Guerilla Urbanism

Discussion among the panelists and then Q&A from the audience, please use the Q&A function of Zoom to ask your questions as they occur to you. And first up is going to be for anando Pages Ruiz who is a home builder developer and author who has developed affordable housing in California the Midwest and the mountain states his projects have numerous awards including the green building single family house of the year and the workforce housing award from the National Association of Home Builders. He's the author of 2 books on affordable housing. And recently he was working with Andres Duany on the design of neighborhoods for Latino immigrants. He's gonna be, he's gonna moderate as well speak today and I'm gonna pass this along different and. Well, thank you very much for that introduction and welcome everyone, urban pioneers and innovation rebels alike. Today we're going to embark on a journey into the heart of guerilla urbanism, where pavements turn into canvases and alleys into galleries, igniting sparks of civil creativity. And sometimes disobedience. That challenges and changes the status quo. So by definition, guerilla, urbanism is a grassroots movement that empowers ordinary citizens to reclaim and reshape urban spaces. It involves unconventional tactics like pop up pop up parks, street art and guerilla gardens, but beyond piece deal happenings. Beyond tactical urbanism, it's a bottoms up initiative that when it harnesses tactical events in a broad strategy towards systemic change challenges the power structure of traditional urban planning and forces neighborhood transformation. A strategic application of tactical urbanism can transcend just temporary interventions and we have already witnessed the power of a people's peaceful uprising in successful movements like the Y in my backyard which have won legislative battles across various states and have challenged and already changed the Our first speaker, Jason Hyman, he embodies the spirit of quiet revolution, born in Houston, but raised in Chicago, he leads as broker and principal planner of Real ink's office of Jason T. Hyman. Houston's only black-led real estate brokerage with a planning department. Jason's vision, bridges the black and brown generational wealth graph through real estate investment. Examplified by initiatives he spearheads like the third ward real estate council. Armed with a degree in urban planning and expertise and infill development, Jason champions, reinvestment in marginalized neighborhoods by nurturing a radical band of minority developers. Okay. Okay. So prepare for a journey where imagination knows no limits and the street whispers tales of resilience and revolution. Jason, the microphone is yours. I'm gonna share my screen. With everyone. Excuse me. I'm share my screen with everyone. My hope is to give you a little bit of backdrop so there's a little bit of story here but more importantly to, touch on 2 specific projects here in Houston that, embody this guerilla urbanism, approach. And so they give you a little bit of backdrop. A few years back, we had neighbors here in third world, which is a vastly gentrifying area has been for some time. And everyone had this notion of wanting to be. Involved in managing what's going on in the neighborhood but did not really understand. How how we could especially if you are a Developer with. You know, able to get loans and able to actually. Raise the money that you need to actually develop. Here in Houston. And so we set out on a mission to try to figure out, you know, how do we create space in our neighborhood for everyone. To kind of participate in the development process. And so we end up starting a nonprofit organization. Didn't start out that way. Kind of came about out of necessity. So we talked about Guerilla urbanism. One of the things that we saw was in terms of resources and awareness, a lot of the same organizations in the city in the neighborhood. Yeah, the attention and sometime issues didn't get necessary resolved on the ground. And so we found that we needed to kind of step up and feel those gaps in the neighborhood and we chose to focus here in the real estate development space by supporting local developers. We feel like they are the solution to the affordable housing to having more options in our neighborhood because they have a vested interest there right and so our vision as a group is but essentially to create more options in the market. We want to disrupt things, right? Here in Houston, we're notorious for subdividing lots and building. 3 and 4 story homes which are great halls for some people. But we find that in the market, folks want different options. We all live very differently. We all have different things that are going on. So to have a more equitable community. We chose to focus here. And so we rally pretty much everybody around us through the logo that you see here on the screen, it's BT 3. Emma stands for do the things that matter. Q. The things that if you remember from science class this periodic table if you can take it back This is our formula for success. We feel like if you just kind of focus in and do the things that matter, we can be successful. And so the things that matter to us It's kind of this here to peer support network. We educate one another, so we all take times teaching one another. We help each other gain access to capital, whether it be through fundraising or just technical assistance and being able to, you know, structure things. And, we share responsible development practices. A hack or one of us find something. We're quick to share it and really document it with everyone else so we all can benefit from that. In the space. So we're kind of comprised of a lot of different people. It's not just developers. Like I said, in terms of space, we feel like it's important to meet that neighbors. The professionals, the developers, the Everyone in the community have a space to actually either one voice their opinion. To leverage their resources or 3 actually bring things to fruition. So water approaches we take from a guerilla urbanism perspective is really utilizing the media and social media. To really get the word out. It's kind of hard to. Let me say hard. You have large organizations like, Congress for the New Urbanism and American Planet Association, which are very big and have a focus and we figure how can we get on their radar? How can we get on other people's radar and let them know what we're doing here in getting some more support. So we leverage a lot of local news stations. We always are sending different media requests to them about what we're