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Make a difference again this week with your Changeletter!
Got this from a friend? Get your own copy of Soapbox Project's Changeletter here to overcome your climate anxiety while taking meaningful action in 3 minutes or less each week.
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June 2025: vibrant cities
Each month, we break down our topic into four weekly modules. Catch up on previous editions here.
This week's module: ACT
- ✅ CONNECT | Conversation prompts for climate action that work for everyone
- ✅ LEARN | Urban design, solarpunk cities, and streets for humans
- 🎯 ACT | What you can do towards cities of the future
- REFLECT | Art, poetry, & commitments!
Estimated reading time: 3 minutes
Here's what we'll learn today Reader
Good job on surviving another week on Planet Earth where things never get boring! What better day than TODAY to make your city more vibrant?
The great thing about this month's topic is the actions can range from smiling at strangers to...running for mayor. There are so many thing we can do to create Vibrant Cities, which isn't always the case with other sustainability topics.
My action today is walking to the farmers market and hanging out there for as long as I can, so yay for supporting local businesses, yay for Seattle (where I live) doing a cool new pilot on reusable dishware at the market, yay for being outside and being grateful for it.
Here's a pic from last week's market adventure.
With that, let's get started on our ACT module, and catch up here if you missed the last two!
We can't do this without you Reader
A wee lil note: if you enjoy getting these Changeletters and you would like to make a gift of reciprocity, a $9 contribution would go such a long way. Especially if you make it monthly! 100% of this work is me sitting behind my keyboard stressing about if anyone cares about this stuff, so encouragement and financial support is so greatly appreciated!
Thank you Lisa for supporting this week <333
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Your bite-sized action plan Reader
✅ ACT by resisting, reforming, re-imagining, or re-creating. Choose at least one!
I've really loved using the 4 R's for social transformation framework to guide our ACT modules, so we're gonna keep doing that!
- Resist car culture by taking transit, biking, or walking for one of your common habits! For example, if you usually drive to a grocery store, take another mode of transit and see what you learn.
- Reform by writing a letter to your local representative to create vibrant cities. Last month, we talked about the implications of the FIFA World Cup. Whether or not your city is hosting a match, here's a script you can use: Dear [THEIR NAME], I'm [YOUR NAME] and I [personalization]. I'm writing to you to advocate for a pedestrianized streets pilot in advance of next year's world cup [or some other milestone]. As a [parent/child/worker/etc] in your district, [name of street] makes me feel unsafe, and launching a pedestrianized pilot would go a long way towards a vibrant city.
- Reform by attending an upcoming city planning meeting! If you live in a smaller town, these might be harder to find, but committees are always meeting to discuss stuff in your neighborhood or area. Join one, listen in, and get involved! Maybe you'll run for mayor someday.
- Re-imagine the block where you live. Go for a walk this week. Look at a specific building, or maybe a planter box, or maybe the pavement itself. How can it be different? What is the smallest possible change YOU can make towards a vibrant city (like... maybe drawing a chalk hopscotch)? Also here's a book rec
- Re-create by doing one thing this week towards a more vibrant and connected city. Eric Klinenberg's research shows that whether you live or die in a climate emergency can be greatly attributed to how good your social infrastructure is. We need more shared spaces, and sometimes, these take years to build. However, YOU can do so much to increase social connection, and your mission this week is to choose something. It can be as simple as a window sign, laying out some chairs to form a stoop outside, or talking to a stranger in line at the grocery store!
The only time I'll ever agree with A Random Man: maybe you should smile more. (But only because it's climate action.)
Anything that combats loneliness counts as climate resilience so if there's ONE action you take away from today, it's...go outside, touch grass, and most importantly, make human contact. Smile at someone even if it's awkward. I believe in you!
Love,
Nivi
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