Papers
Urban Geography, 2020
In this piece, I consider how two emergent movements from the Lisjan Ohlone land of Oakland, Cali... more In this piece, I consider how two emergent movements from the Lisjan Ohlone land of Oakland, California, Moms 4 Housing and the Sogorea Te' Land Trust, are shifting the urban geographies of Oakland. As cities become increasingly unequal and exclusionary spaces, movements such as these urge urban scholars to act in ways that are accountable to the peoples who are being dispossessed, as they make demands of the city and/or build autonomous spaces amid mass dispossession. How might these movements push the methodological and conceptual possibilities of urban geographies as well as urban scholars' accountable relations to cities and their peoples. I consider what urban futures these two movements reveal amid a housing crisis that is tightly bound to long histories of colonial and racial capitalist dispossession in the Bay Area, and how these Black and Indigenous women-led movements offer routes toward housing justice and the decolonization of land.
Bookmarks Related papers MentionsView impact
Planning Theory & Practice , 2019
"In late February 2018 in Oakland, California, mayor Libby Schaaf posted a press release on Twitt... more "In late February 2018 in Oakland, California, mayor Libby Schaaf posted a press release on Twitter warning of an imminent immigration raid in the San Francisco Bay Area. The statement read, “My priority is for the well-being and safety of all residents – particularly the most vulnerable – and I know that Oakland is safer when we share information, encourage community awareness, and care for our neighbors”. Schaaf stated that she was exposing the raid not to cause panic, but to protect residents, and sure enough, a massive immigration sweep occurred that same weekend, with over 200 people being detained over a two-day period.
On a national scale, Schaaf’s actions were seen as a rebellious affront to the Trump regime, a progressive attempt to intervene in the federal government’s efforts to override the sanctuary status of cities like Oakland. The press flocked to report on the mayor’s actions, and by the end of the week Schaaf was being interviewed by national media as she was being lambasted by Trump, who called her a “disgrace,” and Attorney General Sessions, who stated “how dare you needlessly endanger the lives of our law enforcement officers to promote a radical open borders agenda”.
In Oakland itself, Schaaf’s actions were not seen as being quite as valiant as they were on a national level. Those of us who know Libby Schaaf’s politics and live in the day-to-day of her administration saw this public display of rebellion for what it was: a political stunt in an election year when Schaaf’s mayoral position was at stake. Schaaf’s Twitter charade was particularly deceptive in the way that she used the vulnerability of Oakland’s undocumented community for her own political performance, while her administration continually neglected those most vulnerable in Oakland’s current housing crisis: the undocumented and un-housed communities..."
Full citation:
Ramírez, M.M. (2019) ‘Propertied liberalism in a borderland city’, in Porter, L., Sanyal, R., Bergby, S., Yotebieng, K., Lebuhn, H., Ramírez, M.M., Figueirdo Neto, P., and Tulumello, S. Borders and Refuge: Citizenship, Mobility and Planning in a Volatile World. Journal of Planning Theory & Practice, 20 (1), 99-128.
Bookmarks Related papers MentionsView impact
Environment and Planning D: Society & Space, 2019
From the foreclosure crisis of 2008, to the tech boom-provoked housing crisis currently engulfing... more From the foreclosure crisis of 2008, to the tech boom-provoked housing crisis currently engulfing the San Francisco Bay Area, low-income residents of Oakland, California have been displaced from their homes at an alarming rate over the past decade. In this piece I draw from Gloria Anzaldua's Borderlands and engage with Black geographic thought, urban and sound studies to build a borderlands analytic. I consider how the "tension, ambivalence and unrest" of the borderlands provides a lens to understand the volatility of cities gripped by rapid gentrification. Using a borderlands analytic to make sense of the borders that are produced and policed in gentrifying cities, I consider how Black and Latinx life has been criminalized spatially and sonically so as to be displaced by forces of racial capitalist extraction. To do this, I look to the implementation of gang injunction zones in Oakland in 2010, and then to two moments in 2015 when the city's soundscapes were policed and criminalized. This piece centers the Black and Latinx geographies experiencing dispossession in Oakland, and considers how residents are imagining and fighting for their city's future.