doing. And sometimes it's picked up and we gain more, more support in that. I'm sorry, we've had conferences, our virtual library, just different tools and resources that we've used. And when I say we use this is all kind of like bootstrap guys. This is not we don't have a big budget. We're using software online. It's free or relatively cheap to share a lot of the information and practices that we're running into. Same thing when it comes to our conferences in our workshops and meetups. We, meet out on the street. Right, we'll meet at a site. You know, we're always looking for different partners and things like that in the neighborhood that align with us that allow us to user space so we can have those conversations and share that information. So I won't spend too much time here in our in our goals. But I do want to talk a little bit about our focus. So I talked about disrupting, the market, so to speak. And so for us, that's providing those gaps in the market. So earlier I mentioned most time in in Houston in the third world area. You're going to see. 3 story townhouses. Like I said, which is fine, but they don't necessarily belong everywhere. And so we partner with different property owners, different professionals to. Come up with different design. Schemes, their work. In our neighborhood. And there most time we're engaging the community in that so they can give us feedback. So we don't have a vanity mindset. We tend to find sites or opportunities to ask ourselves what wants to be here. Right? And then we figured we figure out how to make it happen together. So these are pretty much our kind of suite of things we focus on. If you see here, this is pretty much your middle. Missing middle spectrum of housing here in houston thanks to the leadership of Margaret here on the call which was probably touch on a little later. We now have some support here in Houston to build a little bit differently. But prior to November, we did not have back. So we had to be very creative. I mean, how we approach things. And so now that we have a little bit more flexibility, we're able to do. You know more options in the in the market. And so I want to tell you guys spend the bulk of time here talking about 2 different projects. Both of them are commercial in nature and on our major floor door here called Emancipation Avenue in Dyer Ward. And so this is a very important corridor because it wants was this very bustling. Historic corridor. And now it's field with different pockets of vacant lots and blinded buildings. And so. We we in our community want we want to be able to walk to things Notice or we understand it in development as the residential space is being built out the commercial tends to come along last once there's more rooftops. Well, we wanted to get ahead of that. Right? We once again control of the sites along our corridor because we feel like representation matters. Who owns the property on the commercial corridor? Who works in them, the type of businesses that are there are very representative. Of the neighborhood. So we want to get ahead of that. So we begin collectively buying property. Together, along the corridor. To the point now where we're having these meetings to actually master plan this corridor. Right? My one lot, for instance, is nothing without my neighbors. Like, or his, his business across the street. And so now that's coming along. But I want to talk to you guys a little bit about like how this came about in some of the hurdles. We have to tackle. So the particular site at the top is a 5,000 square foot site. We would like to have a 2 story kind of a mixed use building there. But do the market conditions, it's tough to build, right? This is a small scale building. If you're familiar with building small scale, the financing is pretty tough. There's economies of scale are not really there. And so we end up taking more of an incremental approach. And so if you see the bottom picture. There, there's a couple of containers, garden. Vendor, a slap to host vendors. And so this is pretty much designed as a pop-up market. It's an outdoor pop-up market. And we chose to go this route, because next door there's a comic book store and next door to that is a actual bookstore and both of them said they want places that they can go and hang out and their customers want that as well so it has worked really well but it wasn't from us it was from the engagement from folks around us about what to do with this space. Now, in terms of getting this space together. Oh, there's no utilities or anything like that there. And because there's a blinded building There's a little resistance from the city to allow us to have utilities and things like that there. So we're finding some different hacks and shortcuts around that. For instance, we're exploring solar. To get this done. If not solar, we're exploring even subdividing the lot and just leaving the front half as the building and the back half is just. They can't grasp where there's no issue we're getting. You, utilities there. And so those are some things we're having to work around. The space itself, the vacant building, instead of leaving it blighted, we've talked to artists in the community as well as the universities they're us to come and do like a rotating exhibit on all 4 walls. And so that'll go off about the next at least 3 years. And we'll use collectively any revenue generated from that. To kind of go back into. The future project to help. Balance out some of those economies of scale. We all start talking with the city for instance around How do we begin to use or our management district here? How do we begin to use our Terrors or our Tiff funding. Right? To feel the gap. From the capital stack perspective. In these smaller scale developments, especially since We want Houston to be more walkable. Right, so we wanna have these smaller buildings there. So these are some of those issues that we're coming across the financing our utilities and just the use what do you do with these spaces that you can't necessarily be able to develop on launch yet. So this is one example. The second example down at the bottom. Very similar, but in this case we have more space because it's about 12,000 square feet. And so we're not big on parking lots, but. Our area doesn't have a lot of parking. And so while our area goes through this transformation and we know that our main corridor would be kind of redeveloped. That space is being cleared. Or parking, but with a twist. Right? We don't want to have your parking just in the evenings when there's a lot of activities in like the bars and things like that. But during the