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FUTURE OF XYZ is a bi-weekly interview series that explores big questions about where we are as a world and where we’re going. Through candid conversations with international experts, visionary leaders and courageous changemakers- we provoke new thinking about what's coming down the pipeline on matters related to art & design, science & innovation, culture & creativity.
Future of XYZ is presented by iF Design, a respected member of the international design community and host of the prestigious iF DESIGN AWARD since 1953. The show is also a proud member of the SURROUND Podcast Network. For more information, visit ifdesign.com/XYZ.
00:00:04:00 - 00:00:16:03
Speaker 1
Hello and welcome to this week's episode of Future of XYZ. Really excited to have with us Alexis Villanueva. Thank you so much, Alexis, for joining us on Future of XYZ today.
00:00:16:05 - 00:00:19:09
Speaker 2
Thank you for having me. I'm excited.
00:00:19:11 - 00:00:42:21
Speaker 1
Well, you and I just had the chance to meet because we're both the privileged speakers at TEDx San Diego in your hometown. And the topic we're speaking about on XYZ today is Future of Community Development, which is, of course, what your topic and your TEDx talk is about which is the power of returning to community.
00:00:42:23 - 00:01:14:10
Speaker 1
I think it's interesting, Alexis, as the president and CEO of City Heights Community Development Corporation in San Diego, in the City Heights community, that we're talking about this. So let's dive in. How do we define, I mean it's always the first question on XYZ. How do we define community development in the context of today's conversation? Given your more than 15 years of experience in community development specifically?
00:01:14:12 - 00:01:34:06
Speaker 2
Yeah. So I think that's a great question. And, you'll get a bunch of different answers, but I'll give you, I think, the definition that we hold true in the community, not just with our organization, but in general in the community. Community development is driven by community, right. So uplifting the voices of community members. every community has its own challenges.
00:01:34:08 - 00:02:03:21
Speaker 2
In particular in San Diego. Right. We have different districts. They all, you know, while they all may seem like it's a monolith, it's not. Very individualized. City Heights is the most diverse community in the county. So ours are very complex. but without having a platform and a table to have communities speak up on the challenges and also create the solutions in tandem with organizations like ours, policymakers, other community stakeholders, you really can't see progress move.
00:02:03:23 - 00:02:14:24
Speaker 2
So, I mean, at the at the heart of community development is making sure that you're creating a place for community to address challenges and work in tandem to create solutions.
00:02:15:01 - 00:02:51:20
Speaker 1
I love that in tandem. I mean, in, in this instance, City Heights, CDC as its kind of short known, is a California public benefit corporation. You've been serving the community since 1981. You've been there since 2020 and the CEO for the last three years. I'm curious just to set the stage, Alexis, for our viewers and listeners, what, like, share a little bit more about the role of community development corporations, broadly speaking, and, and how these are different, perhaps from economic redevelopment or other civic organizations.
00:02:51:22 - 00:03:15:17
Speaker 2
Yeah. So I think the history of CDC is really important and genuinely I think why people started to, to create CDCs was get to get to the heart of what's happening within community and giving that place to express the challenges and how do we address them. But being community focused and doing that. Right. So one of the things you'll notice, and generally CDCs are in areas that are under-resourced.
00:03:15:19 - 00:03:46:09
Speaker 2
So the CDCs are taking a leadership step and elevating how we can bring more investment, how we can bring more resources focused on very particular areas, affordable housing, workforce development, and our situation, economic development, small business development, and really focusing on how we can keep the economy local and make sure that we're getting other people to invest in these communities to help resource the community, uplift the challenges, create solutions around them, and really keep them moving.
00:03:46:11 - 00:04:09:21
Speaker 2
Right. We don't want to see the under-resourced communities still not having a place where they can address some of the longstanding oppressive policies that have been there, some of the longstanding racist bias and discrimination that have happened to particular communities. So really, that has been the heart of CDCs and across the nation. You'll notice like there's there's really just a, a model, so to speak, of.
