Imagine a Renters' Utopia. It Might Look Like Vienna.

Detroit offers a model for providing residents with no-interest loans to perform upkeep on their houses, thereby working to stimulate the local construction economy and improve quality of life.

An ambitious plan for the 69-acre Regent Park neighborhood is disrupting entrenched notions of class, race and religion, at a time when concerns over income inequality and immigration are growing.

In a rapidly gentrifying Mexico City neighborhood, two artists refurbished an icon and set up an altar for Santa Mari La Juaricua, a saint to protect residents from eviction. The saint raises awareness and acts as a reminder about housing issues and the icon has been taken up by the residents and has been used in processions and protests.

Ohio has more than 50 land banks, which are best known for reducing blight by demolishing old buildings, but several land banks are trying creative ways to enhance their land on a budget. Successful projects include a program for locals to redevelop old lots, a pop-up art gallery in a condemned house, and urban forests to make communities more welcoming. The collective effect of these projects is to revitalize cities all across the state.

Landed will pay for half a teacher's down payment on a home in exchange for a quarter of profits when the house is sold down the line. The San Francisco-based startup has recently arrived in Bellevue, where the median home price is hovering around $1 million.

A racially integrated middle-income housing unit in the Bronx serves both as an inspiration and an enigma in the New York City housing market. Co-op City, which just celebrated its 50th birthday, accepts tenants of all income brackets and ethnicities, serving as a model in an otherwise quickly gentrifying neighborhood.

Police departments across the United States are implementing strategies and reforms in response to the growing number of unsolved criminal cases. With cold cases often linked to declined trust in police and the undermining of wellbeing in, typically urban, neighborhoods, these reforms are seeking to reverse course.

Old and neglected housing contributes to climate change because it runs on fossil fuels. In New York, outdated heating systems waste two-thirds of energy. The New York City Housing Authority is not only trying to create better, safer, livable affordable housing, but also cleaner and more sustainable housing. While the city is just beginning to explore how to do that, other cities, like Paris, have already begun the work of updating old buildings that are used for affordable housing and can offer a model for American cities.

Bozeman, Montana, a city grappling with how to plan for growth in a smart and strategic way, is looking to learn from Fort Collins, Colorado. The two cities are similar in terms of the features that make them appealing: once low-cost, small college towns with beautiful scenery and lots of space. Now, Fort Collins’ population has soared, and critics say development could have been smarter. Bozeman is learning lessons about planning and inclusivity, hoping not to make the same mistakes.

The Kansas City Streetcar provides fare-free transportation for residents, which helps to get them downtown and promote more economic development. The fare-free streetcar also makes transit more equitable by removing barriers for low-income passengers and improving mobility for people with disabilities.