Ahead of the Nov. 5 presidential election, U.S. cities are racing to safeguard momentum on what backers see as historic action on environmental justice and a range of new efforts to tackle racial, economic and geographic inequality.

After the COVID-19 pandemic and protests following the death of George Floyd in 2020, racial and economic inequality moved to the center of federal policymaking.

That includes, for instance, a mandate that 40% of benefits from federal climate, clean energy, housing and other investments go to communities considered under-invested or "overburdened by pollution." strategies that are now translating to new workforce development, cleaning up decades-old pollution and more.