local governments can take to improve revenue-per-acre: Make financially savvy development the easier choice by changing it so that conventional development patterns arent the default; calculate revenue per acre for all areas to develop a baseline; encourage infill development and build up as opposed to out; require a cost-benefit evaluation for potential new development; understand the fiscal impact of building and zoning regulation, then adjust accordingly; identify areas where cross-subsidization is happening and consider charging for it.

Cross-subsidization occurs where the cost to develop in one area is subsidized by revenues generated in another area of the community, the report unpacks. Sometimes cross-subsidization is intentional and acceptable. Other times it is unintentional and unrecognized. In the latter case, it may be savvy to remove the subsidy, especially where the subsidy encourages unsustainable development patterns.

These methods have proven successes. South Bend, for example, tweaked its regulations to encourage density and reuse existing buildings, in-filling unused areas within the sewer system. And Lancaster, Calif., identified low-density development (the city had more infrastructure than its tax base was able to support) and was able to encourage denser development to even the gap over the long-term.

Regardless of policy changes, local governments need to rethink how their approach to land use planning considers the financial impacts of development choices, the report concludes. Land uses underpin a local governments revenue system because the property tax (and sometimes the sales tax) is an important source of local revenue. If the land within a governments boundaries is not productive at generating revenues, then local government will find it difficult, if not impossible, to keep up with the costs of providing services and maintaining infrastructure.

See the original post:

Report: To keep up with infrastructure maintenance costs, local governments need to rethink land use policies - American City & County

You argue in Black Ghost of Empire that the history of emancipation from slavery is not a story of endings, but unendings. What do you mean by that?

We tend to think of the ending of slavery as a once-and-done moment. But in fact there was a long period, spanning around 100 years, during which there were various different moments of emancipation. And when you look closely at all those events, as my book does, you can identify a through line. You see that, rather than the end of slavery disrupting the racial caste system, the ways in which emancipations played out in reality actually conspired to perpetuate it. Emancipation processes provided failed pathways to justice for people who had been enslaved, in a way that was often intentional.

On the podcast | Kris Manjapra reveals how the end of slavery helped perpetuate systems of oppression, rather than disrupt them:

Listen to an ad-free version

It may come as a surprise to learn that the very first emancipations were actually in the American North around Philadelphia, Pennsylvania, Massachusetts and New York. 1780 in Philadelphia was a germination moment in which a particular template for emancipation emerged: the gradual emancipation model. This was a process whereby enslaved adults would continue to live in slavery for the rest of their lives. Children born into slavery could look forward to freedom, but that freedom would only be given after a long period of enslavement potentially 18 to 25 years. That was the basic model for gradual emancipations across the American North.

Fast forward to 1807, when the slave trade but not the practice of slavery itself was abolished in the British empire, and we observe what I call the sea emancipations. British patrollers were capturing slave vessels and taking enslaved people to an emancipation colony located at Freetown, Sierra Leone, a British holding in west Africa. People went from being held in the belly of a slave ship to being brought before a court where they could then be made free through a legal process. But this freedom still required them to serve 14 years in a so-called apprenticeship basically, slavery by another name. These apprenticeship or indentureship systems developed as another way of prolonging the racial caste system even after the official end of slavery as an institution.

African-American sailors during the US Civil War. This conflict witnessed what Kris Manjapra describes as the war emancipation model (Photo by Getty Images)

Then we come to the 1830s. The British empire which, by this time, was identifying itself worldwide as the anti-slavery empire designed a new kind of emancipation. This was the compensated emancipation model, in which slave owners received money as reparation for the loss of their property. A very sophisticated logistical and administrative project was established to compensate more than 44,000 slave owners across the British empire [who received around 20m in total]. That model of financially compensating slave owners became a gold standard internationally, and was replicated in places including France, the Netherlands, Denmark and Sweden.

Now we arrive at a canonical moment in US history the Civil War and what I call the war emancipation model. In the other emancipations, governments were playing a very careful game, trying to keep the peace between the proponents of freedom and the proponents of slavery, but in this context it broke down into all-out war. Yet it was not the case that the enslaved won out, because the emancipation laws that emerged during that decade [the 1860s] were still tinged by efforts to reconcile with slave-owning interests. Again, it was slave owners who were compensated, not the enslaved this time through policy decisions, legal mechanisms and the confiscation of the lands that had been given to the newly freed people as a form of early reparations. Government policy emerged as an important domain in which, by design, newly freed people were yet again dispossessed and slave owners were yet again compensated.

Finally, I look at how the British, French and other empires turned their sights on Africa from the 1880s onwards, in whats known as the Scramble for Africa. That collection of imperial projects and wars was again exercised under the banner of emancipation in the name of freeing African people from slavery but I view it instead as the beginning of a truly global war on black lives.

Even as they had different characteristics, these types of emancipation built on each other in interesting ways. They all shared a common thread: that enslaved people never received reparations. Reparations were granted in a variety of ways; they were just paid the wrong way to the slave owners.

What happened in Haiti is really a meditation on how freedom could be secured outside the emancipation process. It helps us understand that liberation from slavery is not the same as emancipation. During the revolutionary period, the Haitian people essentially refused to engage in an emancipation process that had been imposed on them by the French empire. They intended to claim their own freedom.

In response to the Haitian Revolution, the French empire and the international community, including the US, colluded to diplomatically exclude Haiti from the international order. They boycotted the country for many decades; the US didnt officially recognise Haiti until 1862. In the 1820s, the French decided that the only way that they would allow Haiti to enter the international system was if they were able to impose the emancipation that they hadnt had a chance to implement during the revolutionary period.

This retroactive emancipation was imposed some 20 years after the fact, onto a people who already were free. It basically inflicted on Haiti a legal system and a debt system that sought to reassert the racial caste order, the crux of which was that Haiti had to pay the French empire a large sum of money. In some ways this was just like manumission, the long-standing system by which a slave could pay their owner a sum of money in order to redeem their freedom. The Haitian state suffered under that debt burden for the better part of a century and a half; you could argue that this retroactive emancipation was the origin of third-world debt. It was rooted in the logic that emancipation was intended to perpetuate, not disrupt, systems of oppression.

I think its a bit of both. It was never a consideration of the decision makers to bring the black people directly affected to the decision-making table. That allowed for oversights and callousness. In order for there to be legal remedies for harm and restorative justice, you have to listen to the victims.

I do think there was also an element of design at work, but I dont think it was ultimately about malevolence. Rather, it was about something much more mundane economic interests. There were obviously many who were going to lose out financially from the freeing of African people. Banking interests, political interests and industrial interests had all benefitted from extracting free labour from black people. So it makes sense that those groups would do everything they possibly could to find a way around abolition and to maintain their interests.

