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Hi Subscriber Full Name, Cities are shaped by us, the people who live in them. Our energy, businesses, and relationships are what make a neighborhood desirable. And that desirability eventually shows up in property values. But even though we create that value, we don't necessarily share in it. For property owners, property appreciation can build wealth. For renters, it can show up as rent increases that outpace income growth—sometimes pricing out the very people who help make the neighborhood desirable in the first place. I've spent nearly a decade building cities. And I've seen this kind of misalignment come up again and again. When people, value, and capital aren't working toward the same outcomes, it breeds friction, disengagement, and ultimately worse outcomes for everyone. So I've been asking a different question: What would it look like to build systems that bring people, value, and capital together—and give more people a stake in the places they help make valuable? For the past nine months, I've been working on a model that tries to do just that. It grows out of everything we've been building here at Building Better Cities: years of elevating leaders shaping our cities, digging into the systems that determine how places get built, and working alongside city builders who are creating better places for people. Now, we're taking what we've learned and turning it into action. And you're the first community we're sharing it with. Meet Cornerstone, a shared equity model that aligns renters, owners, and investors towards building better cities. If this resonates with you—or if you see something we've missed—we'd genuinely love to hear from you. Just reply to this email. Hope this gets you thinking,
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