A story which has been written, rewritten, and written yet again in an endless chain for as long as I can remember is the narrative about the American family no longer being able to fully live the American Dream.
Read More
This week we chat with Placemaker Scott Doyon (Facebook / Web) about the Oakhurst Porchfest, a grassroots music festival held in Decatur, GA.
Read More
Autonomous vehicles have the potential to change the way we develop our cities in very positive ways. They could, in fact, be one more chink in the armor of the existing 'build it and they will come' model of auto-oriented suburbia with its wide roads and vast acres of parking.
Read More
In order to solve the biggest problems of today's world (climate change, dysfunctional cities, global crises) we need to harness the strength of a movement.
Read More
Imagine living in a city where every restaurant is required by law to provide free chicken sandwiches. This would be absurd, right? Well, nearly every town in America does it. But they don’t require free sandwiches, they require something much more valuable: free parking.
Read More
We're about to unwind a huge experiment and it's not likely to go smoothly. Anything we want to accomplish is going to require extraordinary creativity, resourcefulness and political prowess. That's where the Incremental Development Alliance comes in.
Read More
The concept of a special assessment contains little dark secrets that city officials like to keep to themselves. The ability to assess the cost of maintenance -- a questionable concept at best -- is the only thing allowing many cities to avoid facing their true reality.
Read More
Next week, we're offering an exclusive webinar for our members. Chuck Marohn will share his new talk, "Transportation in the Next American City," then open the floor for questions.
Read More
Two simple photos show the difference between a street designated 20 mph and one designed to be safe. We can't regulate our way to safety.
Read More
We can't prevent mass delusion, but we can work to establish an alternative model for achieving prosperity so there is a viable option to hysteria (and all its handmaidens) when the Illusion of Wealth vanishes.
Read More
When arguing for wider streets, many proponents point to bus or emergency vehicle access, insisting that a wide berth is necessary for large vehicles to pass through. In Washington, DC, I've seen firsthand how buses and ambulances have no problem navigating narrow streets.
Read More
Nope, car drivers aren't paying the full cost of the infrastructure they use.
Read More
In a solo monologue this week, Chuck talks about efforts to improve the sound quality of the podcast and then provides an analysis of traffic congestion in the hierarchical road network theory.
Read More
Today we welcome guest contributor, Jonathan Holth, who shares his experiences traveling from his hometown of Grand Forks, ND to the "people-first" city of Copenhagen, Denmark.
Read More
We've all heard reference to vehicles, business sectors, tourists, social groups, etc as though they are invasive species. There are also literal invasive species that thrive in urban environments. Are there any cases where "We're just very negative about them" when they are simply filling a void through "hardiness and lack of competition"? What are the "pristine ecosystems" that we try to conserve in the urban landscape?
Read More
I was in Atlanta earlier this month to attend a conference for small scale developers. The focus was on the “missing middle” which has long been neglected by production builders, bankers, and regulators. I should start with some basic definitions.
Read More
For local governments, the Growth Ponzi Scheme has allowed national politicians to promise a free lunch while forcing those lower on the food chain to absorb the long term costs associated with hitting this quarter’s GDP targets.
Read More
Strong Towns member and Active Towns founder, John Simmerman, discusses the global state of transportation and land-use planning, and brings it home to Austin, TX, where Strong Towns will be speaking this week.
Read More
Chuck and Rachel discuss last week's trip to Maine, upcoming events this week in Austin, the Curbside Chat booklet, and even waterparks. Plus get Chuck's latest book recommendations: The War of Art by Steven Pressfield and The Men Who United the States by Simon Winchester.
Read More
Urban environments full of fine-grained detail, hidden nooks and crannies and narrow passages are memorable, lovable places that stimulate our sense of play and adventure. They are a way to use land more intensively and productively without building monolithic, outsized developments. A historic artists' colony nestled in a residential neighborhood in Florida provides an example.
Read More