To Fight Blight, One City Turned to Courts

As second-home owners increase property values and decrease the supply of residences in Gunnison County, its year-round community faces a dwindling affordable housing stock. Nearby, a popular tourist town of Breckenridge in neighboring Summit County has been able to deliver a measurable increase in affordable homes. The Gunnison County Housing Authority is following Summit's goal-oriented, community-driven solution, and turning to residents to form a community plan and vision.

Acknowledging that most coal plants world wide are likely to continue to operate for decades as the world's demand for energy only increases, solutions to climate change become ever more pressing. Carbon Capture and Storage (CCS) is one of the few approaches that can receive bipartisan support in shaping energy policy and - despite a few early experimental failures - the method making a comeback as a viable way to combat the release of C02 into the atmosphere. The Petra Nova plant in Texas may serve as a model for moving CCS forward.

A multi-millionaire has poured money into his home suburb of Irlam, buying up empty stores, funding public art projects, and supporting the town center, sports center, health clinic, and train station. Employment is up, but this model of urban renewal raises ethical questions and may not be easily replicable.

Governments in the United Kingdom, the United States, and elsewhere use crowdfunded donations to restore historic areas and fund new developments. The approach can build democratic participation and community cohesion while plugging budgetary holes from falling tax revenue.

TARU, an Indian thinktank, has found that Indians cities have combined decentralized action and "multi-stakeholder engagement" in public policy to respond to problems of scarcity in water and power as well as climate change-related natural disasters. Municipalities are putting responsibility for improving local lives at the grassroots level; integrating disruptive technologies from the private sector; and fostering collaboration between government and citizens.

Thirty years ago, the U.S. Congress created a process called Title V that requires excess federal land be offered to state and city governments and nonprofits for homeless services. Hampered by challenging obstacles throughout the process, only about 900 acres across the country have been converted to shelters and other facilities. Now streamlined and improved, Title V is poised to make a much greater impact.

Micro-hydro projects in the United States have become much more accessible and more financially viable since Congress passed a law in 2013 making it easier for small hydroelectric projects to get federal approval. Specifically, water treatment plants that can retrofit their systems to generate electricity are an excellent energy opportunity. The plant in Grand Lake now produces more electricity than it consumes.

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.

The Housing Opportunities Commission of Montgomery County was created in 1974 to address a lack of affordable housing, and it’s done just that. The government agency takes an ownership position over apartment buildings and takes less profit than a typical investor might to ensure new projects have the funding to be built and include affordable units.

Unprecedented challenges are frequently popping up with the onset of climate change, so governments too have to adjust their processes and strategies. Some new procurement tools used by several different cities include requests for ideas, competitions, and performance contracts. This article looks at two places using these new and publicly accessible procurement tools—Prince Georges County, MD, and Norfolk, VA—to see how it impacts their success.