I suggest starting small. Pick up an orange flag and cross a street. That's how revolutions get started.
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This week I’m on the road in Lafayette, Louisiana, with my good friend and frequent collaborator, Joe Minicozzi. For this Minnesotan, where anything over 80 degrees is starting to get uncomfortably warm, this promises to be an interesting week. Let me fill you in on what we are attempting to do.
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Thirty two new jobs (projected), a million dollars in direct subsidies and millions more in transportation funding later, we’ve managed to move two businesses from one Minnesota community to another. And we call that “creating” jobs and businesses.
Rome (AD 56): They make a desert and call it peace.
America (AD 2014): They relocate a business and call it growth.
Have we fallen so far that telling ourselves lies is the best we can do?
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When we mix high speed cars with stopping and turning traffic, it is only a matter of time until people get killed. It is statistically inevitable because we are all normal people living normal lives. When things get bad on one spot – when a random sample of accidents becomes the inevitable statistical aberration in one place or another, the mistaken signal within the noise – professional engineers will propose some turn lanes or a lane widening or a greater clear zone. They will never propose the two things that would matter: designing non-highways in such a way that people drive more slowly and removing dangerous accesses from those highways where we want people to drive fast.
Read MoreLast weekend we had a really important Strong Towns retreat. Not only did we finalize the agenda for the National Gathering – which is going to redefine all your expectations of what a conference should be – but we made some important progress on how Strong Towns, the organization, is evolving and adapting to grow this critical movement. I left excited and energized; we have some real visionaries working with this organization, as members and volunteers, and being with them is invigorating. Now we all switch to baby watch as our former board president – Faith Cable Kumon – and her husband, our Executive Director Jim Kumon, are expecting any day. August is going to be a great month.
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This week Chuck does a solo podcast talking about the Federal Highway Trust Fund and the implications of its pending insolvency.
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The Proposition 7 propaganda in Missouri mirrors that from other states where similar debates over transportation funding are taking place. One of the cheap and easy arguments is over safety. I say "cheap and easy" because, not only it is an emotional one, but it plays to our base instincts. We all want to feel safe.
That is why ads like these work.
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Fall is quickly approaching, and with it comes the first ever Strong Towns National Gathering. The National Gathering is going to be a major moment in the history of our organization, as it’s the first time we will have assembled so many of our people together in one place to grapple with the issues facing our cities and citizens. We’re expecting to have a lot of fun, and to get a lot of work done.
I live in a large Midwest city where the downtown is dominated by one-way arterials (usually 3-4 lane). A city planner explained to me that one-way streets get cars out of the denser areas faster, which helps reduce urban air pollution. Leaving aside any other arguments for two-way streets, such as walkability, is she right that one-way streets are most efficient in managing high volumes of vehicles? Or can we take care of new downtown residents who walk/bike and still get the suburban commuters home in time for dinner?
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