In Portland, inspiring stories of how resident leaders — mostly lower-income, non-English-speaking, stay-at-home mothers — push for change in their community.

NOTE: This content courtesy of nextcity.org. The following is an excerpt from “Resilience for All: Striving for Equity Through Community-Driven Design,” by Barbara Brown Wilson, published by Island Press. In it, the author chronicles examples around the U.S. of community-engaged design led by historically marginalized populations advocating for equitable, positive change. Here, she explains how nonprofit groups in northeastern Portland, Oregon, have fought displacement and pushed for safer streets.

“On the way to the elementary school there is not a pedestrian crossing and no sidewalks. If you want to walk your kids to school, you have to share the road with the cars, and if it rains, it covers the whole edge of the street, and you do not have anywhere to walk besides the shared area with the cars. When I took my son to school, I tried to stay close to the fences where the houses were, because if a car passed it would spray me with water from the puddles. … Also, in a lot of areas there was no lighting. It was really dangerous in the summertime, because there would be gangs that would come at night and be in the dark areas. You would not feel safe to go to the park or go to the schools. In the streets it is safer, but there are lots of potholes and things that could make a stroller fall over.” —Teresa Raigoza Castillo, Cully Neighborhood Leader

Cully, a neighborhood in Northeast Portland, is among the most ethnically diverse in Oregon. It is also marked by poverty, rapid gentrification, and inequitable access to quality public infrastructure. Many green infrastructure project teams flounder when trying to couple social justice with their environmental goals, but in Cully green infrastructure provision is linked explicitly with wealth building and anti-displacement goals through a coalition called Living Cully. Living Cully is the brainchild of Verde, a community-based nonprofit with a mission to “build environmental wealth through Social Enterprise, Outreach, and Advocacy.” Using the momentum and resources in Portland’s EcoDistrict approach, but focused on grassroots, resident leadership to drive urban change, Living Cully is now a robust network of community organizations and resident leaders all working in concert to build local resident capacity, improve local infrastructure, and fight the forces of displacement those improvements might otherwise bring.

Maybe you’ve checked into a tiny house before, but have you ever stayed in a mini modern dwelling that rotates so you can chase the sun or change your view?

Ethan Caughey and Becca Kennedy installed a revolutionary, rentable tiny house in North Portland’s Boise neighborhood.

On one end of their property is the original 1905 Craftsman they restored as their family home. In the middle is a landscaped seating area with a fire pit. And tucked into a corner near the street is the cool, spinnable studio.Portland architect Ben Kaiser sells plans to the tiny, twirling house he designed. Or you can test out the idea at $96 a night.

Sustainability Coordinator Troy Moon believes the data will help the sustainability office “understand how commercial buildings use energy,” and “help us identify buildings that use more energy than similar properties and direct their owners toward resources that can help them make energy-efficient upgrades.”

PORTLAND — In November 2016, the City Council adopted an energy benchmarking ordinance that requires owners of buildings with at least 20,000 square feet of single-tenant floor space to report their energy and water usage to the city’s sustainability office.

The goal was to have that data back to the city by 2019. But the council relaxed that deadline last November. According to Councilor Spencer Thibodeau, chairman of the Sustainability and Transportation Committee, building owners argued they couldn’t get the data from Central Maine Power Co.

On Monday, the council gave the property owners until May 2020 to report the information.