Disinvested: How Government and Private Industry Let the Main Street of a Black Neighborhood Crumble

The Downtown Greenway in Greensboro was already underway when the coronavirus hit and it has turned out to be quite the respite and economic boon. The Greenway draws visitors in with trails, greenways, public art, local businesses, and "the first grocery store to open in 30 years in downtown.” $8.5 million was invested in the project, but it has already brought in $215 million in revenue. The Downtown Greenway was created in partnership with the city and nonprofit Action Greensboro, and while it's currently being used with social distancing, it'll still be there when the quarantine is over.

Alabama's Historic Prattville Redevelopment Authority has emulated the successful downtown revitalization project in Columbus, Georgia, in an effort to address vacant industrial sites and a blighted downtown. Through a collaboration with local entrepreneurs, a private real estate company, the Chamber of Commerce, and other departments and members of the local government, the HPRA is transforming the small city. Several local business prepare to open, the old cotton gin mill will open new apartments, and recent community events demonstrate an increasing public interest in a revitalized downtown Prattville.

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.

Turin used to be a bustling hub for the automobile industry but since then it has been left as a dead industrial area. The Ex-incet development aims to change this by using an old company's headquarters to be the site where innovation and creativity can be brought together as people from different sectors work under the same roof.

Bologna is demonstrating the utility of allowing citizens to help with projects in cash-strapped cities. A new policy makes it easier for citizens to head city projects and to participate in guiding the future of the municipality.

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.

When housing needs to be built or refurbished in neighborhoods like Packington Estate in London, developers co-design projects with residents to build trust in estate regeneration. And on top of building trust, residents know what will work best for them.

Since June 2019, Chicago's Grounds for Peace pilot project has begun cleaning up vacant, city-owned lots using an approach to urban beautification that has been shown in other cities, and in one Chicago neighborhood, to reduce crime and boost residents' feelings of safety. While the city and its contractors consider the project a success in the making, thus far only two of the original 50 targeted lots show signs of improvement. Project leaders blame funding shortfalls, disruptions due to the pandemic, and difficulties in removing abandoned vehicles.

When city planners rushed early in the pandemic to close streets to automobile traffic in order to give residents a safe space to roam outdoors, they ended up learning lessons entirely apart from their original goals rooted in public health and traffic safety. In Durham, Atlanta, Los Angeles, and Oakland, community groups pushed back at the cities' initial failures to consider the opinions of communities of color whose neighborhoods were affected by the changes. The pushback led to collaborations and modified plans that redefined the problems at issue and the ways to address them.

A solar workgroup in Virginia is inviting developers to present information on the best ways to build solar and battery storage projects for the region; a new approach they are taking after previous failures in getting solar projects off the ground. Despite a lack of funding and local developers in the area, solar advocates are hopeful that the passage of a new energy law in the Commonwealth could be an economic incentive for commercial-scale solar projects.