Photo courtesy of Forward Cities
“When I first heard of Forward Cities and their goals of advancing minority ownership and commercial corridor redevelopment I was over the moon with excitement, as these are the key tenants of our work at BUILD Institute.
I was able to attend the very first convening in New Orleans in December 2014 and was taken with the parallels in the stories of the natural disaster, which many argue was manmade due to faulty levies, and the unquestionably manmade disaster in Detroit after 50 years of disinvestment, structural and institutional racism, the housing and financial crisis during which one in every three homes faced foreclosure, and unemployment at an all-time high. Detroit is in crisis and the largest municipal bankruptcy in the country has helped shed some light on the depth and breadth of the challenges here.”
Read more from our Executive Director April Boyle at Forward Cities here.