00:04:09:23 - 00:04:37:19
Speaker 2
We're addressing housing. We're addressing, you know, housing that needs to be helped, rehabilitated. We're addressing the lack of housing, we’re addressing rental relief, eviction protections. What I, one thing that I think is also great about CDC is is in our in our situation, we make sure we have a system change model. So while we are providing direct service, we're also working with our government stakeholders to make sure we're moving policy forward.
00:04:37:21 - 00:05:03:11
Speaker 2
If we're no longer there after the next 45 years, there's still laws on the books that make sure that our our families can still have upward mobility and they could still be a part of the solutions making. And I think that's the goal where CDCs kind of step in and say, yes, we can do the direct services because we're being told that we need these, we need these solutions, these services, but also on the back end, making sure we're advocating for better policies for individuals to continue to to uplift themselves for the future.
00:05:03:13 - 00:05:32:01
Speaker 1
It's so interesting because there's the short term intervention and action, and then there's this kind of long term visioning. You have a bachelor's degree, Alexis, in social work and Chicano studies, Chicana studies from San Diego State University. You also have a master's in science and organizational leadership. in kind of researching this and in my own experience and just community, you know, there's an academic and a business perspective.
00:05:32:01 - 00:05:50:10
Speaker 1
And from the academic perspective, community development is kind of built around five key principles, which is participation, which you've talked about empowerment, sustainability, inclusiveness and self-reliance. From your perspective and experience, can you explain these principles?
00:05:50:12 - 00:06:13:07
Speaker 2
Absolutely, yes. I mean, do you name like four of our core values? so, you know, our goal, our goal since 25 years ago, we took on a very, complex issue, in City Heights where a freeway was going to disconnect the community. The east and the west side of community. and so that was our first advocacy, our first advocacy movement.
00:06:13:09 - 00:06:34:02
Speaker 2
And then that created into uplifting affordable housing, workforce development, and so on and so forth. But the biggest part of addressing that initial challenge was making sure that we were having people speak up for themselves. Communities speak up for themselves, though we were engaging with stakeholders, City Hall and, you know, other state partners, the community was coming together.
00:06:34:04 - 00:06:51:12
Speaker 2
They were creating the talking points. They were saying were the challenges. They were saying how the, the freeway, the expansion of the freeway was going to affect them. Right. So, so real stories. on the back end to speak to the business side of it, on the back end. You know, we're doing our quantitative analysis.
00:06:51:14 - 00:07:11:00
Speaker 2
What's going to happen for the long term health effects of these families? What's going to happen when we eliminate eight blocks of housing right. Because then we can provide that. So that's the in tandem work that we try to do. making sure that we're not just platforming. I come from the community. So that's why it's also kind of I play different roles.
00:07:11:00 - 00:07:13:03
Speaker 1
And I totally want to get into that in a minute.
00:07:13:11 - 00:07:39:07
Speaker 2
Yeah. But I that I come from the community. But putting individuals first, letting them speak to the issues, letting them honestly, like shift power, like we don't need to be the powerful one at the table. We're an organization, but they get to be the powerful ones at the table, speaking to the challenges that they're experiencing and all our all our job is, is to really help them protect that space for them and make sure we're giving them the pathway to do that.
00:07:39:09 - 00:08:15:11
Speaker 1
It's it's, it keeps coming back to this, like, empowerment piece, and this and this engagement piece, but that historic context that you just kind of mentioned, not only did you grow up in City Heights, which is a vibrant immigrant refugee community in kind of this very urban downtown of a rapidly expanding San Diego. But it's an area that has endured historically decades of disinvestment and, of course, marginalization that so many immigrant communities and communities of color have done.
00:08:15:13 - 00:08:37:10
Speaker 1
But you're now the first woman of color leading this CDC as well. Does the personal connection that you have with this specific community and your own historical role change how you approach community development more broadly or specifically for City Heights?
00:08:37:12 - 00:08:54:09
Speaker 2
Oh, that's a good question. No, I obviously I have a personal connection to the community. You know, it's a it's a dream job to wake up and do this work. and because I was one of those children that we engage with, I was, you know, one of the families living in affordable housing.
