Pam’s Reviews > Palaces for the People: How Social Infrastructure Can Help Fight Inequality, Polarization, and the Decline of Civic Life > Status Update

New Orleans had 11 miles of bike weighs when Katrina hit: today it has 115. Since the greenway opened New Orleans has shot into the top American cities for bike commuters it currently ranks fifth in the per capita population that cycles to work and it promises to move further up. New Orleans is a fine Place to look if political officials need evidence that social infrastructure can lure people out of their cars

1 particularly effective initiative is the "floating schools and libraries" program led by Shidhulai Swanirvar Sangstha, climate change access to education human Rights healthcare and the digital divide with the buoyant social infrastructure of boats. Children are not the only beneficiaries, the boats also hold adult education including courses for literacy sustainable agriculture and disaster survival

Waterplein Benthemplein

Rotterdam which has a long history of flooding has created funds for an upgrade. In the Netherlands we focused on how to prevent it from coming in New York City focused on evacuating people. The most interesting thing is figuring out what to do with the water once it's there. Rotterdam is now a global leader in architecture of accommodation: rather than blocking rain, the city is creating usable physical places

Sociologists have consistently found that participating in organized sports teams increases social capital and leads to a more participation in non-sports related collective activities as well. 80% of people who play and organize sport have friends in the organization considerably higher than the rate for those who participate in humanitarian environmental or consumer orgs

Barbershops allows patrons to articulate controversial ideas and to argue them out until everyone has a better sense of who they are why they're in the situation, and what they believe. When the barbershop closes The Men Who spend time there feel a little less isolated and vulnerable. The bonds they form provides strength for the social bridging that comes later making them better prepared to engage the world outside

According to the American public health association community gardens do more than provide shade and reduce the temperature in overheated Urban environments. They foster interactions within and across generations resulting in less social isolation as well as more cohesion civic participation and neighborhood attachment. They reduce stress levels, help children develop positive feelings about nature, and healthy food

Food: 13% of low income census tracts are food deserts according to USDA reports.

Between 1991 and 2004 overdose deaths in Switzerland dropped by 50%. Not a single person died at the supervised injection sites. Fewer people were choosing to take heroin. The number of new users dropped 80% between 1990 and 2002. The country song 90% drop in heroin related property crimes. It is now national law and copied internationally.

recovering from substance abuse requires the support of a community be it family friends therapists were 12-step groups. Addiction experts refer to these kinds of social connections as elements of recovery capital. The heroin maintenance zones that the Swiss established werent merely sites for drug injection they were social infrastructures places where addicts counselors and medical providers interacted regularly