We highlight here some great articles we’ve read this week dealing with art, creative placemaking, and building great communities. You’re sure to find some inspiration to make your life and our community even better!

• Building Stronger Communities Through Media: Local media organizations are exploring new forms of community engagement that bring the public into the journalism process and give citizens a greater role in deciding what stories are told and how.

• Rebuilding Lost Social Equity—Empty Lots Becoming Parks in Detroit: As the greenway winds through a formerly vacant lot between two houses now filled cheek by jowl with flowers, there’s a sense of discovery and whimsy, the feeling that the next lot could host an apiary or berry bushes. Throughout, Michaels wanted to cultivate some of the “mystery of childhood,” he says.

• Addressing Climate Change by Planting Trees: there are currently about three trillion trees in the world, which is about half the number that existed before the rise of human civilization …. Individuals could make a tangible impact by growing trees themselves, donating to forest restoration organizations and avoiding irresponsible companies.

• Why Are US Drivers Killing so Many Pedestrians?: In fact, at the same time pedestrian deaths have been soaring in the U.S., they’ve been dropping steadily in Europe.