1
00:00:16,222 --> 00:00:19,910
So today, I'm going to tell you
about some people

2
00:00:19,910 --> 00:00:22,572
who didn't move out
of their neighborhoods.

3
00:00:22,572 --> 00:00:25,753
The first one is happening
right here in Chicago.

4
00:00:25,753 --> 00:00:30,371
Brenda Palms-Barber was hired
to help ex-convicts re-enter society

5
00:00:30,371 --> 00:00:33,191
and keep them from going back into prison.

6
00:00:33,191 --> 00:00:35,066
Currently, tax-payers spend

7
00:00:35,066 --> 00:00:38,538
about 60,000 dollars per year
sending a person to jail.

8
00:00:38,538 --> 00:00:41,669
We know that 2/3 of them
are going to go back.

9
00:00:41,669 --> 00:00:44,926
I find it interesting
that for every one dollar we spend,

10
00:00:44,926 --> 00:00:47,687
however, on early childhood education
like Headstart,

11
00:00:47,687 --> 00:00:52,516
we save 17 dollars on stuff
like incarceration in the future.

12
00:00:52,516 --> 00:00:54,018
Or, think about it,

13
00:00:54,018 --> 00:00:55,900
that 60,000 dollars is more

14
00:00:55,900 --> 00:00:59,375
than what it costs to send
one person to Harvard as well.

15
00:00:59,378 --> 00:01:02,267
But Brenda, not being fazed
by stuff like that,

16
00:01:02,269 --> 00:01:03,805
took a look at her challenge

17
00:01:03,805 --> 00:01:07,677
and came up
with a not-so-obvious solution:

18
00:01:07,677 --> 00:01:12,332
create a business that produces
skin-care products from honey.

19
00:01:12,443 --> 00:01:14,818
It might be obvious
to some of you, wasn't to me.

20
00:01:14,865 --> 00:01:18,118
It's the basis of growing
a form of social innovation

21
00:01:18,150 --> 00:01:20,007
that has real potential.

22
00:01:20,031 --> 00:01:23,896
She hired seemingly unemployable men
and women to care for the bees,

23
00:01:23,896 --> 00:01:28,098
harvest the honey, and make value-added
products that they marketed themselves

24
00:01:28,099 --> 00:01:31,463
and were later sold at Wholefoods.

25
00:01:31,463 --> 00:01:34,458
She combined employment experience
and training,

26
00:01:34,458 --> 00:01:36,055
and with life skills they needed,

27
00:01:36,055 --> 00:01:38,033
like anger management and teamwork,

28
00:01:38,033 --> 00:01:43,003
and also had a talk to future employers
about how their experiences

29
00:01:43,003 --> 00:01:45,462
actually demonstrated the lessons
they had learned

30
00:01:45,462 --> 00:01:47,422
and their eagerness to learn more.

31
00:01:47,422 --> 00:01:48,994
Less than 4% of the folks

32
00:01:48,994 --> 00:01:51,766
that went through her program
actually go back to jail.

33
00:01:51,766 --> 00:01:56,088
So these young men and women
learned job-readiness and life skills

34
00:01:56,088 --> 00:02:00,216
through bee-keeping and becoming
productive citizens in the process.

35
00:02:00,216 --> 00:02:03,433
Talk about a sweet beginning.

36
00:02:03,433 --> 00:02:06,287
Now, I'm going to take it to Los Angeles.

37
00:02:06,287 --> 00:02:09,399
And I know lots of people know
that L.A. has its issues,

38
00:02:09,401 --> 00:02:11,669
but I will talk
about L.A.'s water issues now.

39
00:02:11,669 --> 00:02:15,468
They have not enough water on most days,

40
00:02:15,468 --> 00:02:17,567
and too much to handle when it rains.

41
00:02:17,571 --> 00:02:23,068
Currently, 20% of California's energy
consumption is used to pump water

42
00:02:23,069 --> 00:02:25,452
into mostly Southern California.

43
00:02:25,452 --> 00:02:27,696
They're spending loads, loads, to channel

44
00:02:27,696 --> 00:02:31,169
that rainwater out into the ocean
when it rains and floods as well.

