Next City

Next City

Join Lucas Grindley, executive director at Next City, where we believe journalists have the power to amplify solutions and spread workable ideas. Each week Lucas will sit down with trailblazers to discuss urban issues that get overlooked. At the end of the day, it's all about focusing the world's attention on the good ideas that we hope will grow. Grab a seat from the bus, subway, light-rail, or whatever your transit-love may be and listen on the go as we spread solutions from one city to the Next City .

Episodes

Takeaways From A Tumultuous Year in Economic Justice

January 15, 2026 • 37 mins
After a year marked by the undermining of public resources, community development is adapting by finding ways to make progress more resilient.In this episode, Next City Senior Economic Justice Correspondent Oscar Perry Abello looks back at some of the biggest stories from a turbulent year on his beat and draws on what he heard during a national book tour for “The Banks We Deserve.”It’s not all bad news, as Abello looks for signs of...
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The Role of Philanthropy in This Moment

January 7, 2026 • 33 mins
 Live recording in November in partnership with the Small Business Anti-Displacement Network. Lucas interviews in fireside chat with Robert Wood Johnson Foundation. Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices
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Building The Community Power Ecosystem

December 17, 2025 • 35 mins
Sponsored Episode with the Culture & Community Power Fund and Kresge Foundation Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices
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When Community Benefits Agreements Work (And When They Don’t)

December 10, 2025 • 32 mins
Residents teamed up with university students to slow the demolition of an affordable housing community and reshape redevelopment in West Philadelphia. Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices
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Learning Community Power By Example: The Chinatown Arena Fight

December 4, 2025 • 35 mins
Philadelphians have a history of banding together and organizing when faced by powerful and monied development that has threatened their displacement. From professional sports venues to ever-expanding “eds and meds,” all across Philadelphia, working-class communities of color have pushed back, sometimes winning, sometimes losing, sometimes ending up somewhere in between. In this panel discussion, we’ll hear from neighborhood leader...
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What Collective Ownership Looks Like in Philly

November 18, 2025 • 31 mins
As rapid development reshapes neighborhoods like Kensington, residents and business owners face displacement and loss of local control. The Kensington Corridor Trust and Women’s Community Revitalization Project offer models of community ownership—using neighborhood and land trusts to preserve affordability, reinvest profits locally, and align development with community priorities. This episode explores how these approaches center e...
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Happy Veterans Day!

November 12, 2025 • 44 secs
This is Lucas Grindley from Next City, a show about changemakers and their stories. We’re off this week for Veterans Day, but we’ll be back next Wednesday with more inspiring and workable ideas that move our society toward justice and equity. If you can’t wait for the next story, head to NextCity.org for the latest coverage. As always, we’d love to hear any feedback from our listeners. Please feel free to email us at info@nextcity....
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Revisiting: Emergent City - A Decade-Long Fight Against Displacement

November 5, 2025 • 40 mins
We're revisiting a favorite episode from the archive to celebrate Next City's Winter Film Festival, this year's series: "Power and Place."What happens when a Brooklyn neighborhood takes on deep-pocketed developers? In this episode, we talk to the directors of "Emergent City" and the organizers who fought to preserve Sunset Park’s future.“Emergent City” (emergentcitydoc.com) documents the 10-year saga of how Brooklyn's Sunset Park c...
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Philadelphia’s Pyramid Club Reborn Through Art and Afrofuturism

October 29, 2025 • 37 mins
Join Matthew Jordan-Miller Kenyatta and artist Shawn Theodore for PYRAMID CLUB: 1937—2035, a reimagining of the legendary North Philadelphia social club as a blueprint for today’s North Broad renaissance. Together, they’ll explore how Afrofuturist and arts-driven approaches can turn scarcity into abundance while centering Black joy and cultural heritage.  Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices
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Designing for Childhood: How Cities Are Ending Playspace Inequity

October 22, 2025 • 35 mins
So much depends on your ZIP code, even children’s access to play. But an effort is growing to ensure the playground is where all kids can have fun, learn and heal.“It's where they learn, it's where they build connection, it's where they really establish their identity as a human being in this world,” says Lysa Ratliff, CEO for KABOOM! “And yet, there's extreme disparities in our parks and our schools and our cities and who has acce...
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City-Building with Culture at the Core

