What can be done? Positive possibilities for city imagination and action

This special issue explores the possibilities for city imagination and action, even in dark times. As scholars, we need to lift up positive possibilities and probe the theoretical and practical implications for city action. Our current crises make this move both necessary and opportune. The crisis of COVID-19 opened a window for policy innovation among cities across the United States. Federal leadership under the Biden administration loosened fiscal constraints on cities, something even Trump has not rolled back. The roots of the city innovations described here lie in the social movements and grassroots organization that predate the pandemic. Political coalitions with unions, schools, third sector housing developers and public banks complement neighborhood-based politics and pressure cities to act. The policy agenda in cities now contains dozens of items previously beyond the reach of acceptable and safe politics. That agenda is propelled by carefully organized social movements and policy development. This is substantive policy at work—rooted in coalitions of care that can’t be totally reversed by the backward shift in federal policy under Trump.