Can Philanthropy Save a City?

After years of developmental stagnancy, the city of Waterbury, Connecticut puts into action a way for developers to renew buildings without having to take financial responsibility for previous owners' environmental waste. Through a public-private partnership between the city and development investors, developers have begun to break ground on renewing the city's dilapidated factories.

A multi-millionaire has poured money into his home suburb of Irlam, buying up empty stores, funding public art projects, and supporting the town center, sports center, health clinic, and train station. Employment is up, but this model of urban renewal raises ethical questions and may not be easily replicable.

Michigan's roads have been in disrepair for years. Now with increased private sector funding and partnerships between companies and the government, the state could start to see improvements in its infrastructure.

The city of Philadelphia has been experimenting and iterating on the development of a Juvenile Justice Hub – a program that would transform interactions between the city’s youth and the police. The Hub is in the testing phase, as it is part of a Bloomberg Philanthropies competition for $1 million in grant funding. If received, the city would be able to officially deploy the ideas it has been testing, like training police in trauma and providing more social services for kids who are picked up by police.

Investment in African agriculture has wide-ranging impact because the industry provides 60 percent of employment in the continent. Injaro, founded by an investment banker, is a private equity fund that seeks to invest in African businesses. Injaro’s funds have helped to make Gold Coast Fruits one of Ghana’s largest employers and have helped revive a struggling pineapple farm. The steady investments have improved productivity as Gold Coast Fruits now produces up to 50 tons of pineapple.

As second-home owners increase property values and decrease the supply of residences in Gunnison County, its year-round community faces a dwindling affordable housing stock. Nearby, a popular tourist town of Breckenridge in neighboring Summit County has been able to deliver a measurable increase in affordable homes. The Gunnison County Housing Authority is following Summit's goal-oriented, community-driven solution, and turning to residents to form a community plan and vision.

Essen has a very industrial past but due to private and public efforts it has become Europe's 2017 "green capital". The city has converted industrial buildings into places for art, wastewater is being diverted from the river, bike mobility has been increased, and trees have been planted.

Jackson PD's Community Improvement division has been charged with destroying dangerous, dilapidated houses in low income neighborhoods, even though many are state-owned. In a resources-strapped city, where blight contributes to a vicious cycle of crime and poverty, the police take down the abandoned houses—an unusual role, but one that actually tackles the root causes of crime in an arguably more effective way than low-level fishing for arrests.

After decades of economic and social despair that once saw it named the poorest big city in America, Cleveland has become a model of revitalization, thanks to a unique “anchor strategy” that harnesses the immense wealth and power of the city’s public institutions.

Tulsa Public Schools drew on expertise across many sectors and extensive neighborhood input to address the issue of thousands of empty seats in local schools. Through a community-focused process, they were able to mindfully close under-utilized schools and better maximize the community's resources for students.