Place Matters

May 09 2024
Place Matters Podcast artwork

This is Place Matters, a podcast about the intersection of race, place, and poverty. Together, we'll explore the belief that the path toward ending inequity and promoting prosperity is through the work of holistic neighborhood development. The content for this podcast is based on over 45 years of experience, expertise, failure, and hope from our organization, Focused Community Strategies -- better known as FCS. Thanks for joining us!

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KNOW YOUR PRICE | Andre Perry

May 09 2024 53 mins  
In this conversation, Andre Perry discusses the causes and impact of home valuation disparities in black neighborhoods. He shares his motivation for this work, rooted in his upbringing and experiences. This discussion explores the importance of investing in people and place, the role of community involvement in development, the value of black women in leadership, and the significan

JUST ACTION | Leah Rothstein

May 02 2024 48 mins  
In 2017, the book "The Color of Law" hit the shelves and quickly went viral exposing how racial segregation in our communities is not a matter of personal choice, but a matter of government-enforced and funded mechanisms. As important as the book is, thousands of us asked, “What now? If this is the nature of the problem we face, how in the world do we move toward a more just and

RED HOT CITY | Dan Immergluck

Apr 25 2024 60 mins  
Listen in as Shawn chats with Dr.Dan Immergluck about the design complexities in cities like Atlanta. Dan is the author of over 100 scholarly articles and 5 books that focus on housing, race, neighborhood change, gentrification, segregation, real estate markets, and urban political economy. Listen in as we talk about his research in one of his recent books, Red Hot City: Housing, R

Where We Want to Live | Ryan Gravel

Apr 04 2024 69 mins  
The Atlanta Beltline is a 22-mile transit greenway that is changing both the physical form of the city and the decisions people make about living there. The vision for this city-transforming project came from a master's thesis project at Georgia Tech in 1999 from a student named Ryan Gravel. Ryan was captivated by how cities could become more human-centered and less car-centric. He

Inclusive Economic Development

Mar 28 2024 40 mins  
What would it mean to put the lens of place on how we judge the health and effectiveness of our Economic Development efforts? What if it is not just about jobs or services or tax revenue? What if the purpose of Economic Development was to create neighborhoods of vibrant social connectivity, pride in neighborhood identity, and accessible opportunities for people of all income levels

Inside Community Grounds

Mar 21 2024 42 mins  
We are thrilled to give you an inside look at our local businesses by introducing you to the amazing people who run them each day welcoming customers and ensuring we remain deeply connected to the neighborhood. This week we are focusing on Community Grounds, our neighborhood coffee shop, and cafe FCS opened to create a local third space - a safe, welcoming environment for neighbors

Inside Carver Market

Mar 14 2024 35 mins  
We are especially excited to give you an inside look at our local businesses by introducing you to the amazing people who run them each day welcoming customers and ensuring we remain deeply connected to the neighborhood. Hear an inside look inside Carver Market, the neighborhood grocery store FCS opened in 2016 to end a food desert and catalyze an oasis of connection. This is an ey

A Local Food Oasis

Mar 07 2024 46 mins  
A disproportionate percentage of food deserts are majority Black and brown neighborhoods. One of the things we have found is that, ironically, large, chain grocery stores with their expansive parking lots do more to perpetuate food deserts than to solve them. So what do we do? How can we create right-size grocery stores in neighborhoods of concentrated poverty where they are most n

How it *Should Work (Neighborhood Hackonomics)

Feb 29 2024 30 mins  
How do we bring about economic vitality in places designed to not experience it? Well, to be honest, most of the time we have to find hacks to make a way out of no way. Whether it is breaking up a food desert, launching a cafe, or setting up a hub for entrepreneurs and small business owners, we are often creating innovative hacks that work against what is, for the sake of what it s

How it *Doesn’t Work

Feb 22 2024 33 mins  
FCS has a mantra on the walls of our office - “We can do hard things.” This is there because just about everything we do is profoundly difficult. And it is challenging because the systems and structure were built to create the conditions we are trying to reverse. In our previous episode, we made the case of doing economic development at the scale of the neighborhood - being of,