day, this will be just a mix you space where trucks and vendors can come and having a space where people can patronize them. That's always a little bit of mix there. So no hurdles necessarily with that one, but we still had to approach this in talking to the low our neighbors around us to figure out what exactly needs to do. Then in both cases, it's trying to figure out. How do we? Make this make sense. For us financially. Right. Getting utilities or re-plats or doing anything to this is one triggers a city for for a certain requirement. Or 2, you know, it costs to invest in the space. So what we've been doing is really changing in on small community grants. All around the city in different organizations. So whether it's $500. $5,000, $10,000. We apply for all of these different funding sources throughout the year. So we can take care of the art murals. We can take care of the garden. We can take care of the vendor boots. But in that we're making sure that you talk about guerilla. How we write that is very important. We're really big in our neighborhood and our organization on the notion of equity. And so when we talk about gardens for instance, it's not just a garden, it's a training center. Right, when we talk about. Our vendor pop up, you know, this is economic stability and capacity building for the area. And when we talk about some of the other, you know, spaces like trucks, we're in a food desert. And so we're trying to, you know. Solve problems for the neighborhood. While getting control of the property and planning for the future. So I'll stop there for an end up just in case there's, yeah, I see those questions in the chat but I can't see them to share but if there's Okay. I think we're gonna do the questions at the end. Following our discussion and I know I have a lot of questions actually as you were as you were speaking some it's fantastic. Projects and a beautiful, truly incredible approach. So Let's, let's move on to Margaret's, section and then we'll get back with all the questions for each one of you in a little discussion that we can have to kind of. Get things going. So right now we're gonna get ready to dive beyond the surface of polite orbidism as we introduce Margaret Brown, a powerhouse in the field of urban planning and policy. Those of us here in Houston know this very well. With nearly 4 decades of experience shaping cities, Margaret's tenure as director of the Houston Planning and Development Department. Was marked by a laser focus on walkability, affordability, and equity. Things we have seen come to pass. Now as our city of Houston has kind of become a little bit chic. It's it's the talk of the nation now. Many people want to imitate what brought Houston to these kind of revolutionary approaches to urban planning and here we have the person that led that revolution. Margaret's innovative approach including establishing walkable places and transit oriented development ordinances and revolutionizing parking regulations and sidewalks to have d. These were to enhance pedestrian connectivity and safety. In just 2 years, Margaret's advocacy for vision 0. Under the good Mayor Stephan, still Lester Turner significantly reduced pedestrian fatalities and injuries within Houston. In our most recent achievement, Margaret secured City Council approval for comprehensive revisions to Houston's residential development rules. And this is what Jason referred to when he said we as November had some opportunities that we didn't used to have. She championed a radically diverse housing landscape that meets the needs of all Houstonians and inspires other cities to dare and make change. So get ready to be inspired by Margaret Brown who will take us beyond the surface and into the heart of sometimes in polite but transformative gorilla urbanism. Margaret, you have the mic. Wow Fernando, that is certainly an introduction. I, I will have to say though that, well, vision 0 has been successful. We have not made the progress we wanted to make. We've still got a long way to go protecting pedestrians and bicyclists and and even drivers in Houston. Vision 0, which is our effort to eliminate, deaths and serious injuries by automobile crashes by the year 2030. Has seen progress over the past 2 years. We have reduced the number of crashes and deaths, but, we have a long way to go. So, but That being said, we, we're hopeful that, we'll see a lot of progress in the future years. I want to talk not so much about land development, which is where I spent much of my career, but about some of the things that happened. When they get together and just decide to do something, Jason's work in third ward is really making a difference. It's it is both a collaborative and a and a direct boots on the ground type of activity. And so that is really what motivates Houston and Houstonians. As a little bit of an intro, you know, Houston has withstood multiple natural disasters over the past 10 years. Floods and hurricanes and and we have seen a lot of damage happen to our city and what we noticed particularly after Hurricane Harvey was that people were relatively, they had meeting fatigue. We had been planning, we had done a resilient plan. We had worked on resilient plans for neighborhoods and plans after Ike and so forth and what people wanted was progress. Not planning. We're a city that plans, but we recognize that people started one wanting to start to see things instantly. So one of the ways the the city pivoted was we started doing more urbanist, more tactical urbanism. And I'm going to talk about the difference. Fernando gave us the definition, but let me just start by saying, you know, tactical urbanism is that is the polite way to, to initiate change. It usually includes gallons of brightly colored temperate paint, Saturday morning, coffee and donuts. You know, the city often coordinates it, creates the idea for it. And then expands it to the neighborhoods. These are photographs. Go through them slightly quickly because I think they're just really indicative of a terrific. Project we did with the Franklin Elementary School that was on a busy street. How we helped them identify ways they could slow traffic without rebuilding the streets and we they painted things in the street in front of the school and you know it was a great collaborative but that's more technical. That's not the guerilla urbanism that we've been talking. That's not the guerilla urbanism that we've been talking about. And as we talk about tactical, most everybody knows about the 2,007 2,009 changes to Times Square. Where somebody purchased 376 folding chairs and just put them in the middle of the