Three winners this year have previously been selected as K880 Emerging City Champions. The Emerging City Champions program, administered by 8 80 Cities and now open for applications, awards $5,000 microgrants to young civic innovators. It’s exciting to see the emerging talent pipeline as these civic innovators scale their ideas to larger projects.

While all of the winning projects focus on elements of attracting talented people, expanding economic opportunity and creating a culture of civic engagement, we also saw several additional themes.

The biggest category of projects revolves around the theme of restoring life back to public or vacant spaces. The economy was also a theme; specifically projects that aim to facilitate or prepare our cities for a changing urban economy were prominent. Together those two themes make up more than 50 percent of the winners. There were also clusters of projects around changing community narratives as well as bridging community divides. Finally, projects that seek to promote engagement and strengthen civic life were also well represented.


2015 Winner Next Stop: Democracy in Philadelphia. Photo by Conrad Benner, NSD.

Many of last year’s winners have experienced tremendous success, which means expectations for these 37 projects are high. We’re looking forward to seeing what they do and to learning from them in ways that will inform our work and improve our communities.

The Knight Cities Challenge will be back for a third round later this year. Meanwhile, you can follow our conversation around civic innovation at#knightcities.

Congratulations again to all of our winners. Thank you to the readers who helped us review the applications, and thank you to everyone who submitted an idea to make their city more successful.

George Abbott manages the Knight Cities Challenge. He can be reached via email at abbott@knightfoundation.org. Follow him on Twitter @garthurabbott.

2016 Knight Cities Challenge Winners

Akron, Ohio

Cuyahoga Explore-a-foot by Brian and Tracy Davis | $70,000 

Encouraging visitors to explore remote regions of Cuyahoga Valley National Park by providing services and amenities, such as help with travel arrangements and baggage transport, that make it more accessible.

Downtown Akron Innerbelt Bicycle Park by Jonathan Morschl | $120,000

Providing new life for an abandoned section of the highway by creating a “bicycle park” that promotes cycling, encourages new riders and attracts cyclists from throughout the region and nation.

Boulder, Colo.

Tree Debris to Opportunity by the city of Boulder | $200,000 | submitted by Yvette Bowden

Expanding economic opportunity for members of the community in need of new skills and careers by training them to turn debris from infested and diseased trees into furniture and art.

Charlotte, N.C.

CrownTownHall by the city of Charlotte | $85,000 | submitted by Jason Lawrence

Helping residents more easily connect with their local government and get involved with civic issues through pop-up events where they can meet elected officials, sign up for city services, and review area planning efforts.

Can Do Signs by the city of Charlotte | $27,900 | submitted by Sarah Hazel

Rethinking municipal signs that typically tell people “what not to do,” to spur fun, imagination and positivity throughout Charlotte; the project will create signs that provide amusing, enchanting, fun options: You can dance! You can sing! You can skip!

Queen City Quiz Show by Charlotte Is Creative | $85,000 | submitted by Tim Miner and Matt Olin

Creating a mobile quiz show that will team local musicians and artists with cultural groups to entertain, enlighten and challenge diverse communities with questions about the city from the trivial to the pertinent and controversial.

Columbus, Ga.

Evolving MidTown: Lot by Lot by the Incremental Development Alliance | $174,400 | submitted by Jim Kumon

Recruiting and training a diverse group of individuals on skills to become small-scale developers; participants will use distressed or underused lots as beta projects and receive access to investors and other resources.

Urban Glen | $4,000 | by the city of Columbus submitted by Phillip Trocquet

Creating “urban glens”—inviting spaces with trees, lights and hammocks—on vacant and overgrown lots to encourage people to meet and connect, while cleaning up city-owned properties.

Detroit

Pedal to Porch by Cornetta Lane | $30,000

Exploring Detroit’s untold history through monthly bike tours leading participants through different areas of the city and giving residents a chance to tell the story of their neighborhoods.

Dequindre Cut Market by the Detroit Riverfront Conservancy | $135,665 | submitted by Mark Wallace

Creating spaces for entrepreneurs to set up shop along the Dequindre Cut with shipping container pop-up shops that will add to the vibrancy of the neighborhood and attract new interest.

Detroit’s Pink Zone by the city of Detroit | $75,000 | submitted by Maurice D. Cox

Creating new opportunities for jobs and businesses by developing a new tool to streamline city development regulations and engaging design talent and developers to help reshape commercial districts.