Whats interesting to me is that, despite this very troubling history of what emancipations really meant, black communities have always celebrated and commemorated them. Juneteenth [19 June, commemorating the emancipation of African-Americans] has become a national American holiday. And across many black nations that suffered under British rule, 1 August is still celebrated as Emancipation Day.

Whats important here, though, is what different communities bring to the meaning of the word emancipation. Rather than being celebrated in black communities as the end of something, emancipation is actually being commemorated to mark a renewed dedication to the ongoing struggle. Thats a very different way of thinking about our past than simply moving on from it which is always a temptation, especially for histories that haunt us. But we cant wish away these ghosts. We have to invite them in and figure out what they are asking from us for the future.

Yes and Ill give you an example. Back in 2018, I was rummaging around in archives, as historians do, and I noticed a line in a British Treasury report from 2015, saying the Slave Compensation Act Loan had finally been paid off. That caught my attention, because I could not imagine how a loan taken out in 1835 could have only just been paid off in 2015. Yet for 180 years, British taxpayers had been financing a loan that the British government took out to pay off slave owners across the British empire. This story is a good example of the way that decisions made almost 200 years ago still have implications in terms of policy, law and taxation its a legacy that affects us to this day.

And intergenerationally, black communities have had to pay for the consequences of the designs implemented during emancipation processes. If we look at Britain and the US today, we see that black communities still suffer from overexposure to the criminal legal system, and instability around access to education, food, financing, land and political representation. The question then naturally arises: how do we explain that? As a historian, I know that the answer is in the legacies of the past. Its not only slavery to blame; the failed process through which slavery ended also perpetuated these forms of social injustice.

In Jamaica, for example, when slavery officially ended with emancipation in 1838, enslaved people walked into a new legal category of freedom but they were still barred from political representation, and had no voice in Jamaicas assembly. This was the case across all of the British colonies. Furthermore, just as slavery was ending, the British state was investing heavily in the vast expansion of the prison-industrial complex across its plantation colonies, essentially turning slave colonies into prison colonies. Newly freed people were criminalised, with no access to the vote or equitable political representation. If they wanted land they had to squat on the land of the former slave owners because there was no reparations process to redistribute the land to them. The legacy of all of this can still be felt today.

The problems that still bedevil us emerged in part because the harm done through slavery was never redressed. Instead it was carried forward over time, encoded in the criminal legal system and a variety of other dimensions of government policy.

The call for reparations is nothing new. By the end of the 18th century, black people were already organising to argue for reparations; that struggle was in some ways an impetus for writing this book. People say: Shouldnt we move on, rather than crying over spilt milk? But if we recognise that this is a source of on-going woe for our societies, then we can see that its a question not about the past but about our present and future.

History teaches us that paying reparations is feasible, because it has been done before theyve just been paid the wrong way round. The real question is what form reparations should take. One aspect of this is financial compensation the law says that if there is harm, there must be recompense and the discussion around proper compensation to black communities today is one that should continue.

But its not only about financial payouts. One mere transactional writing of a cheque, for example, is not going to be sufficient. Dont forget that reparations were made to slave owners not only in monetary terms but also in legal codes and policy decisions that benefitted them. Two hundred years have passed since the first emancipation began, and we are still paying the social cost for bad decisions made back then. We are now at a point where we can choose, by making good decisions around food, housing, education, legal representation, political representation and financing, to break the cycle and do things that are going to help generations 200 years from now.

There are two other related questions that I think are absolutely essential to ask. What does a proper apology look like? And how do we retell our histories together? The history of abolition and emancipation has been told as a triumphant story of white male abolitionists. But I think theres another way of telling the story that looks not just to heroes whom we must certainly respect but also at the perspective of black communities. That leads us to discussions about the things that went wrong that still need to be fixed today. And I think that gives us the path to transform the reparations debate as it currently exists.

Kris Manjapra is professor of history at Tufts University, Massachusetts. His books include Black Ghost of Empire: The Long Death of Slavery and the Failure of Emancipation (Penguin, 2022), Colonialism in Global Perspective (Cambridge, 2020) and Age of Entanglement: German and Indian Intellectuals across Empire (Harvard, 2014)

This interview was first published in the May 2022 issue of BBC History Magazine

Go here to read the rest:

Kris Manjapra On The Troubled Legacy Of Emancipation - BBC History Magazine

Animation TV is the only streaming platform that brings all facets of animation culture together and gives back to its community as well.

SAVANNAH, Ga., April 28, 2022 /PRNewswire/ -- Animation has not been traditionally a representation for people of color. Coupled with this is the reality that animation distribution for creators is limited. The time has come for animation enthusiasts to rejoice; it's time to delve into a world never experienced before. Husband and wife duo Jermaine and Whaketa Hargrove plan to launch the first-ever Black-owned streaming animation network, Animation TV, in Summer 2022. Animation TV is the first and only animation streaming platform that streams all aspects of animation culture.

Animation TV will become the sole medium that can introduce viewers to the versatility of animation and all it has to offer. This platform will allow viewers of all ages and nationalities to experience the beauty of animation culture.

Animation TV will offer its content with a subscription and linear channel model for ease of access to viewers. Animation TV will work in collaboration with Small Town Animation Studios to deliver original, exclusive animation content such as the highly anticipated diabetic superhero movie Gumshe: The Type 1 Protector, or faith-based series The Sunday Schoolers, and other originals like Animate My Life, Welcome to Gamerville, Princess Tatenda and the award-winning series Shelly: The Dancing Spider.

Animation TV is intentional about giving back and makes it a part of its business model. Animation TV is the only animation streaming platform that creates opportunities for future animation industry professionals by using a portion of its revenue to provide animation scholarships for students from under-served communities.

In line with this initiative, Animation TV has partnered with some of the biggest names in animation, including Kit Bash 3D and The Animation School in South Africa. The Director and Co-founder of The Animation School, Nuno Martins, has this to say about the initiative, "The Animation School continues to drive diversity through partnerships such as Animation TV. These [partnerships] highlight the importance of building a diverse community within the international animation industry."

Story continues

CEO and Founder of Animation TV, Jermaine, also commented on his impending launch, stating, "We are using Animation TV and exclusive content to bring awareness to the lack of diversity and inclusion in the animation industry. By offering distribution to global animation creators, we will amplify the voices that sometimes go unheard. Structuring a theatrical partnership with a major film Studio for some of our stronger animation IP's is also a goal of Animation TV. We are currently looking to finance, develop and distribute all forms of animation content(2D/3D) from creators all over the world." Please send all submissions here.