45
00:02:31,169 --> 00:02:33,877
Now, Andy Lipkis is working to help

46
00:02:33,877 --> 00:02:36,921
L.A. cut infrastructure costs associated
with water management

47
00:02:36,921 --> 00:02:38,838
and urban heat island,

48
00:02:38,838 --> 00:02:44,086
linking trees, people and technology
to create a more livable city.

49
00:02:44,086 --> 00:02:47,332
All that green stuff that actually
naturally absorbs storm water

50
00:02:47,332 --> 00:02:48,650
also helps cool our cities,

51
00:02:48,650 --> 00:02:50,187
because, think about it,

52
00:02:50,187 --> 00:02:54,798
do you really want air-conditioning,
or is it a cooler room that you want?

53
00:02:54,807 --> 00:02:57,953
How you get it you shouldn't make
that much of a difference.

54
00:02:57,953 --> 00:03:02,826
So a few years ago, the L.A. county
decided that they needed to spend

55
00:03:02,826 --> 00:03:08,307
2.5 billion dollars to repair
the city's schools

56
00:03:08,307 --> 00:03:09,945
and Andy and his team discovered

57
00:03:09,945 --> 00:03:13,262
that they were going to spend
200 million of that

58
00:03:13,310 --> 00:03:15,972
on asphalt to surround
the schools themselves

59
00:03:15,984 --> 00:03:19,190
and by presenting a really strong
economic case,

60
00:03:19,253 --> 00:03:20,961
they convinced the L.A. government

61
00:03:20,987 --> 00:03:24,692
that replacing that asphalt
with trees and other greenery

62
00:03:24,694 --> 00:03:28,269
meant that the schools themselves
would save the system more on energy

63
00:03:28,269 --> 00:03:31,851
than they spend
on horticultural infrastructure.

64
00:03:31,858 --> 00:03:35,729
So ultimately, 20 million square feet
of asphalt was replaced or avoided

65
00:03:35,739 --> 00:03:39,763
and electrical consumption
for air-conditioning went down

66
00:03:39,769 --> 00:03:43,007
while employment for people to maintain
those grounds went up,

67
00:03:43,007 --> 00:03:45,319
resulting in a net saving to the system,

68
00:03:45,328 --> 00:03:49,744
but also healthier students
and school systems employees as well.

69
00:03:49,744 --> 00:03:53,289
Now, Judy Bonds
is a coal-miner's daughter.

70
00:03:53,289 --> 00:03:59,091
Her family has 8 generations in a town
called Whitesville, West Virginia,

71
00:03:59,091 --> 00:04:00,819
and if anyone should be clinging

72
00:04:00,819 --> 00:04:04,805
to the former glory of the coal-mining
history, and of a town,

73
00:04:04,805 --> 00:04:06,072
it should be Judy.

74
00:04:06,072 --> 00:04:09,279
But the way coal is mined right now
is different from the deep mines

75
00:04:09,279 --> 00:04:12,745
that her father and her father's father
would go down into

76
00:04:12,745 --> 00:04:15,747
and that employed essentially
thousands and thousands of people.

77
00:04:15,747 --> 00:04:20,314
Now 2 dozen men can tear down
a mountain in several months

78
00:04:20,314 --> 00:04:23,168
and only for about
a few years' worth of coal.

79
00:04:23,182 --> 00:04:25,986
That kind of technology is called
mountain-top removal.

80
00:04:25,986 --> 00:04:28,107
It can make a mountain go from this...

81
00:04:28,107 --> 00:04:30,242
To this, in a few short months.

82
00:04:30,242 --> 00:04:33,273
Just imagine the air
surrounding these places,

83
00:04:33,273 --> 00:04:35,876
it is filled with the residue
of explosives and coal.

84
00:04:35,939 --> 00:04:37,320
When we visited,

85
00:04:37,345 --> 00:04:40,249
it gave some of the people with us
this strange little cough

86
00:04:40,353 --> 00:04:42,690
after being only there
for just a few hours or so.

87
00:04:42,690 --> 00:04:44,167
Not just miners, but everybody.

