Join Heights Conversations: Intersectionality of Pedestrian Safety on Thursday, March 10th from 7pm-8:30pm.  Featuring panelists Director of the Diversity Institute Dr. Ronnie Dunn, Cleveland journalist Angie Schmitt, CH-UH School District Coordinator of Safety & Security Ricky Watters, and Chair of the Cleveland Heights Transportation & Environmental Sustainability Committee Sam Bell, along with moderator John Piche of Heights Library, this event will explore the social trends that are putting people at risk. And why fundamentally, pedestrian safety is a problem of systematic, structural inequality.

“Intersectionality is a lens through which you can see where power comes and collides, where it interlocks and intersects. It’s not simply that there’s a race problem here, a gender problem here, and a class or LBGTQ problem there. Many times that framework erases what happens to people who are subject to all of these things.”

-Kimberlé Crenshaw [resource: Columbia Law School]

Crenshaw, who coined the term “intersectionality” in 1987, did so after noticing legal gaps in how people from marginalized or minority groups were treated by the law.  This legal use of the term intersectionality has broadened to social contexts as well — and in this forum, we will explore its application to pedestrian safety.

In her nonfiction book Right of Way, journalist Angie Schmitt shines a spotlight on social inequities revealed by pedestrian accidents and pedestrian deaths.  According to the book’s publisher, Island Press, “They don’t happen because of jaywalking or distracted walking. They are predictable, occurring in stark geographic patterns that tell a story about systemic inequality. These deaths are the forgotten faces of an increasingly urgent public-health crisis that we have the tools, but not the will, to solve.” More than 6,000 pedestrians are getting killed every year on American streets, representing an enormous 50 percent increase from the first part of the decade.

In cities like Cleveland Heights and University Heights, so often praised for being “walkable,” how do we see pedestrian safety being addressed, discussed, and prioritized? Join us for a panel discussion to dialogue about this often overlooked anti-racism, diversity equity and inclusion issue.

EVENT DETAILS:

When: Thursday, March 10, 7-8:30 p.m.

Location: Zoom!  Register here.

In preparation for this event, join Heights Libraries for the book discussion of Right of Way on Wednesday, March 2 @ 7pm on Zoom. Register here.

Heights Conversations is a partnership between FutureHeights, Heights Community Congress, Family Connections, Heights Libraries, Cleveland University Heights City School District, Reaching Heights, Road Printz, Compass Consulting Services, and the city of Cleveland Heights that is focused on creating spaces for dialogue surrounding anti-racism and equity issues within the community.