Most days I breathe and write. I also read, teach, love the people I love, worry about climate change, fret over the future. Other times I dream. On good days my dreams grow into real projects. Re-Imagining Our City started on a good day.

This is a dream for young people to have a big say in shaping their city. We start by designing and building a new public green space for Pittsburgh's Hill District, former jazz mecca now stigmatized by negative media reports. We form a diverse council of teen leaders recruited from wealthy and less wealthy neighborhoods. They collaborate in hosting creative public conversations for their peers, for younger children and for the adults in each other's communities. Together, we gather many different voices for a vision of the city we all want. We find ways to connect neighborhoods to the rivers so that as the city develops its waterfront for tourists, there will also be green spaces that are stunningly beautiful, inspiring and accessible to all.