Top 5 Stories from the Week (Nov 5–Nov 9, 2018)

Here's our top content from the week.  Sign up for our email list to get this delivered to your inbox every Friday.

1. Carmel is Not a Strong Town

by Charles Marohn | November 5, 2018

In an earlier Strong Towns Podcast, Chuck Marohn chatted with urban analyst Aaron Renn, who made the case for Carmel, Indiana’s massive debt as an investment in a high-quality place for posterity. In this week’s episode, Chuck pushes back more forcefully on the assumptions underlying Carmel’s big gamble.

2. Understanding Safety at Neighborhood Schools

by Charles Marohn | November 5, 2018

Retrofitting an urban, neighborhood school to resemble a suburban campus is bad public policy. Doing it in the name of safety is incoherent.

3. There's a Missing Middle for Commercial Spaces, Too

by Kevin Klinkenberg | November 6, 2018

Is a desire for local character your jam? If so, fight for missing-middle commercial space in your neighborhood. Fight for the corner bar and the corner store. We need an approach that is much more flexible, more true to what humans want from cities, and messier.

4. Should Strong Citizens Wear Bike Helmets?

Upzoned Podcast | Kea Wilson & Chuck Marohn | November 2, 2018

We know how to make our streets so safe that no cyclist really needs a helmet. Should we all wear them anyway?

5. The Beauty Contest: How Cities are Shaped by What We Think Others Think

by Erica Barnett & Ben Klemens | November 6, 2018

We don’t form our opinions about beauty, the value of a dollar, or the value of a house or neighborhood, in a vacuum—we come up with those beliefs based on a long chain of assumptions about what we think other people think.

(Cover photo courtesy of U.S. Air Force)

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