Prodded by Michelle Obama and other government leaders, Walmart and other major US retailers vowed to build hundreds of stores in food deserts. What happened?
The UK government has been trying to hand planning power over to local people for 50 years – but research reveals it has fallen far short of its goals.
Looking back at Lviv’s Soviet past, there are clues about how to preserve history for everyone – not just the affluent.
When neighbourhoods lose their corner stores, they also lose a place where people meet and feel like part of their local community.
Susan Fitzgerald/Flickr
As neighbourhoods lost their milk bars, they also lost a daily point of connection for locals. But all is not lost. In some areas, the humble corner store is making a comeback.
New York has become a ‘city for the rich’ in recent decades, a shift in its real estate market that impacts policy-making, too.
Alessandro Colle / Shutterstock
New York City’s municipal budget relies heavily on the property taxes of extremely high-value real estate. That drives gentrification and distorts local policy in other ways that hurt residents.
Without off-street space, vehicle residents crowd available public parking in Seattle. May 8, 2016.
Graham Pruss
Many cities have no standard method for counting the number of people who live in their cars. This means that their issues are often overlooked in policies designed to help the homeless.
Street life, Addis Ababa.
milosk50 / Shutterstock.
American cities are getting more diverse, but neighbors of different races don’t necessarily socialize with each other. A sociologist in North Carolina discovered one surprising reason why.
Gentrification happens when attempts to build bridges between disenfranchised people and their better-off peers go awry – but it doesn’t have to be this way.
Members of East Baltimore Church of God, which was founded by Lumbee Indians, and was once located in the heart of ‘the reservation,’ in the 1700 block of E. Baltimore Street.
Photo courtesy of Rev. Robert E. Dodson Jr., Pastor, East Baltimore Church of God
Google, Amazon and other powerful groups are renaming American cities and neighborhoods. That may make the area more appealing to newcomers – but, in many cases, residents aren’t happy.
The share of households in Hong Kong led by single women has soared in recent decades.
Dorason/Shutterstock.com
Kebab vans symbolise the success of ‘bottom-up’ multiculturalism, providing a way for the non-European cultural ‘other’ to become part of our way of life.
The independent owner-operated businesses that bring life to run-down neighbourhoods often have a hipster ethos.
Peter Walters
It’s easy to scorn the gentrifying hipster stereotype, but many inner-city neighbourhoods benefit from the distinctive mix of businesses and activities they pursue. So why should the suburbs miss out?
Canberra’s Civic is home to a high concentration of knowledge workers.
Mick Tsikas/AAP
Canberra is growing as fast as anywhere in Australia. It’s driven by a knowledge economy that is transforming the city centre but is also displacing poorer residents.
Mural at Rockaway Brewing Company in Long Island City, Queens, New York, a longtime industrial and transportation hub that now is rapidly redeveloping.
AP Photo/Mark Lennihan
Many homes, parks and businesses in US cities stand on former manufacturing sites that may have left legacy hazardous wastes behind. A new book calls for more research into our urban industrial past.
The largest public housing complex in the country, Queensbridge Houses, is located near the spot where Amazon plans to put a new headquarters.
AP Photo/Mark Lennihan
When large companies move into an area, the result is often gentrification. When this happens, the economic and social costs for displaced residents is typically high.
Many tenants who lit up their apartments in the ‘We Live Here’ campaign see redevelopment of the Waterloo housing estate as a ploy to move them out of the area.
Aaron Bunch/AAP
Working-class residents of Waterloo have a history of resisting threats to their community. Many tenants see the redevelopment of public housing as state-led gentrification to squeeze them out.
Hipsters take part in Berlin’s “Hipster Winter Cup” of throwing old vinyl records.
Hannibal Hanschke/EPA
PhD Candidate, School of Social Sciences, University of Tasmania, and Senior Research Consultant, Institute for Sustainable Futures, University of Technology Sydney