00:08:54:09 - 00:09:28:10
Speaker 2
So I definitely have a personal connection to the work. But I think that's also what made me super enthusiastic about traveling the country and looking at other CDCs. We have visited other CDCs. We've heard how they engage the work, again, because every community has their own individual challenges, we evaluate based on what we learn. But there's so many great models out there, and I would say the Midwest and East Coast of, of, of the United States, their, you know, they’re CDCs that are in the work, you know, protesting in the streets, doing some really, really innovative work around small business development, workforce development.
00:09:28:10 - 00:09:55:01
Speaker 2
And so for me, I think it's one I love to elevate the idea that there's a CDC in San Diego that is doing the direct service work, doing the policy work. We're also one of the first nonprofits to do infrastructure work. State of California gave us a grant to do infrastructure. And so for us, like we've been holding this community group for over 20 years that talks to us about built environment and talks to us about housing and what they want to see in the community.
00:09:55:01 - 00:10:22:06
Speaker 2
And so to be able to take on infrastructure and say, we want we know what our streets want to look, we know what we know what our streets should look like. We know how large our our bike pathways to be. We know we want green spaces just to to know that and then be able to travel the country, and speak to that and speak to that model so that other communities have could possibly have access to do that and share that knowledge.
00:10:22:07 - 00:10:34:23
Speaker 2
I've just yeah, I started my career in social work, so I was doing very direct service work. But to see it from a systems level has just been amazing. And yeah, so proud of what we have accomplished.
00:10:35:00 - 00:11:03:04
Speaker 1
It's cool. I want to step out, just for a little bit of the specifics of San Diego and City Heights, because obviously you’re US based, you've just talked about traveling the US like seeing other CDCs, but specifically San Diego and City Heights as an immigrant community sits on the direct border for anyone who doesn't know this in the world, who's listening with Mexico, and represents a very, very diverse and in many ways, inclusive population.
00:11:03:06 - 00:11:11:06
Speaker 1
What have you learned from living in, being part of, and now leading such diversity about the future of community engagement?
00:11:11:08 - 00:11:29:11
Speaker 2
Oh, we learned a lot. So, so in our company in particular. And and I'm sure this is true for other communities across the nation. We speak 56 different languages, 80 different dialects. So one thing that I tell the team all the time is even me growing up there, we're going to know probably 5% of the communities in our community.
00:11:29:11 - 00:11:50:01
Speaker 2
And we just got to keep growing from there. We don't know everything. And that's that's been kind of our sweet spot of we're engaging based on what we do know, but we're also in a very growth mindset where we're going and learning about our every single community. we're not going to get it right because there's so many things that we need to learn, but we're going to continue to try to get it right.
00:11:50:03 - 00:12:13:04
Speaker 2
And so I think with this in particular, and especially with with the new administration and things have changed, but essentially with Cross Border, what we've attempted to do again is go more deeper into the community and talk to the different groups. and without getting political, immigration obviously is a big topic in San Diego. and I think oftentimes because we're so close to the border.
00:12:13:06 - 00:12:39:19
Speaker 2
Yes, yes. often times I think people think because we're so close to the border that it just that our challenges just come from Mexico. The reality is we're a formerly refugee resettlement area, federally recognized. And so we have a Vietnamese population. We have South African and East African community. We have a Haitian community. So as the administration started making changes almost every week, we were shifting how we engaged.
00:12:40:00 - 00:13:01:00
Speaker 2
We were shifting how we provide food pantry. We were shifting how we provide transportation. So we and we actually just made a partnership with the Mexican consulate to make sure that we were constantly speaking about what are the what are the challenges in Mexico and how are we, how's that affecting cross border here, and how are we connecting families that we need to be connecting families too, getting knowledge around TPS.
00:13:01:02 - 00:13:02:19
Speaker 2
So, you know, it's.
00:13:02:21 - 00:13:14:21
Speaker 1
It's is the service side of this huge, huge the human social service side that you're talking about, which is just more, more, more perhaps. and broader as a result of the diversity.
