This week’s podcast guest is Majora Carter, a real estate visionary, developer, and author who is dedicated to revitalizing communities through talent retention. Her new book “ Reclaiming Your Community: You Don’t Have to Move Out of Your Neighborhood to Live in a Better One,” pulls from her deeply personal experience in her own community, the South Bronx.

The belief that they have it within themselves to succeed is the cornerstone of the culture that communities must establish to keep their best and brightest asset: their people. Persistent poverty is a problem that is self-replicating for low-status communities, but Majora says the solution lies in reimagining the measuring stick of success. Instead of success being defined by how far away you can get from your hometown, it should be defined by how you can transform it and impact it. This is a critical shift. 

While this conversation highlights the tangible benefits and opportunities that exist for today’s neighborhoods and homegrown entrepreneurs, the real takeaway is how these transformations create ripple effects that last for generations. Looking beyond the immediate task at hand to the broader view of what certain decisions and relationships, investments and developments can do is a central theme of the Leading Voices podcast and the larger Terra/ZRG vision.

Resources

• Majora Carter Group
• Reclaiming Your Community: You Don’t Have to Move out of Your Neighborhood to Live in a Better One
• Greening the ghetto
• 3 stories of local eco-entrepreneurship