Going local: Majora Carter at TEDxMidwest

Majora Carter is championing a movement that is rebuilding America one town at a time. She has a unique ability to find solutions which increase employment, improve the economy, and strengthen the environment. Dramatic results abound - from a novel solution for energy and water use in Los Angeles to converting a West Virginia coal town from coal to wind as the economic engine to forming a new beauty care company hiring ex-convicts thus keeping them from returning to jail.

So today, I'm going to tell you
about some people

who didn't move out
of their neighborhoods.

The first one is happening
right here in Chicago.

Brenda Palms-Barber was hired
to help ex-convicts re-enter society

and keep them from going back into prison.

Currently, tax-payers spend

about 60,000 dollars per year
sending a person to jail.

We know that 2/3 of them
are going to go back.

I find it interesting
that for every one dollar we spend,

however, on early childhood education
like Headstart,

we save 17 dollars on stuff
like incarceration in the future.

Or, think about it,

that 60,000 dollars is more

than what it costs to send
one person to Harvard as well.

But Brenda, not being fazed
by stuff like that,

took a look at her challenge

and came up
with a not-so-obvious solution:

create a business that produces
skin-care products from honey.

It might be obvious
to some of you, wasn't to me.

It's the basis of growing
a form of social innovation

that has real potential.

She hired seemingly unemployable men
and women to care for the bees,

harvest the honey, and make value-added
products that they marketed themselves

and were later sold at Wholefoods.

She combined employment experience
and training,

and with life skills they needed,

like anger management and teamwork,

and also had a talk to future employers
about how their experiences

actually demonstrated the lessons
they had learned

and their eagerness to learn more.

Less than 4% of the folks

that went through her program
actually go back to jail.

So these young men and women
learned job-readiness and life skills

through bee-keeping and becoming
productive citizens in the process.

Talk about a sweet beginning.

Now, I'm going to take it to Los Angeles.

And I know lots of people know
that L.A. has its issues,

but I will talk
about L.A.'s water issues now.

They have not enough water on most days,

and too much to handle when it rains.

Currently, 20% of California's energy
consumption is used to pump water

into mostly Southern California.

They're spending loads, loads, to channel

that rainwater out into the ocean
when it rains and floods as well.

Now, Andy Lipkis is working to help

L.A. cut infrastructure costs associated
with water management

and urban heat island,

linking trees, people and technology
to create a more livable city.

All that green stuff that actually
naturally absorbs storm water

also helps cool our cities,

because, think about it,

do you really want air-conditioning,
or is it a cooler room that you want?

How you get it you shouldn't make
that much of a difference.

So a few years ago, the L.A. county
decided that they needed to spend

2.5 billion dollars to repair
the city's schools

and Andy and his team discovered

that they were going to spend
200 million of that

on asphalt to surround
the schools themselves

and by presenting a really strong
economic case,

they convinced the L.A. government

that replacing that asphalt
with trees and other greenery

meant that the schools themselves
would save the system more on energy

than they spend
on horticultural infrastructure.

So ultimately, 20 million square feet
of asphalt was replaced or avoided

and electrical consumption
for air-conditioning went down

while employment for people to maintain
those grounds went up,

resulting in a net saving to the system,

but also healthier students
and school systems employees as well.

Now, Judy Bonds
is a coal-miner's daughter.

Her family has 8 generations in a town
called Whitesville, West Virginia,

and if anyone should be clinging

to the former glory of the coal-mining
history, and of a town,

it should be Judy.

But the way coal is mined right now
is different from the deep mines

that her father and her father's father
would go down into

and that employed essentially
thousands and thousands of people.

Now 2 dozen men can tear down
a mountain in several months

and only for about
a few years' worth of coal.

That kind of technology is called
mountain-top removal.

It can make a mountain go from this...

To this, in a few short months.

Just imagine the air
surrounding these places,

it is filled with the residue
of explosives and coal.

When we visited,

it gave some of the people with us
this strange little cough

after being only there
for just a few hours or so.

Not just miners, but everybody.

And Judy saw her landscape being destroyed
and her water poisoned,

and the coal companies, you know,

just move on after the mountain was empty

leaving even more unemployment
in their wake.

But she also saw the difference

in potential wind energy
on an intact mountain,

and one that was reduced in elevation
by over 2,000 feet.

Three years of dirty energy

with not many jobs or centuries
of clean energy

with the potential
for developing expertise

and improvements in efficiency

based on technical skills

and developing local knowledge about how
to get the most out of that region's wind.

She calculated the upfront cost
and the payback over time,

and it is a net plus on so many levels

for the local, national
and global economy.

It's a longer payback
than mountain-top removal,

but the wind energy
actually pays back forever.

The mountain-top removal pays
very little money to the locals

and it gives them a lot of misery.