00:13:14:23 - 00:13:32:16
Speaker 2
Yes. And I would say one of our core values is adaptability. But I think if you reach out to any of the CDCs across the nation, that's it. Like you're on your feet, right? This is yeah. Well, you're not a first responder. You're constantly challenged with, the best part of the work is the families are right there next to you.
00:13:32:18 - 00:13:44:02
Speaker 2
The hardest part of the work is the families are right there next to you, and they're telling you the challenges, and you have to respond as quickly as possible. And sometimes that's easy. And sometimes it's it's really difficult.
00:13:44:04 - 00:14:10:20
Speaker 1
it's a great that's a great, sound bite. I'm curious just to finish this kind of international perspective, is there kind of, in the research, a best practice or a learning case study out there in the kind of global order that you aspire to? Or do you obviously there's best practice, but is every community so unique that there isn't like one case study that's just amazing.
00:14:10:22 - 00:14:43:02
Speaker 2
I actually don't think there's a case study that just defines how you're going to address community engagement or community development. And there might be right, there might be from the association of community development, who lives by that. I think for us in for many of those doing direct work and engaging with so many families, children and families throughout the work that you do, you try to not be so or at least my perspective tries to not be so myopic in that way that if another challenge comes up and we're not understanding of that challenge, how do we dig deeper?
00:14:43:04 - 00:14:57:10
Speaker 2
How do we engage more? How do we try to figure out how we can be of support? And to be quite honest, sometimes there's no way we can be of support. They they know the challenges. They know the solutions. What we say is we're here if you ever need us, we're here and we're happy to respond if we need to.
00:14:57:11 - 00:15:21:17
Speaker 2
So I don't necessarily follow a case study. and because the challenges have also been so different in maybe the last five years, from the new administration, but also, you know, tariffs and everything. Post Covid? Covid. I mean, from the amount of things that we've seen in the last five years, it is there's been twists and turns.
00:15:21:17 - 00:15:36:09
Speaker 2
And so you just have to be able to roll with the punches. And we're taking note. We're definitely taking note. And I'm sure we can write a few white papers. But I think in the moment we're we're engaging as as we can and shifting as much as we can.
00:15:36:11 - 00:16:02:18
Speaker 1
That's great. I want to just come to some learnings, because during your tenure so far, there have been some major milestones that the organizations hit, including breaking ground on a $98 million affordable housing project. we are actually setting this episode up to kick off a mini series, in October on like Archtober they call it like, for celebrating architecture.
00:16:02:20 - 00:16:21:10
Speaker 1
And, and I'm curious, specifically related to the built environment, Alexis, like what is that relationship between the intersection between the built environment and community development? What is the intersection between community pride and economic opportunity? Like, what does that look like?
00:16:21:12 - 00:16:41:07
Speaker 2
Yeah. that's an interesting that's an interesting piece. And that's actually pretty much part of our DNA. There's obviously we fought against expansion of the SR 15, but then from there it took on too okay, well now the freeways here. So how do we made sure to replace what was lost in the freeway and bring in things that the community is actually speaking in uplifting.
00:16:41:09 - 00:17:01:08
Speaker 2
so, you know, we have one of the state covered, one of the only state covered freeway parts. So it's right over the freeway. there's a mural there that that points to all of the symbolic individuals in City Heights and the history. And then right next to that is a bike pathway that we try to support.
00:17:01:10 - 00:17:32:02
Speaker 2
unfortunately, we have two of the busiest corridors in the county. So there's been multiple injuries, multiple fatalities. So we've really promoted, the, the bike usage, bike pathways, walkability. and so in those areas, we convened this community group about 20, 25 years ago. It's our built environment team, RTA team. And they essentially dictate what they would like to see in housing and what they would like to see on their streets, how like what makes them feel safe.
00:17:32:04 - 00:17:49:24
Speaker 2
and that that group has transitioned quite a bit in the last 20 years. But if it's not, the parents are part of the group and then they bring the kids, and then when the parents age out, the kids are there. So now they know how the policy and advocacy works. we're also leading the community plan in our in our, in our community.