88
00:04:44,191 --> 00:04:47,510
And Judy saw her landscape being destroyed
and her water poisoned,

89
00:04:47,510 --> 00:04:49,405
and the coal companies, you know,

90
00:04:49,405 --> 00:04:51,487
just move on after the mountain was empty

91
00:04:51,531 --> 00:04:53,881
leaving even more unemployment
in their wake.

92
00:04:53,881 --> 00:04:55,941
But she also saw the difference

93
00:04:55,941 --> 00:04:58,863
in potential wind energy
on an intact mountain,

94
00:04:58,863 --> 00:05:02,485
and one that was reduced in elevation
by over 2,000 feet.

95
00:05:02,485 --> 00:05:04,347
Three years of dirty energy

96
00:05:04,347 --> 00:05:07,867
with not many jobs or centuries
of clean energy

97
00:05:07,867 --> 00:05:10,362
with the potential
for developing expertise

98
00:05:10,362 --> 00:05:12,516
and improvements in efficiency

99
00:05:12,516 --> 00:05:13,750
based on technical skills

100
00:05:13,750 --> 00:05:17,664
and developing local knowledge about how
to get the most out of that region's wind.

101
00:05:17,664 --> 00:05:20,437
She calculated the upfront cost
and the payback over time,

102
00:05:20,437 --> 00:05:22,922
and it is a net plus on so many levels

103
00:05:22,922 --> 00:05:26,162
for the local, national
and global economy.

104
00:05:26,162 --> 00:05:28,559
It's a longer payback
than mountain-top removal,

105
00:05:28,559 --> 00:05:30,924
but the wind energy
actually pays back forever.

106
00:05:30,924 --> 00:05:34,514
The mountain-top removal pays
very little money to the locals

107
00:05:34,514 --> 00:05:36,384
and it gives them a lot of misery.

108
00:05:36,384 --> 00:05:38,219
The water is turned into goo,

109
00:05:38,219 --> 00:05:40,396
most people are still unemployed,

110
00:05:40,396 --> 00:05:43,924
leading to most of the same kind
of social problems that unemployed people

111
00:05:43,924 --> 00:05:45,919
in inner cities also experience:

112
00:05:45,919 --> 00:05:47,543
drug and alcohol abuse,

113
00:05:47,543 --> 00:05:49,425
domestic abuse, teen pregnancy

114
00:05:49,425 --> 00:05:50,956
and poor health as well.

115
00:05:50,956 --> 00:05:52,333
Now Judy and I, I must say,

116
00:05:52,333 --> 00:05:54,148
totally related to each other,

117
00:05:54,148 --> 00:05:56,093
not just quite in obvious alliance,

118
00:05:56,093 --> 00:05:57,637
literally, her hometown's called

119
00:05:57,637 --> 00:05:59,416
Whitesville Pennsylvania...

120
00:05:59,416 --> 00:06:00,715
(Laughter)

121
00:06:00,715 --> 00:06:03,867
They ain't competing
for the birthplace of hip-hop title

122
00:06:03,867 --> 00:06:05,512
or anything like that! (Laughter)

123
00:06:05,512 --> 00:06:08,201
But, the back of my T-shirt,
the one that she gave me,

124
00:06:08,201 --> 00:06:10,756
says, "Save the endangered hillbillies."

125
00:06:10,781 --> 00:06:13,520
(Laughter)

126
00:06:13,597 --> 00:06:15,519
Home girls and hillbillies,

127
00:06:15,544 --> 00:06:19,813
we got it together and totally understand
that this is what it is all about.

128
00:06:21,083 --> 00:06:22,464
But just a few months ago,

129
00:06:22,481 --> 00:06:25,195
Judy was diagnosed
with stage 3 lung cancer.

130
00:06:25,465 --> 00:06:26,465
And...

131
00:06:27,465 --> 00:06:28,544
Yeah.

132
00:06:28,950 --> 00:06:31,560
And it's since moved
to her bones and her brain.

133
00:06:33,258 --> 00:06:37,369
You know, I just find it so bizarre

134
00:06:37,369 --> 00:06:39,419
that she is suffering from the same thing

135
00:06:39,467 --> 00:06:42,676
that she tried so hard
to protect people from.

