Land/Environment

What could be complicated about a pocket park? I am digging into that question to explore some of the ways we can over-think, over-judge, over-complicate and get in our own way as big thinkers about small grants — unaware of...

John talks about two different approaches to community organizing in a Q & A session on community development with participants in a workshop sponsored by the Communities First Association. Watch the conversation and discover the difference between community organizing and...

I started law school in 1987. I was 29 years old and married with a blended family of seven kids at home. We were politically and socially active, making a difference in our community. My husband was sometimes arrested...

A few years after Judy Wicks opened the White Dog Cafe in West Philadelphia, she hung a sign in her bedroom closet as a daily reminder of what her business could be if she gave it ­creativity and care....

The Highlands neighbourhood lies in northeast Edmonton, Alberta, Canada, overlooking the North Saskatchewan River valley. It’s a mature neighbourhood of Foursquare and various Arts and Crafts style homes, large lots, big trees and beautiful river views, all close by central Edmonton. Annexed by Edmonton in 1912,...

What would make Cincinnati a great city? To explore that question, more than 100 folks from around town gathered with Peter and John to learn about “The Abundant Community.” There is growing buzz around town about civic engagement and how we...

Most Thursday evenings I spend in the garden at Ward and Chandler.* Usually I am by myself, puttering. Last night was different. If you had come by the garden yesterday you would have seen neighbors “shopping” among the rows. In...

These days, the big issues of our time are digested and disseminated by cable news, internet blogs, and tweets—and repeated by everyday people in our common conversations. But the choices about how that digestion happens—about how big stories are...

Pushing my grocery cart down the aisle, I spot on the fruit counter a dozen plastic bags of bananas labeled “Organic, Equal Exchange.” My heart leaps a little. I’d been thrilled, months earlier, when I found my local grocer...

When residents are genuinely at the center of community building, a different process unfolds. Relationships become the centerpiece of the work. This is because for residents community building is personal — it’s about their children, their families, their homes, their neighbors and their streets. It...