Communities of Color Don’t Need Starbucks. We Need Funding. w/ Keta Price and Dani Dynes

In this episode Keta & Dani of the East Oakland Collective and I talk about the changes they’re creating  in Oakland to increase accessibility. We all know there’s no damn reason for communities of color to be under-resourced other than whyteness doing what it does! And Dani let us know that no community, even if it’s underdeveloped, ever goes unmapped or unplanned. So what can we do about houselessness, transportation, and making sure our communities thrive? How can we be the ones to stand up for our cities to increase access? Bc let’s face it, we’ve always known WE gotta take care of US.! How can we create what we want to see and get the resources for it? Listen, learn, and get involved!

ABOUT WEEZE

Louiza Doran, known and referred to as Weeze, is a cis-het Amazigh* female-identifying human who uses she/her/they/them pronouns. She’s known as a coach, podcast host, advocate, agent of change, strategist, and educator (to name a few) but is ultimately a compassionate provocateur that is out to help folks uncover their path of possibility.  

ABOUT KETA & DANI

Marquita “Keta” Price (she/her/Goddess), aka “The Hood Planner,” is a third-generation East Oakland native serving as the Director of Urban and Regional Planning for The East Oakland Collective. Keta’s formal passion for urbanism came about during recreational research on how gentrification has impacted low-income Black “hoods” across the nation. As director, Keta is the lead on several East Oakland neighborhood & transportation planning projects, participates in the development of local urban and regional planning, and holds the city of Oakland accountable to equitable zoning and land use in East Oakland.

Her early activism and care for community is rooted at Merritt College, where she served as the Vice President of The Black Student Union, President of the Kem(istry) Club, President of the Associated Students of Merritt College (ASMC), and served as a Student Trustee of the Peralta Community College School District. Keta’s initial goals were to restore the intellect and militancy of Merritt’s student government. Seeded by Chairman Bobby Seale and other former Black Panthers, ASMC focused on leveraging the institution’s resources to address the socioeconomic issues from the flatlands prohibiting students from thriving academically. Keta’s political and social goals pulled her away from studying chemistry to deeply exploring how societies, communities, and cities are planned, designed and constructed. 

As a chemistry major, Keta received an achievement award for the completion of The Center for Educational Partnerships NIH-UCB internship. During this project Keta synthesized pro-fluorophores used for live-cell RNA imaging. Keta also received recognition and commendation from the California Legislature Assembly and State of California Senate and the Alameda County Board of Supervisors for her student advocacy work with the Tobacco-less Club at Merritt College. Keta has an Associates of Science in Mathematics and Natural Science. When the opportunity presents itself, Keta plans to further her education in Urban Studies, Data Analysis and Design.

Danielle "Dani" Dynes is a dedicated community planner who was born in East Oakland and raised in West Oakland. As a planner, she focuses on the present needs of residents and while creating strategies to deal with the challenges of the future. She works to bring more resources and infrastructure to Oakland and ensure we have safer, healthier, and well-connected communities moving forward.

Danielle has a B.A. in Urban Studies and Planning from San Francisco State University. She has previously worked at the Oakland Department of Transportation (OakDOT) in their Planning and Project Development section. Several of Danielle's projects at OakDOT prioritized equitable and culturally relevant change in the East Oakland community. She facilitated events around the 90th Avenue Scraper Bike Way and conducted community outreach for the East Oakland Mobility Action Plan. She also helped manage Sustainable Transportation Planning grants while interning at the California Department of Transportation.

Before she studied planning Danielle taught website design and visual communication to students in Oakland and Richmond. In 2016 she was honored as a Youth Development Fellow by Coro, a civic leadership training organization. In her leisure, Danielle enjoys photography, crafting, hiking, and gardening.

IN THIS EPISODE, WE TALK ABOUT

• How EOC’s founder, Candace Elder, said hell nah to the ways her community was deteriorating due to gentrification and decided to address issues like pollution + houselessness.
• The fuckery with folks seeing systemic challenges and thinking it’s random or beyond our control, but it’s not! We knowwww this!
• Why disparities and underdeveloped communities even exist, when communities are always mapped out and planned. 
• How the white flight outta of East Oakland and left the whole area for dead!.
• There's no designated funding to give to communities to plan their own communities surprise surprise, so a lot of that grunt work falls on nonprofits, grassroots people, and individuals to fill that gap.
• How a lack of economics, transportation, and accessibility affects communities + what we can do to help!

CALL TO ACTION

• Support the East Oakland Mobility Action Plan.
• Get involved with the Mobility 4 All program, their new clean mobility fellows, and an upcoming project funded by the STEP Grant to explore the feasibility of implementing a zero-emission bus shuttle to bridge access to nearby local/regional park-The Martin Luther King Jr. Shoreline.

EPISODE TRANSCRIPT

• https://drive.google.com/file/d/1eq-twyoJeB5ipLs7kbAWjF0Kgq210WRO/view?usp=sharing

FOLLOW WEEZE TO STAY ENGAGED 

Website: https://www.accordingtoweeze.com

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The Academy (it’s like Patreon): https://www.accordingtoweeze.com/the-academy

 

FOLLOW KETA & DANI TO STAY ENGAGED

Website: https://www.eastoaklandcollective.com/

Instagram: https://www.instagram.com/eastoaklandcollective/

Twitter: https://twitter.com/eoakcollective

Facebook: https://www.facebook.com/eoakcollective