136
00:06:42,676 --> 00:06:47,120
But her dream of coal-river mountain wind
is her legacy.

137
00:06:47,183 --> 00:06:53,690
And she might not get to see
that mountain top,

138
00:06:53,738 --> 00:06:57,668
but rather than writing some kind
of another manifesto, or something,

139
00:06:57,668 --> 00:07:02,126
she is leaving behind a business plan
to make it happen.

140
00:07:02,126 --> 00:07:03,922
That's what my home girl is doing,

141
00:07:03,922 --> 00:07:05,509
so I'm so proud of that.

142
00:07:05,534 --> 00:07:11,048
(Applause)

143
00:07:11,048 --> 00:07:14,144
But these three people
don't know each other,

144
00:07:14,144 --> 00:07:16,683
but they do have an awful lot in common:

145
00:07:16,715 --> 00:07:18,366
they're all problem-solvers

146
00:07:18,391 --> 00:07:20,457
and they are just
some of the many examples

147
00:07:20,489 --> 00:07:23,138
that I'm really privileged to see,
meet and learn from,

148
00:07:23,185 --> 00:07:25,270
in the examples of the work that I do now.

149
00:07:25,270 --> 00:07:27,384
I was really lucky
to have them all featured

150
00:07:27,384 --> 00:07:29,949
on my Corporation
for Public [Broadcasting] radio show

151
00:07:30,012 --> 00:07:31,412
called thepromisedland.org.

152
00:07:31,412 --> 00:07:33,368
They're all very practical visionaries,

153
00:07:33,368 --> 00:07:35,824
they take a look at the demands
that are out there,

154
00:07:35,824 --> 00:07:37,974
beauty products,
healthy schools, electricity

155
00:07:37,974 --> 00:07:40,411
and how the money is flowing
to meet those demands.

156
00:07:40,411 --> 00:07:43,715
And when the cheapest solutions
involve reducing the number of jobs,

157
00:07:43,715 --> 00:07:45,466
you're left with unemployed people,

158
00:07:45,466 --> 00:07:47,071
and those people aren't cheap.

159
00:07:47,071 --> 00:07:50,799
In fact, they make up some of what I call
the most expensive citizens,

160
00:07:50,799 --> 00:07:52,918
and they include
generationally impoverished,

161
00:07:52,918 --> 00:07:55,124
traumatized vets
returning from the Middle-East

162
00:07:55,124 --> 00:07:57,187
and people coming out of jail,

163
00:07:57,187 --> 00:07:59,976
and for the veterans in particular,
the V.A. said

164
00:07:59,976 --> 00:08:04,207
that there's a six-fold increase in mental
health pharmaceuticals by vets since 2003.

165
00:08:04,207 --> 00:08:06,449
I think that number is probably
going to go up.

166
00:08:06,449 --> 00:08:08,449
They are not the largest number of people,

167
00:08:08,449 --> 00:08:10,386
but they are some of the most expensive,

168
00:08:10,386 --> 00:08:12,798
and in terms of likelihood
for domestic abuse,

169
00:08:12,862 --> 00:08:16,223
drug and alcohol abuse,
poor performance by their kids in schools

170
00:08:16,249 --> 00:08:18,858
and also poor health
as a result of stress.

171
00:08:18,858 --> 00:08:23,435
So these 3 guys all understand
how to productively channel dollars

172
00:08:23,435 --> 00:08:26,565
through our local economies
to meet existing market demands,

173
00:08:26,565 --> 00:08:29,176
reduce the social problems
that we have now

174
00:08:29,176 --> 00:08:31,070
and prevent new problems in the future.

175
00:08:31,070 --> 00:08:33,370
And there are plenty
of other examples like that.

176
00:08:33,370 --> 00:08:36,490
You know, one problem:
waste handling and unemployment.

177
00:08:36,490 --> 00:08:38,602
Even when we think
we talk about recycling,

178
00:08:38,602 --> 00:08:41,082
lots of recyclable stuff
ends up getting incinerated

179
00:08:41,082 --> 00:08:44,770
or in landfills, and leaving many
municipalities' diversion rates...

180
00:08:44,770 --> 00:08:46,690
They leave much to be recycled.

