More than five decades ago, civil engineers in northern Illinois carried out a major engineering experiment by using 246,000 cubic yards of coal fly ash beneath 7,500 feet of a major expressway embankment. The pioneering project, completed in 1972 near Waukegan along the US Route 41 corridor, was one of the earliest large-scale examples of…

Baltimore shopping centre rebounds as 200 community investors take ownership, with 10 new leases and 100+ jobs (Image Credit: The Kresge Foundation) A Baltimore shopping centre that once served as an important retail destination spent decades struggling with disinvestment and vacant storefronts. Today, Edmondson Village Shopping Center is undergoing a different kind of transformation, driven…

Photo credit: Niles Mayor Nick Shelton’s Facebook page A historic school building in Niles, Michigan, was destroyed in a devastating fire in 2023, only the iconic brick facade of the 1867 building remains. For many residents, the loss felt like the end of an era for a site that had served as a school, community…

Hidden deep in a West Virginia gorge is an abandoned coal town with a surprising connection to Henry Ford. Nuttallburg was once a thriving mining community, its fortunes built on the rich coal and the railway that carried the fuel to distant customers. For decades, miners, railway workers and their families helped turn the isolated…

San Ysidro, the busiest border crossing in the United States, now has a haven for residents vulnerable to climate change. Casa Familiar, an environmental justice nonprofit, officially opened La Semilla Community Resiliency Center this week on a once-vacant 7,000-square-foot lot, according to a report by KPBS. The centre, which sits on West Park Avenue near…