Get To Work

The unemployment crisis is a hard thing to solve - businesses sometimes have no choice but to let workers go. An innovative program tries to prevent joblessness by temporarily paying a portion of workers’ salaries at struggling companies.

In India, corruption in the distribution of government ID cards leaves the poorest without legal identity or protection. A non-profit group is creating and distributing unofficial ID cards and legal aid for day workers in major cities in India.

Bus service for people who live outside major cities is either nonexistent or might as well be. But some communities are helping bring mobility to non-drivers with bus service they can really use. This article looks at a variety of places in which public transportation is highly popular and efficient—from Germany to Seattle.

Vacant positions exist in many employment sectors, including in education and in hospitals. ReServe is a program that joins retired professionals to part-time paid positions in non-profits to perform duties. A controversy has emerged that suggests these positions should be paid at a professional-rate salary.

New York City suffered from fires that erupted in overcrowded, run-down apartments. Then the city sleuthed through residential records and found that landlords who foreclosed let their properties fall apart and ignored safety-code violations. Greater Toronto wants to expand upon New York City’s method by using transportation surveys, census data and computer data to build transit lines.

A Dallas urban neighborhood was dilapidated with abandoned storefronts and offered no vitality for pedestrians. A group of artists and community members created Build a Better Block, in which local artisans and small businesses took over a vacant block and transformed it for a limited time to encourage the ingredients for more permanent urban renewal.

Some inner city schools, nonprofits, and businesses in New York lack the staff to make their organizations function for the people they serve. ReServe is a program that links retired professionals with part-time jobs in schools, libraries, hospitals and other city agencies to help fil this gap.

Bus service for people who live outside major cities is either nonexistent or might as well be. But some communities are helping bring mobility to non-drivers with bus service they can really use.

In the wake of Hurricane Sandy, necessity has bred an interesting kind of financial invention for the New York MTA: the world’s first “catastrophe” bond - a reinsurance for the insurer - designed to protect public transportation infrastructure, specifically against storm surge. These bonds privatize risk for public gain, creating a kind of tool that may protect economic development against all kinds of natural and man-made disasters around the world.

Cities tend to be dangerous and difficult places to live for older residents. A private public partnership in New York is catering to seniors through small changes in the city such as para-transit options and seniors-only hours at public establishments.