00:17:49:24 - 00:17:58:14
Speaker 2
That hasn't been updated in 30 years. So we're actually leading those efforts with our community groups, going out and engaging community on exactly that built environment.
00:17:58:16 - 00:18:02:02
Speaker 1
And which has to include climate resilience, I imagine right now too.
00:18:02:04 - 00:18:20:10
Speaker 2
Hundred percent. We’re next to a freeway. We don't know the full environmental impacts of having a freeway. and so we're we're studying that and we're also trying to bring in experts from across the country to be able to speak to this small group of individuals, because that's the other part of what we do. It could be two.
00:18:20:12 - 00:18:37:20
Speaker 2
It could be 50 people, but they need the knowledge to carry on this work. Right. And we're going to be in tandem with them. But they need to understand what is actually happening around them. And I think we've done a really good job of making sure that they are ready. They are locked and loaded with the information so that they can advocate for themselves.
00:18:37:21 - 00:18:50:09
Speaker 2
Again, the goal is, well, our hope is we get us. We work ourselves out of a job because that's the goal of this work. But when we're long gone that individuals know how to continue to do this work in spite of us being there or not.
00:18:50:11 - 00:19:09:21
Speaker 1
I, I absolutely adore that. And I and again, in past experience, that seems to be always the mission of, such mission driven organizations that have a vision for working themselves out of a job. I think there's a long way to go in a in an fast growing urban environment. Can you just quickly. I didn't think to ask this before.
00:19:09:21 - 00:19:12:09
Speaker 1
What is the population of City Heights?
00:19:12:11 - 00:19:20:02
Speaker 2
Oh, it's it's about it's a very dense community. Yeah. Seven mile radius, close to 90,000 people.
00:19:20:04 - 00:19:40:10
Speaker 1
Yeah. It's fascinating. With 80 languages or dialects, as you said. It's remarkable. Yes. I think people don't think about that. And the other thing that people probably don't think about, as a, as an Angelina originally myself, you know, is that Californians don't leave quite as much as a lot of other places in this country. People stay kind of rooted to home.
00:19:40:15 - 00:19:46:05
Speaker 1
So I can imagine, as you said, the multigenerational turnover as is profound in City Heights.
00:19:46:07 - 00:19:49:08
Speaker 2
Yes.
00:19:49:10 - 00:20:16:07
Speaker 1
again, not to talk politics, but the quote is all politics is local. And I think that's largely true. And community is is local as things get. how do you feel about the state of civil engagement in the world today? And are there any specific groups or, you know, kind of factions, if you will, whether age or race or gender or whatever else that you see as kind of the brightest green shoots?
00:20:16:09 - 00:20:35:08
Speaker 2
So, yes. So everything is politics. I when I became a CEO, I told myself, like, I don't get into politics at all, and here I am. but a big part of our recipe is right that sort, that civic engagement, that system change work. And in order for you to do certain things work, you do have to engage with government stakeholders.
00:20:35:08 - 00:21:01:10
Speaker 2
You do have to make sure your community is well aware of what policies are coming forward. And I will say locally, this is probably in the last eight years maybe local politics has felt more accessible. Like, you see, our policymakers reaching out to community and really understanding this work or wanting to understand this work, and not making policy blind.
00:21:01:16 - 00:21:20:14
Speaker 2
Now, that could be that we have forced them to this because we've been fighting against changes without being at the table, but it has felt different to have, you know, the mayor shoot us an email and say, hey, I would like your ideas on this or we're about to create something downtown. Let's talk about the impact on on your community.
00:21:20:19 - 00:21:50:15
Speaker 2
Right. So that that's been really helpful. And I and I will recommend that even whatever policy side you're on, there's still has to be conversations to be had. Right. And I think we're polarized as a nation. I get that. And we're not going to agree on policies. But there's still a community. And and and for me, just as an individual who grew up in the community and also doing this work, there's a high level responsibility for me to get outside myself and say whatever I personally feel.
