The Center Street Neighborhood — a tight-knit, predominantly Black community — was destroyed by highway construction and city urban renewal projects. Our sense of community is tied to economic opportunity, and this hour, we explore this by starting with Richard Duncan, a former resident of the Center Street neighborhood, and his wife and documentary partner, Madison Deshay-Duncan. They have an upcoming documentary, The Center Street Story: Urban Renewal Retrospective.
Then we return to the wealth inequality of the Gilded Age with economist and historian Joshua Rosenbloom to see what parallels we can draw to today. Finally, union president Charlie Wishman shares how fewer manufacturing jobs and weakened unions harmed our communities.
Guests:
- Madison DeShay-Duncan, president at Community Legacy Matters, co-director of The Center Street Story: Urban Renewal Retrospective
- Richard Duncan, historian, narrator and co-director of The Center Street Story: Urban Renewal Retrospective
- Joshua Rosenbloom, research associate, National Bureau of Economic Research, professor in the Department of Economics at Iowa State University
- Charlie Wishman, president, Iowa Federation of Labor AFL-CIO
