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These 35 cities have local plans to solve global problems
In June 2017, Bloomberg Philanthropies launched a $200 million effort called the American Cities Initiative with the goal of funding new ways for city leaders to collaborate with each other and improve their residents’ Read More...
German cities to offer free transit to cut air pollution
The air quality in Germany is not up to European Union standards, so the German government is considering free public transit as a way of getting people out of their cars. Germans drive a lot of diesels, so it would reduce particulate and Nitrogen dioxide emissions. They are also considering "low Read More...
Europeans had school shootings, too. Then they did something about it
Contrary to what you may sometimes hear, school shootings are not unique to the United States. Germany, for instance, went through a string of devastating attacks between 2002 and 2009. Between 1996 and 2008, major school shootings also occurred in Finland and Scotland, among other places. But in Read More...
Safe, happy and free: does Finland have all the answers?
Western Europe’s last naturally caused famine ended 150 years ago this winter. In a poor and backward part of the Russian empire called Finland, more than a quarter of a million people – nearly 10 percent of the population – starved to death. Last year, on the centenary of its independence, Read More...
Want to stimulate the economy? Cut student debt–not taxes
The recently passed Republican tax cut package will cost about $1.4 trillion over a decade, according to independent figures. It’s a very expensive policy that currently is not offset by an increase in government revenue, or by spending cuts. Another measure would cost about the same amount and Read More...
Redesigning court summons can help keep people out of jail
It’s easy to dismiss people who miss their court date as negligent, but traditional court summons are fairly inscrutable, with the court date and time information buried near the bottom. There’s also no obvious explanation of what happens if you fail to appear, which, by the way, is a warrant Read More...
The best border wall is a legal marijuana market
The US is currently facing a government shutdown because Donald Trump is insisting any spending bill must fund the construction of a US-Mexico border wall, which would cost as much as $18 billion. Bound up in symbolism about the racial purity of the United States, the wall has been sold as a way Read More...
Bernie Sanders: Let’s wrench power back from the billionaires
The six richest people on earth now own more wealth than the bottom half of the world’s population. There is no denying that this is a disturbing reality, but if we all acknowledge this and stand together against powerful special interests, we can eliminate poverty, increase life expectancy and Read More...
Denver is subsiding rent to make expensive apartments available for low-income workers
Like many cities in the US, Denver is having a housing crisis. Workers such as teachers and nurses are struggling to find homes that fit their budget, and the cost of living in the city is pushing people further away from the metropolitan area. In an effort to address this affordability issue, Read More...
The U.S. tech companies founded by immigrants are now worth nearly $4 trillion
As the president of the United States disparages immigrants, it’s important to note that they are more valuable to the U.S. than ever. Immigrants and their children have helped found 60 percent of the most highly valued tech companies in the U.S., Kleiner Perkins Caufield & Byers Read More...