Animation TV is poised to be a platform that translates animation culture into real-world value by tapping into the Metaverse and NFTs as features of the platform. Animation TV will also be distributed globally for users of all operating system interfaces, including iOS, tvOS, Android, Android TV, and the worldwide web.

For more information, please visit Animation TV.

About Animation TVAnimation TV is a Black-owned, streaming, Animation Network located in South-East Georgia. The Animation TV network is owned by husband and wife Jermaine & Whaketa Hargrove and is the first and only streaming platform in the world that distributes all aspects of animation culture.

Media Contact:Destiny HargroveAnimation TV912-417-9658335035@email4pr.com

Cision

View original content to download multimedia:https://www.prnewswire.com/news-releases/first-ever-black-owned-animation-network-set-to-launch-in-summer-2022-301533792.html

SOURCE The Animation TV Network

Originally posted here:

First-Ever Black-Owned Animation Network Set to Launch in Summer 2022 - Yahoo Finance

"Combining vibrant communities with a member media model is the best path forward for digital media business, for journalism, and for the broader polity as a whole," said Nicholas White, CEO and Founder of Fragment.

AUSTIN, Texas (PRWEB) April 28, 2022

Clarion Media Group, which includes The Daily Dot and Nautilus, today announced a rebrand, and is now named Fragment Media Group. The rebrand reflects the companys growth and continued focus on underserved audiences. The growth of Fragments brands has been driven aggressively in recent years by an unmatched focus on membership experiences defined by intentional content that engages the passions and curiosity of niche audiences.

Fragment achieved 50% year-over-year revenue growth in 2020, and over 100% revenue growth in 2021. Each month Fragment brands reach over 25 million readers. The Daily Dot, known for years as the hometown newspaper of the world wide web continues with its founding mission to cover internet culture, while Nautilus seeks to connect readers with the wonder, romance and humanity of science. Combined, these brands have built a community of nearly 30 million people on social media channels alone.

Were thrilled to roll out the new brand today. We believe in the member media model because weve proven that it can be a growth engine when you relentlessly focus on the member experience, said Nicholas White, CEO and Founder of Fragment. The Fragment brand speaks directly to the underserved audiences and passionate niches that are often overlooked, despite their abundance of passion and world-changing potential. Combining vibrant communities with a member media model is the best path forward for digital media business, for journalism, and for the broader polity as a whole. Thats the key to our growth, our reason for being, and its what motivates our team every day.

Fragment continues to accelerate growth in 2022, with multiple significant developments and announcements expected from each of its brands in the coming months. Upon the acquisition of Nautilus in 2019, the company announced a significant investment in technology to enhance the experience across all of its publications and sites. That led to a seven-fold increase in membership, the launch of the all-new Nautilus site, and the launch of multiple dedicated Channels on Nautilus, including a formal partnership with UNESCO to support the Ocean Decade, with much more to come. The Daily Dot has continued to break new ground reporting on internet culture, including a recent partnership with ESPN to highlight the way people of color are using the internet to change the broader culture. It will soon launch a member model of its own.

To learn more about Fragment brands, and to experience member media at its finest, subscribe to the free Daily Dot newsletter here: https://www.dailydot.com/newsletter/ and subscribe to Nautilus award-winning print or digital editions here: https://join.nautil.us/

For more information about Fragment, please visit: fragmnt.com

About Fragment Media Group

Fragment Media Group is a pioneer of the member media model. Our brands, including the Daily Dot and Nautilus, identify underserved audiences and provide them with the intentional content that readers seek outto read, watch, listen to, and experience live. Intentional content leads our readers to intentional action in their personal, cultural, and political lives, and also with the brands they embrace and support.

Founded in 2020, Fragment Media Group is led by CEO, Nicholas White, and based in Austin, Texas.

For more information, visit: fragmnt.com

Share article on social media or email:

Read the original:

Clarion Media Announces Rebrand To Fragment Media Group - PR Web

Courtesy of Stephen Zacks. ImageHovagimyan collaborated with Gordon Matta-Clark on Days End, in which Matta-Clark illegally cut a half-moon through the Navy Pier at the end of Gansevoort Street in 1975 Share Share

Facebook

Twitter

Pinterest

Whatsapp

Mail

Or

This article was originally published on Common Edge.

While Stephen Zacks new book, G.H. Hovagimyan: Situationist Funhouse, is ostensibly about the life and work of the artist, theres an intriguing and seemingly topical subtext looming in the background: the role of art and culture on the development and redevelopment of cities. Its a complicated and sometimes fraught issue, prone sometimes to simplistic, even binary thinking. Zacks, a friend and former colleague at Metropolis, has always had a more nuanced view of the issue. Last week I reached out to him to talk about the work of Hovagimyan, the historic lessons of 1970s New York, and why gentrification needs a new name.

MCP: Martin C. PedersenSZ: Stephen Zacks

MCP: I know that this book had a long gestation period, since I remember you starting to work on this during our shared time atMetropolis. Talk about the background of the book. Why is G.H. Hovagimyan such a seminal figure?

SZ: You have a great memory. The ur-history dates back to that 2006 interview with Kyong Park for Metropolis, The Dark Side of Architecture. Kyong was remembering the New York of the early 80s as an idyllic time. I wanted to reexamine why official accounts all record high crime, homelessness, failing infrastructure, and urban abandonment as dominant themes, yet the stories of artists tended to emphasize how it was inexpensive to live and gave them an extraordinary freedom to use and reimagine the city.

G.H. is a notable example whose story tracks alongside the cultural history of the period. He moves through all of these neighborhoods redeveloping in tandem with the formation of artists communities from the 1970s through the 1990sSoHo, TriBeCa, Lower East Side, East Villageand now you can see it happening in the Catskills and Hudson Valley, where he bought a house in the 1980s and moved full-time a few years ago.

Part of whats going on is that the artist constitutes a socioeconomic class whose college-and-graduate education, middle-class upbringing, and, most frequently, European descent, offered a relative advantage compared to other groups who at the time were minimized as minorities and discriminated against in terms of housing policy, access to banking, and allocation of public resources. As a result, the disinvestment presented itself as a particularly fun opportunity for artistsand investorsif you could position yourself to take advantage of devalued spaces. That said, you had to be adventurous. As a woman or an artist, you had to be willing to endure a certain amount of hardship and precarity to make good on the opportunity.Situationist Funhousetraces G.H.s adventures not just through the lens of the city and the formation of artists communities, but also through the changing media of his time, which hes constantly observing and hacking as a way of critiquing media and society.

MCP: Sadly, Im old enough to remember New York in the 1970s. What drew you, someone younger, from Michigan, to that era? Conventional wisdom and orthodox planning says thats New York at its nadir.

