The Vacant Property Toolbox responds to both the challenges and possibilities that vacant properties pose while also giving concrete strategies to help property owners avoide foreclosure.  

Produced by youarethecity, an urban design practice run by Kaja Kühl in NYC, the guide is aimed at individuals and community groups wanting to remediate toxic soil on vacant lots in their neighborhood.  

The Ghana Think Tank's most recent project, American Riad, is a 3 year project that will transform formerly abandoned homes in Detroit’s North End into 8 homes with a shared courtyard.  The project concept came from a Moroccan Think Tank working to develop solutions to what they described as the United States’s “problem of social isolation”.  Ghana Think Tank co-founder, John Ewing, recalled the feedback from the Moroccan group “They said to us you need to stop this obsession with the single family homes...instead you need housing more like ours: That's communal housing around a common courtyard with a single entrance, then you will have community.“

Written by artists/ activists Gavin Grindon and John Jordan of the Laboratory of Insurrectionary Imagination, this 68 page guide inspires readers with belief in the impossible.  The poetic call to action was initially distributed at the 2010 art activism event organized to protest proposed cuts to arts funding in London.  Since its initial distribution the Open Access text has been translated in more than 6 languages and downloaded worldwide.

ne of New York City’s largest volunteer projects has been working for over a decade to make the city brighter one daffodil bulb at a time.  Since 2001 New Yorkers for Parks (NY4P) has been planting daffodils every fall and watching them grow in the spring.  As of 2017 the project has distributed more than a half a million bulbs citywide and partnered with the NYC Housing Authority and city schools to engage more than 100,000 students and volunteers.  

As one of the Center for Active Design’s more recent publications, Active Design: Guide for Community Groups addresses transportation, recreation, buildings, green space and nature and healthy foods and beverages.  Inspired by NYHD’s work with community partners throughout the 5 boroughs, the Guide for Community Groups provides resources for communities to identify assets, envision the future of their neighborhood and strategize to improve public space.  With these tools community led initiatives will be better empowered to make their neighborhoods more livable, vibrant and healthy.

In this Living Alleys Toolkit the San Francisco Planning Department lays out 7 considerations to evaluate before initiating any Living Alley project including hydraulics, underground utilities and accessibility.   The toolkit includes the Planning Department’s evaluation of these challenges according to standards and regulations in San Francisco but the principles and questions raised can be practiced and applied in any region.

The Mayor’s Guide to Public Life is an inspiration and how-to guide for city leaders throughout the globe.  Based upon a series of interviews with mayors and designers, the guide proposes 5 strategies: Measure, Invite, Do, Evolve and Formalize.  With these strategies in-hand, municipalities will have the inspiration and framework needed to build more accessible and inclusive public spaces.