181
00:08:46,817 --> 00:08:48,382
And where is this waste handled?

182
00:08:48,382 --> 00:08:49,787
Usually in poor communities,

183
00:08:49,787 --> 00:08:53,381
and we know that Eco-industrial business
with these kind of business models,

184
00:08:53,381 --> 00:08:56,050
there is a model in Europe called
the Eco-industrial park

185
00:08:56,050 --> 00:08:59,560
where either the waste of one company
is the raw material for another,

186
00:08:59,560 --> 00:09:03,438
or you use recycled materials to make
goods that you can actually use and sell.

187
00:09:03,438 --> 00:09:05,124
We can recreate these local markets

188
00:09:05,124 --> 00:09:09,722
and incenses for recycled materials to be
used as raw materials for manufacturing.

189
00:09:09,722 --> 00:09:13,116
And in my hometown, we actually
tried to do one of these, in the Bronx,

190
00:09:13,116 --> 00:09:14,655
but our mayor decided

191
00:09:14,680 --> 00:09:17,378
that what he wanted to see
was a jail on that same spot.

192
00:09:17,441 --> 00:09:21,012
And we wanted to create hundreds of jobs.

193
00:09:21,075 --> 00:09:23,967
The city wanted to build a jail,

194
00:09:23,967 --> 00:09:26,511
but after many years,
they abandoned that project.

195
00:09:26,536 --> 00:09:27,670
Thank Goodness.

196
00:09:27,987 --> 00:09:29,235
Another problem:

197
00:09:29,260 --> 00:09:31,181
unhealthy food systems and unemployment.

198
00:09:31,182 --> 00:09:33,083
Working class and poor urban Americans

199
00:09:33,083 --> 00:09:36,937
are not benefiting economically
from our current food system.

200
00:09:36,937 --> 00:09:39,865
It relies too much on transportation,
chemical fertilization,

201
00:09:39,865 --> 00:09:43,195
big use of water and also refrigeration.

202
00:09:43,195 --> 00:09:45,741
Mega-agricultural operations
are often responsible

203
00:09:45,741 --> 00:09:47,646
for poisoning our waterways and our land

204
00:09:47,670 --> 00:09:51,716
and it produces this incredibly unhealthy
product that costs us billions

205
00:09:51,716 --> 00:09:53,946
in healthcare and lost productivity.

206
00:09:53,946 --> 00:09:59,707
So we know that urban agriculture
is a big buzz topic this time of the year,

207
00:09:59,707 --> 00:10:04,053
but it's mostly gardening, which has had
some value in community building,

208
00:10:04,053 --> 00:10:07,437
lots of it, but it's not in terms
of creating jobs or food production.

209
00:10:07,437 --> 00:10:08,898
The numbers just aren't there.

210
00:10:08,898 --> 00:10:11,818
Part of my work now is really
laying the groundwork

211
00:10:11,866 --> 00:10:14,562
toward integrating
urban Ag. and rural food systems

212
00:10:14,562 --> 00:10:17,446
to hasten the demise
of the 3000-mile salad

213
00:10:17,446 --> 00:10:21,498
by creating a national brand
of urban grown produce.

214
00:10:21,498 --> 00:10:25,099
Every city uses
regional growing power and augments it

215
00:10:25,099 --> 00:10:29,297
with indoor growing facilities owned
and operated by small growers,

216
00:10:29,297 --> 00:10:31,251
where now, they're only consumers.

217
00:10:31,251 --> 00:10:33,308
This can support,
you know, seasonal farmers

218
00:10:33,308 --> 00:10:35,180
around metro-areas who are losing out

219
00:10:35,180 --> 00:10:38,303
because they really can't meet
the year-round demand for produce.

220
00:10:38,303 --> 00:10:42,414
It is not a competition with rural
farmers, it's actually reinforcements.

221
00:10:42,414 --> 00:10:46,167
And it allies in a really positive
and economically viable food system.

222
00:10:46,167 --> 00:10:49,238
The goal is to meet the cities'
institutional demands

223
00:10:49,238 --> 00:10:53,499
for hospitals, seniors' centers,
schools, daycare centers,

224
00:10:53,499 --> 00:10:56,533
and produce a network
of regional jobs as well.