street. Now again, the city supported that. It was a test case for how can we transfer train, time square into something that's more. Visitor friendly more human is so you know it was a great success but again that was supported it wasn't it wasn't due first and ask for permission later and so those are all great projects things that many of your communities are doing. But there's also a lot of work going on in. In America where people are actually making the change. That is necessary or that they believe is necessary and then asking for forgiveness. A great organization that I want to highlight that's going that is currently operating in Los Angeles is a company is a nonprofit called Crosswalk Collective LA. And they basically go in paint crosswalks. In LA where they believe that the city of LA has not done the work necessary to protect protect pedestrians. So here's their website. And you can as a resident or as a person who lives in LA identifier crosswalk you want they have a how to identify a crosswalk you want they have a how to guide it's very simple they give a how to guide it's very simple they give so you can select a crosswalk that you think, they have a how to guide. It's very simple. They give, so you can select a crosswalk that you think needs to be, you know, better protective for the pedestrians and then they'll go in and they'll paint it. Here's some examples. I believe this one. So this is a crosswalk. We're in 2,023. They painted it. 2 women had been, killed there crossing the street back in 1988, 1,998 sorry and the city's response was to simply put up this stop sign and not to do anything else. And so after many years of asking for permission to get us get crosswalks painted. This group went in and just did it themselves. And they believe that this has been the turning point for providing better safety. Here's another one. They use a lot of yellow paint. But these are all, this is a crosswalk across the street from a school that, this is a crosswalk across the street from a school that, had not been built, had not been painted by the city and they just believe needed to happen. And then this is a, these are 4 crosswalks installed, in East Hollywood, again, busy school, busy neighborhood, lots of traffic, but, but, but needing a way for pedestrians to feel safer. So here's one thing you can do. Get some yellow and white paint and go out and paint the crosswalk that you believe your city needs or your neighborhood needs. They do. Have on their website. They the city comes back and unpaints these crosswalks sometimes because they don't meet act as to standards or some other reason. So sometimes the work of guerilla urbanists is, removed. I think you just need to stay active and you just need to stay on point and do it again. And, and maybe by doing and redoing, well, we'll get the cities to start recognizing. There are other ways I found as I did some research, I found some really interesting ways that, cities or residents are protecting their residents. Here's one in, I believe this is Wichita, Kansas. They had a painted bike lane that the bicyclists didn't feel was safe. It was on a relatively busy street and so somebody one night went out and super glued. Toilet plungers to the street. Okay. It actually. Actually provided the, you know, a safe, a sense of safety for the bicyclist. It was another way of notifying the drivers that something was going on in this lane and believe it or not the city then came back and did actually install permanent. Protection for the bike lane in this area. So sometimes the work of guerilla urbanists are is successful in the city follows case. Another way that, guerilla urbanists are transforming neighborhoods, particularly vacant lots, neighborhoods that may be seeing some disinvestment going on is, to just take over the space and create nothing but a garden. This is a garden in Fifth Ward on a vacant lot. Fifth ward in Houston, Texas. This is a vacant lot that's just been an eyesore for the community for years. And so the community came together and just planted things. It feeds the neighborhood is this is also another food desert so it provides fresh vegetables to the neighborhood. It's easily removable if if the property owner requires it or if something else happens to the property it's not a huge investment by the community. It's a large investment of time. But there's a great benefit. For it. So this type of work and urbanism is really successful and goes on a number of cities across America and you know, can be really supportive for the for the neighborhood itself. So here's back to Houston back to my hometown. There's a street called Montrose Boulevard, which is in the Montrose neighborhood. That is wide and has as you see behind these people lots of oak trees down the median but it also has very inferior drainage and inferior pedestrian and bicycle connections. And so the tax increment reinvestment zone. Rebuilding the street to improve the drainage. It's essentially a drainage project. But what they decided to do was go ahead and take the opportunity to increase the pedestrian access, but in 10 foot wide sidewalks. And, and really make the street more walkable and more connected to the neighborhood. Well, in the process, they're going to have to tear, they're going to have to remove, I believe the number is 200 trees. Some of them are oaks. Not the ones in the median that you see behind these people, but many of them are distressed trees kind of growing up in the cracks and sidewalks and things like that. And so they have decided that removing these trees is beneficial to the larger project. They are actually gonna replace the trees removed by i think double the number of trees i'm not sure i don't know all the specifics about it but the bottom line is the neighborhoods did not appreciate it and so they actually yarn bombed the streets, the trees along the street. So these trees would be taken out in this project and the neighborhood thought this was a way to show the how much they care and the protection and to protect the trees and to identify those as as trees that they didn't want removed. I don't know how this is ultimately going to play out. It's a project that the city and that the city and that the neighborhood ultimately needs but will we be able to protect? To complete this project and protect the trees or rebuild and replant more trees. I don't know. So those are just some examples. I'd like to hear from the audience. What some of their creative ideas are. I'm gonna stop here, Fernando. I'm sure you've got a lot of questions. Well. I'm gonna stop sharing my screen. And. Yeah. Did