How Mount Vernon turned an old industrial site into a stunning park

An Albuquerque program pays panhandlers to clean up city trash—and gets them needed help, pairing city services with a jobs program.

For a megacity with more than 18 million people in its metro area, Mumbai, India is not a particularly vertical city. Many of its inhabitants squeeze into low-rise slums crammed into the urban space. But an ongoing slum rehabilitation program seeks to clear these corrugated metal shacks and relocate the slum-dwellers to new high rises.

Mitigating homelessness on Los Angeles' infamous "Skid Row" comprises myriad obstacles. But a collaboration between city officials, a USC architecture class project, and the Skid Row Housing Trust has responded with a multi-pronged solution in "pod-style" housing units. They have composed a cost-effective pre-fab design technology that eases their transportation, on-site construction and visual imposition on a neighborhood, while the pods' zoning classification as "congregant housing" minimizes the risk for local opposition to homeless support services on claims of structural or aesthetic noncompliance.

In Philadelphia, the City Bright initiative is working to pay individuals experiencing homelessness to help clean up the streets in city neighborhoods. While it might not pay much and is not a silver bullet solution, incentives like recommendations and the small amount of pay can help - and are part of a larger trend around the country.

When Cristo Rey St. Martin College Prep, one of a national network of work-study high schools, was looking to move out of an outdated building, an abandoned big box KMart caught administrators' eyes. Strapped by a tight budget, the school creatively transformed the suburban eye sore into a colorful cross between a corporate headquarters and a college campus. Inspired by the school's success, other network schools are looking into vacant factories and grocery stores as new homes.

The focus on sound comes at a time when open kitchens and industrial hard-surface designs entice diners’ eyes, but might strain their ears.

Public art adds value to communities that have experienced decline in recent decades. In towns like Mansfield and Marietta, Ohio, public art plays a positive role. Murals created by groups like Mansfield Murals Inc., or by other local artists, enhance public buildings and offer a way for residents to connect and express their history. In Marietta, the Marietta Community Foundation funds the city’s Public Arts Committee.

To mark the 100th anniversary of the Tulsa Race Massacre, in which a white mob killed hundreds of Black residents and destroyed the thriving neighborhood of Greenwood, the Centennial Commission supported a number of initiatives to learn from the past and build a better future. At the base of an ancient elm tree that witnessed the massacre, Up With Trees distributed 100 elm seedlings to children to plant around Tulsa. The commission convinced state education officials to develop a new curriculum on the massacre for K-12 students.

Toni Griffin has gained recognition for spreading the concept of “just cities,” an approach to urban planning that involves values, justice, and equity as priorities in any project. Now director of the Just City Lab at Harvard’s Graduate School of Design, Griffin is teaching about the concepts of just cities and implementing them into projects, as well. Most recently, her design won a competition in St. Louis that will use green space to create more racially inclusive spaces in the city.

The nonprofit Coombs Outdoors runs summer and winter camps for youth to experience and learn about the outdoors. The camps are in high demand because of the affordable price made possible by donor subsidies.