Listening for a place's public calling
<p>20-minute podcast episode. Our neighborhoods are most often like America’s Third Coast, a flyover region on our way to home or work. What would it take for our neighborhoods — urban, suburban, rural, small-town — to become as vital to us as our home or work?</p><p>Sara Daleiden works on the Third Coast, literally and metaphorically. She facilitates Milwaukee neighborhoods that wish to transform their public landscapes. She’s actually bicoastal, splitting most of her time between Milwaukee and Los Angeles; hence the name of her media strategy and production agency, <a target="_blank" href="https://mke-lax.org">MKE <-> LAX</a>. Besides media production, Sara’s work involves organizational, economic, and community development.</p><p>But mostly her work involves listening to land and people.</p><p>Above: Sara Daleiden</p><p>Sara can feel like she moves between two cities even without leaving Milwaukee. These cities are stereotyped as “Black Milwaukee” and “white Milwaukee.” Besides racial tension, Milwaukee has suffered from the end of large-scale manufacturing and brewing over the last half century, turning many Milwaukee neighborhoods inward. Sara and her governmental and corporate partners serve some of these neighborhoods, and their service includes guiding citizens in democratic processes to discover their neighborhood’s public callings.</p><p>Recently, I interviewed Sara at her media center in Milwaukee to learn how she helps to create public spaces. Our 90-minute talk was one of the richest I’ve ever had. I’ve curated our talk into a 20-minute podcast episode.</p><p>If you’re interested in what it might take to make your neighborhood (outside of your home) a destination for you and your neighbors, including strangers, you’ll enjoy this podcast.</p><p><strong>In a separate episode</strong>, Public Spaces will explore the Beerline Trail, formerly an old rail line that once served Milwaukee’s historic beer industry. The community turned the rail line into a linear park, which is in use but is still in development. The trail intersects two adjoining neighborhoods that historically have kept apart because of differing demographics. MKE <-> LAX helps to facilitate this project.</p><p>Here are the resources mentioned in the episode (and some other resources):</p><p>“<a target="_blank" href="https://youtu.be/Ok8t1gQIs7Q?si=ljk9Qd8ytnkBDYMp">The Milwaukee Movie</a>” video by Mark Escribano</p><p><a target="_blank" href="https://www.upress.virginia.edu/title/5389/"><em>Black Landscapes Matter</em></a>, edited by Walter Hood and Grace Mitchell Tada</p><p><a target="_blank" href="https://www.beerlinetrailmke.org">The Beerline Trail</a> website</p><p><a target="_blank" href="https://ruralurbanflow.org">Rural Urban Flow</a>’s website</p><p><a target="_blank" href="https://www.homeworksbronzeville.com/sara-daleiden">Sara Daleiden’s page</a> on the Homeworks: Bronzeville site</p><p>The three above photos: a home, a shop, and light manufacturing near Milwaukee’s Beerline Trail</p><p>Static sound effects used with permission from <a target="_blank" href="https://sound-effects.bbcrewind.co.uk">BBC Sound Effects</a>. bbc.co.uk – © copyright 2024 BBC.</p><p>Our thanks to A. Wesley Chung for the licensed use of “<a target="_blank" href="https://uppbeat.io/t/a-wesley-chung/an-evening">An Evening</a>” from Uppbeat. License code: TNIQXHGVV47YMDZC.</p> <br/><br/>Get full access to Political Devotions at <a href="https://www.polidevo.com/subscribe?utm_medium=podcast&utm_campaign=CTA_4">www.polidevo.com/subscribe</a>
