Next City

A Teenage Throwdown Against Evictions, the Graphic Novel Version

No Small Plans follows the neighborhood adventures of teens in Chicago’s past, present and future as they wrestle with designing the city they want, need and deserve.

The Great “Innovation” Rebrand of West Baltimore

Can a group of Charm City residents harness the tech economy to regenerate their neighborhood?

Climate Activists Pitch Mandatory Green Roofs for Denver

In Summer, Denver gets hot — so hot that it’s considered one of the most intense urban heat islands in the U.S. A new initiative would require that many new buildings have green roofs to mitigate that heat. Critics of the policy, however, say the city should incentivize, not require, the so-called “living roofs.”

https://nextcity.org/daily/entry/denver-climate-activists-pitch-mandatory-green-roofs

HUD Has Blight-Fighting Power in Its Back Pocket

A federal program to sell off underwater mortgages has enriched for-profit real estate investors. What if nonprofits and cities focused on neighborhood stabilization bought all of them instead?

https://nextcity.org/features/view/hud-troubled-mortgage-auctions-foreclosure-blight

David Piña holding a Carnavalero costume in his South Philadelphia restaurant. (Photo by Joshua Albert)

The Year Philadelphia Hired Diversity Consultants

Inclusivity is in. Casual racism is out. Have the Mummers gotten the memo?

The Urban Inheritance Trump Stands to Squander

Barack Obama spent eight years building a bridge between the feds and U.S. cities. What will the president-elect do with that trust?

https://nextcity.org/features/view/obama-urban-policy-donald-trump-inherits

Watching Philly Grocery Shoppers Is Changing How Cities Build Supermarkets

The city that pioneered food access initiatives continues to charge toward healthy eating.

Cassida Morris is caught between eras. Growing up in the suburbs of Philadelphia, she ate tomatoes off the vine and plucked apples for pie from her grandmother’s backyard. “We didn’t go to the store to buy produce,” she says, “because we grew our own.”

But when she moved to the city, got married and started a family on a limited income, it was a different story, a typical one: “You work, your kids go to school, I gotta feed you, but I’m not going to consider how to feed you nutritionally, because I’m stressed,” she recalls. “So you want chicken nuggets to be quiet? You can have chicken nuggets and French fries.” She tried to cook healthy for her children, but she definitely didn’t have the time to garden, and she knew something was missing. “So now you got guilt. Guilt and stress, because I know I should be feeding you a salad,” she says.

https://nextcity.org/features/view/philadelphia-grocery-stores-changing-food-deserts

Four Counterintuitive Things the Next President Needs to Do for Cities

“The way to empower cities is not to adopt a raft of new urban economic development policies. The last 75 years of urban policy have mostly been a failure. Instead of an urban policy, the next president should adopt a city power policy.”

(PHOTO BY PAUL GARGAGLIANO)

Seattle A.R.C.H. proposes to save a piece of the city's “Ramps to Nowhere.”

Top: The Tiuna el Fuerte Cultural Park hosts free urban art and dance classes for youth in the barrio. (Photo by Julio César Mesa)

Bottom: Children play at the Industrial Park in Los Cerrajones, a project by insitu, Oficina Informal and LAB.PRO.FAB. (Photo by Irina Urriola)

Advocates demonstrated for fair housing and better protections for renters at a Sacramento rally. (AP Photo/Rich Pedroncelli)

How urban planning and policy can answer the threats of rising temperatures and sea levels.

In our first “Quito Dispatch” from Habitat III, we discuss the role of municipal government, urban designers, planners and more in the implementation of the New Urban Agenda.

A woman peers from her home on the Manggahan floodway. (Hannah Reyes Morales)