SZ: Its always incredibly ambivalent for me when I think about the traditional leftist position against development. When you come from places like Flint and Detroit and Lansing, you saw decades of public and private disinvestment lead to all kinds of disheartening, depressing conditions. First of all, everyone is always leaving to find better places. The kids who go to college never come back. The downtown businesses were always mostly boarded up, and historic neighborhoods were distinguished by their large numbers of collapsing buildings. Its an incredible cultural loss and a fairly sad condition to live in when nothing changes decade after decade.

Yet the people who stayed still orchestrated an incredibly lively and inventive cultural life. For my generation, for instance, many of us were inspired by the hardcore punk scene using old buildings and odd spaces to throw hall parties in downtown Flint, or artist friends in Old Town Lansing organizing loft parties. You could always find the best cafes, boutiques, music venues, and open-air art installations in downtown Detroit: Zoots, the Heidelberg Project, St. Andrews, to name a few. Techno and rave parties were born in vacant industrial buildings. But it was never enough to sustain daily cultural life for someone as restless and unsettled as I was.

The question becomes, what does development really mean? For one thing, the word somewhat neutralizes the fact that in a society gradually withdrawing from any form of state planning in favor of policies allowing private capital to be the agent of changeunder the assumption that the public as consumer can then make their choices and let the market settle the rest; the agents of development are those with access to banking. That ends up reifying patterns of disinvestment and leaving historically discriminated groups, the poor and unbankablenot to mention places already suffering from commercial and industrial abandonmentsomewhat in the lurch.

All of this is a lot to unpack, and I still do not feel like Im anywhere close to succeeding in telling this story, but I have a ton of research and a partially revised draft of a manuscript called A Beautiful Ruin to show for it. In the meantime, everyone has always recommended concentrating on one figure to make it easier to tell the story. Id like to think G.H. Hovagimyan: Situationist Funhouse is the first of several volumes that follow the lives of exemplary artists that would offer a more nuanced view than the pat gentrification story, which seems to condemn artists and their (unintended) role in development or to glorify famous artists as heroic figures emerging from New Yorks abyss.

The word gentrification represents an internalization of the idea that supposedly free consumer markets will be the agents of change in society, not the governments policy regulating how those markets work, how they allocate resources, who has access to banking, and what industries receive tax breaks, direct investment, trade support, etc. Most of the memoirs, economic critiques, and fiction rely on these clichs. The truth is more in between.

MCP: What is the relevance of Hovagimyans work and life for present-day artists, designers, and even policy makers?

SZ: For one thing, G.H. belonged to an incredibly well-supported cultural scene. In 1960, Nelson Rockefeller started the New York State Council on the Arts (NYSCA), modeled after the British Arts Councils, which offered young artists and arts organizations a source of funding for projects providing opportunity for those who did not have a gallery. And galleries were relatively few and far between.

Gordon Matta-Clarks famous Days End, in which he illegally cut a half-moon through the Navy Pier at the end of Gansevoort Street in 1975, was actually funded by a New York State Creative Artists Public Service Program grant he used to pay G.H. and others to assist him. Thats kind of extraordinary when you think about such an iconic work of ad hoc urban reuse being funded by the state. NYSCA is still going strong and even funded the start of my research on this period.

There had been a scene of artist-run cooperative galleries in the 1950s and 60s; artists donated work to be bought by collectors to keep the doors open. By the 1970s, that model had collapsed. People got tired of giving their work away. 112 Greene Street, where G.H. began sitting the gallery in 1973 and had his first solo exhibition, started out essentially as an artists cooperative, except that Jeff Lew, an artist who owned the building, donated the ground floor to his friends and colleagues to play around and present their work, with some help from a patron.

The National Endowment for the Arts also formed during this time and its budget increased substantially in the 1970s. Brian ODohertyan art critic whose alter ego was performance artist Patrick Irelandinitiated an NEA workshop program to give money directly to artist-run spaces. All of these non-profit institutions known as alternative spaces formed during this period, places like the Kitchen, PS1, Artists Space, Printed Matter, ABC No Rio. 112 Greene Street eventually became a non-profit called White Columns. In these venues, several generations have had an opportunity to present their ideas, play with friends and colleagues, and share them with the public.

Later, when the fast money on Wall Street got interested in art as an investment tool, the East Village scene thrived in retail storefronts let out inexpensively to commercial artist-run galleries. G.H. also participated in this scene, co-founding Virtual Garrison gallery at 2nd Avenue and 1st Street, which is also documented in the book through the archives of theEast Village Eye, the alternative tabloid of the moment.

And let us not discount the fact that the budget of the citys Department of Cultural Affairs in 2022 is $144.2 million; the proposed budget of the National Endowment for the Artsfor the entire countryis $201 million. Thats not counting capital projects. Its an incredibly well-supported cultural scene. That said, G.H., like most of his peers, had to hustle in various trades for his daily bread, and the fact that New York had a lively scene converting old buildings into residential lofts and venues helped. Lots of people, then and now, got by in this way, taking side jobs. Phillip Glass is often celebrated for having been a taxi driver and a plumber while writing his most famous early compositions. That was only possible, on the other hand, because rent was incredibly cheap compared to today.

If theres one thing I would do to recreate the context in which G.H. and his peers were able to thrive, it would be to expand and make permanent rent stabilization and to institute good cause eviction laws that would limit the many fraudulent ways landlords flip rent-stabilized apartments into more expensive and market rate leases. That, along with G.H.s intellectual curiosity and ongoing process of research and hacking of technology, is how you get an artist able to sustain a 50-year-long career rarely supported by any kind of commercial art market, continually exploring and giving meaning to the technological and social changes of our time.

MCP: Hovagimyan collaborated with Gordon Matta-Clark in the 70s. His range of collaborations and his work in general is sort of astounding. Hes still very much active. What is he working on these days?

SZ: I gave this book the title Situationist Funhouse because you can see in his work from the 1970s to now this incredible spirit of fun and exploration. The title is a bit of a misnomer in that its only alluding in a general way to the Situationism of Guy Debordnot claiming an integral connection between G.H. and the movement. Much of G.H.s work involves media critique, hacking or reappropriating media in a playful way, freeing it from its normally corporate, profit-making purpose.

Having collaborated with G.H. on projects in Flint, New York City, and Callicoon, in the Catskills, hes just an incredible good-natured spirit to have around, so thats undoubtedly one of the reasons he was such a well-appreciated assistant to Matta-Clark. If youre spending a month together cutting apart a gigantic pier on the Hudson River or a 16th century building in Paris, you want to have a tall Armenian with a great sense of humor traveling with you.

