Artwork stating 'Education Destroys Barriers', 'We Demand Treatment', and 'I Need A Chance'

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  • Why Public Transportation Works Better Outside the U.S.

    American cities can find solutions to low transit use by looking to other cities in Europe and Canada where the focus is on robust service and getting people to major transit hubs. These transportation systems use existing infrastructure and space with strategy so that transit is efficient and affordable. This in turn means more people are likely to use it because service is better.

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  • Underneath This 'Pop-Up Forest' Is an Abandoned Highway

    When the Innerbelt, a freeway in Ohio, was discontinued, a designer named Hunter Frank threw a party to liven up the space. From there, he pushed to transform it to a permanent greenspace. “There’s value in simply letting people use a space and allowing their behavior to inform a more permanent plan,” reporter Alan Greenblatt writes. While local governments often focus on planning and details, the success of the “Innerbelt National Forest” can be attributed to experimentation: kids playing alongside live music and trees may be what allows the “forest” to stay.

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  • Fight for Cleaner Air in the Bronx

    The New York-based organization, Sustainable South Bronx, is working to reverse the public health effects, namely asthma, that poor air quality has caused. The initiative works to educate residents about the environmental hazards they face while also working to reverse those hazards with projects like reflective roof coatings. With pollution disproportionately affecting low-income communities, the city too is taking steps toward reducing emissions in these areas.

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  • Students explore nature in densely built Los Angeles

    A principal in one of the most park-poor and low-income areas of LA is imploring students to "find nature in the unlikeliest of places." By setting up a community garden, sharing a passion for birdwatching, and sparking interest in the schoolyard's habitat, Brad Rumble is instilling in future stewards the key principles of urban conservation.

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  • Citizen Engagement 101

    The Citizens Planning Institute has equipped 500 residents with the relationships and the know-how to make a difference at the local level in their communities. The institute is a seven-week course supported by a city’s Planning Commission, and these institutes now exist across the U.S. and even are spreading as far as Australia. By engaging with local civic leaders, ordinary citizens have a chance to learn and then make improvements that are meaningful to themselves and their neighborhoods.

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  • 'For me, this is paradise': life in the Spanish city that banned cars

    Rather than attempt to change traffic flow, the city of Pontevedra cut straight to the source of their congestion frustrations; they eliminated cars from their streets entirely. The city center, which now fills to the brim with walkers and bicyclists each day, has seen a massive reduction in traffic accidents and carbon emissions since closing the streets to cars.

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  • Minneapolis would like to cure your dockless bike-share skepticism

    In Minneapolis, the nonprofit behind the city's bike share system plans to expand with a dockless model that will bring bikes into more neighborhoods while addressing some of the issues that model has encountered in other cities with bikes left in haphazard locations. Nice Ride will work with neighborhoods and city officials to create designated drop off zones and use a GPS system to find missing bikes. This cuts down on the docking infrastructure cost and allows more rapid expansion.

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  • Much to Do about (Vacant) Lots

    In St. Louis, Philadelphia, Detroit, and other postindustrial cities, community organizations and city officials are trying a number of methods to reduce the number of empty lots and vacant houses that plague neighborhoods. As opposed to earlier, one-off programs, cities are now forging coordinated approaches that acknowledge the systemic issues underlying persistent vacant land -- for example, in St. Louis, an inventory of all vacant properties is shaping the work of a series of related city initiatives.

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  • Tel Aviv tries to connect an isolated neighborhood

    The goal of The Platform, a new entrepreneurship and coworking hub in a struggling area of Tel Aviv, “is to start solving big as well as local urban problems through social-technological entrepreneurship.” The tech accelerator it offers has spurred the development of an app intended to bring neighbors together as well as a special type of motion sensor that helps people with physical disabilities. The coworking space portion provides a gathering and event space for skills training and more. The founders are even hoping other cities will adopt this model.

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  • No helmets, no problem: how the Dutch created a casual biking culture

    Most people in Holland ride a bicycle every week thanks to a widespread public commitment to a biking culture and infrastructure where everyone feels welcome. That includes very visible dedicated bike paths designed for the most sedate cyclist, courses teaching children safe cycling skills, and connections to combine biking and transit. Most Dutch don't need helmets because rather than making bicyclists dress to confront danger, the country has made the environs safer for cyclists.

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