Posted July 3, 2023 in Weblog

Now Erica Gilmore is an elected official and an America Walks Board Member

By Erica Gilmore

I’m proud and honored to be a board member for America Walks, a number one nationwide nonprofit, that advances secure, equitable, accessible locations and areas to stroll and transfer by giving individuals and communities the assets to successfully advocate for change. Personally, I can attest to the significance of the social and financial advantages of getting walkable and accessible communities and areas. Rising up in and round North Nashville (TN) as a younger black woman, I witnessed the devastation that passed off within the black neighborhoods on and adjoining to Jefferson Road after the interstate freeway system was constructed over and thru North Nashville. Though the interstate planners didn’t deliberately search to destroy the black group, the planners’ lack of intentionality of concern for black neighborhoods however had devastating results on African Individuals by dissecting and isolating black neighbors from one another. These dissections severed black neighborhoods economically and socially.

Traditionally, North Nashville, particularly Jefferson Road and its adjoining black communities, had been affluent, thriving, and interconnected up till the Nineteen Sixties. The realm had a powerful sense of group and interdependence. There have been many distinguished black-owned companies and vibrant business and social exercise was ubiquitous in the neighborhood. Nonetheless, when the interstate freeway system got here to Nashville, the builders of the undertaking constructed a number of highways to converge in and round Jefferson Road which dissected and remoted black neighborhood after black neighborhood which neighbors had beforehand thrived as one. Black residents misplaced accessible and secure pathways to journey and transfer simply amongst themselves. The consequence of this actuality led to many African American companies closing, a fracturing of the group’s sense of belonging and togetherness, and a pointy financial decline within the prosperity of North Nashville that’s nonetheless felt and mentioned in the neighborhood at present.

Moreover, walkable and linked pathways present individuals with the instruments and assets to successfully collect and take part within the democratic course of. For instance, I lately helped arrange and take part in a stroll, partially, to honor Diane Nash for her social justice contributions to Nashville. Our means to assemble and to stroll in secure areas was very important to our means to train our basic constitutional rights and to make sure that our society lives as much as its potential. If a group doesn’t have entry to accessible and secure pathways, it loses the power to attach, collect, arrange, and deal with essential societal points that have an effect on everybody.

On a extra micro stage, Individuals want walkable and secure pathways simply to make sure that we will benefit from the essence of life. I take pleasure in strolling my canine in my neighborhood, however there are far too many areas the place there aren’t any sidewalks or different secure areas to stroll. Usually, I’m afraid that we are going to be struck by a automotive or fall on a roadside hazard that would trigger us severe harm. Folks need to be free from such apprehension and will have a proper to maneuver and stroll simply.

Sadly, my predominantly black neighborhood, like many different black neighborhoods, has inadequate funding within the infrastructure to permit secure areas and pathways. This isn’t the way it must be! America can do higher and should do higher! For this reason I’m a proud board member of this excellent group devoted to difficult and altering the established order. Like this group, I’m dedicated towards working for a day when all our neighbors, no matter demographic background, could have accessible and secure pathways and areas!