Neighborhood Change
As community demographics shift and there’s neighborhood change, what are the issues affecting longstanding and new residents alike? When is change desirable, and when is it undesirable? How can it be turned to the benefit of those who need it most?
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Clybourne Park on Stage, Housing Inequity in Real Life—A Post-Show Reflection
Clybourne Park—a play exploring race, real estate, and community tensions—can set the stage for discussion on the lasting impacts of housing discrimination, gentrification, and the fight for affordability. What lessons can we take from the past to shape a more just housing future?
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Places of the Heart
Everyone has a story about third places—those gathering places that are not home or work—in the communities they have lived and worked. I wrote about some of mine in my […]
The Heavy Hand of Demographic Change
Washington Ave St. Louis (credit: Google Earth) As I continue to wrestle with the future of cities and urban neighborhoods, and about how to go about reversing the decline that […]
“Where Are They?” Do We Think of Third Places When We Make Decisions?
“No community should be without these kinds of spaces. Therefore, when we think about planning or revitalization efforts or development, we [should be] saying, ‘Where are they?’, because it’s that […]
Saving The Village Pub
When a small U.K. village’s pub closed, a group that had formed to create affordable housing found itself launching a campaign to form a community-owned business and save a community gathering space as well.
Hanging on to the Land
Community gardens and urban agriculture are crucial gathering places—and revitalizing forces—in neighborhoods with lots of vacancy and low values. But what happens to them when the market turns around?
Claiming Space
Community-driven art projects are helping to define and reshape neighborhood spaces in Philadelphia.
The Case of NYCHA’s Disappearing Open Space
What looks to a public housing authority like “unused development rights” often looks to public housing residents like important gathering places.
Where Community Is at Work Making Itself
Creating and proctecting third places in low-income communities. A conversation with May Louie, Neeraj Mehta, Ken Reardon, and Chuck Wolfe.
Our World Revolved Around Our Block
From when I was 10 to when I was 16, my mother and I lived in a diverse working-class neighborhood of single-family attached brownstone row houses in Waterbury, Connecticut (the […]
Parking Lots to Craft Fairs
Nashville holds—and supports—a diverse, creative community that adds as much value to our city as the musicians and songwriters for which we are better known.
Safe Havens
Housing first, yes, but then services, recreation, education: These are all pillars to building strong communities, and most importantly, strong people.