All urban area citizens desire equal access to economic prosperity, a clean environment, provisioned resources, and a healthy life. And yet, urban areas are often the sites of deepest societal challenges including poverty, crime, discrimination, unequal access to resources, and history of injustices. Urban sustainability initiatives in such areas must recognize these concerns and actively contribute towards addressing them. Understanding of the diverse cultural practices that exist in various communities within cities is critical to finding effective solutions. This may involve human or community focused projects as well as understanding systemic issues in dominant paradigms of infrastructure and service delivery.