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Town: District of Columbia

20 posts
During Banned Books Week, the public libraries in Washington DC had readings of James Baldwin's banned works.
View Post
  • Libraries

Reading Banned Books Out Loud

  • Deborah Fallows
  • October 3, 2023
When books themselves come under assault, public read-outs give new voice to the choir of believers. A note from the nation’s capital during Banned Books Week.
Andrew McKeever, Jim Fallows, Deb Fallows on Greater Northshire Access Television's ‘The News Project: In Studio’.
View Post
  • Media

Discussing the ‘Our Towns’ Journey on The News Project

  • Ben Speggen
  • March 29, 2023
Deb and Jim Fallows explore the ongoing story of Our Towns with Andrew McKeever on Greater Northshire Access Television's ‘The News Project: In Studio’.
Three people lift a solar panel.
View Post
  • Environment & Sustainability

Carbon offset pact will put solar on dozens of Habitat for Humanity homes

  • Elizabeth McGowan, Energy News Network
  • March 17, 2023
The District of Columbia-based American Institute of Architects is offsetting greenhouse gas emissions from a major renovation with a $500,000 donation that will cover the cost of solar panels on an estimated 72 homes.
A man using a battery-powered leaf blower.
View Post
  • Environment & Sustainability

What’s the Quickest Way to Make a Big Difference, Through a Little Step? It’s Right There in the Backyard.

  • James Fallows
  • October 6, 2022
Change comes slowly, then all at once.
A map showing western movement of the center of US population
View Post
  • Environment & Sustainability

Another Look Into the ‘Heart’ of America

  • James Fallows
  • October 2, 2022
First, a geographic perspective. Then, the country's struggle to recognize ways in which it is changing—and might be improving.
Ball State president Geoffrey Mearns, at front and on the right, leading a commencement procession this past May. Photo Courtesy of Anthony Romano/Ball State University
View Post
  • Colleges & Universities

‘When Gown Embraces Town’: Two Stories from Indiana

  • James Fallows
  • August 30, 2022
What is happening in the 'Middletown' of Muncie, and why it matters.
A wall canvas reading GIS -- Mapping Common Ground, as seen at the Esri 2022 User Conference in San Diego
View Post
  • Environment & Sustainability

‘Mapping Common Ground’: What I learned this summer in San Diego

  • James Fallows
  • August 3, 2022
New reason to “think globally, and act locally.”
Old factory building, labelled Greenville SC
View Post
  • Civic Life

Why Story Maps Matter

  • James Fallows
  • April 11, 2022
People understand the world through stories. People absorb their stories in ever-expanding ways. Here is a preview of a powerful, emerging form of digital story-telling, which we’ll be using frequently in this space.
The path a regional jet took this past Thursday, after taking off from Dulles airport outside Washington and then quickly returning, following a clockwise route. The plane is ID’d on this map as Delta 3857, and its passengers had Delta tickets. On air-traffic frequencies it is called “SkyWest 3857,” the name of the Delta feeder airline. (This image is a screenshot from the AirNav RadarBox site.)
View Post
  • Aviation

Cooperation, Calm, and Competence: This Is How It Sounds

  • James Fallows
  • February 1, 2022
In the skies over Dulles airport last week, pilots and controllers gave an example of grace under pressure.
Gas is out. Battery is in. Sign sitting in a snowy yard.
View Post
  • Environment & Sustainability

Bringing a City Together: How Leaf Blowers Did It

  • James Fallows
  • January 19, 2022
This is the story of how citizens worked together toward a common goal in Washington, D.C. The story involves a change on the local level with significant, positive implications for other parts of the country and beyond.
What Could Go Right? Podcast by The Progress Network
View Post
  • Civic Life

Examining Change at Global, Local Levels

  • Ben Speggen
  • October 18, 2021
How do global changes affect us on the local level, and vice versa?
Renewal at all levels
View Post
  • Media

‘Renewal’ at All Levels — The Personal to the Global. An Urgent Conversation with Two Leaders of the Movement

  • Ben Speggen
  • September 23, 2021
What can a conversation about 'Renewal' teach us about climate change?
Inside the Buffalo Ridge Brewery, one of the sights for RuralX 2021.
View Post
  • Civic Life

Brimming with a Sense of Possibility and Positivity with the Wind Finally at Our Backs Again

  • Ben Speggen
  • July 27, 2021
“Our Towns” Reader Response Roundup features film screening feedback, a unique effort to support libraries nationwide, and national perceptions being addressed at the local level.
our towns
View Post
  • HBO Documentary

‘Our Towns’ Viewer Response Roundup

  • Ben Speggen
  • June 29, 2021
Viewers respond to 'Our Towns' HBO documentary.
A weekend market in Ajo, Arizona, in 2015, back when people were encouraged to congregate.
View Post
  • Civic Life

Local Efforts in a Time of Extreme Global Stress

  • James Fallows
  • April 12, 2021
The theme in this “Our Towns” space has been, and remains, the sources of vitality, practicality, generosity, and renewal in local-level America, despite bitter polarization in national-level politics. The series began almost…
The Mississippi state capitol in Jackson, Mississippi, where Larrison Campbell grew up—and where she returned. (Nagel Photography via Shutterstock)
View Post
  • Economic Development

The American Sense of Place

  • James Fallows
  • July 12, 2019
An update: Reactions from readers and significant local-renewal developments

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