Urban Issues
Black leaders outline solutions for economic inequity
September 5, 2021
Black residents of Springfield face income disparity that is greater than any other metro area in the U.S., according to an investigation on segregation conducted by Governing magazine and published in January 2019. Springfield is also among the most segregated third of... Read more...Springfield hopes creative signs encourage drivers to slow down in high volume areas
September 5, 2021
Sgt. Jeff Royer is going to creative lengths to get Springfield drivers to slow down. Even if it means getting a little corny. Read more...City approves one-year homeless shelter strategy
September 5, 2021
The Springfield City Council passed a one-year plan to convert the former Salvation Army facility at 221 N. 11th Street, now the site of a tent city, into an overflow homeless shelter. The compromise came after talk last month of... Read more...
Co-Op Owned by Formerly Incarcerated Women Embarks on Next Step, Thanks to Surprising Money Source
September 5, 2021
ChiFresh Kitchen’s worker-owners can see their future in the building. It’s a long, six-thousand-square-foot former corner grocery, with an arched roof and big front windows facing the corner of East 71st Street and MLK Drive, in the Grand Crossing neighborhood... Read more...The Utility Repossessed Their City’s Streetlights. Now They’re Re-Lighting the Night
September 5, 2021
Soulardarity made it a mission to use local companies to build the solar-street lights. Ypsilanti, Michigan-based Solartonic and Holland, Michigan-based Solar Lights USA, are both involved with the on-going work. Read more...Housing First Breaks the Homelessness-Jail Cycle
September 5, 2021
Homelessness is growing in communities across the United States as housing becomes increasingly unaffordable and public systems fail to support people who need assistance, forcing thousands to sleep outside or in shelters. Read more...
Public Transit Is a Public Good. It’s Time to Fund It That Way.
September 5, 2021
This is the year we almost let public transportation die. The cuts that cash-strapped transit agencies proposed before being bailed out by Congress—eliminating 40 percent of New York City’s subway service, a fifth of the DC region’s Metro stations, two-thirds of Atlanta’s... Read more...There Is Enough Food, Just Not Enough Food Access
September 5, 2021
The problem is not only an economic one, or one of food scarcity, but also of food accessibility. Read more...A simple housing reform that will supercharge neighborhood investment (and costs nothing)
September 5, 2021
The eastern 20% of this country is filled with historic neighborhoods that have survived our post World War II development experiment. Many of these are thriving, but a high percent are struggling. These are mature places with three, four and greater... Read more...