The water is turned into goo,

most people are still unemployed,

leading to most of the same kind
of social problems that unemployed people

in inner cities also experience:

drug and alcohol abuse,

domestic abuse, teen pregnancy

and poor health as well.

Now Judy and I, I must say,

totally related to each other,

not just quite in obvious alliance,

literally, her hometown's called

Whitesville Pennsylvania...

(Laughter)

They ain't competing
for the birthplace of hip-hop title

or anything like that! (Laughter)

But, the back of my T-shirt,
the one that she gave me,

says, "Save the endangered hillbillies."

(Laughter)

Home girls and hillbillies,

we got it together and totally understand
that this is what it is all about.

But just a few months ago,

Judy was diagnosed
with stage 3 lung cancer.

And...

Yeah.

And it's since moved
to her bones and her brain.

You know, I just find it so bizarre

that she is suffering from the same thing

that she tried so hard
to protect people from.

But her dream of coal-river mountain wind
is her legacy.

And she might not get to see
that mountain top,

but rather than writing some kind
of another manifesto, or something,

she is leaving behind a business plan
to make it happen.

That's what my home girl is doing,

so I'm so proud of that.

(Applause)

But these three people
don't know each other,

but they do have an awful lot in common:

they're all problem-solvers

and they are just
some of the many examples

that I'm really privileged to see,
meet and learn from,

in the examples of the work that I do now.

I was really lucky
to have them all featured

on my Corporation
for Public [Broadcasting] radio show

called thepromisedland.org.

They're all very practical visionaries,

they take a look at the demands
that are out there,

beauty products,
healthy schools, electricity

and how the money is flowing
to meet those demands.

And when the cheapest solutions
involve reducing the number of jobs,

you're left with unemployed people,

and those people aren't cheap.

In fact, they make up some of what I call
the most expensive citizens,

and they include
generationally impoverished,

traumatized vets
returning from the Middle-East

and people coming out of jail,

and for the veterans in particular,
the V.A. said

that there's a six-fold increase in mental
health pharmaceuticals by vets since 2003.

I think that number is probably
going to go up.

They are not the largest number of people,

but they are some of the most expensive,

and in terms of likelihood
for domestic abuse,

drug and alcohol abuse,
poor performance by their kids in schools

and also poor health
as a result of stress.

So these 3 guys all understand
how to productively channel dollars

through our local economies
to meet existing market demands,

reduce the social problems
that we have now

and prevent new problems in the future.

And there are plenty
of other examples like that.

You know, one problem:
waste handling and unemployment.

Even when we think
we talk about recycling,

lots of recyclable stuff
ends up getting incinerated

or in landfills, and leaving many
municipalities' diversion rates...

They leave much to be recycled.

And where is this waste handled?

Usually in poor communities,

and we know that Eco-industrial business
with these kind of business models,

there is a model in Europe called
the Eco-industrial park

where either the waste of one company
is the raw material for another,

or you use recycled materials to make
goods that you can actually use and sell.

We can recreate these local markets

and incenses for recycled materials to be
used as raw materials for manufacturing.

And in my hometown, we actually
tried to do one of these, in the Bronx,

but our mayor decided

that what he wanted to see
was a jail on that same spot.

And we wanted to create hundreds of jobs.

The city wanted to build a jail,

but after many years,
they abandoned that project.

Thank Goodness.

Another problem:

unhealthy food systems and unemployment.

Working class and poor urban Americans

are not benefiting economically
from our current food system.

It relies too much on transportation,
chemical fertilization,

big use of water and also refrigeration.

Mega-agricultural operations
are often responsible

for poisoning our waterways and our land

and it produces this incredibly unhealthy
product that costs us billions

in healthcare and lost productivity.

So we know that urban agriculture
is a big buzz topic this time of the year,

but it's mostly gardening, which has had
some value in community building,

lots of it, but it's not in terms
of creating jobs or food production.

The numbers just aren't there.

Part of my work now is really
laying the groundwork

toward integrating
urban Ag. and rural food systems

to hasten the demise
of the 3000-mile salad

by creating a national brand
of urban grown produce.

Every city uses
regional growing power and augments it

with indoor growing facilities owned
and operated by small growers,

where now, they're only consumers.

This can support,
you know, seasonal farmers

around metro-areas who are losing out

because they really can't meet
the year-round demand for produce.

It is not a competition with rural
farmers, it's actually reinforcements.

And it allies in a really positive
and economically viable food system.

The goal is to meet the cities'
institutional demands

for hospitals, seniors' centers,
schools, daycare centers,

and produce a network
of regional jobs as well.

This is smart infrastructure.

And how we manage our built environment

affects the health and well being
of people every single day.

Our municipalities, rural and urban,

play the operational course
of infrastructures,

things like waste disposal,

energy demand, as well as social cost
of unemployment, drop out rates,

incarceration rates and the impacts
of various public health costs.

Smart infrastructure can
provide cost saving ways

for municipalities to handle
both infrastructure and social needs.

