A derelict rail line is being reimagined as a linear park, like Manhattan’s High Line. But in a borough that lacks both green space and transportation, locals wonder whether its best use would be the original one.

Op-Ed: Two new incubators for Black-owned businesses in Atlanta show how to revitalize our downtowns while putting equity at the forefront.

The High Line Network, a program of the High Line that supports a group of nonprofit organizations transforming underutilized infrastructure into new urban landscapes, announces the launch of its Community First Toolkit. Developed by the High Line Network in partnership with the Harvard Graduate School of Design and the Urban Institute, the Community First Toolkit is an equity-based action planning resource for practitioners in the field of infrastructure reuse, as well as city officials, urban planners, nonprofit leaders, and other community members.

The India Basin Waterfront Park Project partners, made up of the San Francisco Recreation and Park Department, the Trust for Public Land, the San Francisco Parks Alliance, and the A. Philip Randolph Institute, are excited to share with you the Equitable Development Plan (EDP) for this transformative renovation. The landmark plan, a first for San Francisco, ensures this waterfront park will benefit current Bayview-Hunters Point residents while preserving the culture and identity of the historic neighborhood. It provides a blueprint for delivering a park designed by and for the community while improving economic opportunity and environmental health for its residents.

On a cold Monday morning, Yihua Liu sat on a bench with a friend at the Rail Park. Now a student at Drexel, he’s lived in Chinatown all his life, and he’s noticed the neighborhood changing.

Washington has a consensus: American infrastructure is overdue for capital improvements and maintenance. The most fervent debates on this topic have focused on how much funding should be allocated. But the most important discussion, even when it comes to hard infrastructure (e.g., rail, bridges, roads, and sidewalks), should be about how funding should be spent.

The COVID-19 pandemic has shown us the true value of parks. It’s vital that urban park federal funding remains robust.

The profound disruptions of COVID-19 have created new challenges for our leaders, who need to make sure New York City remains a place people want to live and work. The next city administration has an opportunity to make visionary investments in additional parks that will enhance our economic recovery while making the city more livable and equitable for a growing population.

City residents don’t all have the same access to the benefits of green space. Addressing that inequity requires community engagement at every stage from planning to development to management.

U.S. parks became crucial during the pandemic as they offered urban dwellers both solace and a safe space to meet with others, and mayors recognized as much. Three-quarters of mayors surveyed last summer said they expected residents to spend more time in green spaces than they did in the pre-pandemic days.