Thats a continuous characteristic of his work from the beginning: this fun-loving look at a critical situation, flipping it into something entertaining and provocative. In Flint, when we were trying to persuade mistrustful local audiences that bringing outsiders from New York City and other places would be a good idea to stimulate another level of cultural activity, which they could use for the intentional development of disinvested communities, G.H. brought his 3D Karaoke project to the monthly Flint Art Walk. He hacked Kinect camerasoriginally designed for video gamingto produce live 3D images of performers, and programmed a software platform with popular songs and lyrics. When people came into the temporary gallery, they could choose a song and see themselves performing in 3D projected onto the walls. It was incredibly festive and fun.

Most of the time, hes dealing with emerging technologies before anyone knows what they will be used for. Currently, hes working with augmented reality (AR), making interactive sculptures that trigger smartphones to augment them with 3D animations. As youre walking through galleries and outdoor installations, sounds and animations pop out of these sculptural objects, visualizing space junksatellites floating in space, remnants of previous eras of space explorationaccompanied by sounds of the different objects.

Whats particularly exciting about AR is the potential to imagine another world within the existing world. In the future, we will have even more sophisticated screens in our glasses and be even more disconnected from the everyday reality that surrounds uslike those real-life zombies who walk around staring at their cellphones. Well have contact lenses showing whats thereand something elsemost likely selling you products leading to your own destruction and the destruction of the planet. This is more or less what hes playing with now.

MCP: As someone who lives in present-day New York and is a keen observer of cities, Id love to get your take on things as they are, as the city, staggered by the pandemic, begins to crawl out from under the weight of that. It feels a bit like the 70s. What do you think?

SZ: I somewhat hope its more like the 70s, without ignoring the real struggles that come with economic perturbations. Rent had been declining or at least not increasing for a while, which I was happy about. But the death of cultural life during the pandemic was really hard to bearnot to speak of the death of so many tens of thousands in the city. Countless local businesses, essential institutions in their own ways, also disappeared. Cultural life seems to be coming back now, and Im just overjoyed to be socializing with friends and colleagues again at public events. Thats the whole reason to be in a city!

A buddy of mine recently opened an antique shop in a former dry cleaners in my neighborhood, which is reminiscent of the kinds of curious, genuinely joyous places that sprout up when rent pressures decrease and people are more free to follow their own paths. Some of the other revivals feel played out, like the interim-use art projects in vacant storefronts, where you just know the landlord is biding their time to crank up the rent to some grotesque amount. There should be laws against that, too.

Read more:

Situationist Funhouse: Art's Complicated Role in Redeveloping Cities - ArchDaily

Congressman Donald McEachin (D - 4th Congressional District) presented the money on a large check to university leaders on April 14. Photo courtesy of Thomas Kojcsich

Katrina Lee,News Editor

VCU received nearly $1 million in federal grant money to kickstart gun violence prevention efforts, following a two-year increase of gun-related homicides in Richmond.

Congressman Donald McEachin (D 4th Congressional District) presented the money on a large check to university leaders on April 14. The funding will be allocated to VCUs new program titled RVA Gun Violence Prevention Framework.

McEachin was motivated to provide this funding to the university because of the uniqueness of the frameworks approach to address gun violence, which will look at the increase in gun violence as a public health problem, he said.

Theres no question that this situation is a crisis here, as it is in many cities across the nation. And its incumbent upon us as lawmakers, those of us who are concerned with the issue of gun violence, to try to come up with approaches, McEachin said.

McEachin said he will be checking in with the organization as it begins to implement its prevention efforts. The program is still in development, according to McEachin.

Hopefully, it will be successful, but at least its an attempt to do something new and different to attack this age-old problem, McEachin said. The other thing to realize is that this has the potential to be a national approach to curb gun violence.

The frameworks goal is to utilize different evidence-based programs to curb gun violence, according to VCUHealth program manager Rachelle Hunley.

Hunley was one of the individuals who started the framework and said she and her colleagues, the mayors office and the Richmond Police Department all played integral roles in the development of the framework.

Being able to provide these vital resources, providing emotional support, addressing mental health concerns, and by being a positive person and resource, it is a matter of life and death, Hunley said.

Hunley said she has personally been able to see the uptake in gun-related violence due to her position in the hospital, including an increase in youth involvement in violence and the implications of gun violence disparities that affect minority communities.

Homicides involving firearms in Richmond increased from 61 in 2020 to 76 in 2021, according to the Richmond Police Department website.

The framework will use multiple different prevention efforts including implementing hospital-based prevention, creating a shooting and homicide review commission, employing the trauma response in the health department building and working with Cure Violence, according to Hunley.

Cure Violence is a network aimed to stop the spread of violence by using the methods and strategies associated with disease control, including detecting and interrupting conflicts, identifying and treating the highest risk individuals, and changing social norms, according to the Cure Violence website.

It was really well thought out, and we tailored it to fit the city of Richmond. So taking all of that into consideration when putting this together, there are a bunch of different frameworks and evidence-based practices that we did include, Hunley said.

The funding the university received will go towards part of the framework, which involves evaluating and strengthening their hospital-based prevention to gun violence, according to Hunley.

Its a hospital-based violence intervention program, which has been a proven strategy at reducing violence. We work directly with survivors of gunshot wounds, stabs, and assaults, Hunley said. We provide intensive case management starting at the bedside, an intervention to look at risky behaviors, and how a communitys involved in the situation.

Hunley said VCUs Bridging the Gap will also play a part in this framework, which is a program that provides services to Richmond area youth who are admitted to VCU Medical Center for intentional injuries such as gunshot wounds, stab wounds and assaults, according to its website.

Im grateful for the opportunity to shed light on this issue. I do want to put across a message of hope because a lot of the time around this issue, its very negative, Hunley said. But because of the funding and because of the collaboration, theres hope and theres light at the end of the tunnel.

Pastor Ralph Hodge is the co-president of a community advocacy group titled Richmonders Involved to Strengthen our Communities, an organization dedicated to holding public officials accountable for solving Richmonds critical problems, according to the organizations website. The organization has focused on the issue of gun violence because of the communitys concern over the issue.

Hodge said he has read everything about the framework and said it isnt clear what approaches the university will be implementing.

What is the plan? Has Richmond City decided that VCU is going to end gun violence? Is VCU now responsible for public health? Hodge said.

Related

Read the rest here:

VCU receives grant to curb gun violence in Richmond - The Commonwealth Times

The newspapers submitted five questions to the candidates; here are their responses.

What more can the Multnomah County Sheriff's Office do to reduce gun violence?