I hear something? Thanks. But fantastic. Yes, fantastic. Thank you very much. And beautiful slides to those, images are spectacular and it's great because you've shown some really practical stuff that people are doing and and and that likely will cause some sort of change or at least some sort of compromise in the direction that things would have gone. Had they not intervened. So I'm very impressed and I do have some questions about about that. But let's go back to Jason for a minute and Jason, one thing that, kind of stood out in your presentation is the fact that the way Development is done traditionally as a developer comes in from out of town, has purchased land, they own it. And they decide they want to do something, you know, their vision, whatever it is, fantastic vision, lousy vision. They want to create that in that land and then the you know often the neighborhood feels like hey this is not exactly what we want it here next door. And so your approach is so different and I'm wondering, you know, you did speak about having to go to the neighbors to, you know, kind of. Into what you were wanting to do and get their input on it. I imagine that your reception is completely different than the standard developers reception of resistance from the neighborhood, given that The developers are the neighborhood. So. Alright. But you know for now there's still There's still opposition, so to speak. You have, you still have neighbors that. In a community like this are are nervous or scared about change and so If you don't understand development, if you don't understand what's needed, it can be scary. And so sometimes there's pushback there, but what we do is we invite everybody out. We just make it open. So we're doing design. We're doing something like that. It's an event. Right, we have food, things like that, and people come out and they draw, they put stuff, you know, we do an engagement event and it's not something that like you say most developers do. And we also bring in if there are developers that exist in the area, we try to connect. So there's an ecosystem there. Yeah. But I think that's a great approach. Now prior to the changes that Margaret secured through, you know, the, the, livable neighborhoods. How did you go about? Making very different types of developments. The type of development you had like in the third world, Ward responded to what the zoning, well, there was no zoning, but what development codes allowed and incentivized. How did you change that before? I asked this only because, well, you now have the benefit of this. Change that Margaret brought in. And that's of, a big change in the lot standards and what you can do on a lot in Houston. But before that, how was the struggle? I wonder because most people are not living in the city with the benefit of having had Margaret for 4 years as their planning director. Yeah. Okay. Yeah, so, so for the past couple years, it's been a big focus, you know. Just around density. And so really one of the only things that we could do is sort of like come up with very creative and different applications of like duplexes. And that's what you begin to think a lot of. So That's where we play for some time, but now being able to do some different site configurations, wherever you get, you know, triplexes. Accessory dwelling units, just even the way we subdivide the lot where they used to be just, you know, 3. Simple cut subdivide, we're able to do some very unique. Lot configurations to get what we get the proper design on on the site. So before you had to settle for what was doable and now you can just be creative and, and do something much more similar to what you'd like, ultimately. So that's the And, and I mean even in those duplexes we still had to kind of read, you know, different code and things like that. Umhm. Where we want to get creative, but that was a limitation. Yes. So Margaret, I liked your, examples and it brought to mind this, Gal in Chicago. I don't remember her name. She's in our architect, but she's done something similar in that in Chicago and and maybe you know this Jason having lived there there are many neighborhoods where there's just a lot of old homes that have been abandoned and are being torn down. Some of them quite beautiful, you know, some of them really neighborhood gems, but abandoned and the city will come in and tear them down. So one thing that she has done is she has gone and painted the exterior of these homes before they get torn down. I guess there's a some kind of signage that they put on the on the houses before they get torn down, so she can identify which ones will be demolished. She goes out and completely repaints the place, makes it look absolutely gorgeous and stunning. That's And then people suddenly appreciate something they're about to lose. You know, and and she's hoping somehow to generate change in time just just because the very residents walking around or driving see wow that's I never noticed how beautiful that place could be. It's interesting to see that kind of of impetus but I wonder Margaret in your role when you were head of impetus. But I wonder Margaret in your role when you were head of the planning department. How would you respond to those kinds of initiatives like people going or I'm wondering what would happen to me if I went on painted a big slow down sign in the middle of the road in front of my house, which I now I'm really tempted to do that. Will I get arrested? What happens? What are the what are the risks of being a guerilla urbanist? Well, I think it depends on exactly what you're doing. If you, if you paint a big slow down, possibly what would happen is when we get around to it in 6 months a year, we'd repaint it. And we're not gonna figure out who you are I doubt so you know there is the challenge and they talk about that in the LA collaborative the crosswalk group that they have repaint they have painted crosswalks 2 or 3 times because the city comes back behind them and and repaints them or unbanes them I guess. So I think there's There's been a number of questions in the chat about getting fined or, being arrested for being on private property. There is certainly a difference between the, the gardening on private property versus the painting on public property. I think there's while the city will come back and probably undo it, there's probably less. Possibility for arrest when you're doing it on the street and depending on you know doing it at the right time of day. People may not even, you know, the city may not even catch it. So, there is always a risk. But there have been a number of times where