00:21:50:17 - 00:22:16:11
Speaker 2
There are still people who look to us for a response, for support, to address challenges. And so there does have to just have to be more conversation. and, I hope more communities engage in that way, that they're reaching out and reaching out to the policymakers and having conversations, even if it's not with them directly. Obviously, they're really busy, but with their staff sharing ideas.
00:22:16:13 - 00:22:38:23
Speaker 2
One of the things that I found so profound in doing this work, and so exciting, is policymakers don't necessarily like you're working harder than you need to, because you don't need to create the solutions. Community has the solutions for you, and we just have to. They're going to give you those, and then they're going to sit down in City Hall and they're going to they're going to be happy that you're going to put those policies up and they're going to support you in that.
00:22:39:00 - 00:22:40:22
Speaker 2
But you got to ask them because they're going to.
00:22:40:22 - 00:23:01:08
Speaker 1
Alexis, that feels to me like actually the answer to my next question, which was like, what's the biggest opportunity in the greatest challenge for the future of community development? And I feel like you've just answered, which is like, listen to the community as policymakers because they already have the answer. And if you don't, that's the biggest challenge.
00:23:01:09 - 00:23:04:09
Speaker 1
Is it is that fair? Like, I don't mean to put words in your mouth.
00:23:04:11 - 00:23:25:10
Speaker 2
It is there, it is there. And I and again I, I also tell community it's not all or nothing. Right. Like let let's challenge ourselves to think where do we start with Yes, it's not no. Right. How do we start with yes. And so I challenge policymakers in the same way because believe me, I've had my share of policymakers be upset with me.
00:23:25:16 - 00:23:43:21
Speaker 2
That is, you know, that is that is part of the job. And I definitely don't back off from that. There are things that I think are very important for this community in particular. but I think starting with yes, or having a conversation of how do we get to yes is really powerful from the policymaker side, but also from the community side.
00:23:43:23 - 00:24:03:16
Speaker 2
And I understand I've, I've played both roles. I've been the social justice advocate and I've also been, you know, the CEO of Community Development Corporation. And those are two often two different perspectives. And so for me it's just really important. Like how do we how are we getting to yes, forcing ourselves not to continue to split and divide.
00:24:03:18 - 00:24:22:13
Speaker 2
again, the responsibility lies on I can name the committee members that have my personal number, that will call me that something is not going the way that they thought it would go. And so I have a responsibility to that. And I think so to the policymakers. So so I think we have the commonality in that. So I think we talking more, you know, respecting each other's perspectives, listening more.
00:24:22:13 - 00:24:41:15
Speaker 2
Listening is really good. I know it's hard. We don't have time I get it I know. But and also just community has very innovative solutions, very innovative solutions, very innovative thoughts. the folks that I think we need to pay attention to more are the youth. How do we get them more engaged? and again, I don't necessarily see that in ours.
00:24:41:15 - 00:25:00:15
Speaker 2
We have a lot of youth advocates. Youth are jumping in, again they come with their moms and dads to our community meetings. And once mom and dad are aged, they come, to your point, we have multi-generational families. So if you grew up in City Heights, you know some of the families, they know you, and it's kind of like a badge of honor now.
00:25:00:17 - 00:25:20:07
Speaker 2
Like you came from here. What street did you grow up on? And so that kind of gives you the, the, the pass of okay, now you can get engaged in this work. So, yeah, I, I'm, I'm excited to see the new advocates and our youth partners. in particular, when I became CEO, we made sure to bring multigenerational leadership voices around.
00:25:20:09 - 00:25:41:15
Speaker 2
That was important to me. may not always agree because it's such a different perspective, but just having the ideas, understanding the advocacy. I'm not a cool kid anymore. So having them be the cool kid and tell me like, that's not cool anymore. Let's not do that. Yeah, that that's very helpful. So again, that's another challenge yourself to understand that.
00:25:41:15 - 00:25:53:12
Speaker 2
Again, we're not going to all agree. But there's differences in perspectives and it's needed. I'm not an I'm not as innovative as I was on day one. That's just a fact. That's the truth.
00:25:53:14 - 00:26:00:06
Speaker 1
And very, very brave of you to admit that. And important. Right. Because then you get the you get the listening and the engagement of others.
