In this special episode, Next City’s editorial leaders share what they’re hearing from readers and listeners about resisting setbacks at the federal level and driving changes locally. The days following the U.S. presidential have been defined by an overwhelming sense of uncertainty, despair and even fear from urban changemakers working in local government, non-profit organizations, philanthrophy, grassroots advocacy and organizing, and beyond. While their work will be more important than...

We’re off this week for Veterans Day, but we’ll be back next Wednesday with more inspiring and workable ideas that move our society toward justice and equity.  If you can’t wait for the next story, head to NextCity.org for the latest coverage.  As always, we’d love to hear any feedback from our listeners. Please feel free to email us at [email protected]. And if you haven’t already, subscribe to the show on Apple, Spotify, Goodpods or anywhere you listen to your podcasts. We’ll see you next...

“There's that R-word that wants to come up that I despise – resilience,” says Tiffany Sturdivant, executive director of Appalshop, a media, arts and community economic development organization that's been operating in the Kentucky mountains for more than five decades. “People are so strong….I think that's probably a testament to mountain people, right, or people anywhere who are disenfranchised and are just working with what they have. Use what you have until you can get more.” When you...

In today's episode, we're bringing you highlights from our conversations at this year's Vanguard conference in Lexington, Kentucky, where our theme was exploring the dynamics of urban-rural interconnection – not urban-rural divisions. We will explore how communities are stronger when we stand in solidarity, and when we learn from each other's experiences.We'll hear from Mandy Higgins, Executive Director at the Lexington History Museum; Mark Lenn Johnson, president of Art Inc. Kentucky; as...

This week, we’re revisiting an episode we released earlier this year, all about Lexington, Kentucky — a city where collaboration and creativity are transforming challenges into opportunities. In this episode, we highlighted how Lexington’s leaders are finding ways to foster nonpartisanship, boost civic engagement, and narrow the racial wealth gap. We’re bringing this episode back now because it offers a window into the themes we explored in even greater depth during our Vanguard conference,...

In Newark and across Essex County, New Jersey, urban farms do more than grow food — they're strengthening a community. But advocates say that convincing the state and local governments that these farms are worth investing in has not been easy. “At a local level, most urban farms, they don't own their land. It's borrowed from the city's adopt-a-lot program,” says Kimberly Izar, Next City's Equitable Cities Reporting Fellow for Segregation, who has reported for us on urban farming in the...

The pandemic hollowed out our cities, leaving empty downtowns and office buildings in its wake. With galleries and art venues closed and disposable income at a low, the arts sector took a major hit. What if we killed two birds with one stone by using our cities' vacant commercial space as affordable artist studios and galleries? That's the idea behind Zero Empty Spaces. Since its launch in June 2019, the Florida-based organization has placed more than 600 artists in 10 commercial buildings...

After Pennsylvania legalized speed cameras, they showed up on Philly’s deadly Roosevelt Boulevard. The results are clear, according to a study of what happened next. Researchers found a drop in crashes and deaths.

As storms and fires keep coming, emergency loan funds from CDFIs are helping low-income communities get back on their feet.

New regulations for the Community Reinvestment Act (CRA) will drop before November. After they’re available, we ask, what do you need to know?

We’re off this week for Labor Day, but we’ll be back next Wednesday with more inspiring and workable ideas that move our society toward justice and equity.  If you can’t wait for the next story, head to NextCity.org for the latest coverage.  As always, we’d love to hear any feedback from our listeners. Please feel free to email us at [email protected]. And if you haven’t already, subscribe to the show on Apple, Spotify, Goodpods or anywhere you listen to your podcasts. We’ll see you next week.

Today, we'll hear the story of Soul Fire Farm and one of its founders, Leah Penniman. A new documentary called "Farming While Black" shows how this farm in Upstate New York is part of a larger movement trying to return land to the stewardship of people of color and restore Afro-indigenous farming practices along the way.

Today, we'll speak with Joe Minicozzi, an urban designer and founder of Urban3, about the work he's been doing that proves these disparities in property assessments are subsidizing wealthier, whiter neighborhoods at the expense of historically redlined neighborhoods — and we'll talk about what can be done to change it. The New York Times : "How Lower-Income Americans Get Cheated on Property Taxes"

The Seaport neighborhood in Boston is nicknamed by activists as the “Inundation District,” and a new documentary of the same name shows where urban planning went wrong and what residents are doing now. In this episode, writer and director David Abel — a Pulitzer-Prize winning journalist — shares lessons learned from the Seaport expansion.

This is Lucas Grindley from Next City, a show about changemakers and their stories. We’re on a brief hiatus for summer break, but we’ll be back next Wednesday with more inspiring and workable ideas that move our society toward justice and equity.  If you can’t wait for the next story, head to NextCity.org for the latest coverage.  As always, we’d love to hear any feedback from our listeners. Please feel free to email us at [email protected]. And if you haven’t already, subscribe to the show...

The documentary film “How to Power A City” looks across communities in the United States to uncover multiple approaches, big and small, for mitigating climate change. In this episode, writer and director Melanie LaRosa outlines what she found and why she chose to focus on solutions.

We’re off this week for Memorial Day, but we’ll be back next Wednesday with more inspiring and workable ideas that move our society toward justice and equity.  If you can’t wait for the next story, head to NextCity.org for the latest coverage.  As always, we’d love to hear any feedback from our listeners. Please feel free to email us at [email protected]. And if you haven’t already, subscribe to the show on Apple, Spotify, Goodpods or anywhere you listen to your podcasts. We’ll see you next...

Just over a year ago, we delved into a groundbreaking initiative by a foundation in Vancouver. Their question was: What if we gave people experiencing homelessness a lump sum of cash, no strings attached? The results were nothing short of remarkable — though they probably shouldn’t be surprising. Now, two years after that experiment ended, the idea is spreading to cities across the United States. So let’s revisit that initial episode — when we asked, what really happens when you give money to...

Leaders from Lexington, Kentucky share lessons about what’s working as they foster collaboration and nonpartisanship in a city that’s solving problems like community engagement and closing the racial wealth gap.

We’re going to hear about how looking at transit from the human perspective almost always serves the greatest number of people and how it's really us who should be making decisions about the future of transit.

America’s biggest test of a “mobility wallet” is in South L.A. where residents were given cash each month to cover their transit needs.

A future with plentiful affordable housing won’t come from an industry where fewer than 5% of the real estate developers are minorities. Here’s what’s being done to change. This episode is part of our series, CDFI Futures, which explores the community development finance industry through the lenses of equity, public policy and inclusive community development. The series is generously supported by Partners for the Common Good. Sign up for PCG’s CapNexus newsletter at capnexus.org. 

We're taking a short break for a couple weeks. In the meantime, feel free to revisit past episodes and be sure to subscribe to our email newletters at www.nextcity.org/newsletter. Thank you for listening to our show. We will be back April 24th!

Today, we will hear from multiple Chinatown organizers who are fighting to ensure their neighborhoods remain for generations to come.