Artwork stating 'Education Destroys Barriers', 'We Demand Treatment', and 'I Need A Chance'

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  • Philadelphia's Secret Ingredient for More Civic Engagement: a Lot of Food

    Food and common passions are bringing people together for solutions-oriented conversations about the communities they live in. The Knight Foundation’s “On the Table” series started in Chicago and has now expanded to 30 cities. It’s an all-day event to encourage civic dialogue.

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  • California Wildfires Destroy Homes and Lives. Why Do Regulators Encourage Building in Fire Zones?

    In California, Proposition 103 – a decades-old ballot initiative – disincentivizes homeowners affected by wildfires to rebuild in less fire-prone zones. The proposition – which can only be reversed through another ballot initiative – bars insurers from raising their rates based on future risks, meaning people who live in fire zones are not paying a higher rate. Furthermore, because of these regulations and the lack of response to the problem, insurance agencies often err on the side of caution and won’t sell policies at all, leaving some people uninsured entirely.

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  • Tanzanian Farmers Crack the Code for Fighting Land Grab

    Indigenous people in Tanzania are using “legal expertise, political pressure and smart solutions like land mapping to win back plots — and then secure them — from corporations they accuse of using loopholes to grab territory.” While indigenous people live in most of the world’s land, they legally own less than ten percent of it. By mapping their territory and publically registering land, it is much harder for corporations to take control.

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  • To solve its housing affordability crisis, Boston has turned to residents

    When local policy initiatives fail, it is often because they are not meeting local needs in a way that residents want. The Boston Housing Innovation Lab, know as the iLab, seeks to combat this challenge. So far, it has used creative approaches to let residents “experience” a policy- such as walking through an example compact house to give feedback on its design. This process informed feedback that otherwise would have been difficult to glean. By constantly seeking to understand users, the iLab and local Boston housing groups will be better equipped to create policies that actually help community members.

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  • Diverse Immigrant Communities Unite to Preserve TPS

    By coming together on the national stage, immigrant communities campaign against cancellation of Temporary Protected Status (TPS). The work encompasses over 40 different groups operating around the US to advocate for TPS holders. The Journey for Justice Caravan, led by TPS holders in partnership with the National TPS Alliance, mobilized support across 30 states. Other groups, including African Communities Together, coordinated to file a lawsuit to block the Trump administration’s measure to cancel TPS.

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  • What San Francisco's Reform Of Fees And Fines Can Teach Chicago

    Recently, a coalition of community members and city government officials in San Francisco came together to rethink the way that the city issues fines and fees for minor infractions, which disproportionately impact low-income residents who already struggle in the country's most expensive city. Now, fees are reduced and can be paid in installments; the change has also been found to actually save the government money in administrative costs, rather than costing revenue as some critics expected.

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  • Silicon Valley voters just demanded that tech companies be responsible for their communities

    Taxing big tech is a popular idea among residents of cities profoundly shaped by the industry. San Francisco, Mountain View, and East Palo Alto have all approved new taxes pulling money from big tech to fund housing and homelessness programs, public transportation and bike paths, and local STEM education.

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  • Make Voting Easy

    Voter turnout is higher where voting is made easy. Consider one innovation: vote-by mail. States that allowed mail-in ballots had an average of 10 percent more voting in the 2016 election than other states. More innovations include pre-registering young voters, automatically updating a voter’s address when they move, automatically registering citizens unless they opt out, and same-day voter registration.

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  • From German trains to South Korean buses, hydrogen fuel is back in the energy picture

    Hydrogen fuel has made promising strides from Germany to Japan, thanks to shifting markets for renewables, improved storage technologies, and emissions-reduction goals. Electrolysis that uses renewables to make the fuel could transform transportation and energy infrastructure, but a few concerns about the unintended effects persist.

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  • Undocumented Black Migrants Build an Informal Organizing Network

    Grassroots organizers use mobile technology to spread information and resources to underserved immigrant communities. Groups like the Haitian Bridge Alliance and UndocuBlack mobilize legal and social resources for immigrants who belong to groups often characterized as “invisible” in the public discourse, because they represent such a small percentage of the migrant population. Mobile tech enables these nonprofits to publicize individual cases and quickly connect immigrants to appropriate social networks.

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