225
00:10:56,533 --> 00:10:58,597
This is smart infrastructure.

226
00:10:58,597 --> 00:11:00,458
And how we manage our built environment

227
00:11:00,458 --> 00:11:04,152
affects the health and well being
of people every single day.

228
00:11:04,185 --> 00:11:06,182
Our municipalities, rural and urban,

229
00:11:06,182 --> 00:11:08,840
play the operational course
of infrastructures,

230
00:11:08,840 --> 00:11:10,523
things like waste disposal,

231
00:11:10,523 --> 00:11:13,809
energy demand, as well as social cost
of unemployment, drop out rates,

232
00:11:13,833 --> 00:11:17,912
incarceration rates and the impacts
of various public health costs.

233
00:11:17,912 --> 00:11:20,274
Smart infrastructure can
provide cost saving ways

234
00:11:20,274 --> 00:11:24,657
for municipalities to handle
both infrastructure and social needs.

235
00:11:24,663 --> 00:11:27,181
And we want to shift the systems
and open the doors

236
00:11:27,181 --> 00:11:32,104
for people who were formerly tax-burdens
to become part of the tax-base.

237
00:11:32,113 --> 00:11:33,979
And imagine a national business model

238
00:11:33,979 --> 00:11:36,568
that creates local jobs
and smart infrastructure

239
00:11:36,568 --> 00:11:40,171
to improve local economic stability.

240
00:11:40,186 --> 00:11:42,337
So I'm hoping you can see
a little theme here.

241
00:11:42,337 --> 00:11:44,258
These examples indicate a trend.

242
00:11:44,258 --> 00:11:45,911
I haven't created it,

243
00:11:45,911 --> 00:11:48,087
and it is not happening by accident.

244
00:11:48,162 --> 00:11:51,593
I'm noticing that it is happening
all over the country and the good news

245
00:11:51,618 --> 00:11:54,390
is that it's growing
and we all need to be invested in it.

246
00:11:54,414 --> 00:11:58,187
It is an essential pillar
to this country's recovery and I call it

247
00:11:58,187 --> 00:12:00,553
home(town) Security.

248
00:12:00,553 --> 00:12:03,198
The recession has us reeling and fearful

249
00:12:03,198 --> 00:12:06,900
but there is something in the air
these days that's also very empowering.

250
00:12:06,900 --> 00:12:12,730
It's a realization
that we are the key to our own recovery.

251
00:12:12,730 --> 00:12:15,975
Now is the time for us to act
in our own communities.

252
00:12:15,975 --> 00:12:18,652
We think local and we act local.

253
00:12:18,652 --> 00:12:21,711
And when we do that,
our neighbors, be they next door

254
00:12:21,711 --> 00:12:26,637
or in the next or next country,
will be just fine.

255
00:12:26,637 --> 00:12:31,022
You know, that some of the local
is the global.

256
00:12:31,022 --> 00:12:32,360
Home(town) security means

257
00:12:32,360 --> 00:12:35,655
that we're building our natural
defenses, putting people to work,

258
00:12:35,655 --> 00:12:37,755
restoring our natural systems.

259
00:12:37,755 --> 00:12:40,615
Home(town) security means
creating here at home

260
00:12:40,615 --> 00:12:43,381
instead of destroying it overseas.

261
00:12:43,381 --> 00:12:48,014
Tackling social and environmental problems
at the same time, with the same solution

262
00:12:48,014 --> 00:12:53,035
yields great cost saving,
wealth generation and national security.

263
00:12:53,035 --> 00:12:57,230
Many great and inspiring solutions
have been generated across America.

264
00:12:57,234 --> 00:13:01,278
The challenge for us now is to identify
and support countless more.

265
00:13:01,278 --> 00:13:04,810
Home(town) security is about
taking care of your own,

266
00:13:04,810 --> 00:13:09,034
but it's not like the old saying
"charity begins at home."

267
00:13:09,034 --> 00:13:12,780
I recently read a book called
"Love Leadership" by John Hope Bryant,

268
00:13:12,780 --> 00:13:15,560
and it's about leading in a world
that really does seem

269
00:13:15,560 --> 00:13:18,097
to be operating on the basis of fear.