Give a Park, Get a Park by the city of Detroit | $75,000 | submitted by Maurice D. Cox

Creating sustainable microparks in Detroit neighborhoods that are designed in response to community needs, require few resources and are easy to maintain.

Sensors in a Shoebox by the University of Michigan | $138,339 | submitted by Elizabeth Birr Moje and Jerome Lynch

Training youth to use sensors and data analytics that track environmental conditions such as traffic, noise or temperature in city neighborhoods; the project will help students answer questions about their community and build ideas to make it better.

The People First Project by Chad Rochkind | $184,080

Creating a network of tactical urbanists who collectively select a single urban challenge each year on which to focus quick, low-cost, creative improvements.

Ft. Wayne, Ind.

Tired-a-lot by Bridge of Grace Compassionate Ministries | $95,434 | submitted by Réna Bradley

Creating a design studio that will engage local youth to identify and create solutions to transform vacant lots in their neighborhood with low-cost materials.

Gary, Ind.

Steel City Salvage by Delta Institute | $385,000 | submitted by Eve Pytel

Establishing a reuse facility that would reclaim building materials, such as lumber, from vacant homes in Gary to contribute to economic growth, create jobs and support businesses, and provide opportunities for community collaboration on development projects.

Grand Forks, N.D.

New Flavors Food Truck by Pete Haga | $106,800

Offering new American residents access to a generic food truck and the equipment they need to start their own food service business or restaurant.

Lexington, Ky.

Phoenix Forward by the Lexington Public Library | $150,200 | submitted by Anne Donworth

Transforming Phoenix Park and Central Library into a place where children and families from diverse backgrounds can learn and play together; the project would involve complementary park and library programming and activities for families.

Parking Lot Diaries by the Lexington Downtown Development Authority | $87,200 | submitted by Jeff Fugate

Creating a living civic engagement lab in an underused area next to the Transit Center that tests and tracks temporary interventions and activities designed to add vibrancy to the area; the project will contribute to the city’s Town Branch Commons plan.

Long Beach, Calif.

Placemake the Vote by City Fabrick | $153,600 | submitted by Brian Ulaszewski

Developing a kit for creating temporary pop-up social spaces at voting polls in historically low voter turnout areas to encourage people to vote and provide venues to celebrate democracy afterwards.

The Outdoor Office by the city of Long Beach | $300,000 | submitted by Rachael Tanner

Transforming a portion of a public park into a space that encourages creativity, collaboration and productivity, and encourages residents to take work to the park.

Macon, Ga.

Pop-up Minimum Grid by NewTown Macon, The Macon-Bibb Urban Development Authority and Macon-Bibb Government Department of Parks and Beautification | $151,900 | submitted by Josh Rogers

Creating a pop-up minimum grid that would allow citizens to explore their city safely on foot or on bicycles; the project would expand a trail system from the river to downtown and the surrounding neighborhoods.

Miami

Biscayne Green by the Miami Downtown Development Authority | $145,000 | submitted by Fabian de la Espriella

Creating a pop-up park and urban forest along Biscayne Boulevard to drive momentum for “Biscayne Green,” a proposal to redesign Biscayne Boulevard to include a pedestrian promenade.

Miami Civic User Testing Group by Code for Miami | $100,000  | submitted by Rebekah Monson

Ensuring that people building local government technology use real-world feedback throughout the development process by creating a user testing group that will identify user experience issues more quickly, while making websites and apps more accessible.

The Underline: Brickell Backyard by Friends of the Underline | $250,000 | submitted by Meg Daly

Creating a sports field and gym as part of The Underline, a proposed 10-mile linear park underneath the Miami-Dade Metrorail, to provide quality of life incentives to talented young adults.

Milledgeville, Ga.

The Democracy Lab by the Twin Lakes Library System | $25,000 | submitted by Stephen Houser

Creating a shared space in downtown Milledgeville, located next to City Hall and near a makerspace and a library, that will foster civic engagement through public events, meetings that gather residents and leaders to problem-solve, and resources that better connect civic institutions.

Palm Beach County, Fla.

The Sunset Rises Again by West Palm Beach Community Redevelopment Agency | $171,650 | submitted by Jon Ward

Creating a new cultural destination in the Historic Northwest District of West Palm Beach on the site of the Sunset Lounge, a former prominent jazz club and surrounding land.

Philadelphia

20 Book Clubs, 20 Co-op Businesses by Philadelphia Area Cooperative Alliance | $146,000 | submitted by Caitlin Quigley

Increasing civic engagement and economic opportunity by launching book clubs in 20 Philadelphia neighborhoods for participants to study cooperative businesses and then form their own.