we have seen. People take things in their own hand and then we've considered you know making it a permanent so it all depends on, you know, does it meet our standards? Does it meet the, the, the, the transportation standards nationwide? You know, how can, how can we? Get to yes on this is some of the questions we often ask. Because we support, you know, the city is a is interested absolutely in pedestrian safety. Being a vision 0 city we have a great deal of interest in figuring out how to get all people to be able to move around our city safely. And if one of the these tactics seems to be working, then let's figure out how to make it permanent. There a lot of the questions have to do exactly with what you just answered. There's a lot of concern. You know, what are the risks of this, of this type of approach? And there is a question. In fact, we had a dialogue on this. Via email before, before this this webinar took place about the use of the term, this webinar took place about the use of the term, or a little war. In terms of this and that that term has. You know, some, some fairly negative connotations in certain contexts because it really does speak of of war, you know, of actual guerrilla fighting, which is, you know, the small war fighting that, that often takes place in places like Colombia in particular, the gal that was, really kind of challenging the use of that word. In this context, from Columbia and her experiences. I, I also know though it has been a term that has been adopted in the United States, like words often are in different languages with a very positive meaning in the sense of rebellion, but not necessarily armed rebellion. And it actually has some positive connotations within the Latin culture too if you think of the guerrilla fighters as, you know, the troops of Simon Bolivar that liberated. The guerrilla fighters that liberated Cuba from the Spaniards and our own undressed one, his grandfather was such a guerilla fighter liberating Cuba from the Spaniards. Okay. So it is a term that depends a little bit on on who those gadgets are and what their cause is and and in modern times yes it has had negative connotations and I I appreciate that and just wanted to acknowledge that for those of you that might be attending that understand the term in its actual, you know, Spanish language, use. So there's a lot of good compliments like awesome that you're proactive and this is for Jason and and and and I love your statement about how neighbors rely on neighbor and neighborhoods rely on neighbors. Looking here, to some actual questions here. Small community grants. Are there any small community grants that are provided? Yes. Yes. The city of Houston. Oh, go ahead, Jason. You probably know more about it than I do. From a civic perspective, cities. Do you know? No. Go right ahead. So just the Man, they're all over. So. Right now, for example, our management district really is supportive of the revitalization of this corridor. So they're issuing grants to demo or beautify. The city of Houston has a matching grant program. A A RP has, Grant. Program. And so where are some other ones? Here Lisp has some small community grants as well. And so outside of that. We fundraise by You know, for instance, this past Saturday. We did a workshop. On market research and feasibility and we have folks just kind of pay what they want registration. And so we raise a few bucks from, doing things like that. As well. Have you had any fundraising where the neighborhood kicked in for a project and actually raised enough funds to either purchase land or is this all individuals invest? You know, the organization that we have our groups there and then we have our groups there and then we have our organization and then there's a core group of us that are a little bit more, into with development and finance and things like that. So we kind of serve as a nucleus for others. And so when you talk about projects, for instance, we have a pilot out on the north side of town right now with Emerging Developer where the core group of us will be raising funds for him on his behalf for instance. So that's something that he didn't have access to he didn't he doesn't know a fund manager he doesn't You know, he's just trying to get his first deal under his belt so that he can build more in his neighborhood. Okay, well good. Now, someone, Rick. Wrote in that the artist in Chicago that I was mentioning is Amanda Williams who paints abandoned houses and it's really worth looking into if you want to look that up. I'm sure you can Google her name and see some images of what she's done. And then Kyle Bartel says he's the co-founder of Sit on a Detroit where they build benches for bus stops, parks and social gathering spaces and expanding to other outdoor amenities for neighborhoods. And I guess beyond just having a comfortable place, to sit at the bus stop, you're also kind of creating third places. In some instances. So, so that's good work. I'm glad to hear of these other examples because they can inspire people to do something very, very, very similar. Let's see. A lot of compliments here on the on the on the Q&A with that's Let's see. What are the strategies? Let So, anonymous attendee, what are the strategies you've used to get past the long-standing community leaders who do not want things to change. Let me just. I don't want new people in the neighborhood or can bog down the process. I guess that would be 1 one for you, Jason. I see. They are always there. So I It is. So I think 2 things. One. Before we really got moving and what we're doing, I was the community. Right, so I stepped up to be president and kind of make the connections and the relationship to show. That I'm here for your interest. That's why. The second the second thing to that is We made sure we weren't in somebody else's life. That was the most important thing. So you have a lot of neighborhood organizations of community leaders here. No one in our neighborhood was focusing on what we're focusing on right now. And I made it. That makes. It makes any difference. There's still community leaders, of course, that. As a question says, doesn't want things to change, but those 2 approaches made a very big difference. Very good. And this question is for, Margaret. Another maybe the same anonymous attendee, says, or she's from Los Angeles and is wondering if Houston has a similar conversation around parking vehicles and public transit when discussing housing or commercial development. In other words, How do you get away from, or get past the insistence that cars are the dominant form of transportation and I know