270
00:13:18,097 --> 00:13:21,167
And reading that book made me
reexamine that fear because...

271
00:13:21,167 --> 00:13:22,977
I need to explain what I mean by that.

272
00:13:23,001 --> 00:13:27,538
See, my dad was a great man, in many ways.

273
00:13:27,538 --> 00:13:31,014
He grew up in the segregated South,
escaped lynching and all that,

274
00:13:31,014 --> 00:13:33,284
during some really hard times,

275
00:13:33,284 --> 00:13:37,434
and he provided a really stable home
for me and my siblings

276
00:13:37,434 --> 00:13:40,200
and a whole bunch of other people
that fell on hard times.

277
00:13:40,200 --> 00:13:43,851
But, like all of us, he had some problems.

278
00:13:43,876 --> 00:13:45,644
(Laughter)

279
00:13:45,669 --> 00:13:49,828
And his was gambling, compulsively.

280
00:13:49,907 --> 00:13:53,224
To him, that phrase
"charity begins at home"

281
00:13:53,249 --> 00:13:56,027
meant that my payday, or someone else's,

282
00:13:56,058 --> 00:13:58,369
would just happen to coincide
with his lucky day.

283
00:13:58,369 --> 00:14:00,252
So you know, you need to help him out.

284
00:14:00,277 --> 00:14:02,085
And sometimes I would loan him money,

285
00:14:02,086 --> 00:14:04,860
from my after-school or summer jobs,

286
00:14:04,860 --> 00:14:07,949
and he always had the great intention
of paying me back,

287
00:14:07,949 --> 00:14:11,217
with interest, of course, you know,
after he hit it big...

288
00:14:11,217 --> 00:14:12,574
And he did sometimes.

289
00:14:12,574 --> 00:14:15,074
We were at a racetrack in Los Angeles,

290
00:14:15,099 --> 00:14:16,305
one reason to love L.A.,

291
00:14:16,330 --> 00:14:17,751
back in the 1940s,

292
00:14:17,752 --> 00:14:21,148
he made 15,000 dollars cash and bought
the house that I grew up in.

293
00:14:21,148 --> 00:14:23,580
So I'm not that unhappy about that.

294
00:14:23,580 --> 00:14:28,196
But, listen, I did feel obligated to him.

295
00:14:28,913 --> 00:14:30,199
Then, I grew up.

296
00:14:30,224 --> 00:14:31,525
And I'm a grown woman now

297
00:14:31,557 --> 00:14:33,749
and I have learned a few things
along the way.

298
00:14:33,749 --> 00:14:39,622
To me, charity often is just about
giving because you're supposed to.

299
00:14:39,685 --> 00:14:42,621
Or because it's what you've always done,

300
00:14:42,621 --> 00:14:45,395
or it's about giving until it hurts.

301
00:14:45,395 --> 00:14:47,486
I'm about providing the means to build

302
00:14:47,486 --> 00:14:51,239
something that will grow and intensify
its original investment.

303
00:14:51,239 --> 00:14:54,270
And not just require
greater giving next year.

304
00:14:54,334 --> 00:14:56,445
Not trying to feed the habit.

305
00:14:56,445 --> 00:14:58,446
I spent some years, you know,

306
00:14:58,446 --> 00:15:01,070
watching how good intentions
for community empowerment

307
00:15:01,070 --> 00:15:06,146
that were supposed to be there to support
the community and empower it

308
00:15:06,146 --> 00:15:10,447
left people in the same, if not worse,
position that they were in before.

309
00:15:10,542 --> 00:15:15,566
And over the past 20 years, we've spent
record amounts of philanthropic dollars

310
00:15:15,566 --> 00:15:18,264
on social problems,
yet educational outcomes,

311
00:15:18,264 --> 00:15:20,934
malnutrition, incarceration, obesity,

312
00:15:20,934 --> 00:15:24,246
diabetes, income disparity,
they've all gone up,

313
00:15:24,246 --> 00:15:26,341
with some exceptions,

314
00:15:26,366 --> 00:15:30,244
in particular infant mortality
among people in poverty.

