This is the first in what will be an ongoing series of blog posts that shares links to stories and ideas that are driving and shaping the dialogue on livability.

• The Atlantic Cities covers a city progam in Los Angeles to distribute make your own park kits to community groups who want to transform a metered parking spot in their neighborhood into pop-up park. Using the pre-approved designs from the kit, groups can turn a metered parking spot into a parklet for one year.

• Partners Trustee Peter Harkness wrote an article at Governing about how cities serve as centers of innovation and problem solving throughout the world and are increasingly international in their leadership in a time when national governments often are not.

• An article at Stanford Social Innovation Review asks “what makes a world-class city?”. In their analysis, the authors redefine the “world-class city” as an “inclusive city” and focus on the informal economy as the invisible engine driving urban activity.

• The New York Times tries to answer the question: why are millenials living in cities longer than their parents’ generation? The writer examines a few explanations and looks at efforts to attract millenialsby a handful of counties in suburban New York.

• At Planetizen, Robert Freedman make a case that developers and planners should use design charrettes in the development process to engage rather than enrage neighbors.

• Fast Co.Exist reports on a vacant lot that is being transformed into a 100,000 square foot greenhouse in the Anacostia neighborhood in Southeast Washington, DC. The greenhouse will grow 1 million pounds of produce every year, which will be sold in 30 local Giant grocery stores.

• The Alliance for Biking and Walking finds that people tend to be healthier in cities where people are more likely to commute by walking or biking, with a correlation existing between active commutes and positive health outcomes including lower rates of diabetes, obesity, and high blood pressure.

• Elevation DC reports on the national phenomenon of alleys being reinvented as people-friendly spaces—as havens for walking, public art, and small business.