Mt. Airy Neighborhood Diversity Initiative
MANDI (Mt. Airy Neighborhood Diversity Initiative) is a multiracial group of neighbors in Mt. Airy inspired by the Black Lives Matter movement. MANDI came together to learn more and to identify strategies for preserving neighborhood racial and economic diversity.
Mt. Airy is widely recognized as one of the first successfully integrated places in the United States. Historically, residents organized to resist practices such as blockbusting, panic selling, and redlining that work to limit racial, ethnic and socioeconomic diversity.
But in recent years, the neighborhood has experienced soaring housing prices and rents, putting more and more properties in the neighborhood out of reach for those who don’t have a higher-than-average household income or access to family wealth. The impact is significant for Black people, whom our country has systematically excluded from accruing wealth, through housing segregation and other forms of discrimination. Over the past few decades all of the census tracts in East and West Mt. Airy have become more white, threatening the diversity that has been central in making the neighborhood a vibrant and thriving community.
We committed to listening to community voices to help in identifying the best approaches to maintaining neighborhood diversity through supporting current Black residents as well as attracting new Black families. MANDI organized a listening campaign to address that problem.
We heard passionate feedback, both about the deep love and appreciation that Black residents have for Mt. Airy and also grave concerns about changes in the community. We’ve created a three-minute video sharing what we’ve learned. We want to spread the word to invite more Black families to consider Mt. Airy as a great place to live and work.
Please help us raise money to finish the production costs. Total production costs are $2,000. We’ve already raised $1,000.