(Photo courtesy of the Reforestation Hub) Each year, U.S. cities lose an estimated 36 million trees to development, disease and old age, many of which ultimately end up in landfills. Losing these urban trees – known to help cool their neighborhoods, lower carbon emissions and improve mental health, among other benefits – costs an estimated $96 million annually. In Philadelphia, a partnership is giving the City of Brotherly Love’s fallen trees new life. Philadelphia Parks & Rec joined forces with Cambium Carbon, a Washington, D.C.-based startup that repurposes waste wood, and PowerCorpsPHL ..read more

(Photo by The New York Public Library) Welcome back to The Weekly Wrap, our Friday roundup of stories that explain the problems oppressing people in cities and elevate the solutions bringing us closer to economic, environmental and social justice. Our team will be at a staff retreat next week, so we won’t be sending newsletters. The next edition of The Weekly Wrap will be in your inbox on June 14. Take good care until then! Massachusetts Taxes The Rich, Exceeds Expectations In Massachusetts, a 4% tax on earnings for residents making over $1 million has generated $1.8 billion in revenue, far ..read more

(Photo by Acton Crawford / Unsplash) The story was originally published by The Conversation. In recent years, Colorado has been a poster child for the U.S. housing crisis. Previously a relatively affordable state, it has seen home prices increase nearly sixfold over the past three decades, outstripping even Florida and California. Once a problem confined to coastal cities, unaffordable housing has increasingly become an issue in the nation’s heartland. Like elsewhere, there’s no single reason why real estate has become so expensive in Colorado. Instead, there are several: Dem ..read more

(Photo by Pat Krupa / Unsplash) This article was originally published on Waging Nonviolence. For years, New York City’s famous subway system has been caught in the crosshairs of a contentious public debate over crime — but in recent months it has entered a new frontier. In March, New York Gov. Kathy Hochul deployed 750 National Guard members to conduct random bag searches at Metropolitan Transit Authority, or MTA, stations. Later that month, the NYPD announced a surge of 800 additional officers to crack down on fare evasion. These surges follow broader increases in policing on publi ..read more

Conceptual rendering of a Laredo CWERC in generated by Harvard GSD students conducting preliminary research during a visit to Laredo earlier this year. (Courtesy RGISC) South Texas is facing a water crisis decades in the making. Much of the region’s growing population relies on the Rio Grande as its sole source of drinking water. Yet in recent years, as climate change has gripped Texas and caused hotter, drier summers, the river’s flow has diminished to a trickle. This year, months before summer has officially set in, major reservoirs on the Rio Grande are nearly empt ..read more

The destruction of buildings in Kyiv, Ukraine. (Photo by Julia Rekamie / Unsplash) Two months ago, “20 Days in Mariupol” won Best Documentary Feature Film at the Academy Awards. Set at the beginning of Russia’s invasion of Ukraine in February 2022, the film captures the Russian attack on and siege of Mariupol, a Ukrainian industrial city of 450,000 inhabitants. A grim testament to the horrors of urban warfare, the film begins with Ukrainian firemen extinguishing a fire in a bombed home as the crew attempts to interview a terrified older woman. The crew races through hospital corridors followi ..read more

Michael Pugh (Photo courtesy of Pugh) The former CEO of Carver Federal Savings Bank, the nation’s largest publicly traded Black bank, recently took on a new gig. Michael Pugh was tapped in September 2023 to head the largest community development organization in the country. LISC has invested more than $29 billion in loans, grants and equity since 1979 and operates in 26 states. Taking over at LISC is a natural next step for Pugh, who entered the financial world as a bank teller while in college 30 years ago. After serving in top posts at financial institutions such as Capital One, Pugh joined ..read more

Josefa Marin and her partner Pedro Galicia arrive at 6:30 a.m. most mornings outside the Sure We Can Redemption Center in Brooklyn’s trendy Bushwick neighborhood. The facility itself won’t open for another hour, but in the meantime they get a head start on sorting through the cans and bottles they’ve collected the previous night from apartment buildings, restaurants, bars, clubs or events where organizers have tabbed the couple to help out with recycling. Since 1983, consumers in New York State have paid retailers a 5-cent deposit per can or bottle covered by the New York Returnable Container ..read more

Richmond's Maggie Walker Community Land Trust expects to complete its 100th home by early fall. (Photo courtesy of MWCLT) This story was published as part of our joint Equitable Cities Reporting Fellowship For Reparations Narratives with Next City and Richmond’s VPM News. When Michael Haggins’ credit score disqualified him for a mortgage preapproval in 2021, he was crushed. A single father who grew up in Richmond, Haggins dreamed of owning a house in his hometown where his two sons could play freely. A shortage of just five credit score points — plus systemic inequities and a national ho ..read more

(Photo courtesy Chicago TREND) For a long time, the only people who could invest in commercial real estate were those with deep pockets. But with securities law changes that went into effect in 2016, access to these types of investments and developments has widened.  The Chicago TREND Corporation (TREND), a social enterprise funded by prestigious impact investors to catalyze urban retail and commercial corridor development, was founded around the same time as the changes in securities law and it’s become a big beneficiary of them. TREND has helped numerous community-based investors beco ..read more