Breaking Bread, Breaking Barriers by Reading Terminal Market | $84,674 | submitted by Anuj Gupta

Building cultural bridges to Philadelphia’s immigrant communities with cooking classes celebrating ethnic food operated by chefs from Reading Terminal Market.

The Institute of Hip-Hop Entrepreneurship by Little Giant Creative | $308,640 | submitted by Tayyib Smith

Increasing economic opportunity by using hip-hop to provide hands-on business training to members of low-income groups.

The Little Music Studio by Group Melvin Design | $334,050 | submitted by Ben Bryant

Breaking down community barriers with The Little Music Studio, a traveling playground for musicians.

San Jose, Calif.

Post Street Night Market by Justin Triano | $100,000

Expanding economic opportunity with a recurring night market that features local crafts, food and entertainment.

The MayFeria by Mexican Heritage Plaza | $100,000 | submitted by Tamara Alvarado

Increasing civic engagement and expanding economic opportunity in San Jose’s Mayfair neighborhood with The MayFeria, which will consist of folk life events, a community task force, and a coordinator to help identify and make better use of cultural and civic assets.

State College, Pa.

Community Collaborative Ice Luminary Project by The Make Space | $51,450 | submitted by John Stitzinger

Increasing civic engagement through a maker event that encourages residents to make ice luminaries, share the mold for the luminaries with their neighbors, and set a record by lighting up the town.

St. Paul, Minn.

I’m Going to Vote Today by Aaron Sackett and Christopher Bryan | $170,275

Testing a new way to increase participation in local elections by distributing stickers that read “I'm Going to Vote Today” to eligible voters to wear on Election Day.

Front Lawn Placemaking Platform by The Musicant Group | $82,400 | submitted by Max Musicant

Transforming front lawns from empty expanses of grass to vibrant places full of life through the development of a toolkit that encourages residents to create community hubs on their doorsteps.

Tallahassee, Fla.

The Longest Table by the city of Tallahassee | $57,250 | submitted by Michael Alfano

Building cross-community relationships with an expanded series of community conversations over meals in 100 homes.