you've you've dealt with this a lot in Houston. It is a big challenge. Particularly in Sun Belt cities that are so spread out as Houston in Los Angeles. Some of the other cities we proposed with the livable places changes we were very successful in getting the different styles of housing types approved by City Council, but one of the other proposals we made was to eliminate minimum parking requirements for all residential development near transit near, high frequency bus. Routes, high high comfort bike lanes. There were 4 character, 4, areas that we were recommending that, minimum parking requirements be eliminated and the neighborhoods didn't didn't support that and I couldn't get it through City Council. So we still have. The complicating You know, it's a contradiction in terms people want walkability, but They also want the ability to park their car when they go and And for the most part, you can have Kind of a balance of both of those, but when you become so auto dominant, it really, even if you're building walkable streets, it really makes walkability less, less. Less possible because you've got parking lots you're walking you know Jeff Beck is great at identifying the 5 things that that you need for a good walk. And I can't remember exactly what all 5 of them are, but density and and an interesting walk is always critical and if you're always walking past parking lots that makes it not so interesting. So parking is something we are going to the city is probably going to address in the future. It was nothing that I could actually get accomplished while I was there. And Jason mentioned earlier that Third Ward. A lot of third board was built before we had parking requirements in place at all. And so how do you keep the historic aspect of the neighborhood? The development pattern in a neighborhood where now you've got a requirement for additional parking. It's, a challenge. Very good. So I guess you just, I guess the answer is you just keep working at it and hope you get somebody like Margaret Brown to champion your cause. At the city level. You keep plugging along at it. And part, so parking and it's interesting parking and building codes. I will tell you, you'd mentioned Yimby Town earlier. It was a terrific conference and the beauty of the inbetown movement is that it draws in people from really across the whole spectrum. It draws in. Conservatives who want to reduce or eliminate regulations. And housing advocates, both, you know, not necessarily people that are always in the same room together. And so the the yimpy town movement is about removing and right sizing parking requirements as well, particularly as it relates to residential development. And so there's some, there is some potential in that group as it grows. To be more effective in that in that way. Yeah. Yeah, and the success of that group has always been its ability to harness. The causes of both right and left sides of the political spectrum one through property private property rights and the other through social equity and they've been able to rather than then fight have been able to collaborate towards the same end. Yeah. No. Now there is a question which I think is a good one. What factors go into deciding whether to go the tactical round of seeking involvement or support from the city. Versus the guerilla route of asking for forgiveness later or I guess paying to find. Jason? Okay. Yeah. The cost and the complexity. Are always gonna get it going. The constant complexity. If I go to the city and there's a lot of pushback and the cost is minimal to show. I'm just gonna do it, right? If I know it's complex. So earlier we talked about the lot where we're getting some resistance to having electrical there because there's a vacant bill. They don't want to. We're We're gonna get the lectures and put the teapot there. Electricity. And they will let the cities. Yes, yes, yes. But TPP, you mean a temporary power pole. Yeah. And we're gonna we're gonna activate the space. Right in a safe way. But in that case So your point, I mean, the most they're gonna probably do is say what, you know, take it down. So we're okay with that. We're okay with that fire. We're okay with taking it down because it proves what we're doing, right? We get support from the community about what needs to go there and why that that needs to change, right? And you could always replace the Power Pull with a generator if need be. For the generate correct. Right. So. Now there's a kind of a little bit of, this is a little bit of a sad, question here from, from, Len Bay. I hope I pronounce your your last name right, Len. Is as he lives in a coastal community where gentrification is virtually complete. We have extremely high property values and no blighted areas. Meanwhile, the city and county governments are aggressively pursuing new large-scale development, mostly by out-of-town developers. As a result, citizen initiatives get quashed. Other than black parties. Do it yourself urban changes are flat out illegal. Yeah. Would you have any tips on how to implement incremental changes in a neighborhood scale? Under these difficult circular circumstances. I guess either of you could jump in. I'm, I'm gonna start up by saying most communities DIY, urban changes are illegal. So what we're talking about is Is finding a way around the rules or bending them a little bit, as Jason is doing, but, most, so let me just say, first of all, we hear your pain, but you're not alone that most of what we're talking about today has not condoned. By the by the government Jason do you wanna add to that or complement that So, so I would say in this case where you feel like gentrification is virtually complete and The market is what it is in your neighborhood. This is where at least for us even from a civic level that I was very vehicle and like being proactive in making friends with the developers. Go find your core developer. Right? And championed them. So one of the things that we did as a civic organization was We champion for the developers that championed us. So meaning those variances that they needed so on and so forth. They need your support just as much as you want to have them in your neighborhood. So, you know, it may take coffee. It may take you know, attending the local, you know, urban land institute, kind of thing. And, finding, finding an ally. I don't think there's any, I don't think. I don't think there's anything from what you're saying. You know, and you can think. Yup. Doesn't seem like there's anything incremental to focus on. There's nothing incremental to focus on, but some of this new development, buy out of town