Advertise on podcast: Arrested Mobility

From jaywalking laws, to freight trains, to city infrastructure that divides majority minority neighborhoods, Arrested Mobility has touched on the many ways that policies, politics, planning decisions, police practices, and public narratives have limited Black movement. In this episode, we're looking back across the first three seasons of the show, at the stories and voices that have stayed with us, and discussing the future of the Arrested Mobility movement.

When we talk about racial discrimination in American cities, we usually focus on housing, schools, or policing. We talk less about streets and sidewalks. But in many communities of color, decades of disinvestment have resulted in a built environment where people are unable to move through public space in a safe and healthy way. Those communities tend to look a lot like Lansdowne, a predominantly Black, low-income neighborhood in Roanoke, Virginia. It's a place where wide, fast roads cut through a residential area and pedestrians have spent years navigating streets that weren't built with them in mind. This episode features Dr. Melicent Miller from the Virginia Department of Health and Virginia Walkability Action Institute, to discuss how the VWAI, in partnership with Horizon 54, was able to help Lansdowne create a traffic calming project guided by community-driven design. Find Virginia Walkability Action Institute at https://virginiapaths.org/virginia-walkability-action-institute/

For generations, the dominant public response to violence was punishment and enforcement. But another approach has continued to grow alongside that model: Community Violence Intervention. CVI suggests that the people best positioned to interrupt gun violence are often those with lived experience, deep relationships, and hard-earned credibility in the communities most affected. Sometimes, they're people who were previously in a gang, or been in prison, or lost their family to a shooting. Those folks have more credibility with their community, and more influence to help young men facing elevated risk because of concentrated disinvestment, exclusion, trauma, and limited opportunity. Our guest today is Cedric Hawkins, Safety Manager with the CVI organization, Chicago CRED. Find Chicago CRED at https://www.chicagocred.org/

When majority minority neighborhoods become sacrifice zones for pollution, it can fall on community members to stand up and defend their health and wellbeing. Case in point: the nonprofit organization, WE ACT for Environmental Justice, was founded in 1988 to organize the people of West Harlem and protest the construction of the North River Sewage Treatment Plant. Today, WE ACT continues to advocate for environmental justice in Northern Manhattan, and beyond. By centering community outreach, they've managed to include residents into the processes that determine their neighborhood's health. Our guest today is Lonnie Portis, Director of Policy and Legislative Affairs at WE ACT.  Find WE ACT at https://weact.org/

Healthcare is a difficult system to navigate in the United States, no matter who you are. But research shows that Black Americans face unique challenges when seeking medical care. On this episode, Charles T. Brown speaks with Rhonda Smith, Executive Director of the California Black Health Network. This is an organization that advocates for Black Californians of all backgrounds to have quality, equitable access to healthcare. Find California Black Health Network at https://yourcbhn.org/

One night in 2014, Renard Monczunski was stranded at a transit center in downtown Detroit. It took three hours for a bus to come. He was angry, but the experience got him thinking about the state of public transit in the city that built the American automobile industry. Renard decided to do something about it. Together with Detroit People's Platform, he built a team of transit riders that have learned to wield power by refusing to stay invisible. It's been years of difficult, often unglamorous work. But today, he's affected real change by making sure that city officials can't ignore the importance of transit justice in Detroit. Find The Detroit People's Platform at detroitpeoplesplatform.org

Advancing Beyond in Sports (ABIS) is an advocacy group that addresses sports-specific inequity, particularly for young athletes of color. Their work involves showing students alternate options to consider after their athletic career, and helping athletes secure Name, Image, and Likeness (NIL) deals to build businesses and wealth. Today, Charles T. Brown and his son, Christian Brown, speak with ABIS Chief People Officer, Renae Myles Payne. Find ABIS at https://weareabis.org/

The Center for Cultural Power works with BIPOC communities to amplify authentic stories that counter harmful narratives and build public will for policy change. From supporting Walmart workers to advancing reproductive justice, they've seen firsthand how the right story told at the right time can reshape entire movements. In this episode, Charles T. Brown sits down with Aisha Goss, CEO of the Center for Cultural Power, to explore how narrative strategy creates lasting social change.  Find The Center for Cultural Power at https://www.culturalpower.org/