00:26:00:08 - 00:26:13:20
Speaker 2
Yeah. And you have to challenge yourself to say that, like, I'm not flawless. I'm not perfect. There are things that I don't know, but that's why I go out and look for the answers. I go out and listen that that is just part of the work. Difficult, but part of the work.
00:26:13:22 - 00:26:37:01
Speaker 1
we're coming up on time. So I want to do a really, really, really, really fast, like sprint round. And you may have no perspective on this because it's not your domain area expertise. However, I have a feeling that you have a very strong perspective on it because your domain area expertise is community development. So I'm curious, since we are talking about Archtober, we're talking about design.
00:26:37:07 - 00:26:55:15
Speaker 1
What is the importance of design excellence in having a positive impact on each of the following community development initiatives? And it's like you can answer as fast as you can. Ready? Ok. How about transportation?
00:26:55:17 - 00:27:25:20
Speaker 2
Oh, super important and super important for community development. I don't think we pay attention to it a whole lot. And a lot of the metropolitan communities across the nation. I mean, New York got it right. They got a great subway system, I'm not sure. Well, compared to comparatively, comparatively to where we are. Yes. the investment and the lack thereof really impacts those families and especially in urban areas, the needing of of transportation, mobility and equity is so important.
00:27:25:22 - 00:27:46:02
Speaker 2
And in San Diego and in particular our community at the climate, the wake of climate shifting, we absolutely just have to pay attention to something that we're not. The investment is so crucial. Infrastructure investment is often lacking in budgets. We just need to we need to rethink how we're making these city budgets and county budgets, infrastructure and especially transportation infrastructure budgeting.
00:27:46:04 - 00:27:48:17
Speaker 2
It needs to it needs to be supported.
00:27:48:19 - 00:27:52:05
Speaker 1
Food access, including edible gardens, community gardens.
00:27:52:07 - 00:27:56:03
Speaker 2
Oh my goodness. Very important. Everything's going to be very important.
00:27:56:06 - 00:27:57:14
Speaker 1
And I have a feeling.
00:27:57:16 - 00:28:19:14
Speaker 2
Yes. you know, it's funny, urban agriculture has has sprouted. Everybody's everybody now wants community gardens and whatnot. And I because we're a system change organization I truly believe that what's the root of that? The root of that has been food access, right, and the policies around food access. Community gardens are great. We have one ourselves.
00:28:19:16 - 00:28:36:02
Speaker 2
But at the end of the day, like food deserts have been around for a really long time in our particular community when I was a kid, we had our local grocery store that we would walk to, and then that was replaced with the police station. Right. And so and.
00:28:36:02 - 00:28:37:02
Speaker 1
That says a lot.
00:28:37:04 - 00:28:55:22
Speaker 2
Absolutely. And so when I and the way that was proposed to my family was, you don't want any more crime, right? You don't want your kids to grow up around crime, never initiating that you were going to take out our grocery store, but it goes back to the community. When you're coming into community and you're having these conversations around infrastructure ask the community, like do some studies.
00:28:55:22 - 00:29:16:20
Speaker 2
This community is a one car community. So if if mom and dad are at work or if dad's at work, mom's at work, the other can't get to a grocery store that's going to be miles away. Yeah. And and yes, the police stations there. And I'm sure it's important, but in the list of priorities, food's absolutely important. So I would say yes, community gardens an absolute need.
00:29:16:22 - 00:29:21:09
Speaker 2
But let's also address the root causes of why we're looking for community gardens for our communities.
00:29:21:11 - 00:29:32:00
Speaker 1
I appreciate that. I’m going to do one last one, community cleanup efforts, like getting that, like, volunteer momentum.
00:29:32:02 - 00:29:54:09
Speaker 2
Yes, super important for, for a couple of reasons. one in particular, the community ownership is powerful, When volunteers come out, when community comes out and they get to paint, you know, electric boxes when they get to repaint, we just actually did one. We get, they get to paint storefronts. They get to throw away trash.
