Palaces for the People: How Social Infrastructure Can Help Fight Inequality, Polarization, and the Decline of Civic Life

Public parks are part of the community planning model in most cities, and 70 to 75 percent of Americans report that they live within a short walk of a park.33 Parks are even plentiful in some of the most disadvantaged cities, like Detroit, Michigan, where 74 percent of the population lives within a ten-minute walk of a park.34 In Los Angeles, by co

... See more

Re-envisioning it means ensuring that every place is a part of a bounded neighborhood with a clear start and end and a commercial center, primary school, parks, civic associations, nonprofits, small businesses, and other physical assets and institutions that promote bonding relationships. Adjusting the tax system to favor local volunteerism and giv... See more

A place-based intervention that leads to the greater desirability of a place—such as the expansion of transit, the greening of small park spaces, or the creating of a business improvement district—could also foster new housing or condominium developments, which would then increase the population in an area. Yet if an area doesn’t have a school syst

... See more