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I have not seen in my 71 years of life an opportunity to support youth co-create futures like SDG Metaverse Prize - since my father met von neumann the year I was born my family has kept an eye on entrepreneurial revolution open societal flows. living up to smithian or keynsian values 
Special thanks to zasheem launches of 2 journals with adam smith scholars and around Glasgow's greatest 20th C alumni for good. See alsdo EconomistDiary.com and Greatests of All Time
Following on with Japan ambassador to Bangladesh support from 2010 in mapping last decade of Fazle Abed and the billion womens economic model he gravitated over 50 years http://www.abedmooc.com, Team of Asian media graduates, and friends and I were lucky to follow movements of Guterres (very granular levels of 100 ops leaders inside UN) around digital un2.0 from their start in 2016.
As a statistician, datawise. I can offer a quick start mapping every last mile operation branch of UN that is linking in to maximise tech nd deep data with smartest possible logistics even as sad new fractures of world trade flows are caused most lately by Russia. Whats still needed is more clarity on which multilateral has the most data on broken value chains- fortunately i personally know who at the world bank has since 2006 the most data on food prices across every country. Maybe you know // sources .
 Digital cooperation has been celebrated solutionwise in Geneva where the ITU has actually been the digital twin of ny policy headquarters from the start in 1946 (and actually earlier since 1865 collaborations needed for there to be one telegraph standard instead of many).
By 2018 the first digital cooperation report mainly chaired out of geneva with 30 national tech leaders eg melinda gates representing USA to guterres and he formed tech envoy transformation office round 10 transformation processes -see Overview of the Office’s Ongoing Work | Office of the Secretary-General's Envoy on Technology
The ITU started taking its responsibility to a new level with AIforgood- specifically this went year round zoom not juts annual summit- and a first 50 operational branches of the UN identified at least one ai project each. Meanwhile Guterres hosted expert roundtables around the 10 processes uniting not just un branches and national leaders but corporations , leading ai university centres and NGOs -see https://www.un.org/techenvoy/sites/www.un.org.techenvoy/files/List_of_roundtables_key_constituents.pdf
Three more things came together- it turned out that 20 operational units of the UN had been discussing web1 &2 in annual vents of ITU -in thi=ose days called worldwide information society; the xprize out of moutnain view's singularity university got involved. By december the 10 million dillar avatar prize will  be debriefed- the last 4 xprizes have been on urgen tai solutions eg related to covid. And japan has been uniting about 40 cities' colleges through two investment streams geared to society5.0 and Osaka Data Track Expos - connection places where the UN has a training college and connecting AI regional epicentres fortunately Nordica, Netherlands & selected East Europe's smartest community AI researchers (ie who value DAO) are miles more connected than west EU's bureaucratic offices. (I did help moderate EU Knolwgeboard for 3 years so have followed this rather strange old world happening) You could also check with Romano Prodi as died and he shared most entrepreneurial revolution maps.
Back in 2018 the tufts arctic circle club were miles ahead on virtual reality than other boston students including mit100k prize that i once judged in a minor way.  The over 18 teams are effectively free to help the UN digitalise and connect this with web 3 or metaverse or ai or whatever is the leap forward 2020s that you see tech mobilising
 can a prize help celebrate new Greatest of All Time. This will be one way to unite celebrities of sports and fashions with real tech heroines.
Exponentially we are at a critical time as nature judges us. Due to last week's supreme court rulings, around the world nations are being told taht it is only at the state level they can expect any american partners of climate, energy etc. However there is a chnace e that if we map who cares about water this may even unite some republican states. 
Thanks to the work led by people like Eban he has a listing of which institutions joined their youth in March 2022. Is there a way to see who wants to help youth connect before december's starting line for year 1 of sdgmetaverseprize.org? As far as I can see this prize isnt just us last chance to be be trusted rest of the world on cop26 but it is every community's chance to benchmark digital gov. UN2.0 if succeeds  Meta will not only provide a benchmark for digital multilateral but will in effect unite every best govtech - at community state nation level. So already when it comes to goal 4 education places like singapore and south korea are both leaders of ai for every age group and leading connectors of Guterres Digital UN , and in effect every sustainability goal solution. of course the problem is penisular and  developed island states are not sufficient to help with massive inland solutions on continent scales let alone messy landlocked nations borders. The reality is west (US and EU) depends on Asian solutions  more than many Atlamtic policymakers view. Europe is not yet better situated for peace than the 1920s and this time round the US is not united on being a leader in saving the world. The great thing about the prize is with teams of 2-6 getting on with deep digital solutions youth can advance in joy and productivity even as elder generations have designed 60 years of accelerating media to propagate hate or fear or mental illness.
i welcome any way to follow this up eg whatsapp +1 240 316  8157, zooms, last month while wall street was still investing mainly in naked apes - educators started an NFT aimed at connecting 6000 educators; to be frank this is mainly k-12 leaving the 2 main areas fazle abed's last 20 years focused newly on university and pre-school maximum opportunity to represent women empowerments voice if you should so choose to collaborate
cheers chris macrae

===================please note most of this column is due to be re-edited we hope to issue a list of yunus top 10 stories but when it comes to solutions matching those challeges there's all to play for as web3 is humanity's last chnace to leap ahead

  hottest youth-spring question of our life and times-can online education end youth unemployment for ever ? yes but only if you help map how!

Breaking News to action now!

About Pro-Youth economics at Norman Macrae Foundation online library of norman macrae - The Economist's Unacknowledged Giant -videos 1 2 -fansweb  NMFoundation- youth projects - include yunuschoolusa

 

fullest press reports  Grameen Brand Partnership Architecture

exponential impact advisory: the social business youth networks inspired by muhammad yunus -without which millennium goal actions networks would be way behind are worth far more than any individual parts according to Norman Macrae Foundation  trilliondollaraudit methodology and charter notespace

Beyond the extraordinary investment of the members bank at Grameen, and the approximate third share its members foundation holds in grameenphone, here is our Unofficial League Table of Most Impactful Social Business Investments around yunus - last update 1 dec 2012

! Grameen Solar

2 Grameen Mobile Nursing nets and college

3 Portfolio of investments linkedin by Japan

4 Portfolio of youth-led networking inventions in US educationsystem  tertiar and secondary - transparency note NM Foundation has minor donation/loan interest

5 Investments in Grameen as collaboration brand linked in out of paris- the origin of global social business partnership funds

6 OpenTech investments of Grameen Intel

 

-------- while not controlled by yunus we see wholeplanetfoundation microcredit investment table and conscious capitalsm movements and hugely important to advancing pro-youth economicsmission of friends of youth and yunus

 

email chris.macrae@yahoo.co.ukif you have questions or recommendations of entries that should be in this league table

-please read notes about what pro-youth economists mean by superapps being most

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