Video: 2018 aarp livable communities conference: keynote address by keith benjamin

Back in Charleston, Benjamin and other city officials are enjoying — yet also struggling to address — the coastal city’s economic success and rapid population growth from major corporations

relocating to the area. Charleston, Benjamin reminds the audience, was the nation’s slave trade capital. “Over 40 percent of African slaves reached the British colonies before the American

Revolution and passed through our ports, the same ports where we now have every X-series BMW go through," he says. "We were the capital of despair and it has had reverberating

effects today.” One example: much of Charleston’s lower-income population is dependent on public transit to get around yet, says Benjamin, less than 10 percent of the 849 bus stops in the

region have a shelter or a bench.  “Equity in place is not simply the maturation toward inclusion," Benjamin says. "Equity is a tailored strategy that closes the gap between

opportunity and access, ultimately eliminating privilege. We have a history of transportation being unapologetically used as a tool to exacerbate inequity and create a greater distance

between opportunity and access.” In many communities, including in Charleston, not having a car is a barrier to financial stability and success, he emphasizes, adding that the availability

of public transit, speeds limits, street sizes, and even whether a street runs in one direction or two are among the ways transportation planning and engineering can embolden inequities. 

“Equity is an intentional elimination of disparities disproportionally impacting marginalized people in a community," says Benjamin. "It’s joining together to take proactive steps

and embracing the complexities of experience, elevating the potency of inclusion, exposing the creativity in every community — demanding honesty in our calling out of racism and oppression

both overt and systematic — and striving to empower its citizens to implement goals." "Equity is achieved when no one is blocked out from reaching their full potential no matter

their race, their gender, their sexual orientation, their disability, their economic position or any other social or economic determinant," he continues. "It is imperative that the

vision of our work that both you and I do does not perpetuate inequities by treating mobility, livability and safety as optional or inaccessible.” To change the way forward, Benjamin points

out that municipalities and other local governments need to change how they hire staff, sign contracts and determine their scopes of work. Another need is for more people in positions of

power and responsibility to mentor younger workers and students in order to build a workforce that can someday keep moving the work forward. Before leaving the podium, Benjamin again asks

his audience a question: “When are you going to jump off the sidelines and really get engaged in the work?" The only "qualification" for being able to change the system, he

explains, is a willingness to be a part of the shift. "We don’t have time to waste on being thorough and clear in our commitment to the work of livability, to our work of equity, to our

work of disrupting the norm," says Benjamin. "We need people who have their heads and their minds focused on acknowledging the mistakes of the past, on finding solutions at the

intersections, on graduating from equity just being sprinkles to being a priority in every social structure that we work in, and that we never allow what we don’t have to hold us back from

embracing what we can do.”    _Presentation summary by Melissa Stanton, editor, AARP Livable Communities_ 5 MORE QUESTIONS NEAR THE END OF HIS PRESENTATION, BENJAMIN PROVIDED THE AUDIENCE

WITH SEVERAL QUESTIONS TO ASK THEMSELVES. 1. What is missing from your definition of "for all"? 2. Who is not in the room from your community that needs to be part of this

conversation? 3. Have you institutionalized equity at your organization or have you just hired/partnered with it? 4. Who do you need to welcome in that you've been holding back because

of the accountability you will then be responsible for? 5. Where do you see opportunities to co-empower a community leader or advocacy partner to lead? ABOUT RANDALL "KEITH"

BENJAMIN, II Keith Benjamin has been the director of traffic and transportation for the City of Charleston, South Carolina, since 2017. In this position, which he assumed at age 29, Benjamin

oversees all transportation maintenance, planning and partnerships at the local, county and state level. He is also the city’s representative on the board of the Charleston Area Regional

Transit Authority, Charleston Aviation Authority and the Berkeley-Charleston-Dorchester Council of Governments’ Policy Committee.  A 2019 Leadership Fellow of the National Association of

City Transportation Officials, Benjamin previously served in the Office of Policy Development, Strategic Planning and Performance and as the head of the Office of Public Liaison at the U.S.

Department of Transportation. Prior to his federal service, Benjamin was the community partnership manager for the Voices for Healthy Kids Community Consortium with the Safe Routes to School

National Partnership. At the national, regional and local level, he provided technical assistance to policy campaigns in underserved communities, built coalitions, increased leadership

capacity, engaged elected officials, created advocacy resources and led the Nation Active Transportation Diversity Task Force. Benjamin has also previously represented the Transport Workers

Union of America, AFL-CIO, advocating on behalf of 200,000 members and retirees. He has also served on Capitol Hill, working for former Senator Carl Levin (Michigan), the Small Business and

Entrepreneurship Committee, the Senate Committee on Homeland Security and Government Affairs, the Committee on House Administration, former Representative Kendrick Meek  (Florida), and the

late Representative Donald Payne, Sr. (New Jersey). A 2018 Next City Vanguard Fellow, Benjamin served as a member of the National League of Cities Advisory Panel on Health Disparities, the

Better Bike Share Partnership Equity Panel, the National Working Group on Healthy Food Access with the Food Trust and the National Urban League and the National Capital Region Transportation

Planning Board, Citizens Advisory Committee. He has appeared in and written for publications by the American Journal of Health Promotion, Prevention Institute, Institute of Transportation

Engineers, Centers for Disease Control and Prevention and the American Planning Association, as well as _The Washington Post_, _The Root_, _Streetsblog_, _Urban Cusp_, _Huffington Post_ and

_Black Enterprise._ Benjamin is a graduate and deans awardee of Swarthmore College.  _Biography adapted from NACTO.org_ LEARN MORE More from AARP.org/Livable  Use the dropdown to choose a

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