315
00:15:30,244 --> 00:15:34,296
But you know, what a great world
we're bringing them into as well.

316
00:15:34,296 --> 00:15:37,471
And I know a little bit about
these issues because for many years,

317
00:15:37,471 --> 00:15:41,668
I spent a long time
in the non-profit industrial complex.

318
00:15:41,668 --> 00:15:46,541
And I'm a recovering executive director,
two years clean, but...

319
00:15:46,541 --> 00:15:47,739
(Laughter)

320
00:15:47,739 --> 00:15:51,317
During that time, I realized that it was
about projects and developing them

321
00:15:51,317 --> 00:15:55,774
on the local level that really was going
to do the right thing for our communities.

322
00:15:55,774 --> 00:15:59,131
I really did struggle
for financial support.

323
00:15:59,131 --> 00:16:02,253
The greater our success, the less money
came in from foundations,

324
00:16:02,253 --> 00:16:05,538
and I tell you, being on the TED stage
and wining the MacArthur

325
00:16:05,538 --> 00:16:09,289
in the same exact year gave everyone
the impression that I had arrived.

326
00:16:09,300 --> 00:16:12,978
By the time I moved on,
I was actually covering

327
00:16:12,978 --> 00:16:17,205
a third of my agency's budget deficit
with speaking fees,

328
00:16:17,205 --> 00:16:19,153
and I think because earlier on, frankly,

329
00:16:19,153 --> 00:16:21,772
my programs were just a little bit
ahead of their time.

330
00:16:21,772 --> 00:16:23,918
But since then, the park
that was just a dump

331
00:16:23,918 --> 00:16:26,253
and was featured at the TED 2006 talk,

332
00:16:26,253 --> 00:16:29,301
became this little thing...

333
00:16:29,326 --> 00:16:32,967
But I did in fact
get married in it, over here...

334
00:16:33,062 --> 00:16:35,770
There goes my dog who led me
to the park at my wedding...

335
00:16:35,770 --> 00:16:36,770
(Laughter)

336
00:16:39,111 --> 00:16:40,413
The South Bronx Greenway

337
00:16:40,438 --> 00:16:44,215
was also just a drawing on the stage
back in 2006.

338
00:16:44,295 --> 00:16:48,251
Since then, we got 50
million dollars in stimulus package money

339
00:16:48,251 --> 00:16:50,256
that come and get here, and we love this,

340
00:16:50,280 --> 00:16:51,947
because I love construction now,

341
00:16:51,972 --> 00:16:54,433
because we're watching
these things actually happen.

342
00:16:54,434 --> 00:16:57,376
So I want everyone to understand
the critical importance

343
00:16:57,376 --> 00:17:00,460
of shifting charity into enterprise.

344
00:17:00,460 --> 00:17:04,223
I started my firm to help communities
across the country

345
00:17:04,223 --> 00:17:06,887
realize their own potential
to improve everything

346
00:17:06,887 --> 00:17:09,550
about the quality of life
for their people.

347
00:17:09,550 --> 00:17:12,213
Home(town) security is next
on my to-do list.

348
00:17:12,213 --> 00:17:14,163
What we need are people

349
00:17:14,163 --> 00:17:17,742
who see the value in investing
in these types of local enterprises,

350
00:17:17,742 --> 00:17:19,471
who are partnered with folks like me

351
00:17:19,471 --> 00:17:23,526
to identify the growth trends
in climate adaptation

352
00:17:23,526 --> 00:17:28,050
as well as understand the growing
social cost of business as usual.

353
00:17:28,054 --> 00:17:31,424
We need to work
together to embrace and repair our land,

354
00:17:31,424 --> 00:17:35,874
repair our power systems
and repair ourselves.

355
00:17:35,874 --> 00:17:41,827
It's time to stop building the shopping
malls, the prisons, the stadiums,

356
00:17:41,837 --> 00:17:45,817
and other tributes
to all of our collective failures.

357
00:17:45,817 --> 00:17:51,147
It is time that we start building living
monuments to hope and possibility.

358
00:17:51,147 --> 00:17:52,381
Thank you very much.

359
00:17:52,406 --> 00:17:54,732
(Applause)