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

Search Results

You searched for: -

There are 21 results  for your search.  View and Refine Your Search Terms

  • In San Diego, ‘Smart' Streetlights Spark Surveillance Reform

    A smart-streetlight program has helped businesses and residents by collecting a wealth of data to make parking easier, monitor air quality, and inform drivers, pedestrians, and cyclists of traffic patterns. But its use by the police to collect evidence of suspected crimes has prompted a privacy backlash. Police officials say the videos have been used only in serious crimes and have both incriminated and exonerated suspects. Critics say mission creep has led to improper surveillance of protests and racially disparate enforcement in minor crimes. City legislators are considering ways to regulate the practice.

    Read More

  • The City That Remade Its Police Department

    Since Camden began addressing its high homicide rate in 2012 with closer collaboration with the community and stricter rules on the use of force, both murders and complaints about police have fallen dramatically. As part of what is considered some of the most extensive police reforms in the country, the city put more police on the streets. That had both good outcomes (interactions outside of crises) and bad (a troubling increase in low-level arrests). But, when many cities’ police-brutality protests in 2020 turned violent, Camden’s did not.

    Read More

  • What Cities Are Doing to Stall Evictions and Foreclosures

    #StayAtHome has become a common hashtag in the fight against coronavirus. For those facing homelessness or evictions, this mantra is harder to follow. Cities are introducing new legislation to temporarily ban evictions and utility shutoffs.

    Read More

  • The Great Tulsa Remote Worker Experiment

    In an attempt to spur the economy and reverse years of a declining population, Tulsa, Oklahoma is paying remote workers $10,000 to live in the city for a year. The carefully-selected 100 members of this project, known as Tulsa Remote, are treated to subsidized housing, several perks, and a curated experience designed to create a sense of community and belonging in hopes that they choose to remain in Tulsa. The first phase resulted in 25 percent of participants purchasing homes, a step toward the long-term economic and social boost the experiment was designed for.

    Read More

  • A Group of Mothers, a Vacant Home, and a Win for Fair Housing

    Moms 4 Housing, a collective of women and their children, occupied a vacant 3-bedroom house in Oakland to secure housing for themselves and call attention to the Bay Area’s lack of affordable housing. Despite being removed and arrested by heavily armed deputies, the movement grew and the developer has agreed to sell the house to Oakland’s Community Land Trust at market value and offer the right of first refusal on other properties. The group also urged state senator Scott Weiner to introduce amendments to a bill currently under consideration that would protect affordable housing from developers.

    Read More

  • Car-Mounted Ads Take a New Direction: Data Collection

    A startup called Firefly uses a comprehensive approach to its sensor-equipped advertising screens by simultaneously showing advertisements on top of Uber and Lyft vehicles and collecting data about the drive and surrounding environment. While the technology is being piloted in five cities, officials try to solve privacy questions and concerns to ensure collected data can help cities to monitor pollution levels or collect sound data - not invade citizens' privacy,

    Read More

  • A Native American Tribe's Quest: Give Us Back Our Island

    In October of 2019, the city of Eureka, California returned stolen lands to the Wiyot Tribe, the region’s Native American people. This was done over a decade after a brutal massacre on the land, which is an island that had slowly become overgrown and deemed uninhabitable. The Wiyots worked every weekend for years cleaning up the land, and now, with a clean bill of health and the property rights, they can start to heal as a community together again.

    Read More

  • Does Baltimore Need a Crime-Tracking App?

    Citizen, a crime-tracking app that first made an appearance in New York and California, has launched in Baltimore, Maryland, a city with a crime rate that has skyrocketed in recent years. Alerting community members to crime happening at specific locations via curation by city safety officials, the app aims to help people feel more informed and safer while complementing more traditional emergency services.

    Read More

  • How to Design a Better City for Deaf People

    Gallaudet University has interior design and architecture built with the needs and preferences of people who are deaf or hard-of-hearing in mind. By analyzing the effects of lighting, color, space, and other design principles emphatically, restaurants and other public spaces can be similarly accommodating for individuals with different hearing abilities.

    Read More

  • The People Who Live in Their Cars

    Cities across the West Coast are facing increased rates of homelessness in their regions, including people who sleep in their cars; those experiencing vehicular homelessness have previously struggled to find a parking spot where they could sleep in peace, but new Safe Parking programs are providing that sanctuary. The Safe Parking programs across the region provide different amenities and security measures, but all the programs are currently strategizing how to scale programs and pay for them.

    Read More