All communities face certain challenges.
But some people see challenges as opportunities.
On Placemakers, we bring you stories about the spaces we inhabit and the people who shape them. Join us as we criss-cross the country, introducing you to real people in real communities — people who make a difference in how we travel, work, and live.
You’ll never look at your community the same way again.
We explore an architectural movement where everything old is new. And possibly creepy?
33 Min
Dec 5, 2016
On this episode of Placemakers, producer Mike Vuolo explores the unholy relationship between burglary and the built environment.
34 Min
Nov 28, 2016
Libertarians Are Moving to New Hampshire in an Attempt to Shape the Key Voting State’s Politics.
How do you solve a problem like the suburbs? How about creating an agricultural utopia?
Of all the capitals of all the democracies in the world, Washington, D.C., is the only one without full voting rights. Over 13 terms, Eleanor Holmes Norton -- the District of Columbia's non-voting delegate to Congress -- has fought to change that.
Philadelphia wanted its bike share program to succeed where other bike shares have failed: in winning over low-income and minority residents. Turns out it’s working.
Bennie Lee was a gang leader and death row inmate. Now’s he’s helping others break the cycle of crime.
A squatter in Oakland successfully claimed an abandoned building as his home. Now he’s created an organization to help activists around the country do the same thing.
A decade ago, a tornado wiped out the small town of Greensburg. But the town decided to rebuild -- as a totally green community.
Mary Poole has been a nurse, an arborist, a jewelry-maker, and a mom. But she’s never been a politician or an activist. At least not until one heartbreaking photo from halfway around the world changed everything for her.
In some places, hard-working kids are taught to measure success by how fast and far they can flee from their community. But one Bronx native has returned to her old stomping grounds to show how “self-gentrification” can remake marginalized neighborhoods.
Climbing rents are driving many creative entrepreneurs out of popular urban centers. Meanwhile, small towns are losing shops and jobs to big box stores. Is there an obvious win-win solution?
Atlanta wanted an end to its public housing projects-- no more pockets of poverty, crime, and despair.