In 2020, shortly after the murder of George Floyd, Portland native Randal Wyatt had an idea. As people asked him how they could be better allies to the Black community, he saw an opportunity to address a critical but often overlooked driver of gentrification: home maintenance. Taking Ownership PDX was born, providing free repairs and renovations for Black homeowners, particularly elderly residents at risk of displacement. Find Taking Ownership PDX at https://takingownershippdx.org/

In 2024, the Detroit People's Food Co-op opened its doors in Detroit's North End neighborhood. This full-service grocery store was birthed by the Detroit Black Community Food Sovereignty Network, or DBCFSN. It's an organization that focuses on food justice, land access, and building Black self-determination.  Today, we will hear from Gi'anna Shears and Dr. Shakara Tyler Saba, the co-executive directors of the DBCFSN, about their vision for a more equitable food system, why language matters in discussing food access, and how their organization is creating a closed-loop economic ecosystem to serve their community.

In 1942, the Taborian Hospital opened in Mound Bayou, Mississippi. At a time when most hospitals segregated Black from White patients or turned Black patients away, the Taborian Hospital provided equal treatment and care for all. There is no question that desegregation and the Civil Rights Movement improved access to healthcare for Black Americans. But today, rural hospitals increasingly face closure, and healthcare disparities continue to negatively impact Black Americans. It's worth investigating the history of the Taborian Hospital, and other hospitals that were visited and staffed by Black patients, nurses, and doctors. In this episode, we'll talk to Myrna Smith-Thompson, Dr. Ezelle Sanford III, and Dr. Vanessa Northington Gamble. Special thanks to Lauren Sausser and KFF Health News.

For nearly her entire life, Amy Stelly has lived in the Treme district of New Orleans. Her house is near the Claiborne Expressway, a piece of Interstate-10 that was built through the neighborhood in 1969. The Claiborne Expressway is one of many American highways to divide and deprive Black communities.  Not only has this infrastructure damaged these neighborhoods economically and culturally, but it's also dangerous. These highways pollute the environment with high levels of noise and harmful particulate matter. So ever since she was a little girl, Amy Stelly has been determined to do something about the Claiborne Expressway. In this episode, we'll talk to Drew Hawkins, a journalist who originally reported this story for the Gulf States Newsroom.

In 2017, Atlanta's city planning department designated four large green spaces as quote "lungs," that were vital for cooling the city. They announced plans to turn one of these lungs, the South River Forest, into an urban park. But four years later, there was a change in plans. The mayor approved a police and firefighter training facility to be built in that park. It's called "The Atlanta Public Safety Training Center," but to some, it has come to be known as "Cop City." There has been a concerted effort to push back against the development of the training center. But what's interesting is that these protestors aren't just anti-police. Many are environmental activists who don't want to see Atlanta's natural climate infrastructure destroyed. They know that the neighborhoods closest to the South River Forest are majority Black, historically redlined, and vulnerable to climate change. For this episode, we spoke to Manaan Donaghoe and Hanna Love, researchers from the Brookings Institution

When low income neighborhoods receive new parks and green spaces, it can be a huge win for long-term residents. But greening initiatives can invite what we call "green gentrification." If the rent is cheap and the neighborhood is suddenly more attractive, walkable and bikeable, then it's very likely that wealthier people will start moving in. These are often White people entering predominantly communities of color, where due to their arrival, they begin changing the social and cultural makeup of the area. This transition doesn't come without friction, particularly as it relates to law enforcement's treatment of residents of color.   Now, people in all communities have different ideas about what's best for the places they live. Many people living in low-income neighborhoods do want parks, trees and bike lanes. It's just a question of whether these communities can sustain greening without rapid, destructive gentrification and displacement.  We spoke to Alessandro Rigolon, associate professor in the Department of City and Metropolitan Planning at the University of Utah. Photo by Tyler Lariviere.

Automated Traffic Enforcement, or ATE, refers to a variety of tools that are used to enforce traffic laws through technology. You usually see them as red light cameras, and speed cameras. But there are also license plate readers, bus lane enforcement cameras, and many more examples. ATE is spreading across the country very fast. There are situations where ATE can reduce speeding, and theoretically it reduces contact between police officers and Black and Brown drivers for traffic stops. But, some believe that ATE can be used to perpetuate discrimination, racism, and abuses of power rather than support equity.  We spoke to Priya Sarathy Jones, Deputy Executive Director at the Fines and Fees Justice Center. You can read their report, "Caution: We're Driving the Wrong Way on Automated Traffic Enforcement," here.