Financial Katrina: The Mortgage and Foreclosure Crisis as a Flashpoint for our Urban Future

About 9 months ago I gave my first conference "presentation" - well a cross between an academic talk and activist workshop. The audio file is up on the website for WCRS Columbus. It was fun - I got to mash up work by David Harvey, the Kirwan Institute, and my own investigations into Ohio's foreclosure crisis, and get people pumped to fight gentrification in Columbus.

It's the 3rd file down, jump to the 4:20 mark to start - everything before that is folks introducing themselves, and the audio quality is bad.

Title: A Financial Katrina: The Mortgage & Foreclosure Crisis as a Flashpoint for our Urban Future

Conference: Confronting Racism: Building United Movements

Held on the Campus of The Ohio State University, May 16th 2009

And by way of teaser, here is an into to the talk...

We all know about the devastation wrought by Hurricane Katrina in New Orleans back in 2005. Many also know that the hurricane caused a disproportionate gutting of poor black neighborhoods, and that these neighborhoods lag behind in bouncing back compared to other areas of the city. Those involved recognize that the city’s response to this situation has the capacity to change the face of New Orleans as we know it, and so fierce political battles rage over how to rebuild, what, and where.

What few people realize is that what happened in New Orleans is happening now in cities all across the country as a result of the mortgage and foreclosure crisis. Lower income communities of color are gutted, houses and apartment complexes sit vacant and deteriorating, and whole swaths of the city are suddenly “up for grabs.” I argue that an appreciation of what is at stake, a “Financial Katrina” in Ohio’s cities, demands a more alarmed response from anyone concerned about urban social justice.