a collaboration for good
If lending libraries were to circulate communal items that everyone uses, as they do books, they could eliminate private hoarding, poverty and inequality. The idea is called Library Socialism. The Basics of Library Socialism V0.3 https://medium.com/@wrong_shon/the-basics-of-library-socialism-wip-1c3f00a7c94f Related Reading
The real estate industry contends that America’s housing shortage is based on supply and demand. However, with 16 million vacant homes across the U.S. — that’s 28 vacant homes for every homeless person— that cannot be the problem. A new study shows the real problem is that the U.S. real estate market has become such…
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Until very recently, worn-out clothes could be recycled if they were made from natural textiles or synthetic fibers, but not if they were made from a mix of both, as most of today’s clothing is. Now, however, a new recycling method can turn any combination of fabrics into a vast array of products from food…
Until recently, areas contaminated by industrial operations were either left alone or bulldozed with the contaminated material hauled off to a landfill. But the former was wasteful and the latter was expensive and dangerous, so a California ecologist found an inexpensive way to turn those areas into flowering meadows – by planting mushrooms Mushrooms Help…
If poor people could rent self-charging e-bikes for a dollar a day, would it help bring them mobility? Early experience indicates it definitely would, so the idea is beginning to take root. Can These Self-Charging E-Bike Libraries Bring Mobility to Low-Income Communities? https://nextcity.org/urbanist-news/self-charging-e-bike-libraries-metro-mobility-massachusetts Related Reading
At one time, San Francisco was famous for the large number of homeless people who slept on its sidewalks every night. These days, however, the number of homeless encampments is the lowest the city has recorded in a decade. Where did everybody go? Homeless encampments have largely vanished from San Francisco. Is the city at…
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Many times, perhaps most times, the lack of healthy, fresh, nutritious foods in certain neighborhoods is the result of structural racism and unjust penal systems that keep people impoverished and hungry. Feed Black Futures is a community-based food sovereignty organization in California that is battling that by connecting Black and brown farmers with Black mamas and…
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Although immigration causes severe problems in some cities, Midwestern cities see it as a solution to many of their problems, including labor shortages and years of depopulation. The Midwest cities in search of new migrants http://archive.today/8KU1f Related Reading
Mexico’s new General Law on Adequate and Sustainable Nutrition emphasizes everyone’s right to food and is designed to make food available to everyone, but what does the law actually say? The USDA Foreign Agricultural Service studied it, and here’s what it found. Mexico’s bold new law on adequate and sustainable nutrition. https://www.foodpolitics.com/2024/08/what-im-reading-mexicos-new-nutrition-law/ Related Reading
The pandemic left large swaths of vacant office space across the United States, forcing cities to scramble to find a use for them. A Florida company has hit on an idea that seems to be working well for everyone: use the empty space for affordable artist studios. Using Vacant Commercial Spaces As Affordable Artist Studios…
Read More “Addressing the Housing Shortage with RePurposed Commercial Space” »