Bookmarks Related papers MentionsView impact
Keywords in Radical Geography: Antipode at 50, 2019
Bookmarks Related papers MentionsView impact
Political Geography, 2018
Bookmarks Related papers MentionsView impact
Antipode, 2015
North American food scholars, activists and policymakers often consider how to make a community f... more North American food scholars, activists and policymakers often consider how to make a community food project more inclusive to ‘vulnerable populations’ to increase participation in local food efforts. Drawing from qualitative research conducted with two community food organizations in Seattle, Washington, I argue that inclusive efforts are not addressing the power asymmetries present in organizations and within communities. Engaging with black geographies literature, I reveal how a black food justice organization grapples with violent histories of slavery and dispossession rooted in a black farming imaginary, and works to re-envision this imaginary to one of power and transformation. The spatial imaginaries and spaces of each food organization acknowledge racial histories differentially, informing their activism. Black geographies possess knowledge and spatial politics that can revitalize community food movements, and I consider how white food activists might reframe their work so that their efforts are not fueling the displacement of residents of color.
Bookmarks Related papers MentionsView impact
Online Writings + Dialogue
Uploads
On a national scale, Schaaf’s actions were seen as a rebellious affront to the Trump regime, a progressive attempt to intervene in the federal government’s efforts to override the sanctuary status of cities like Oakland. The press flocked to report on the mayor’s actions, and by the end of the week Schaaf was being interviewed by national media as she was being lambasted by Trump, who called her a “disgrace,” and Attorney General Sessions, who stated “how dare you needlessly endanger the lives of our law enforcement officers to promote a radical open borders agenda”.
In Oakland itself, Schaaf’s actions were not seen as being quite as valiant as they were on a national level. Those of us who know Libby Schaaf’s politics and live in the day-to-day of her administration saw this public display of rebellion for what it was: a political stunt in an election year when Schaaf’s mayoral position was at stake. Schaaf’s Twitter charade was particularly deceptive in the way that she used the vulnerability of Oakland’s undocumented community for her own political performance, while her administration continually neglected those most vulnerable in Oakland’s current housing crisis: the undocumented and un-housed communities..."
Full citation:
Ramírez, M.M. (2019) ‘Propertied liberalism in a borderland city’, in Porter, L., Sanyal, R., Bergby, S., Yotebieng, K., Lebuhn, H., Ramírez, M.M., Figueirdo Neto, P., and Tulumello, S. Borders and Refuge: Citizenship, Mobility and Planning in a Volatile World. Journal of Planning Theory & Practice, 20 (1), 99-128.
On a national scale, Schaaf’s actions were seen as a rebellious affront to the Trump regime, a progressive attempt to intervene in the federal government’s efforts to override the sanctuary status of cities like Oakland. The press flocked to report on the mayor’s actions, and by the end of the week Schaaf was being interviewed by national media as she was being lambasted by Trump, who called her a “disgrace,” and Attorney General Sessions, who stated “how dare you needlessly endanger the lives of our law enforcement officers to promote a radical open borders agenda”.
In Oakland itself, Schaaf’s actions were not seen as being quite as valiant as they were on a national level. Those of us who know Libby Schaaf’s politics and live in the day-to-day of her administration saw this public display of rebellion for what it was: a political stunt in an election year when Schaaf’s mayoral position was at stake. Schaaf’s Twitter charade was particularly deceptive in the way that she used the vulnerability of Oakland’s undocumented community for her own political performance, while her administration continually neglected those most vulnerable in Oakland’s current housing crisis: the undocumented and un-housed communities..."
Full citation:
Ramírez, M.M. (2019) ‘Propertied liberalism in a borderland city’, in Porter, L., Sanyal, R., Bergby, S., Yotebieng, K., Lebuhn, H., Ramírez, M.M., Figueirdo Neto, P., and Tulumello, S. Borders and Refuge: Citizenship, Mobility and Planning in a Volatile World. Journal of Planning Theory & Practice, 20 (1), 99-128.