On behalf of Strong Towns, I'd like to introduce our new Member Support Specialist, Jason Schaefer of Grand Forks, North Dakota.
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All the talk about urbanism these days is dominated by places like Brooklyn, Portland, Vancouver, and San Francisco because they’re prosperous and fashionable. It’s so easy to dismiss them as anomalies.
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Florida's transportation budget is a disaster. It's an un-fixable mess. Only a people mired deep in delusion would consider it anything less than a fiscal emergency. Yet, the building continues.
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The red pants of the French army were a source of national pride, that is, until hundreds of thousands of French soldiers were killed by the camoflaged Germans and their machine guns in the opening days of World War I.
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Regardless of what my city does -- hold taxes steady or increase them by 50% -- next year's budget will be a transaction of decline, an attempt to hold on, just a little while longer, to what we perceive that we have. We have to do better if we want a country full of Strong Towns.
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As the Lincoln Institute of Land Policy launches this new campaign, let's hope that they resist being just another member of the Infrastructure Cult and instead become real advocates for a stronger America.
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This is the first time "stroad," an original Strong Towns term, has appeared in an official government document.
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A collaboration between city planner, urban designer, and author Jeff Speck (jeffspeck.com), and 3D artist Spencer Boomhower (cupolamedia.com), this series of videos describes some of the most common and most effective road-diet redesigns.
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The global climate is a complex system. Economic markets are a complex system. Why do we react so differently to these different forms of complexity and what can we learn from those reactions?
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Last week, I pointed out some silly public space investments. This week, I'm working on some better ones. Here's a sneak preview of things to come.
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Great cities are chaotic. It's what makes them interesting. Regulating out things like Little Free Libraries does nothing but hurt your city.
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I don't yearn for another bubble. I know the pain that will eventually come from that. What I want is a world that is real, one with a solid financial foundation that we can use to build strong cities, towns and neighborhoods.
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We can build all the crosswalk signs we want, but if the cars are driving too fast, those signs will still go unnoticed. Narrower streets are a natural, affordable and lasting solution to pedestrian crossing issues.
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Andrew Price challenges the definition of what makes a Complete Street 'Complete.'
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The idea of asking developers to contribute to public space is excellent (perhaps essential). By the looks of it, this has resulted in millions upon millions of dollars invested in places to sit or frolic. Too bad it keeps ending up in places where no one would actually want to linger... Imagine if we took all that wasted investment and directed it toward building more spaces that make people happy.
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The structural problem in our road building system is that we’ve based these large financial decisions on faulty premises and inaccurate estimations. We’ve justified and enabled the subsidizing of less efficient forms of development through the aid of cost-benefit analysis. The 494 /169 interchange looks great on paper at first glance. It’s going to create jobs, handle more traffic, help the economy, and save time.
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A Strong Town is a resilient or antifragile town: one that can weather unforeseen disruptions to its economy, society, and environment. Building Strong Towns means creating the conditions for experimentation and being comfortable with the lack of a road map for what the future will look like.
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In this week's podcast, Chuck Marohn talks about the organization behind the Strong Towns movement, an update to their strategic plan based on what has been learned and a powerful theory of change.
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This video was created by Transit Academy for NICE Bus in Nassau County, NY to help transit drivers understand the impact of pedestrian safety. NICE Bus is operated by Transdev and they wanted us to create an impact with a pedestrian safety video.
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