And we want to shift the systems
and open the doors

for people who were formerly tax-burdens
to become part of the tax-base.

And imagine a national business model

that creates local jobs
and smart infrastructure

to improve local economic stability.

So I'm hoping you can see
a little theme here.

These examples indicate a trend.

I haven't created it,

and it is not happening by accident.

I'm noticing that it is happening
all over the country and the good news

is that it's growing
and we all need to be invested in it.

It is an essential pillar
to this country's recovery and I call it

home(town) Security.

The recession has us reeling and fearful

but there is something in the air
these days that's also very empowering.

It's a realization
that we are the key to our own recovery.

Now is the time for us to act
in our own communities.

We think local and we act local.

And when we do that,
our neighbors, be they next door

or in the next or next country,
will be just fine.

You know, that some of the local
is the global.

Home(town) security means

that we're building our natural
defenses, putting people to work,

restoring our natural systems.

Home(town) security means
creating here at home

instead of destroying it overseas.

Tackling social and environmental problems
at the same time, with the same solution

yields great cost saving,
wealth generation and national security.

Many great and inspiring solutions
have been generated across America.

The challenge for us now is to identify
and support countless more.

Home(town) security is about
taking care of your own,

but it's not like the old saying
"charity begins at home."

I recently read a book called
"Love Leadership" by John Hope Bryant,

and it's about leading in a world
that really does seem

to be operating on the basis of fear.

And reading that book made me
reexamine that fear because...

I need to explain what I mean by that.

See, my dad was a great man, in many ways.

He grew up in the segregated South,
escaped lynching and all that,

during some really hard times,

and he provided a really stable home
for me and my siblings

and a whole bunch of other people
that fell on hard times.

But, like all of us, he had some problems.

(Laughter)

And his was gambling, compulsively.

To him, that phrase
"charity begins at home"

meant that my payday, or someone else's,

would just happen to coincide
with his lucky day.

So you know, you need to help him out.

And sometimes I would loan him money,

from my after-school or summer jobs,

and he always had the great intention
of paying me back,

with interest, of course, you know,
after he hit it big...

And he did sometimes.

We were at a racetrack in Los Angeles,

one reason to love L.A.,

back in the 1940s,

he made 15,000 dollars cash and bought
the house that I grew up in.

So I'm not that unhappy about that.

But, listen, I did feel obligated to him.

Then, I grew up.

And I'm a grown woman now

and I have learned a few things
along the way.

To me, charity often is just about
giving because you're supposed to.

Or because it's what you've always done,

or it's about giving until it hurts.

I'm about providing the means to build

something that will grow and intensify
its original investment.

And not just require
greater giving next year.

Not trying to feed the habit.

I spent some years, you know,

watching how good intentions
for community empowerment

that were supposed to be there to support
the community and empower it

left people in the same, if not worse,
position that they were in before.

And over the past 20 years, we've spent
record amounts of philanthropic dollars

on social problems,
yet educational outcomes,

malnutrition, incarceration, obesity,

diabetes, income disparity,
they've all gone up,

with some exceptions,

in particular infant mortality
among people in poverty.

But you know, what a great world
we're bringing them into as well.

And I know a little bit about
these issues because for many years,

I spent a long time
in the non-profit industrial complex.

And I'm a recovering executive director,
two years clean, but...

(Laughter)

During that time, I realized that it was
about projects and developing them

on the local level that really was going
to do the right thing for our communities.

I really did struggle
for financial support.

The greater our success, the less money
came in from foundations,

and I tell you, being on the TED stage
and wining the MacArthur

in the same exact year gave everyone
the impression that I had arrived.

By the time I moved on,
I was actually covering

a third of my agency's budget deficit
with speaking fees,

and I think because earlier on, frankly,

my programs were just a little bit
ahead of their time.

But since then, the park
that was just a dump

and was featured at the TED 2006 talk,

became this little thing...

But I did in fact
get married in it, over here...

There goes my dog who led me
to the park at my wedding...

(Laughter)

The South Bronx Greenway

was also just a drawing on the stage
back in 2006.

Since then, we got 50
million dollars in stimulus package money

that come and get here, and we love this,

because I love construction now,

because we're watching
these things actually happen.

So I want everyone to understand
the critical importance

of shifting charity into enterprise.

I started my firm to help communities
across the country

realize their own potential
to improve everything

about the quality of life
for their people.

Home(town) security is next
on my to-do list.

What we need are people

who see the value in investing
in these types of local enterprises,

who are partnered with folks like me

to identify the growth trends
in climate adaptation

as well as understand the growing
social cost of business as usual.

We need to work
together to embrace and repair our land,

repair our power systems
and repair ourselves.

It's time to stop building the shopping
malls, the prisons, the stadiums,

and other tributes
to all of our collective failures.

It is time that we start building living
monuments to hope and possibility.

Thank you very much.

(Applause)