Majora Carter shows how brain drain cripples low-status
communities and maps out a development strategy focused on talent
retention to help them break out of economic stagnation.
How can we solve the problem of persistent poverty in low-status
communities? Majora Carter argues that these areas need a
talent-retention strategy, just like the ones companies have.
Retaining homegrown talent is a critical part of creating a strong
local economy that can resist gentrification. But too many people
born in low-status communities measure their success by how far away
from them they can get.
Carter, who could have been one of them, returned to the South Bronx
and devised a development strategy rooted in the conviction that
these communities have the resources within themselves to succeed.
She advocates measures such as
Building mixed-income instead of exclusively low-income housing to
create a diverse and robust economic ecosystem
Showing homeowners how to maximize the long-term value of their
property so they won’t succumb to quick-cash offers from
speculators
Keeping people and dollars in the community by developing vibrant
“third spaces”—restaurants, bookstores, and places like
Carter’s own Boogie Down Grind Cafe
This is a profoundly personal book. Carter writes about her brother’s
murder, how turning a local dumping ground into an award-winning park
opened her eyes to the hidden potential in her community, her
struggles as a woman of color confronting the “male and pale”
real estate and nonprofit establishments, and much more. It is a
powerful rethinking of poverty, economic development, and the meaning
of success.
