JP — ‘The Greatest Place to Live in North America’

Thursday night, more than 250 gathered for a forum addressing racial justice and equity. Here are a few short clips of residents reflecting on the “State of JP.”

Betsaida Gutiérrez

These comments, from perhaps JP’s most well-known advocate of affordable housing, are in Spanish. Scroll to the bottom for a rough translation into English. Native speakers, let me know in the comments if I missed anything!

Brad Brown

Thandi Farley

Derrick Dominique

Kacy Hughes

Here’s the gist of what Doña Betsaida had to say: “For me, what it means for our neighborhood is very, very important. We’re getting to know our neighbors now…they haven’t changed the neighborhood, they’ve come to live in this neighborhood because we changed the neighborhood. The developers, who want to make profits, are using us. They don’t remember us — the Latinos, the African-Americans — just the people with money in their pockets.”