This Walkable Gathering Space Has Transformed a City's Main Street

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.

The 15-minute city is an urban planning concept that encourages planners to develop neighborhoods that are easily accessible within a 15-minute walk, bike or public transit ride. The 15-minute city idea promotes health and wellness by encouraging residents to walk and bike more, reduces greenhouse gas emissions and fosters a sense of community among locals.

Calming traffic reduces noise and brings new public spaces to urban neighborhoods. Across Barcelona, Spain, neighborhoods designated as superblocks—where through traffic is prohibited—now serve as shared-use spaces. Existing superblock projects, created through years of collaboration between Urban Ecology Agency of Barcelona and the city’s administration, serve as pilot programs for the city’s broader vision to create hundreds of such spaces.

In an area long-known for poverty and poor health outcomes, residents in Mumbai are joining forces to lead a community-building initiative that works to create shared community spaces, such as libraries, workshops and designated areas for rest and play, specifically with women and children in mind, as city planning historically overlooks these needs and groups.

The bike bus is a group of kids and families that bike to school together. With the help of social media, one former school teacher created several viral moments that turned the bike bus concept into a widespread phenomenon. There are currently more than 200 bike buses across the U.S., offering health benefits, cutting down on car use and building community.

New York City’s Compost Project supports a network of community compost operations to reduce the waste sent to landfills. Each composter operates differently based on local conditions and needs. BK Rot, for example, employs local Black and Brown youth to collect organic scraps from homes and businesses and sells its compost.

A community-led nonprofit restarted New Orleans’ bike-sharing program Blue Bikes with a focus on affordability and equity after a for-profit company ended it during the pandemic. The founders used the bike stands and tools left behind from the original program, the city provided spaces for the bike racks, and the funders provided money for a fleet of bicycles.

The federally-funded Community Violence Intervention Collaborative provided funding, training, and technical assistance to community violence intervention programs nationwide. Each program uses the assistance to target needs specific to its community.

Hartford residents 13 and older can decide how some public funds are spent. The Hartford Decides participatory budgeting initiative considers public input on small capital projects that cost between $10,000 and $25,000 and have a useful life of at least five years. City officials vet the projects for feasibility and those that pass are put on a ballot for the public to vote on. Previous winning projects include improvements to libraries, schools, and other publicly accessible resources. Residents can vote online or in-person and, depending on available funding, two to four projects can win approval.

Baltimore’s green bin program shows there are relatively simple steps cities can take to tangibly improve the cleanliness of neighborhoods. The solution is also working in Philadelphia, through which people who live in the city are lidded trash cans and bins to store their garbage.