October 1, 2025 • 34 mins
Culture is often treated as a niche area but is actually integral to the successful design and adoption of other areas of urban planning and policy. Hear how cities like Atlanta, Boston, Seattle and Baltimore are embedding cultural approaches into planning, policy, and recovery efforts. Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices
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How Your Nonprofit Can Use Research to Strengthen Impact

September 24, 2025 • 40 mins
Nonprofits often struggle to prove their impact, but the Wilson Sheehan Lab for Economic Opportunities (LEO) is showing how a rigorous research partnership can help grassroots programs scale and win support.This sponsored episode explores examples of nonprofits and city governments collaborating with LEO researchers at the University of Notre Dame to identify what works, why it works, and how they used new evidence to make the case...
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A Federal Freeze Won’t Stop Green Progress

September 17, 2025 • 42 mins
Even as billions in federal clean energy funding sit trapped in legal limbo, community lenders are determined to keep the green transition alive.This episode of Next City explores how to press forward with the clean-energy transition despite a federal freeze on the $27 billion Greenhouse Gas Reduction Fund.Next City’s senior economic justice correspondent Oscar Perry Abello speaks with Neda Arabshahi, executive vice president of th...
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Alternative Models For Funding and Supporting Cultural Spaces and Workers

August 27, 2025 • 30 mins
Communities need spaces for art; you can't support art without supporting artists. We're talking with three leaders working on alternative models for sustainability. Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices
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The Fight for Freedom of Mobility in Black America

August 20, 2025 • 43 mins
Charles T. Brown, author of "Arrested Mobility," discusses why mobility is not afforded in the same way to everyone – and the dire cost of this inequity. Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices
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Heroic Oysters Are ‘Holding Back the Tide’

August 13, 2025 • 31 mins
New York was once the world’s oyster capital. The director of a new feature-length impressionist hybrid documentary, "Holding Back the Tide," traces the city’s many life cycles with the oyster as her main character. Emily Packer follows environmentalists restoring oysters to the harbor, while examining the oyster not only as entangled with nature, but also as a queer icon, with much to teach about our society’s continued survival. ...
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Razing Liberty Square: On Writing the Playbook to Fight Gentrification

August 6, 2025 • 39 mins
The documentary "Razing Liberty Square” shows what happens in Miami as sea levels rise and the rich move inland, encroaching on residents of the Liberty Square public housing project. The film tells the story of a historically Black community faced with a $300-million-dollar “revitalization” of their neighborhood. In this episode, hear from a resident and climate activist, Valencia Gunder, who says she’s fighting a new form of raci...
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'The Black Power Scorecard:' On Expanding Power and Lives

July 30, 2025 • 34 mins
Black power is more than symbolic. It’s a measurable reality tied to things like ownership, investment in neighborhoods, and—ultimately—life expectancy. In this episode with the authors of two new books—“The Black Power Scorecard” and “The Banks We Deserve”—Andre Perry and Oscar Perry Abello talk about systems that have historically failed communities of color and what it will take to build lasting institutions that truly serve the...
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Revisiting Lexington - "This ‘Big Town’ Has Solutions for Cities Everywhere"

July 23, 2025 • 34 mins
This week, we’re revisiting an episode we released earlier this year, all about Lexington, Kentucky — a city where collaboration and creativity are transforming challenges into opportunities. In this episode, we highlighted how Lexington’s leaders are finding ways to foster nonpartisanship, boost civic engagement, and narrow the racial wealth gap.We’re bringing this episode back now because it offers a window into the themes we exp...
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Creating Common Ground: The Value of Public Parks

July 16, 2025 • 30 mins
The Trust for Public Land’s ParkScore® Index each year ranks the 100 largest U.S. cities on factors such as park access, investment, and equity. In this sponsored episode, we explore how cities have turned their ParkScore data into action—investing in green spaces to spark civic engagement and foster a genuine sense of belonging. Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices
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