Alex Pearlstein

While so far only a "white-collar movement," the growing trend of biking to work is leading many cities to provide new amenities to bike commuters, and the federal government to propose employer tax breaks for each employee cycling to work.

Bucking a decades-old trend of steering the elderly toward nursing homes to live out their sunset years, many communities are developing programs to assist older residents who want to remain in their own houses.

Long the bane of developers and individual homebuilders alike, the Atlanta Bureau of Buildings now averages 40 to 80 days to provide building permits. Meanwhile, in suburban Gwinnett and Cobb Counties, the turnaround time is under one hour.

Despite an official "embargo" of the practice, there are reports of people removing "truckloads of architectural elements" from New Orleans every day. Preservationists fear that what isn't stolen will end up in landfills.

Westside Village, a failed pet project of former Atlanta mayor Bill Campbell, has been given a new lease on life through public incentives and private investment. Officials hope the revitalization of its downtrodden neighborhood will follow.