Sustainable Urban Development
With cities expected to host about 70 percent of the world's population, sustainable urban development is key to making communities worldwide more resilient against the growing threat of climate change. Find out about the latest urban practices from across the world aiming to make our cities more sustainable and inclusive in these good-news stories from The Optimist Daily.
This billboard in Mexico purifies the air around it
In Monterrey, Mexico, a new billboard has popped up in the city. But unlike the countless other billboards advertising around the city, this billboard is actually having a positive impact on its immediate surroundings. That’s because the billboard is covered in an air-purifying resin that can eat Read More...
Los Angeles joins movement to eliminate late fees for overdue library books
When Chicago Mayor Lori Lightfoot decided to eliminate library late fees from Chicago Public Libraries back in October, the impact was immediate. Within three weeks, the number of overdue books returned increased by 240 percent. People who couldn’t afford to pay late fees were encouraged to Read More...
This startup wants to turn your garage or backyard into a tiny housing unit
To solve LA’s massive shortage of housing, a new startup is helping people take advantage of the county’s 250,000 underused two-car garages (and its hundreds of thousands of backyards). The startup, United Dwelling, helps homeowners to build a new apartment or living space on their property for Read More...
Instead of ignoring sea level rise, this Brooklyn development embraces it
If you walk down Metropolitan Avenue, a street that stretches across North Brooklyn, you’ll eventually reach a dead end: a chain-link fence blocks off access to the waterfront on the East River. But vacant land behind the fence could soon be transformed into a new park that brings green space to Read More...
To solve deep-seated inequality, we must grow poor regions from the bottom up
Concentrated poverty has long been a problem in urban centers and parts of the rural South, but these days it has spread across many parts of the country. Sadly enough, regional inequality has deepened and the middle class has declined—the result of a long history of class and racial division, Read More...
Why the MTA flooded its own subway entrance in Brooklyn
A flooded subway entrance stopped Brooklyn commuters in their tracks. For four hours on Wednesday, the staircase leading down to Broadway Station in Williamsburg was blocked off and completely submerged. The sight was even stranger since it hadn’t rained in New York City that day. It turns Read More...
Vendors turn streets into community spaces, so why are cities cracking down?
Earlier this month, a woman from Ecuador was handcuffed by police for selling churros in a New York City subway station. Officers confiscated her pushcart—her livelihood—and all its contents. She did not have a permit. But the city has not raised the number of permits since 1983, meaning $200 Read More...
To plant 90,000 trees in Los Angeles, the city is giving free trees to residents
Want a free tree for your yard or neighborhood? Well, if you live in Los Angeles, you’re in luck. Under the city’s Green New Deal, LA will give out up to seven free yard and/or street trees to qualifying residents in a bid to plant 90,000 trees in the city over the next two years. Neighbors Read More...
If you want to live in this Arizona community, you’ll have to ditch your car
Try and imagine your life without a car. No noisy engines, no busy asphalt streets, your grocery store within walking distance. This is the vision for Culdesac Tempe, a new development slated for 2020 in the fast-growing outskirts of Phoenix. The project will house 1,000 people, all without cars. Read More...
Dominica is on course to become the world’s first ‘hurricane-proof’ island
It was in 2017 when Hurricane Maria gathered its strength and powered its way through the tiny island of Dominica. When Maria had moved on, over 90 percent of the island’s structures were destroyed, leaving huge swaths of the population homeless and the economy crippled. In the span of a single Read More...