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

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  • How This N.Y. Island Went From Tourist Hot Spot to Emergency Garden Audio icon

    For environmental organization GrowNYC, their one-acre teaching farm on Governor’s Island became a victory garden for New Yorkers who aren’t having their basic needs met during the COVID-19 pandemic. While future land development on the island could impact their work, the farm is on track to produce about 20,000 pounds of food that is distributed by other groups like the Black Feminist Project as free or low-cost coronavirus relief food boxes.

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  • Could leaving 'room for the river' help protect communities from floods?

    While many communities in the Midwest use dams and levees to control the Mississippi River, some are trying new approaches to flood control as climate change threatens to increase rainfall and the severity of storms in the region. Some cities are turning to the Dutch solution of leaving “room for the river” to allow the body of water to flow naturally and design public spaces to handle inundation. While this technique doesn’t always work during major flooding events, traditional flood control strategies can be more harmful and actually worsen flooding.

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  • The revolutionary boat powered by the ocean

    Since the Philippines relies on boats to transport people and goods across the island nation, a shipbuilding company is designing a new low-carbon alternative of the bangka — a traditional Filipino boat — that uses the waves of the ocean to power it instead of fossil fuels. The ship, known as the trimaran, uses wave energy that converts into electricity for the ship. However, a typhoon and the COVID-19 pandemic have delayed the project, and there are also cost and design challenges. But the trimaran’s use of wave energy could be a step toward reducing the country’s greenhouse gas emissions.

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  • How the ‘15-Minute City' Could Help Post-Pandemic Recovery Audio icon

    Some cities are using coronavirus shutdowns as opportunities to start infrastructure projects that support car-free living and encourage walking or biking to jobs, shopping, and city services. Car-free urban development benefits the environment, revitalizes cities by keeping resources local, and has become more appealing because of fears of virus spread. Paris, Milan, Tallinn, Ottawa, and Portland are among the cities using coronavirus-related lockdowns to kickstart bike lane and pedestrian zone projects. As the pandemic has decimated city budgets, it is a challenging time to begin infrastructure projects.

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  • Behind the Accidentally Resilient Design of Athens Apartments

    Athens's distinctive apartment buildings, known as polikatoikia, have unintentionally solved problems most cities grapple with. The housing complexes have given rise to a city that has socio-economic integration, decent living conditions, and well-lit apartments with ample outdoor space for fresh air. The varying heights of the buildings have allowed the city to avoid the austerity common for affordable housing projects and efforts to control costs resulted in a modernist design that gives Athens a unique roofscape. Additionally, the outdoor spaces foster a warm and welcoming sense of community.

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  • Going ‘Deep Green,' Office Buildings Give Back to the Planet

    More and more commercial real estate projects are popping up around the United States that are focused on “deep green” building. This movement suggests that it’s not enough to just make a building out of renewable materials, but they can also be self-sustaining. For example, the Watershed, an office building in Seattle, has a slanted roof that collects rainwater that is then used in toilets. These types of projects can be more complicated and expensive to build, but developers can save money in the long run with the improvements.

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  • Cracking the transportation bottleneck

    In Whitehall, Montana, a senior center and a nonprofit that helps rehabilitate individuals with brain injuries joined together to enhance public transportation services for "multiple constiuencies," including rural, elderly populations and for those who are living with a disability. Although Whitehall Public Transportation was not immediately popular, in 2019, over 27,000 riders utilized this new, free service to run errands, travel to appointments and local events or just to meet other community members.

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  • U.S. town creates local currency to boost coronavirus relief Audio icon

    Facing the economic strain from the financial fallout caused by the coronavirus crisis, Tenino is printing its own money like it once did in the wake of the Great Depression. The small town in Washington has issued at least $2,500 worth of wooden bills to exclusively be used for small businesses on Main Street. Thirteen residents have applied for the funds and $150 have been spent by residents on necessities as of June. Other small towns across the country have already sent inquiries to the mayor of Tenino, seeking to imitate Tenino's effort.

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  • Why Singapore Has One of the Highest Home Ownership Rates

    Affordable housing in Singapore has resulted in one of the highest rates of home ownership in the world. In 1964 the government embraced a "Home Ownership for the People Scheme" in which it gave lower and middle-income citizens access to affordable home ownership. Subsidized apartments were sold at low prices and were not to be sold for at least five years after which the real estate value had risen significantly. Apartments sold in 2009, for example, gained almost half a million dollars in value by 2020. New subsidized apartments are under construction and 16,000 have already been sold in the past year.

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  • Mosaic Development Partners works to bring people of color into the real estate market

    Mosaic Development Partners (MDP) seeks to create wealth for the black community in Philadelphia by providing affordable housing and creating opportunities in neighborhoods that are considered risky investments for typical real estate companies. The black-owned company has created housing as well as retail opportunities for minority and women-owned businesses who historically have a harder time accessing capital and loans. The company is mission-driven but operates on a for-profit model, finding economic solutions for systemic problems that have kept black communities from creating generational wealth.

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