Listen to Matthew Desmond, Pulitzer Prize winning author’s take

by BikePGH Staff Contributor – Scott Bricker, Executive Director

My wife, Lena, recently came home carrying Matthew Desmond’s new book “Poverty, By America” and I was immediately curious if and how it might relate to our work at BikePGH to make our communities less car-dependent. We’ve cited this statistic countless times, but more than 20% of Pittsburgh households don’t have access to a car. To thousands of Pittsburghers, transportation (read cars) is their second largest household expense. 

I was excited to see that Streetsblog was able to land the Pulitzer Prize winning author of Evicted on their podcast, The Brake, to talk about “Poverty, By America,” the poverty abolitionist movement and its intersection with the livable streets/sustainable transportation movement.

Cars lack accessibility

One in nine Americans is living at or below the federal poverty line and many more people are stuck between poverty and insecurity living paycheck to paycheck. Transportation (cars), for a lot of people, is their household’s second biggest expense, because cars and their upkeep are expensive. 

“Zoning is a really good way to see the soul of a community and zoning reform can empower a community to begin becoming more inclusive. So many of us build walls around our neighborhoods and we hoard opportunities behind those walls. And this also creates communities a lot of us aren’t happy in. We need to tear down these walls to promote broad prosperity and better communities with more happiness and freedom.“

Matthew Desmond, Poverty, by America

Answer the call to become a poverty abolitionist

Matthew Desmond gives an important intersectional interview that encourages all of us to join the poverty abolitionist movement and do something. Much of the poverty discourse is about the poor, but this book is about what causes poverty and how we are all connected to the solution. 

What does this have to do with biking, walking and public transportation? A lot! In this interview the subjects of public transportation funding, highways, congestion, bike lanes, zoning, tax policy and NIMBYism are touched on.

Give this interview a listen, and consider reading the book which calls on everyone to become a poverty abolitionist to give more people more dignified lives and make us all happier.

The BikePGH staff and board are committed to becoming an anti-racist organization. We aim to educate and inform ourselves and supporters, listen to the experiences of marginalized communities locally and nationally, and work collaboratively with experts and advocates to address transportation inequities in Pittsburgh.

What is the Transportation Justice Learning Series and who is it for?

Since we, as an organization, intend to expand our knowledge and understanding of the inequities that exist in transportation, we thought we’d bring our supporters along with us. Our Transportation Justice Learning Series is for anyone who wants to actively listen to and learn from the lived experiences of marginalized people in Pittsburgh and hear from experts in fields, directly and indirectly, related to transportation. Through listening and intentionally soliciting feedback, BikePGH can further identify the areas that our work has fallen short.