Schools that double up as senior centres? Just 1 of 5 clever new city solutions

This piece spells out an unsuspected, little-known urban phenomenon underway in five American cities. They’re thinking about today’s reality – and challenges – and have come up with innovative ways to deal with it.

For instance, early childhood education in Salt Lake County and Park City, Utah, underwritten by Goldman Sachs.

Schools that double as senior centres at night or on weekends in Charlotte, North Carolina.

Levying a fee on property owners who allow rainwater to run off uselessly in Philadelphia, sans rain barrels or other systems to collect storm water.

Phoenix, Arizona’s Housing First programme for homeless veterans, because stable housing may be the starting point in the battle against homelessness.

Madison, Wisconsin’s biodigester programme to turn food scraps into energy as part of a zero waste scheme.

“Our battered suitcases were piled on the sidewalk again; we had longer ways to go. But no matter, the road is life”
– Jack Kerouac