America’s cities don’t need more growth. What they desperately need is a different development pattern, one that restores the resiliency and financial productivity of the pre-automobile approach to a modern America.
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Any intelligent fool can make things bigger, more complex and more violent. It takes a touch of genius, and a lot of courage, to move in the opposite direction.
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If you want to understand in one photo why America's cities are struggling financially, here it is. Where is the wealth that is going to sustain this place generation after generation? It's not there.
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What would you like your city's New Year's resolution to be?
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A short trip around the Strong Towns member blogosphere, compliments of Seth Zeren.
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I’m going to aggressively oppose any increase in transportation funding in Minnesota, any other state or at the federal level, until there is aggressive reform of this system. At this point, communal funds must be for maintenance only with any system expansion being paid by some form of user charge. #nonewroads
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Signalized crossings are really starting to tick me off.
Back when I felt like a trespasser for crossing the street, I used to look at signalized crossings like peace offerings, little gestures from the city to pedestrians, "You are safe here." Now they seem like an infrastructural flippin' of the bird. My new walk to work illustrates this change of heart.
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May the peace and joy of this season be with you and those you love now and throughout the new year.
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The auto-oriented development pattern is a huge financial experiment with massive social, cultural and political ramifications. It is time to start building strong towns.
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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.
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Chuck Marohn and Andrew Burleson sit down to discuss a tragedy in Springfield, Mass, where a mom and two girls were hit by a drunk driver on an urban stroad. The seven-year-old girl was killed and the other seriously injured. Marohn and Burleson discuss the engineering profession's approach to safety, the implications for those outside of an automobile and how our approach needs reform if we are truly build safe, productive places.
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Some of the best from contributor Andrew Price, including our favorite: Places and non-Places.
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Don’t be intimidated by haters. Keep doing what you can to build a strong town.
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As the year winds down, I look back at what we did with the Curbside Chat and am really amazed.
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How can we best invest cheap money? With a Strong Towns approach to debt centered on true investments which pay a measurable return and legitimate cash flow in a city that understands its true balance sheet.
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The German verb spritzen apparently means "to squirt" in English. The Marohn side of the family had some Prussian ancestry and that is also the side that did Spritz, although the Norwegian side of my family also produced some. I read somewhere that spritz cookies also have Scandinavian roots, but does it matter? They are so tasty.
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The Monday Member Blogroll brought to you by Jesse Bailey.
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Our urban areas need to be redesigned around a new set of values, one that doesn’t seek to accommodate bikers and pedestrians within an auto-dominated environment but instead does the opposite: accommodates automobiles in an environment dominated by people. It is people that create value. It is people that build wealth. It is in prioritizing their needs – whether on foot, on a bike or in a wheelchair – that we will begin to change the financial health of our cities and truly make them strong towns.
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Get yourself a tray of Strong Towns treats and help us with some important work in the process.
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