Nicholas Alberts Reducing violence in our community starts well before these heinous acts take place. I will lift the booking restrictions that our County has in place that prohibit many arrestable offenses from coming into our facilities. There is no reason that our law enforcement officers should have to second guess whether a crimes "worthy" of arrest and start remembering to put our crime victims first. Since the pandemic, our jail capacity has sat between 60 and 70 percent, while we are seeing record breaking years of homicides. This is not a coincidence; this is a direct correlation. As we allow brazen individuals to prey on our citizens seemingly without consequence, these individuals become more and more emboldened and continue to elevate their level of criminal behavior. When looking at many of the murders and violent crimes that come into our county jails, these are repeat offenders, and many are preventable. Allowing habitual offenders to be released right back onto the streets, or not booked at all for their crimes, is an absolute failure to protect those we swore to serve. We will constantly keep our public aware of the types of crimes coming into our facility and being released, to paint the true picture for our citizens of the dire situation we are in. We must hold those who commit all types of crime accountable.

Nicole Morrisey O'Donnell At an early age, my family was impacted by gun violence and it showed me how quickly our sense of safety can be ripped away in a matter of seconds. Reducing gun violence in our communities is a top priority and requires multiple approaches that I am committed to, have invested in, and will build upon as Sheriff. My plan to reduce gun violence includes the following:

Seize illegal guns. Removing guns from dangerous hands is critical, and under my leadership MCSO had the largest seizure of illegal firearms in the history of the organization.

Enforce court ordered dispossession. In my current role as Undersheriff and previous role as the Law Enforcement Chief Deputy, I have increased investigative resources and have advocated for an additional investigator in the upcoming budget to swiftly hold accountable those who are engaged in violence in our communities. I have also recently added additional deputies to remove firearms from people who are prohibited from possessing them per a court order, such as in domestic violence situations.

Invest in and collaborate with community-driven intervention and prevention. This includes proactive prevention strategies, robust investigative response, and collaboration with public safety partners, community based programs, and community leaders. Partnering with community based violence intervention services, such as the Office of Violence Prevention and Healing Hurt People is important in providing street outreach services to prevent further violence and uplift and heal our communities that have been impacted by gun violence. Investing in community listening and engagement sessions to build community trust and understand the impacts to each neighborhood is also critical inbuilding community based solutions to a very complex problem.

Data collection and information sharing. As Sheriff, I will ensure data collection and information sharing as gun violence has no borders, collaborate more closely with our public safety partners and community based resources, including violence prevention programs, and ensure resources are deployed to the most need. I have earned the support of all of the current Sheriffs in the Tri-County area and beyond, as well as community leaders and members, which shows that I work collaboratively across all partners and communities and am a bridge builder between community and law enforcement.

Derrick Peterson I would partner with Portland Police Focused Intervention Team (FIT) in re-establishing relationships and resources in the community through the Sheriff's Office Special Investigations Unit (SIU) and Homeless Outreach and Program Engagement Team (HOPE). Seek funding to expand the capacity of these units. Establish stronger community relationships with individuals and organizations performing effective work around these issues. Identify gaps in services. Advocate for streamlining resources and redirecting redundancy in an effort to forge alliances to increase the effectiveness of organizations and individuals doing good work. I would advocate to identify ineffective programs and reallocate funding accordingly. One of the main alliances I would like to explore is to connect former gang members with professional organizations with a proven record of providing services to communities of color. I believe former gang members can provide a perspective to enhance community outreach programs that would be far more impactful rather than working separately.

Community groups play a critical role in reducing gun violence. They have a true pulse of citizen's wants and needs in the communities they serve. It is vitally important to establish clear lines of communication supported by relationships fostered through trust. It is through these cultivated relationships; individuals are compelled to report issues, provide vital information and potentially prevent future crimes or violence. Community groups can act as a buffer or conduit between citizens and police to encourage healthy relationships that can help lead to positive change in the county.

Nicholas Alberts Working with our frontline staff daily, I have gotten to see the challenges that our staff face, and I think that failing to retain staff has a lot to do with staff feeling helpless, and that they are not supported by management. This is a community being ravaged by crime with little consequences, citizens are frequently becoming victims and staff has their hands tied from our leadership. This has created a bad culture within the ranks and has staff looking for a way out. This also affects our potential new recruits who are looking into a public safety career field. These recruits have many agencies across Oregon to choose from, and once they hear about our staff's experience within this office, they do not give our agency another look. This issue even goes as far as staff explaining to those they know who are looking into law enforcement work, to apply elsewhere for their well-being. If we wanton improve our hiring and retention of our staff, we must change the culture within our department. Our leadership must protect and defend our staff who are risking their lives for this community, and our staff must be able to do their jobs and hold those who commit crime accountable.

Nicole Morrisey O'Donnell Recruiting, hiring, and retention is one of my top priorities to ensure the Multnomah County Sheriff's Office is well staffed, well trained, and has a workforce that is reflective of our community. Investing in recruiting strategies including robust media campaigns, connections to colleges and universities, providing college to county internships, and working with groups, such as Word Is Bond to build relationships and trust with our next generation of leaders are all strategies that I will employ to increase a diverse pool of applicants into the hiring process. Community engagement and recruiting events local and beyond are also key to educating potential candidates about the Multnomah County Sheriff's Office, highlighting who we are, what we do, and focusing on our innovative programs and alternative service models.

With respect to retention efforts, career development opportunities, alternative work schedules where possible, and adequately compensating our workforce based on the work they are doing each and every day, and ensuring MCSO is in alignment with the pay and benefits of comparative agencies is important in incentivizing members to remain with our organization. I also believe that support systems that are available to all members of the organization are critically important in creating a more positive work environment. I am currently leading an initiative to invest resources in wellness, including peer support services, a mentorship program, and more streamlined access to counseling and employee assistance programs. These improved services are available to all members of the MCSO and provide much needed support for our members and their families throughout a long and healthy career.

Derrick Peterson My plan to bring more applicants and higher quality candidates to the Sheriff's Office would include the following:

Hire a professional recruiter

Branding:

Hire a branding specialist to help promote the agency nationally and its recruiting efforts

I would meet with National Policing agencies/organizations, as well as Sheriff and Police Leadership across the county in an effort to do national branding in order to bring a favorable light to all LE agencies in the country, plus help bring more candidates interested in the field of Law Enforcement

There will be a focus on meeting with local Affinity groups starting with Multnomah County, then branching out to local and national affinity groups. This would include, but not be limited to formulating and disseminating a pro Law Enforcement message that would appeal to the communities they represent. This would hopefully bring more applicants to MCSO

For diversity purposes, I would regularly recruit from Black Colleges as well as colleges with a high percentage of minorities, especially those who have criminal justice programs

I will look at recruiting opportunities from police cadet schools from around the country

We need to be mentored by the front office of successful college sports teams who understand how to recruit.

