Magic City Agriculture Project Points the Way Ahead with Practical Solutions for Poverty and Gentrification

Magic City Agriculture Project (MCAP) Points the Way Ahead with Practical Solutions for Poverty and Gentrification Birmingham, Alabama - The City Council and Mayor squabble for power and debate whether the Mayor-Council Act is due to be amended, while the People of Birmingham are searching for answers to the questions of poverty and gentrification. At the core of the Mayor-Council Act debate is a proposal to transfer power from the Birmingham City Council to the mayor. Proponents claim the amendments are necessary to protect and promote the executive authority of the mayor’s office, while objectors state the proposal will cause undue harm to the City government and eliminate necessary checks and balances. The current debate shows that the People of Birmingham are seeking practical solutions, not more political grandstanding. The promotion and establishment of locally controlled political and economic institutions changes clearly needed, and Magic City Agriculture Project is poised to provide solutions to these seemingly enigmatic issues of poverty and gentrification plaguing Birmingham. Over the previous two years, MCAP has collaborated to establish a 10-year strategic plan for addressing racial and economic disparities through developing a large-scale democratic economy and local sustainable food system across Greater Birmingham. MCAP’s strategic plan focuses around the creation of four anchor institutions for creating a grassroots-controlled, democratic economy. Three of these institutions are included in City of Birmingham's comprehensive plan or in the subsequent framework plans. They represent the requirements for a functioning economy - land, labor, and capital. MCAP’s plan only costs a fraction of what the city has spent on downtown. The Components of MCAP’s plan: Education: Birmingham Institute for Social Change. BISC is an anti-racist and community organizing training housed within MCAP. Labor: MCAP wants to start a cooperative training center. Cooperatives are worker-owned businesses that keep wealth in the hands of employees. Aquaponics is a highly productive agricultural production system able to sustain a profitable business. The cooperative training center will educate on business practices, cooperative economic principles, and aquaponics agricultural production. After training, apprentices will start their own firms, independent from MCAP. Capital: Community Enterprise Zones in partnership with the City of Birmingham. CEZs have two parts - $10 million in capitalization for a Community Development Financial Institution (CDFI), and a tiered job credit plan that favors democratized businesses. The zone will encompass an area of 50,000 low-income people within Birmingham. A CDFI is essentially a bank that does micro-lending for the purpose of community development. (Micro-lending was developed by Nobel Peace Prize winner Muhammed Yunus in Bangladesh as a form of economic development for the poor.) A majority of the board of the CDFI will include residents from the CEZ. Land: Community Land Trusts for low-income homeownership and land use planning. The key feature of a CLT is dual ownership. The trust owns the grounds upon which a house or business sits, and the homeowner or business owners owns the improvements on those grounds. Representatives from home and business owners control the CLT allowing them to collectively make land use decisions for their communities.                                                                                     Each institution will be an independent entity and controlled by community members. MCAP supports the self-determination of the institutions by serving in an advisory capacity while they are in the startup stage, and by assisting communities through education, information, training, and connections to resources. MCAP members may serve as board members of these community institutions, especially on Advisory Boards, but only by invitation, and never to be the majority or in control of the institution. Magic City Agriculture Project's mission is to engage in value-based community organizing to reweave the threads of the community, develop sustainable urban agriculture as a solution for economic and food justice, and to dismantle racism. ###

Shelby and Cystic Fibrosis

I have a chronic illness called cystic fibrosis. As a result, two weeks ago I was admitted into UAB's Spain Wallace Hospital for an exacerbation of a cystic fibrosis related lung infection. During this time I have been receiving IV antibiotics. Today, February 20th, is my last day for this particular admission. While finishing my last treatment I was watching YouTube videos. Before one video started YouTube showed me a campaign add for Senator Richard Shelby. The add was a white middle class Alabama mother who had a child with cystic fibrosis telling me how much Senator Shelby has done for children with CF. As a CF patient this greatly bothered me.

Last I heard he keeps voting against the Affordable Health Care Act (ObamaCare), which, without that act, I, a 26 year old with cystic fibrosis, could not have a private health insurance plan due to a preexisting condition. Additionally, last I heard he is fighting against medicaid expansion in the state which is VITAL for low-income cystic fibrosis patients.

Not to mention, where is he in scolding Blue Cross and Blue Shield of Alabama who has not only canceled their platinum plan, which I had last year, but has also stopped covering two FDA approved drugs for no reason that are vital to cystic fibrosis patients daily health. The next best health insurance plan, Gold, increases all of my out of pocket expenses by 100%, and the monthly premium is the same as the platinum plan was. Where is Richard Shelby in putting legislation forward to decrease pharmaceutical prices? If y'all saw the profit margin of some of these cystic fibrosis medicines you would faint.

Last I checked he votes against any environmental reform, meanwhile Birmingham is ranked in the top 10 in the nation in air pollution. Meanwhile my doctors tell me that up to 20% of the health problems in my lungs could be related to the air pollution in Birmingham.

Where does he stand on increasing and expanding disability welfare? Without an expansion of that many low income cystic fibrosis patients who can't work can't get the resources they need to buy groceries or housing.

Senator Richard Shelby is hurting people with cystic fibrosis every day with his policies. Richard Shelby is killing cystic fibrosis patients with his policies. Richard Shelby's policies are killing me!

‪#‎RevolutionNow‬ ‪#‎NoJusticeNoPeace‬