Urban EcoBlock stands in unanimity with the Black Lives Matter (BLM) movement and endorses EcoDistricts’ BLM racial equity statement. This demands not only substantial changes to policing and justice systems, but also the elimination of racial discrimination and inequities related to land ownership.  For too long the destiny of African Americans has been diminished by the manipulation of land and uses which perpetuate systems that enrich European-Americans and extract labor and wealth from Black and poor people

In order to create flourishing communities, we need to redesign the processes that led to a segregated society with racial and economic inequity. We must start by valuing people and place first, and evaluating profit by its benefit to those primary values. 

The Urban EcoBlock’s social model seeks to cast off old patterns of development by revising the basic unit of a city’s infrastructure, the block, to function more equitably. To ensure an inclusive process of community design and development, we have developed an EcoCode that requires community engagement. To create and maintain a block that is economically diverse, we intend to use a Community Land Trust. The CLT will be designed and used to create parity for all people, including guaranteed affordable housing to promote diversity in income and lifestyle. It will also foster individual and common ownership, while promoting environmental stewardship, democracy and racial equity.