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How Urban Planning Keeps Cities Segregated—and Maintains White Supremacy

Julian Agyeman

July 31, 2020 |

Yes! Magazine |

Text |

800-1500 Words

Response Location: United States, Minneapolis, Minnesota

Urban planning policies can lead to greater racial segregation, sometimes intentionally. While older policies could be explicitly racist, today policies such as zoning, which designates land for residential or industrial use, effectively excludes communities of color, immigrants, and households with lower incomes. Residential segregation leads to education, income, and health disparities. Minneapolis ended single-family zoning so lots can be converted to more affordable duplexes and triplexes and is working towards requiring new apartment projects to reserve units for low- to moderate-income households.

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How Lithuanian farmers help preserve endangered bird

Izabelė Pukėnaitė

July 30, 2020 |

Lithuanian Radio and Television (LRT) |

Multi-Media |

Under 800 Words

Response Location: Lithuania, Šilutė

A Lithuanian government program pays farmers to delay working in their fields in an effort to preserve the aquatic warbler, an endangered bird species. While there are 186 farmers who participate in the program, more work could be done to protect the birds around water bodies. Once farmers are able to cut their grass, they can bring their grass to a factory to make biofuel.

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Want More Housing? Ending Single-Family Zoning Won't Do It.

Emily Hamilton

July 29, 2020 |

Bloomberg CityLab |

Text |

800-1500 Words

Response Location: United States, Houston, Texas

Abolishing single-family zoning rules as an affordable-housing solution has failed in places such as Minneapolis and Oregon because their narrowly drawn reforms left other obstacles in place. Houston serves as an example of effective policies that promote "missing middle" housing – denser developments than detached houses – because it combined its lack of single-family zoning with a reduction in minimum lots sizes. The result is far more affordable housing than in other booming job markets. Lot-size restrictions are among several other rules that can frustrate the desire for more housing.

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From Rustbelt to Brainbelt

The Economist

July 23, 2020 |

The Economist |

Text |

800-1500 Words

Response Location: United States

Universities are a source of innovative economic activity for neighboring towns and cities. The entrepreneurial activity spurred by academic programs and the effect a large student body has on a college town's main street is significant. Cities become incubators for high-tech ideas that turn into money-making and employee-hiring companies and cities that retain college graduates can even refocus a city's failing economy like in the case of Pittsburg. Universities successfully make the case for investing in high-tech and innovative research centers to "jumpstart America."

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Will Community Gardens Survive Pandemic Budget Cuts?

Lela Nargi

July 23, 2020 |

FoodPrint |

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1500-3000 Words

Response Location: United States

The ability of community gardens to supply healthy food to those who might not have their basic needs met has grown in importance as coronavirus continues to spread across the United States. For example, the New Roots community gardening initiative in Salt Lake City helps nearly 150 refugee families raise food on plots, and about 86 percent of the gardeners report saving an average of $30 a week by growing their own food. However, the future of this program, and others around the country in New York City, Seattle, and Minneapolis, are uncertain as they face budget cuts from cities amid the COVID-19 pandemic.

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This tech is bringing water to Navajo Nation by pulling it out of the air

Kristin Toussaint

July 22, 2020 |

FastCompany |

Text |

Under 800 Words

Response Location: United States, Navajo Nation, Arizona

Zero Mass Water partnered with the Navajo Nation to bring water into the homes of rural residents who may not have easy access to a water source. Hydropanels that connect to a tap inside the home use sunlight to absorb enough water vapor to make at least 10 liters of water per day. While people at first were skeptical about the idea during a pilot test, the company and Navajo officials are hoping to scale the solution.

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Waiting for water: On the Navajo Nation, long lines, scarce resources, a cry for solutions

Ian James

July 22, 2020 |

AZ Central (The Arizona Republic) |

Multi-Media |

Over 3000 Words

Response Location: United States, Monument Valley, Utah

As the coronavirus spreads throughout the Navajo Nation, many people don’t have access to water to even wash their hands. For generations, the Navajo people have suffered with this lack of water infrastructure, but some solutions have been implemented. For example, the Johns Hopkins Center for American Indian Health has built about 100 hand-washing stations and delivered them to homes in need. Many people are hopeful they will receive more funding to build a more robust water system, but the scale of the problem and the cost of building it are big challenges to overcome.

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How Lightfoot and housing activists reached an uneasy détente in the battle for Woodlawn's future

Alex Nitkin

July 22, 2020 |

The TRiiBE |

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1500-3000 Words

Response Location: United States, Chicago, Illinois

After tense negotiations and protests, the Coalition for a CBA (Community Benefits Agreement) and the mayor of Chicago agreed to an ordinance guaranteeing a percentage of affordable housing for tenants making below 50% of median income. The coalition expects gentrification to accelerate due to the nearby $500 million Obama Presidential Center, making housing unaffordable for current residents. In addition to negotiations, the coalition organized a blockade of the mayor’s office and set up a “tent city” to emphasize their message. Not all residents want the ordinance and neither side got everything they want.

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The hidden hand that uses money to reform troubled police departments

Kit Ramgopal Brenda Breslauer

July 19, 2020 |

NBC News |

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1500-3000 Words

Response Location: United States

Smaller cities that cannot afford costly payouts for civil settlements in police misconduct cases rely on liability insurance, which can act as a regulator when insurers demand reforms up to and including disbanding troubled departments. While police killings have decreased in large cities over the past six years, they have increased in the suburban and rural areas served by the vast majority of police departments. “Loss prevention” measures that require policy and personnel changes have been proven to work, but insurance that fails to police the police can also shield cities from accountability.

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Tackling a notorious waste problem in Africa's largest informal community

Shi En Kim

July 16, 2020 |

Ensia |

Text |

1500-3000 Words

Response Location: Kenya, Nairobi

Kibra Green, a grassroots organization in Kenya, mobilizes the young people in the community to clean up their neighborhood. At times, the group has as many as 500 participants for a community-wide clean up. Yet, a lack of steady funding and socioeconomic barriers for volunteers to regularly contribute to the group has made it difficult to scale the organization.

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