Could Partnering With Nonprofits Be the Path To Finally Repair LA's Broken Sidewalks?

The Hope Work Initiative by Atlantic City's Homeless Outreach Unit connects unhoused community members with temporary employment cleaning up the city streets for three days a week, making $75 a day.

Eleanor Lee is one of many women leading the charge to restore the Granby neighborhood in Liverpool. The few households that remained inhabited after the neighborhood was forgotten came together and formed a community land trust. This major step allowed them to get private development funding. Now, the Granby area is offering affordable housing and attracting business back to Liverpool.

The Kansas City neighborhood of Ivanhoe was once plagued by blight, illegal dumping, drug trade, gun violence, and neglect; neighbors lived in fear or moved away. Inspired by one compassionate and proactive family, the Youngs, the community stepped up, partnering with the local university and a charitable foundation to map out a tangible blueprint for sustainable change. They are working with police and the city council to tackle the blight and revive their neighborhood through affordable housing, park space, and a renewed sense of community.

The Walls Project is using public murals, youth programming, and community volunteering to address blight and disinvestment in South Dallas. Since partnering with the city of Dallas in 2019, the organization has installed more than 14 murals across North Texas, generated over $6 million in economic opportunities for artists, and mobilized nearly 1,200 volunteers to address more than 860 instances of blight between 2020 and 2024. Community members report that murals have deterred vandalism, attracted visitors, and boosted neighborhood pride.

The Haitian nonprofit Life of Hope had faced chronic rental instability for years before developing a financing strategy using federal funds, bridge loans, and private donations to finally secure permanent ownership of a facility. Since purchasing a warehouse to house the organization in June 2024, the organization has solidified itself as a permanent pillar in the local Haitian community, providing English classes, cultural programming, and other community services to more than 60,000 people, serving as a model for other Haitian nonprofits.

Guerrilla urbanism by groups like Chattanooga Urbanist Society develop low-cost, short-term interventions to community problems, like installing bike lanes and painting crosswalks, to fill gaps left by local government. Chattanooga Urbanist Society is focused on making the city more pedestrian-friendly and has installed more than 60 benches in the area. The group also accepts service requests from locals to handle issues the local government hasn’t touched.

Klean Kensington pays teenagers $15 an hour to clean lots in the Philadephia neighborhood and prevents them from turning to dealing drugs to make money.

In order to have more say and control of their utilities, the city rallied together to create a campaign to take over their local electricity distribution. This take-over has created city jobs for local residents that are more secure than those in the private sector and residents have also seen lower electricity rates.

Vacant lots in the city are being greened with an idea dubbed “IKEA, but for parks” which provides preassembled options to create parks in vacant lots. Community members are given layout and design options to choose from based on how the neighborhood decides to utilize their empty lots. Residents are then provided with supplies and training to build and maintain a public green space. The model allows for efficiency and speed while promoting civic participation.

To promote the implementation of greenspaces while also decreasing the likelihood of runoff after heavy rain storms, community groups in Newport, Kentucky worked together to implement strategic depaving. This practice of removing pavement has now led to the creation of a park which will soon have rain and pollinator gardens.