I will look for opportunities to recruit from colleges in Oregon with criminal justice programs

I will look to meet with college coaches from all sports in an effort to recruit athletes

I will make a hard push to recruit from the military, which means establishing deep relationships with each military organization, so we are on a first name basis

I will have discussions with the Deputy Sheriff's Association regarding the 4-year degree requirement for LE to potentially find compromises in and an effort to bring more personnel to apply

Shortening & streamlining the hiring process

Calling applicants and following up with them

Doing some "hand holding" and encouragement

Work to create a reasonable Facility Security Officer/Corrections/LE pipeline that would be specific to those who are looking to work in Corrections of Law Enforcement, but need experience and to further develop their skill sets

Develop relationship with high schools in an effort to increase law enforcement viability to encourage future, potential employment

Re-evaluate hiring processes with HR and possibly streamline the process

Reviewing staffing levels of HR, specifically for additional staff involved in the hiring process

Hiring bonuses and other perks to attract candidates/applicants

Potentially offer college/higher education incentives as part of a benefit package for new hires

Possibly pay for moving expenses for non-local applicants joining MCSO

Look to subsidize a portion of employee's daycare expenses as an added benefit

Work with the academy to allow recruits to attend class room/academic course work on-line or at local community colleges through a cooperative. This would meet the need of recruits that would have difficulty attending the academy for 16 weeks due to family or other personal issues

Find better way to engage our youth for they are our future leaders and possible Law Enforcement Officers, which includes Corrections and non-sworn jobs in the Sheriff's Office.

There needs to be a solid plan on show casing what corrections is and does because it is over shadowed by police.

Posting adds on social media, websites, and bill boards

Reach out to churches

Join and participate in job fairs

Put on job fairs at high schools, colleges, and churches

Develop a police program similar to trades programs

As Sheriff, I would get personally involved by calling and visiting "A" list recruits and their families.

To incentivize deputies to stay, I would reestablish an initiative I created called "Walk Arounds" that involved chaplains and peer support members checking-in with staff and providing a listening ear, encouraging counseling when needed, and connecting them to services when needed. I would look to also implement some of these ideas:

Form support groups/Infinity groups, provide incentives to include, money for years of service

Provide bonuses to new recruits

Extend extra paid days off

Increase the percentage of OT pay by the hour

Hire life and health coaches to formulate individual health plans/programs with at least bi-weekly check-in's

Encourage intramural sports teams

Encourage on duty on-site exercise opportunities including meditation

Create more Sheriff's Office community engagement opportunities for staff to participate in.

I am committed to better messaging and doing more than meeting with staff in an office. I would implement "Coffee with the Sheriff" where I would randomly choose a staff member to meet with over coffee on a weekly basis.

I would set an expectation for management to be intentional and consistent when visiting staff; not just when there is a project to check on. I would lead by example in this practice.

Nicholas Alberts I will ensure safety and protections of all individuals in my County regardless of race, gender, religion, or sexual orientation. I believe the best thing that our sheriff's office can do, is less words, and more proving in our actions that there will be no favoritism or discrimination against any citizens of our community.

Nicole Morrisey O'Donnell Building community trust and reimagining public safety require more than just listening to our community. We need to understand how law enforcement is impacting our community and acknowledge the very real fear that too many of our BIPOC and LGBTQ community members have around law enforcement. Feeling safe in our community is one of our most basic needs as people, and we need to validate experiences, acknowledge where we have gone wrong, and work with our community to initiate change.

Community engagement and partnership goes to the heart of how I, as Sheriff, would lead the Multnomah County Sheriff's Office. Throughout my law enforcement career, the time I have spent attending community events both in and out of uniform, participating in town halls and community listening sessions, and reengaging our agency with organizations, such as Basic Rights Oregon or Word Is Bond will be critical for growing my understanding and building relationships with the community I serve. I have included some of the areas internally and externally that support this effort.

At the Multnomah County Sheriff's Office, we fully investigate and report data on bias crimes. A critical part of that process is building trust in our community to ensure community members feel safe reporting crimes to law enforcement and that we, law enforcement/public safety professionals, respond in a trauma informed way and connect victims to advocacy services to best meet their needs.

While developing new policies or reviewing current policies, it is important to engage stakeholders to assist in informing policies that will direct the work we do each and everyday. MCSO has developed a public facing policy review process to promote transparency and encourage input from individual community members and multiple stakeholder groups to inform policies and/or policy updates.

Providing a safe environment for all adults in custody is paramount. Ensuring that justice involved individuals are provided safe housing and equitable access to medical care and programs and services that best meet each individual's unique needs to assist in a successful transition into the community is a high priority for me as Sheriff.

Enhanced diversity, equity, and inclusion training is also a priority. I support learning opportunities that involve community members and leaders sharing experiences with law enforcement, so we can better understand situations and respond in a more trauma informed way.

Derrick Peterson As a person of color who has experienced many of the issues around equity and inclusion the BIPOC and LGBTQ community experiences, especially given my parents were born and raised in Tuskegee, Alabama in 1918. Although many issues the black community has endured parallels with the LGBTQ community, it's separate and distinct from the issues the LGBTQ community face and must be recognized as such. While I can empathize and sympathize with the issues around LGBTQ, the fact is that even members of the black community are guilty of discrimination and marginalization of people of color and others that identify as LGBTQ. Disparities must be a continued focal point in an effort to root out prejudice and inequity in all minority communities to include, but not limited to social, economic, racial groups, and the LGBTQ community.

Over 30 years ago, I was compelled to address diversity issues by becoming a DEI instructor at the Department of Public Safety Standards and Training. In fact, I had the opportunity to be a part of the committee that developed the curriculum for the class. While the class naturally covers BIPOC issues, I am intentional to include a portion of the class focuses on LGBTQ issues as I have sought to impact and challenge new recruits around equity and inclusion. I was also honored to have a unique opportunity to be a part of managing/helping my Administrative Sergeant at the time, transition from female to male. This gave me the opportunity to help develop transgender policy for the agency and allowed me to develop an insightful perspective around LGBTQ issues.

It is this experience along with many others I will bring with me to ensure improved community relations and equal justice for the BIPOC and LGBTQ members of the public. It will be important to be proactive in engaging these communities and including them in conversations about policing and how it applies to them. I will conduct listening sessions and invite these communities to weigh in on the services provided by the Sheriff's Office and voice where and how we can improve. In an effort to diversify the agency, I will develop relationships in these particular communities to encourage people to apply to positions in the Sheriff's Office.

