Building Trust

Copenhagen is a highly livable city, thanks to policies that focus on making streets safe and convenient to walk. The bigger the city, the worse it is to design urban spaces only with cars in mind, says planner and architect Jan Gehl. His top advice is to gather data about people and their movements, making pedestrians as visible in city planning as automobile traffic.

Grassroots organizations, like the Vancouver Chinatown Foundation, seek to preserve Chinatown’s heritage and fight the displacement of old-time residents by gentrification. The organizations bought an historic hotel to prevent displacement of 100 low-income residents, revitalized commercial spaces such as restaurants to preserve the neighborhood’s heritage and history, and funded programs to support social connections with events such as Majhong socials that bring together over 100 people. While the organizations agree on the goal to preserve Vancouver’s Chinatown, they sometimes disagree on how to get there

Houston's effort to significantly decrease homelessness was successful due to the overhaul of its previous system which was disjointed, had too many services gaps, and often duplicated services. The new system provides concerted and seamless services in line with the Housing First principles. San Diego's lack of a cohesive plan to carry out the Housing First strategy has left it a lot less effective.

To cope with and combat gentrification, residents of Miami's Little Haiti neighborhood created a community garden called the Femme Fairy Garden, founded by Fempower. Community members come together every Sunday to tend to their plants and connect with their neighbors.

In a rapidly gentrifying Mexico City neighborhood, two artists refurbished an icon and set up an altar for Santa Mari La Juaricua, a saint to protect residents from eviction. The saint raises awareness and acts as a reminder about housing issues and the icon has been taken up by the residents and has been used in processions and protests.

Old and neglected housing contributes to climate change because it runs on fossil fuels. In New York, outdated heating systems waste two-thirds of energy. The New York City Housing Authority is not only trying to create better, safer, livable affordable housing, but also cleaner and more sustainable housing. While the city is just beginning to explore how to do that, other cities, like Paris, have already begun the work of updating old buildings that are used for affordable housing and can offer a model for American cities.

Charlotte's tight housing market can prove unaffordable to young professionals, with high rents equal to half a person's income. The "essential housing" niche, a middle ground between luxury homes and lower-cost "affordable" housing, provides an opportunity to economize on construction costs and pass those savings on to renters. Fewer apartment floor plan options and fancy amenities can translate into rents up to $700 less, a marketing strategy that has given the developer a strong rental business – and its younger customers a relative bargain in an expensive market.

Bozeman, Montana, a city grappling with how to plan for growth in a smart and strategic way, is looking to learn from Fort Collins, Colorado. The two cities are similar in terms of the features that make them appealing: once low-cost, small college towns with beautiful scenery and lots of space. Now, Fort Collins’ population has soared, and critics say development could have been smarter. Bozeman is learning lessons about planning and inclusivity, hoping not to make the same mistakes.

Amager Bakke is a powerplant in Copenhagen that is designed to get residents of the city engaged in a conversation about where waste goes, all while burning up to 400,000 tons of waste a year, powering 60,000 homes, and heating 160,000 homes. In 2013 the local plant was redesigned to burn the city's waste and encourage interaction by building a ski slope atop the plant, a hiking trail, and an elevator that introduces education about waste management. Amager Bakke is still new and experimental, so its long-term success is still unclear, and it is not completely emission-free yet.

As the prosperity of its local casino has driven up rents and mortgage rates, the Suquamish tribal government has prioritized affordable housing with initiatives such as mortgage assistance, subsidized rental houses, rent-to-own programs, and small studio homes. The reservation now has about 140 homes for tribal members and the community is allocating funding from the American Rescue Plan to build more.