The Sidewalk Ballet Field Guide

The Sidewalk Ballet Field Guide is a growing collection of people, organizations, projects, books, ideas and ongoing conversations about cities and the people who shape them. It grows out of the podcast, but extends well beyond it—connecting the people doing the work, the places where it’s happening, and the ideas, experiments and resources worth carrying forward. Think of it as part reference library, part trail of breadcrumbs: a way to follow the conversation wherever it leads.

Explore by type, browse alphabetically or by date, or search for something specific. Follow the tags to discover connections—or explore the map to see where the people, projects and ideas in the Field Guide take us.

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Glitter

Glitter is a Philadelphia-based neighborhood cleaning service that lets neighbors pool resources to care for their block—creating local jobs while experimenting with where individual, collective, and municipal responsibility for public space meet.

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Cristin Cooper

Rev. Cristin Cooper is a pastor, chef, entrepreneur, and founder of Coop’s Soups, a social enterprise that grew from her experiments gathering neighbors around soup and bread as an unconventional form of ministry. Her work uses food, hospitality, and everyday encounters to build relationships, combat loneliness, and create a deeper sense of belonging and community.

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Coop’s Soup

Coop's Soups is a community-focused social enterprise and ministry founded by pastor Cristin Cooper in Olney, Maryland. It uses locally sourced, vegan, and gluten-free soups packaged in reusable mason jars to fight loneliness, build local connections, and support a participatory dinner church gathering known as Soup Church.

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LA’s Social District

A 52-block Downtown Los Angeles district working at the intersection of place management, community building, and one of the city’s largest sports and entertainment destinations.

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Tenderloin Community Benefit District

The Tenderloin welcomes people of all ages, races, religions, genders, sexual orientations, experiences, and circumstances. We believe our neighbors deserve pathways and opportunities to thrive.

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Kate Robinson

Kate Robinson is Executive Director of the Tenderloin Community Benefit District (TLCBD) in San Francisco, where she leads work to improve quality of life and strengthen community in one of the city’s most diverse and complex neighborhoods. Her work brings together public-space stewardship, clean and safe programs, community engagement, economic opportunity, and neighborhood advocacy, with an emphasis on solutions shaped by the people who live and work in the Tenderloin.