Kindred Futures, Vivian’s Door and RUNWAY teamed up on Oct. 29th in Mobile, Ala., to host the Mobile Rooted Anti-Displacement Lab – a hands-on convening  to produce Mobile County–specific, actionable policy and practice recommendations that protect legacy businesses and open pathways for new entrepreneurs to launch and grow storefronts.

The goal: to improve commercial affordability, expand community ownership, build pathways from leasing to ownership, and strengthen local capacity to advance those solutions.

Kindred Futures Rooted Labs focus on commercial corridors facing structural change — where public investment, zoning shifts, redevelopment, and infrastructure decisions are reshaping who can stay, who can launch, and who gets priced out. Revitalization that does not protect what is rooted, or make room for what is coming next, repeats the displacement patterns of the past.

Using localized data and real-time scenario modeling, the lab produces strategies with cross-sector stakeholders and culminates in a short policy brief with follow-up support to carry the work forward.