00:29:54:09 - 00:30:11:02
Speaker 2
That's their ownership, right? We, we planted trees in one of the local parks, and I literally said, like what? What an amazing, they're going to come back in 20 years and you're going to see the tree that you planted and that's yours. Like that's what you got to say. That's yours. And I think the community ownership part of that is so, so greatly appreciated.
00:30:11:04 - 00:30:33:11
Speaker 2
I also think especially when bringing up mom, dad and kids, the idea that kids can take ownership of what's around them and they're giving you the definition of what makes them feel good, what they don't like. They choose the colors. They choose what colors make them happy, and they also tell you what feels safe in between all of that.
00:30:33:13 - 00:30:51:17
Speaker 2
And I think that that's so critical to get that data, to understand that from a, from a CDC perspective, but also just as a human perspective. Yeah. the last thing I'll say is, when I was 14, I was in a summer job and they and they had me do graffiti abatement, and I had no idea I it was a job, right?
00:30:51:17 - 00:31:10:09
Speaker 2
Why am I in this alley doing graffiti abatement? And at the time, the council member came to me and she said, why is this so important to you? And I was like, well, it's my job. And, you know, and she's like, don't you want to like, don't you want to clean and have our community look better? And I was like, yeah, I was so used to seeing graffiti and I was so used to like, this is prominent here.
00:31:10:09 - 00:31:23:10
Speaker 2
This is part of the of the environment. And she was like, no, we should we want to clean it all up. Let's clean it all up together. And after that it was like my commitment to service to the community. So I know we can change mindsets when we do this work.
00:31:23:12 - 00:31:37:14
Speaker 1
I love that my last question is always the same, Alexis, also for every episode, what is your greatest hope for the future of community development in 25 years? So that gets us to roughly 2050.
00:31:37:16 - 00:32:00:03
Speaker 2
Oh wow. Greatest hope is that, just like economic development organizations, just like local chambers, that community development's get a lift up, the amount of work that they're doing across the nation. Many developments are doing some amazing work. there's not enough money. There's not enough time. Right? When we have to build capacity, we're doing it, you know, with our bare knuckles.
00:32:00:03 - 00:32:20:00
Speaker 2
And that's and that's difficult work. And we expect the challenges to get harder. That's just that's just part of of what? And can unless we change things how we're doing at the national level. Yeah. But we do expect things to continue to have challenges. And so in 20 years, first off, we should be gone because we fixed our community or we didn't fix it, but we worked in tandem with families to do that.
00:32:20:02 - 00:32:44:10
Speaker 2
Right. So we're not needed anymore. That's the goal there for us. But I think in general that CDCs are supported, that they're given the tools, because I think that's the other part too. There's a lot of different sizes of CDCs. We're kind of a small to mid. There's smaller ones that are like eight individuals who are doing an enormous amount of work, support them, give them the tools, partner more, try to figure out ways that we can combine and collaborate on resources.
00:32:44:10 - 00:33:01:14
Speaker 2
I think it just it's necessary to uplift what community developments are doing across the nation. There's some amazing history behind what they're doing. And and I don't think that we would have a cohesive community solution, solution and decision making in the most positive way for communities if CDCs weren't around.
00:33:01:16 - 00:33:14:17
Speaker 1
That is a remarkable ending. Alexis Villanueva, thank you so, so, so much for joining us on Future of XYZ on this excellent episode of The Future of Community Development. I really appreciate it.
00:33:14:19 - 00:33:17:22
Speaker 2
Thank you. Thank you again for having me. It was great talking to you.
00:33:17:24 - 00:33:43:23
Speaker 1
For everyone watching, you can listen anywhere you get your favorite podcasts, but be sure to leave us a five star review there so everyone else can find us. If you're listening and you didn't know you can watch on YouTube, you can follow us on Instagram at FutureofXYZ as well as ifdesign, if design is how you spell that, any social channel you get, we will see you again in two weeks for our continuation of celebrating Archtober.
00:33:43:23 - 00:33:45:17
Speaker 1
Thank you again, Alexis.
00:33:45:19 - 00:33:47:16
Speaker 2
Thank you. Bye bye.