In Vermont, residents of Williston, near Burlington, are battling a developer who wants to build a large shopping mall.
The residents were battling to use the pool and gym at the new Stuyvesant High School within the development.
Despite the desperation some residents are battling the odds, determined to make a success of life as a refugee.
Many local residents of the townships under threat battled the fires with garden hoses, as there were not enough fire-fighters.
The area is vulnerable to wildfires, but residents have battled with the city over getting permission to clear brush from slopes and around homes.
And in Hawaii, residents have been battling the termites for well over a century.
Another advantage is that many local residents now commute to Hartford, fighting traffic and battling for parking space.
That luck seemed to have run out in the late 1960's, but residents battled successfully to prevent an interstate highway from being routed through the community.
The residents still must battle to revise the project, but their court victory was a watershed.
The latter was the subject of bitter controversy in 2006-2007 as residents battled to keep it from being changed into an industrial estate.