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This old coal plant is now a solar farm, thanks to pressure from local activists

Adele Peters

January 03, 2019 |

FastCompany |

Multi-Media |

Under 800 Words

Response Location: United States, Holyoke, Massachusetts

Turning a coal plant carbon neutral requires a community effort. In Holyoke, Massachusetts, community organizers from the Toxics Action Center and Neighbor to Neighbor, a local Latinx organization, succeeded in getting the coal plant in their city shut down and transformed into a commercial solar farm. Today, Holyoke’s electric utility uses the solar energy as part of a carbon-neutral plan.

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Why Co-op City Confounds Stereotypes About Big Housing Projects

Adam Tanaka

January 03, 2019 |

Bloomberg CityLab |

Multi-Media |

800-1500 Words

Response Location: United States, New York, New York

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.

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How a Guatemalan Town Tackled Its Plastic Problem

Lola Mendez

January 03, 2019 |

Atlas Obscura |

Text |

Under 800 Words

Response Location: Guatemala, San Pedro La Laguna

San Pedro La Laguna, a town in Guatemala, has banned single use plastics including plastic bags and straws after realizing that plastic pollution was ruining the ecosystem of Lake Atitlan and that a new waste facility would be unable to handle the amount of garbage created in the village. To ensure that people follow the new regulation, there are heavy fees - but the town also bought traditionally made biodegradable replacements; the change is being framed as a way to return to traditional, indigenous ways for the communities.

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How to fix the gender pay gap? The firm that pays everyone the same

Helen Pidd

January 01, 2019 |

The Guardian |

Text |

800-1500 Words

Response Location: United Kingdom, Elland, West Yorkshire

In the midst of controversy surrounding large gender pay-gaps in the United Kingdom, a wholesale company called Suma adopts a "co-op" mentality and pays everyone - regardless of gender, experience, or age - the same salary. The equal structure at Suma encourages employees to take active roles in all departments of the company, allowing them to see operational structure and strategy on all sides of the wholesale process.

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Frozen Assets

Katia Savchuk

January 01, 2019 |

Mother Jones |

Text |

Over 3000 Words

Response Location: United States, Juneau, Alaska

In Alaska, the Permanent Fund Dividend (PFD) program, which is meant to provide $1600 to every resident who has lived in Alaska for at least a year, has been proven to reduce poverty and increase quality of life; the program has even been credited for Alaska's status as the state with the second highest income equality in the country. The Fund is meant to disperse wealth from the state's natural resources - but despite it's overall success, decreasing profits from the oil and gas industries has put the Fund in peril as lawmakers cut payments instead of implementing income taxes to generate revenue.

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How a Tech Geek Is Using Machine Learning to Hold Human Rights Abusers Accountable

Katia Savchuk

December 28, 2018 |

Pacific Standard |

Text |

1500-3000 Words

Response Location: United States, San Francisco, California

Patrick Ball, cofounder of the nonprofit Human Rights Data Analysis Group (HRDAG), has helped use quantitative data to put numbers behind things that were before unprovable — i.e. the difference between genocide and random violence. Ball and HRDAG have analyzed existing data to come up with the "invisible" data, overlaying several sets of statistics with machine learning to come up with stats like the fact that you were eight times more likely to be killed by the army in the Ixil region in the early 1980s if you were indigenous. Ball also advises nine truth commissions, four UN commissions, and more.

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With no oil cleanup in sight, Amazon tribes harvest rain for clean water

Dan Collyns

December 27, 2018 |

Mongabay |

Text |

1500-3000 Words

Response Location: Ecuador, Lago Agrio, Sucumbíos

Following decades of oil companies contaminating the water, indigenous groups in Ecuador’s Sucumbíos province have built systems for rainwater collection and filtration. These systems have provided people with clean water for drinking, cooking, cleaning, and bathing--a potentially powerful tool for other contaminated rural areas.

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Finland's 'housing first' homelessness strategy could help ease Toronto's shelter crisis

Laetitia Van der Vennet

December 26, 2018 |

CBC |

Text |

800-1500 Words

Response Location: Finland, Helsinki

As Toronto's local government strives to address the city's growing homeless problem, officials look to a model in Helsinki, Finland that swapped emergency shelters for permanent housing. Folks who move into these apartments pay what they can, and they're able to set down roots rather than move from shelter to shelter.

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How One County Became a Lab for California's Prison Reform

Abbie Vansickle , Manuel Villa

December 21, 2018 |

The Marshall Project |

Multi-Media |

1500-3000 Words

Response Location: United States, California

After San Joaquin County adopted a slew of criminal justice reforms, crime dropped by 20 percent, the lowest number in a decade. One of the things that was implemented were speciality courts aimed at decreasing arrest time and helping “former prisoners find jobs, housing and treatment for mental health and addiction problems.” Other measures include ending cash bail and racial bias training. “Crime has always been issue No. 1, but the narrative in this city is one about being a second chance city.”

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Building the next generation of 'guardian' cops — a blueprint for San Francisco?

Julian Mark

December 18, 2018 |

Mission Local |

Text |

Over 3000 Words

Response Location: United States, Washington

The Washington State Criminal Justice Training Commission has developed a training approach that emboldens police officers’ sense of guardianship by teaching empathy, how to build trust, and how to listen. As San Francisco’s police department grapples with how to be both guardians and warriors in their community, they seeks to adopt a similar model.

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