Beautification

Architects and urbanists gathered in the city Jane Jacobs made her home to ask, "What makes a beautiful city?"

An art group called Fallen Fruit promotes the idea of public fruit trees for general consumption by all. But on a trip to Madrid to plant trees, the government refused their intervention, saying that trees were architecture for the city, not food.

A Philly street once dubbed the "Skid Row" of Fishtown has been transformed by a handful of determined residents through years of painting, sweeping and fixing broken windows.

Annapolis, Maryland has had a popular beautification program to fill downtown with flowers, but with recent layoffs and cuts, the true value of the program has come into question.

Thanks to the ambitious clean-up efforts of a few residents, a neglected, unofficial park on city land is now maintained daily and is on its way to being a greenway.

In a last-minute effort to beautify the city before the start of the 2008 Summer Olympics, officials in Beijing have put up walls and screens to hide unsightly neighborhoods from the eyes of visitors. Those behind the walls are not happy.

Following the example set by Sao Paulo, Brazil, the city of Encinitas, California is considering a plan to ban new billboard advertisements within the city.