Wisconsin 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.”
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Working with your local engineers and transportation officials can be challenging. How do you collaborate with people who are often responsible for the bad infrastructure in your place? One successful group focuses on bringing positivity and concrete suggestions to the conversation.
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Like many U.S. towns, Maumee, OH, has a state highway that cuts through their Uptown. For decades, it’s been known as a dangerous road…but no longer: the city is taking back its streets and making them places for people, not cars.
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In Capitola, California, residents erupted in protest after Debra Towne, a beloved local senior, was hit and killed walking across a dangerous stroad. And unlike in so many other places, the city actually responded.
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Monte Anderson is a local developer who sees it as his mission to revive his community—not only through neighboring relationships, but also by saving the abandoned and broken spaces.
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We have to end highway expansion and focus on projects that actually build wealth in our cities. If you’re not convinced, then read on.
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If any city or county wants to be effective in creating a safer street, they’ll develop multiple responses to calming traffic, instead of relying on only one or two changes that still prioritize thru-traffic.
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Searching for a place where people work together and things actually get done? Look no further than Jasper, IN, where a gorgeous downtown renovation serves as an example of a place that’s “built by many hands.”
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Local advocates in Langley, BC, are starting the conversations their city needs to hear if it wants to undo decades of investing in the Suburban Experiment.
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The battle against highway expansions can be one of the toughest fights an advocate will ever come up against. But as this Florida-based Local Conversations group has shown, persistence will eventually pay off.
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Residents of Chisholm, MN, have shown that you don’t need to invest a lot of time and money to bring value to your community, and to provide a space for entrepreneurship.
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Sixty letters of opposition from local advocates in Grand Rapids, MI, halted an irreversible decision: the teardown of five downtown buildings for surface parking lots.
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The next smallest step for your community doesn’t always involve changing a street’s design or making housing policy reforms. Sometimes, it’s as simple as asking questions and probing the thoughts of local leaders.
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For urban planner Samantha Carr in Toronto, ON, the first step for inspiring change in her community was to inspire a new way of thinking—and that’s why she’s started the Urban Thinkers Book Club.
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After one meeting and a little over $3,000, Medicine Hat, AB, decided to take a bottom-up approach to invest in a community-led program that has made better use of their public parks and children’s playgrounds.
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Each year on Parking Day, coveted curbside parking spaces in Denton, TX, are claimed by couches, games, potted plants, information tables, and conversations about the city’s future.
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When residents of Medicine Hat, AB, flagged a school crosswalk as dangerous, the city responded quickly with bollards and paint—showing that cities can (and should) implement street design changes before tragedy occurs.
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Armed with paint and traffic cones, this Local Conversation group in Portland, OR, made a dangerous intersection safer to cross…in only 80 minutes!
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This neighborhood organization creates safe street design and stops speeding, but they might have to wait five years for a permanent fix.
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Not only does supporting local farms help with your place’s local economy, but it also has the potential to create a flourishing and connected culture of people—as seen in these stories from Brattleboro, VT.
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