Revisiting: Emergent City - A Decade-Long Fight Against Displacement
We're revisiting a favorite episode from the archive to celebrate Next City's Winter Film Festival, this year's series: "Power and Place."What happens when a Brooklyn neighborhood takes on deep-pocketed developers? In this episode, we talk to the directors of "Emergent City" and the organizers who fought to preserve Sunset Park’s future.“Emergent City” (emergentcitydoc.com) documents the 10-year saga of how Brooklyn's Sunset Park community came together to fight a rezoning wanted by deep-pocketed developers. Against all odds, residents won. Filmmakers were there from the very beginning, when developers proposed transforming Industry City, a sprawling industrial site on the Brooklyn waterfront, into a high-end retail and office complex – or, as some residents put it, a “mall.” They were there when Sunset Park residents protested that the Industry City complex, if it won rezoning, would accelerate gentrification and displacement in a neighborhood where about 70% of households are renters. They were there for some 200 days of public meetings.
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Visionary Perspectives on Black Joy, Urban Design, and Cultural Futures
Join Matthew Jordan-Miller Kenyatta and artist Shawn Theodore for PYRAMID CLUB: 1937—2035, a reimagining of the legendary North Philadelphia social club as a blueprint for today’s North Broad renaissance. Together, they’ll explore how Afrofuturist and arts-driven approaches can turn scarcity into abundance while centering Black joy and cultural heritage. Please bring your ID for entrance to the building.
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Designing for Childhood: How Cities Are Ending Playspace Inequity
So much depends on your ZIP code, even children’s access to play. But an effort is growing to ensure the playground is where all kids can have fun, learn and heal.“It's where they learn, it's where they build connection, it's where they really establish their identity as a human being in this world,” says Lysa Ratliff, CEO for KABOOM! “And yet, there's extreme disparities in our parks and our schools and our cities and who has access to what.”In this sponsored episode, Ratliff explains how KABOOM! is working in cities such as Baltimore, Oakland and Uvalde in Texas to safeguard a generation’s childhood and sense of belonging.KABOOM! is a national nonprofit organization known for building thousands of playgrounds over the past 30 years. Today, the organization is scaling up through its “25 in 5 Initiative” — a plan to partner with 25 cities over five years to end playspace inequity and close the “nature gap” that leaves millions of kids, especially in communities of color, without access to safe, quality green spaces.Ratliff highlights how data, partnerships and community-led design can end inequity.“We're trying to answer a very big question,” says Ratliff. “How can we make sure that every single kid in this country has a chance to grow up in a world that sees them, that values them, that gives them a sense of freedom and belonging and ultimately protects their childhood by any means?”Municipal partners interested in joining the 25 in 5 Initiative can complete an interest survey.
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City-Building with Culture at the Core
Culture is often treated as a niche area but is actually integral to the successful design and adoption of other areas of urban planning and policy. Hear how cities like Atlanta, Boston, Seattle and Baltimore are embedding cultural approaches into planning, policy, and recovery efforts.
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How Your Nonprofit Can Use Research to Strengthen Impact
Nonprofits often struggle to prove their impact, but the Wilson Sheehan Lab for Economic Opportunities (LEO) is showing how a rigorous research partnership can help grassroots programs scale and win support.This sponsored episode explores examples of nonprofits and city governments collaborating with LEO researchers at the University of Notre Dame to identify what works, why it works, and how they used new evidence to make the case for growth.Like many nonprofit executive directors, Shana Berkeley already had a menu of anecdotes showing that her organization, Nashville's Corner to Corner, made a difference. By teaming up with LEO at Notre Dame, Corner to Corner is measuring the ripple effects of its program, as well as identifying what works and how to make it even more effective.“Research helps us to really understand what about those makes them not a unicorn, right?” says Berkeley. “But it's something that we can make more predictable and understand what's necessary for the foundations of entrepreneurship.”From LEO, the episode features researcher Patrick Turner, an assistant professor of economics at the University of Notre Dame, and Fran Gallagher, who leads project development. They share insights from working with the Goodwill Excel Center and Destination: Home, both of which expanded their fight against poverty — in workforce education and homelessness prevention, respectively — as a result of research partnerships. To learn more about how to partner, visit PartnerWithLEO.org.
Join Lucas Grindley, executive director at Next City, where we believe journalists have the power to amplify solutions and spread workable ideas. Each week Lucas will sit down with trailblazers to discuss urban issues that get overlooked. At the end of the day, it's all about focusing the world's attention on the good ideas that we hope will grow. Grab a seat from the bus, subway, light-rail, or whatever your transit-love may be and listen on the go as we spread solutions from one city to the Next City .
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