Leadership Block by Block

Many of us began the morning the way Chicago deserves to be experienced – on foot. We invested a few hours in exploring the Fulton Market District, a recently modernized neighborhood of former warehouses and factories now filled with the kind of energy that only cities generate: good coffee, boutique everything, the hum of people who have somewhere to be. 

Then we got on a bus. 

What unfolded through the window over the next thirty minutes was one of the more quietly instructive things we witnessed on this trip. Block by block, the amenities thinned. The streets, which had been relatively clean in the Loop, grew increasingly littered as we moved west. It wasn’t announced; nobody narrated it. We just watched and understood that this is what structural barriers and disinvestment look like from a bus window. By the time we arrived at N. Lotus Avenue, it was clear that we weren’t in Fulton Market anymore. 

As we turned onto N. Lotus Street to meet with the community organization My Block, My Hood, My City, we were welcomed by a sign outlining the values of the neighborhood: protecting neighbors, no drugs, clean and litter-free, no working on cars – we take pride in our block. It was a public declaration of who the people on this street intend to be, directed at anyone entering. The sign was weathered but legible, and we were able to reset the posts with concrete, shoring up its foundation. 

The sign struck us because Class 55 has been doing something similar – working on our own norms as a cohort, trying to articulate what kind of community we want to be to each other. There is something clarifying about seeing that same instinct expressed on a street sign on the West Side of Chicago. The impulse to declare your values, to protect your community, and to take pride in your block doesn’t require many resources, but it does demand commitment. 

We met with My Block, My Hood, My City, a community organization built on the premise that Bintu Njie, the Director of Development, put simply and directly: clean communities are safe communities. Armed with rakes, shovels, garbage pickers, bags, and all the energy a group of agricultural leaders from California could muster, Class 55 got to work. Gutters were raked. Rubbish was collected. By the time we were done, twenty bags of garbage and nine bags of clippings had been removed from the neighborhood – a small act with visible results. 

And among it all there was Ms. Diana. Diana Graham has lived on the Block for 54 years and she leads the Lotus Neighbors for Action, carrying the kind of knowledge that only comes from staying – from choosing, year after year, to remain committed to her values. She told us how the Block has changed, for better and for worse. What struck us most was her disposition: she wasn’t strictly spending her energy on fixing what wasn’t working, she was also looking for the good. Before we left, she said something that has stayed with us since:  “Not every block has this we have love. You’ve got nothing without love.” 

It is a powerful word to use in a leadership context, but she used it without hesitation. I think she was right to do so. The work we do in agriculture – the decisions we make about land, water, community, and legacy – is ultimately relational and our program’s Diamond Model speaks specifically about transformation through relationships underscored by love. Leadership at its best is an act of love: for the people you serve, the land you steward, and the generations who will inherit what you leave behind. 

No trip to Chicago would be complete without sampling its iconic deep-dish pizza. Lunch was served at the neighborhood’s legendary Lou Malnati’s Pizzeria. We soaked up the ambiance of the long-standing establishment, adorned with Chicago sports memorabilia, reflecting on the morning’s work and the visible contrast between the neighborhoods we had experienced before the clock even hit noon, a reminder that place shapes opportunity, and people shape place. 

After lunch, we took a walking tour of the North Lawndale neighborhood, guided by Remel Terry and Matt Weiss from Equiticity, a nonprofit organization championing racial equity and neighborhood mobility. Joining them was Theo Thompson, co-founder of the Young Doctors Club, also based in North Lawndale. Together, these three leaders and residents shepherded our large cohort down Route 66 and through the neighborhood. 

Throughout the tour, Remel, Matt, and Theo highlighted bright spots in North Lawndale, including the Bikeforce Workforce Development Center, the Carole Robertson Center for Learning, and the Firehouse Community Arts Center. They also spoke candidly about areas of need: limited transportation options within the neighborhood and into downtown Chicago, unfriendly pedestrian crossings – something Class 55 experienced firsthand while crossing a busy six-lane road in just 22 seconds – and, most notably, a food desert marked by the absence of a single grocery store. 

Equiticity is working toward meaningful change by improving transportation equity through initiatives like the Mobility Opportunities Fund, which aims to provide climate-friendly, health-promoting, and affordable transportation options for low- to moderate-income residents. Their upcoming project, the Go Hub – located a quarter block from the Pulaski Pink Line station – will offer a loaner fleet of e-bikes, e-scooters, and shared electric vehicles to expand mobility within the community. 

“A neighborhood where all amenities – including grocery, medical care, and third spaces – are walkable and accessible for the entire community.” – Remel Terry 

Today was, in many ways, the throughline of everything Class 55 has been working to understand about leadership: that it is local, relational, and the arc is long. It shows up on a weathered street sign and in 54 years of choosing to stay. It shows up in a neighborhood walking tour that names both the bright spots and the gaps without flinching. And it shows up at a lunch table, in conversations about what we saw from a bus window and what we intend to do about it. 

The people we met today – Diana, Bintu, Remel, Matt, and Theo – are not waiting for someone else to lead. They are doing it, block by block, hub by hub, neighbor by neighbor. That is the kind of leadership Class 55 is being shaped to practice: rooted, committed, and clear about the values we choose to declare. 

With reflective minds and thankful hearts,

Lauren, Drew, Sam and Class 55