Nicholas Alberts I would say it is a culture of low morale. This is a staff who puts their own well-being aside for protection of the County and its citizens and seems to be portrayed in an unflattering light. The disconnect between management and frontline staff has never been bigger, with staff feeling unsupported and that their hands are tied. It is very disheartening and a burden on staff's shoulders to see our county fall into a state of chaos and feeling as though there is nothing they can do. We can improve our culture within this office once we begin to feel pride of the work and safety we are providing for our beautiful County, and our leadership takes the welfare of its staff seriously.

Nicole Morrisey O'Donnell The culture of the Multnomah County Sheriff's Office can be characterized as in transition. There is a great deal of work to do to build community trust, reinvest in all members of our organization, recruit a workforce that is reflective of our community, and embed principles of equity and inclusion throughout all of the work of the Sheriff's Office.

Being the first female Sheriff of Multnomah County will be one step toward a culture shift. Less than 3% of Sheriff's nationwide are women, and having worked in law enforcement for over 25years, I am dedicated to being a role model for others who do not see themselves reflected in-law enforcement, both in our organization and in our community.

As Sheriff, I will invest in professional growth opportunities that meet the unique needs of each of our members, build upon my current investments in employee supports and mentorship programs, and provide enhanced training including community groups and focusing on areas, such as effective communication, trauma informed response, and diversity, equity, and inclusion. These competencies are valuable when engaging with our community, but also equally important within the organization. When members are feeling more positive about the work they do each and every day, this inevitably will reflect positively with the work we do in our community. As Sheriff, I will also encourage our members to embrace change and encourage and empower them to be a part of positive change within our organization. I will ensure members have avenues to voice their input and provide opportunities to engage in conversations about creating a more positive work environment and developing innovative solutions to address today's public safety challenges.

Derrick Peterson Currently, the Sheriff's Office has a trust issue between staff and management. One of the results of the lack of trust is an overall sense of apathy. For the first time since I have worked with the Sheriff's Office, Law Enforcement could not get any Sergeants to apply for promotion to Lieutenant. This indicates fundamental and structural problems exist within the agency, which need to be addressed.

It will be important to usher in a culture of trust by giving clear expectations as well as leading by example. I will be actively seeking ways to interact and engage with staff on a regular basis and this will be expected of the command staff as well. Relationship building must be a priority, not only in the community and with justice partners, but with employees as well.

In addition, there is an issue with equity, not just from a stand point of hiring a diverse work force, but also with inviting a diverse group to the decision and policy making table. All too often, decisions are made without bringing equity and various perspectives into the room in order to make well-informed decisions, policies and procedures. My plan is to be more inclusive rather than exclusive on all levels. It is important to bring as diverse a group as possible together for the decision-making process, including unsworn staff, not just sworn staff. This would include staff from different ranks and job classifications, which is reminiscent of what the community is asking for.

During this administration, morale is arguably the lowest it has been in my 35-year career at the Sheriff's Office. While we have some of the best staff in the profession that work hard for the community; they still feel overworked, underappreciated, and unheard. As Sheriff, I would re-establish an initiative I created called "Walk Arounds" that involved chaplains and peer support checking-in with staff. I would also begin to implement the incentives mentioned in the answer for question 2 above in order to address the morale issue and increase the outlook of staff where they feel validated, supported, listened to and an important part of the Sheriff's Office team.

Nicholas Alberts There is a common misconception that current law enforcement officers are not trained in identifying individuals in mental health crisis and de-escalation. Law enforcement does get training in this field, however what we will do is offer more to leave them better equipped for when these types of situations inevitably arise. I think that the idea of pulling resources from an already short staffed number of armed deputies is a dangerous one. If the idea was to partner those trained in areas of de-escalation and mental health, that could be a different discussion. As we see crime rising across our county, and a sense of anarchy looming on our streets, it is not the time to pull from the number of public safety officers who are ready to protect our citizens from potential violence. It is true that more training in de-escalation for our staff could be valuable and decrease the need for specialized mental health workers. Training a full sheriff's office staff can be costly and time consuming, so I will fight to maintain adequate funding for our office to provide these trainings and still have a staff available and ready on the street to keep their citizens safe.

Nicole Morrisey O'Donnell In my most recent two roles at the Multnomah County Sheriff's Office (MCSO), Law Enforcement Chief Deputy and Undersheriff, I have worked collaboratively with TriMet to develop alternative safety presence models. These include an unarmed response team made-up of people with lived experience who are trained in de-escalation and trauma informed response, and we are in the early stages of partnering with public health and TriMet to develop crisis response model to address behavioral health concerns on the public transportation system with a more holistic approach.

I support programs like Portland Street Response, and I am interested in learning more about the recent expansion. I will continue to evaluate these types of models to determine where there are opportunities to bring them to the Multnomah County Sheriff's Office.

Recently, MCSO received grant funding to begin building an initiative to add a clinician to our Homeless Outreach and Programs Engagement (HOPE) Team. Our HOPE Team provides regular outreach and connection to housing, mental health, and addiction services, and I am interested in increasing the footprint of this program with the necessary community based services moving forward.

With respect to training, I have advocated for enhanced crisis intervention, trauma informed response, de-escalation, and diversity, equity and inclusion training in the upcoming budget because I believe it is critical that we are providing our members the tools and training required to respond in a trauma informed way and in alignment with community expectations.

Derrick Peterson I believe the expectations placed on police officers has changed drastically over the years and is unsustainable. The Law Enforcement profession, in many ways, is called to be everything to everybody to include, not only being experts in law enforcement, which is complex itself, but to be experts in mental health, houselessness and many times family counselors when responding to domestic violence calls. I am in favor of dispatching unarmed responders who are thoroughly trained in de-escalation and mental health evaluation to respond to calls that have a higher propensity to escalate when an officer with a gun responds.

The Multnomah County Sheriff's Office will need to challenge itself on delivering and training its staff in the best de-escalation techniques from the very beginning of the interaction all the way to the end. We will need to constantly look for ways to improve, while delivering a consistent product year after year. The de-escalation training must be effective, universal, proven, and be approved by the community. I am advocating for a uniformed training approach that is implemented across the United States. This will eliminate confusion of what is expected from one agency to another and is designed to let all communities understand and feel comfortable with the training. Out of the organizations providing this type of training, I am a proponent of Con10gency Consulting LLC who provides a comprehensive de-escalation training program titled the "CALM approach".

You count on us to stay informed and we depend on you to fund our efforts.Quality local journalism takes time and money. Please support us to protect the future of community journalism.

Read more:

Q&A: Multnomah County Sheriff candidates on the issues - Portland Tribune