developers may be able to be steered or, or nudged in, in a better direction in terms of advancing whatever. Okay. Qualities that you want in the neighborhood by joining with that developer and promising support and in exchange for certain, you could say concessions in their plan. Okay. And that's what the MPs did. They said, you want to do that? We'll come out, we'll support you. Okay. We'll have a whole bunch of hippies there cheering your project on. If it includes some affordable housing or if it has walkable areas or you know whatever it is that you're your champion and that that's a very positive way of doing it through an incentive rather than through opposition you know because I'm sure some of those even in your area where the city and county governments are aggressively pursuing new large-scale development, there must be some Nimby opposition. That you can provide a counterweight to. So, but that's probably the answer. No, a question for Jason. How do you get the funding to purchase the housing? I think you've kind of obliquely referred to this but not answered it, you know, really head-on and I answer that, you know, really head-on and I think people probably want to know, how do you get the funding for this kind of incremental development, particularly in areas that are, you know, where the, where maybe the, the market elements aren't there to easily finance it. So, so our organization is part of growing our community. We identify impact investors, those folks that really champion what we're doing, they have affinity for the area and they have the finances to be able to help us control those sites. And sell where to be family, friend, and our neighbors. If there's an opportunity, for example, one of the properties that you saw. Was sold to us for probably half of what. You know, it was it was worth because that owner really believed in what we were doing and wanted to see back and continue. And so in in that we were able to get you know, a few of us, we honestly we went and got a private loan and we just kind of paid a little bit been paying together on it in order to get to the next step or the next phase. So it's very unorthodox. It's very kind of like you know, what do we have in our pockets? What resource do we have? So it's a little different each time, but always with the notion that we're going to go in. Just like a traditional developer development process, we're gonna go in, we're gonna gain site control. Gonna flush out what this project is and take the risk out and then for us we go back to our impact investors and our neighbors to see if they want to be a part of the actual development so that they are empowered and have some ownership. And if not ownership, at least they've been a part of the process. So Hmm. Yes, yes. Since you have a, nonprofit that maybe are doing some of these, guerilla type interventions through the, the entity, if you will, rather than on the sly on your own, there is a question that I think is interesting and and and it's how do you how do you deal with the liability issues particularly in the public right of way? There is some liability and maybe putting up. These, these, toilet on stopers is on the street and a car runs into a cyclist and blames whoever did that. So how do you do with the liability? Do you have an insurance that allows you to do guerilla. Do you have an insurance that allows you to do gorilla urbanism? Do you have a guerilla urbanism clause in your policy? No, not quite, not quite. So We, I don't want to say that we don't deal with the public right away as much. There are organizations in in the area that we support in that. Most of our work is done around, vacant bloody spaces. And so whether it's us controlling that site. Or we just work with that neighbor, that owner, and they give us permission, they write a letter, they give us permission and yes, we will do the organization put insurance on that particular piece of file. What about, I guess this is, one of our last questions is, again, for an anonymous. From an anonymous attendee but it's for you Jason and that's that they noticed that you know it's easy to get funds sometimes for development for construction people love you know donating to the new building or the new recreation center or whatever but what about maintaining maintaining the property how do you catty get your funds for ongoing maintenance So we we just really try to think. Sustainably, right? So the first site that I showed you guys, yeah, we had been having to pick trash up. And get the grasp. But again, we would have workshops or different events that would cover the 100 200 bucks to cover, you know, cut grass and things like that. But. In terms of ongoing. The site itself. We're just taking all the grass out so the grass will be either turf or you know native So. To just reduce, mainness and then it's being fenced in. To keep a lot of the. Traffic and trash and things like that. So we are controlling the circulation of the space. People can come in kind of 1 one place trucks or vendors can come in one place. To try to manage the trash and all that kind of stuff. We are. So keep maintenance to a minimum and then. Probably just rely on the neighbourhood. So we're out of time and Robert's back. Yeah. Okay. Yes, we are at the end of the hour and, I don't know whether you have any final words to say. I wanted to tell folks if we were going to be posting the video tomorrow on the CNU website. And for folks who you know want to share it or other people will be watching it on YouTube after the fact. If, any of you, you know, have any final words to say, I guess we could say now. Jason. You know, I think I'll just kind of end with where I started and then, you know, I think really believe that you guys here are the solutions in your neighborhood. So be vocal, get involved. And take action. Margaret? Too many too many times we. So from my experience working for a public agency. There are many times we ask, we really do ask for input and don't get it. Until, you know, it's very late and we always, you know. People who are complaining are always the ones that we hear from. What we'd like to hear is more collaborative is, you know, come help us with ideas come see us and talk with us about all the different options that are available. And so public agencies really do want to hear from the from the public and And be vocal. But I guess my closing remarks would be, don't be afraid, just get out there and change the world. Thank you. Thank you. And thank you all very much for attending. Yes, thanks. Thank you, Fernando, Margaret, Jason, and everybody who attended today.