A green agora for urban Brownsville

Prof. Dr. Iqbal Akhtar, the chairman and project lead, is an associate professor at Florida International University and has a personal background in early childhood education development in New Orleans and has successfully executed numerous grants in the U.S., Tanzania, Pakistan, and Scotland. He lives in Brownsville, Miami and has dedicated his time to improving access and education for the community through developing a culturally informed environmental education syllabus that has been piloted in three schools; interfaith dialogue with Muslim, Christian, Jewish, Jain, and Hindu communities in the city; and is working to create a space for American Muslim youth to artistically express their identity against rising Islamophobia. He has chaired the Children's College Foundation in greater New Orleans for the past decade, working to provide an international Swahili bilingual education to rural African-American communities to teach self-esteem and leadership to the next generation of young leaders.

Food security and access to adequate nutrition are based on real and perceived security. The lack of supermarkets, start-up capital for small businesses, country resources, and education programs come from both perceptions of our community as unsafe and continued historical injustices in resource distribution. To create change, we need a safe and beautiful space to congregate in with programming to meet the nutritional, social, and emotional needs of the community. Planning the Brownsville agora in Glenwood Park is the start of developing an independent and self-sustaining source of fresh produce, space for entrepreneurship and nutrition education, and linkages between the county, non-profits, schools, churches, mosques, and neighbors to develop food security. 

Brownsville was historically a middle-income African-American area during the time of segregation. Once segregation ended, black professionals moved out of the area into wealthier neighborhoods. The race riots in 1968 and 1980 and the drug epidemic of the 1990s, further pushed Brownsville left in an economic depression that has continued till today. Problems include gun violence, lack of economic opportunities, drugs, prostitution, and blight. Miami is a diverse city, yet race, class, and nationality segregate many of its inhabitants. Our area is a food desert with few options for fresh food, recreation, entrepreneurship opportunities, or civic engagement. The area of Brownsville is a food desert with 0% job growth rate last year, a 5.5% incarceration rate (six times higher than the national average), a median household income of $18,000, and is among the nation's lowest census districts in upward social mobility. Approximately 5,000 people live within a 15-minute walk of Glenwood Park. Within a 30-minute walk or bus ride, the park can be accessed by about 30,000 residents.

Within 15 min. walk

In 30 min. walk/bus

Population:

5,115

30,564

Poverty rate:

30%

37.4%

Minority:

97.7%

97.9%

Seniors:

11%

13.8%

Youth:

21.8%

22.8%

Disabilities:

12.2%

12.1%

No vehicles:

19.2%

20.5%

The agora is envisioned as a modern take on classical idea of a community centre- an urbaen marketplace of goods, services, and ideas including religious, political, judicial, social, and commercial activity.

First, the abandoned park would be lined with trees to include canopy cover, especially in nearby bus stops in order to encourage the use of public transportation. Second, a quarter of the park would be dedicated to a community garden to educate and involve the community in how to grow plants in a way that could be replicated in their own homes. Third, permanent infrastructure such as solar lamps, benches, a pavilion, water fountain, solar monitoring and Wi-Fi, would be installed to facilitate gatherings. Fourth, Urban Philanthropies and Grameen America would help advise local entrepreneurs, particularly women, on how to develop successful businesses for the monthly farmer’s market that would accept EBT payments. Microfinance loans would be provided to start businesses. Fifth, local schools would walk classes to the park and use it as an outdoor classroom. Finally, the park could promote connections between historic African-American faith communities, such as Masjid al-Ansar and House of God to newer Hispanic residents and mitigate climate gentrification. 

According to the most recent economic and educational indicators, Brownsville is doing worse than even Liberty City. Problems include gun violence, lack of economic opportunities, drugs, prostitution, and blight. Miami is a diverse city, yet race, class, and nationality segregate many of its inhabitants. The area is a food desert with few options for fresh food, recreation, entrepreneurship opportunities, or civic engagement. The lack of employment, social organizations, and recreational spaces are some of the reasons for statistical increases in local delinquency rates on evenings and weekends.

We live in the community we serve and have created and facilitated interfaith dialogues, community gatherings, holiday giveaways, participation in local governing bodies- such as the Brownsville Civic Neighborhood Association, and working with our neighbors to establish a robust community of volunteers for the project. Surveys, text messages, and meetings with community leaders and neighbors constantly update and guide the efforts to developing the agora.

