Street trees are more than just beautiful additions to cities and towns — they also provide many economic and practical benefits, from prolonging the life of road surfaces to lowering energy bills. Here’s why you should invest in some trees.
Read MoreWisconsin offered a $3 billion dollar subsidy to Foxconn and were promised a $10 billion factory and 13,000 jobs in exchange. Instead, the locals got three empty buildings, a few hundred jobs, and a mountain of debt. Sorry, Wisconsin. As Ronny Chieng from the Daily Show put it, “You got catfished.”
Read MorePublic bathrooms are an essential component of people-centered places. In addition to maintaining public health, they encourage foot traffic and community, as people are more likely to frequent an area when they know bathrooms will be available — especially if they have children or medical conditions.
Read MoreHow do we get philanthropy involved in community building, and how do we make good investments in our cities and towns? How do we access federal programs and bigger resources effectively?
Read MoreHere’s a local program that began with seeing a struggle in the community—and made a humble, but impactful, attempt to respond to it.
Read MoreDesign doesn’t necessarily make a community, but, as this neighborhood in St. Paul, MN, shows, it does matter.
Read MoreIn today’s cities, governments sink millions of dollars into public investments before securing any taxable private wealth to fund said investments. This is a financial risk we can’t afford to continue taking on.
Read MoreYour city’s long-term resilience requires paying attention to the little things.
Read MoreWarren Buffet has broken his practice of “staying out of local politics" to criticize a streetcar project in his home city of Omaha, NE…but why does he have nothing to say on the city’s ridiculous and reckless highway projects?
Read MoreThis video about a recent street redesign project in Selkirk, Manitoba, shows just how cities should be communicating with their residents.
Read MoreYet another failed mall (this time in Milwaukee, WI) proves to be a drag on—and an active harm to—its surroundings.
Read MoreRepresentatives from Norwood, OH, went to visit their counterparts in Jasper, IN, after facing off in this year’s Strongest Town Contest. Here’s 7 reasons the Norwoodians found Jasper to be a worthy champion!
Read MoreWhat can these 3-D crosswalks teach us about investing in our communities’ needs?
Read MoreUnless we start making better accounting choices today, we’ll be facing service cuts and tax increases every year going forward. …That is, until the day we can’t anymore.
Read MoreThis small town in Maine is hoping to breathe life back into its Main Street…but is looking for solutions in all the wrong places.
Read MoreWe must stop seeing poor neighborhoods as "bad" neighborhoods, and instead understand them as intrinsically goods ones, whose problems are addressable if we empowered the people who care about them.
Read MoreAn unproductive intersection looks different to different people: engineers, departments of transportation, tax assessors, etc. But bringing it to life starts with seeing it through still someone else’s eyes.
Read MoreParks, libraries, and public spaces aren’t just “nice amenities.” They are vital to our recovery, rebuilding, and longterm prosperity.
Read MoreSmall investments in poor neighborhoods are the best way for a community to build wealth. They are also the best way to lift people out of poverty without displacing them from their neighborhood.
Read MoreHacer inversiones pequeñas en barrios pobres es el mejor modo de aumentar la riqueza. También, son el mejor modo de ayudar a la gente a salir de la pobreza sin desplazarse del barrio.
Read More
