Nairobi's floods showed why urban plans need to be made with the poor

Charlottesville's Food Equity Initiative (a comprehensive municipal policy embedding food equity recommendations into city planning, zoning, and departmental agreements) largely failed to produce systemic change. Without municipal infrastructure (such as dedicated staff, binding policy authority, or permanent funding) accompanying the initiative, the city's initial support is analyzed as responsive to a moment rather than rooted in durable institutional change.

Indigenous peoples in Thailand's Nan province, in collaboration with researchers from five institutions, launched a citizen-science program using soil, hair, and fish sampling alongside computer modelling to document transboundary pollution from Laos's Hongsa coal plant. This work produced evidence of acidic soils and mercury contamination that has empowered environmental advocacy actions.

The city council of Minneapolis has successfully reached out to its constituents and responded to their concerns regarding the housing crisis by enacting the Minneapolis 2040 plan which outlines 100 sustainable solutions to mitigate the threat of urban density. Several progressive city council members have worked toward the goal of providing more affordable housing by creating coalitions and proactively gathering citizen input. Subsequently, affordable housing was the main issue in the latest city elections. The plan rewrites the residential zoning laws to allow multi-family homes in any part of the city.

In many parts of the United States, people struggle with economic mobility and achieving the American Dream. Salt Lake City’s rate of economic mobility is at the highest in the country. An investigative journalist explores the Mormon-influenced structure of charitable giving and various social factors that have created this socio-economic anomaly, and discovers that compassionate conservatism and some government welfare programs have contributed to the state being a unique case.

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.

Baltimore has dramatically reduced homicides through a multi-pronged approach involving a data-driven Group Violence Reduction Strategy, credible-messenger intervention programs, and aggressive prosecution of illegal gun possession. This has resulted in a record-low murder rate in 2026, with 60 killings recorded through August compared to roughly 220 at the same point four years prior.

Honor the Earth is an anti-data center coalition monitoring the construction of hyperscale data centers in or near indigenous land. Through their efforts, town halls, doorknocking, attending tribal council meetings and more, they’ve formed a community with people in agriculture and beyond, working to push back against data center construction and enact protections for communities. As a result of their efforts, the Tulsa City Council signed a 9-month moratorium on data centers, and the Seminole Nation also unanimously passed its own moratorium.

Copenhagen, Hoboken, and other cities have implemented "sponge city" approaches that combine nature-based infrastructure like absorbent parks and green spaces with traditional engineering to reduce flooding while creating popular public amenities.

Kaua'i County Housing Agency uses a community engagement model for its master-planned affordable housing developments, involving community advisory committees, multiple public meetings, surveys, and online tools that allow residents to shape key housing and community decisions. The agency has applied this model for over a decade, with great results, including Lima Ola, a 550-unit workforce housing community.

Multiple organizations in Philadelphia are joining forces, such as The Pennsylvania Horticultural Society and the new Office of Clean and Green, to transform the city’s several thousand vacant lots into green spaces. Even Temple University has executed a new "Verdant Temple" master plan, creating specific green spaces for the public. A University of Pennsylvania study found a 29% reduction in gun violence in neighborhoods where vacant lots were cleaned and restored, and the city is investing nearly $20 million annually in these efforts.