Three years ago, my wife and I wife moved to Brownsville. We began transforming our property and easement with flowering plants, fruit trees, and crops in contrast to blighted homes and vacant lots with dumped trash. As we have planted, nurtured, and harvested crops, many neighbors have stopped by admiring the space, asking for seeds, and children wanted to know how and what to grow. Older residents stop by to reminisce about the heyday of the neighborhood. We intentionally did not install fences to keep plantings open for everyone to enjoy. The home has been burglarized and some plants stolen, but despite these anticipated setbacks, it has given us a better sense of what grows, is appreciated, and needed in the neighborhood. We have been awarded a small planning grant by the Miami Foundation to begin the agora with a community garden and will be working this year with Florida International University and community organizations to transform the neglected Glenwood Park into a beautiful space for education and community. The idea behind the initiative is that repairing the environment is an act of social justice that can create a safe and beautiful space for the community and spur local entrepreneurship.

I grew up in rural Louisiana, the outskirts New Orleans, where my mother started a non-profit early childhood education center for underprivileged minority children. Thirty-five years ago, an international education that incorporated technology was cutting edge. She drew upon her childhood in Tanzania in connecting African American children with East African language and culture to teach self-esteem to set them up for future success. 

Personally experiencing racism and the marginalization of African Americans in Louisiana as well as my own faith tradition and family's heritage of being Khoja, social justice has been a constant theme throughout my life. I grew up working in the school and continue to this ethos of service here in Miami. We moved to Brownsville to serve the community and to bridge the gap of academic research with improving the lives of the students we serve.

We have already established the groundwork for the agora by establishing the Brownsville Community Garden to achieve these objectives of food security, environmental education, and to develop community. Students in my courses have volunteered in the garden as well as engaging students and faculty in the FIU Schools of Public Health and Medicine. We are using the intellectual and material resources of the university to improve the lives of our community through planting and education.

Currently, we are completing a project through a Miami-Dade County grant with three schools in Brownsville to (1) Develop a culturally responsive environmental curricula focusing on water, forestry, and recycling highlighting Native and African-American: local history, religious ethos towards the environment, contributions to agriculture, cuisine, ecological entrepreneurship, and responses to climate change. (2) Create sustainable edible gardens at each school as hand-on curricula to help students increase knowledge about plant-based nutrition and improved environment (3) Engage local faith communities through interfaith dialogue and presentations to their congregations on environmental preservation, water pollution and solid waste reduction. As Brownsville changes through climate gentrification, it is important to encourage  environmentalism through a local historically grounded environmental education and engage our faith communities to contribute to the discussion for solutions. The idea behind the initiative is that repairing the environment is an act of social justice that can create a safe and beautiful space for the community and spur ecological entrepreneurship.  Article 1, Article 2

One of the greatest challenges of our lives has been infertility. After 5 years of trying, losing six embryos in IVF, and fostering; the challenge and sadness has been immense. We believe it's related to epigenetics, trauma of the Zanzibar revolution and other environmental catastrophes in Africa and Asia that have exposed us to toxins over a lifetime. The sadness and trauma are an immense burden. This experience has taught us humility, patience, and perseverance. Through infertility, we have reevaluated what is important in our hypermodern world of busyness and a commitment to social justice. The agora is a our way of giving life to the land and community in which we live. Gardening, food, and community have the capacity to teach us all essential truths about being and going beyond ourselves to be appreciative of our assets and share what we can with those around us.

My personal philosophy can be summed up in the ancient adage "patience in adversity is the foundation of all virtue."

The major obstacle with establishing the agora was the first step of the community garden. Something as innocuous as this was seen as a political threat by the local councilwoman who wanted us to build affordable housing a quid pro quo to get county land for the project. We had no funds to do that and for months we tried to explain to her it was a community project but to no avail. We obtained letters of support from community leaders and tried to solicit help from the university and other agencies. Ultimately, it failed.

Then, my wife asked about Glenwood Park- a block away. After negotiating with the Parks Department and a public hearing, we were granted permission after a year to begin the project and were awarded a small grant from the Miami Foundation to plant a few fruit trees in the park to launch the project. Other challenges in life have included research and security challenges living in Pakistan, development projects gone awry in Tanzania, and working towards social justice in Louisiana. Perseverance and humility guide me.

We have partnered with local organizations to implement current plans and develop future capacity including but not limited to: The Miami Foundation, The Brownsville Civic Neighborhood Association, Florida International University’s Stephen J. Green School of International and Public Affairs,
University of Miami Law School’s First Star Academy, The House of God Church, South Florida Muslim Young Professionals, Masjid Al-Ansar, The Elkia Smith Foundation, and The Children’s Trust’s Youth Advisory Committee (YAC), and Urban Green Works.

Letters of support for the project for a recent USDA application can be found here.