Next week Chuck and Jim will be in the Los Angeles area, our first Strong Towns trip to California since 2012. We're working really hard to get to Northern CA yet this year -- keep your eyes open for that.

UPCOMING EVENTS

KEEP INFORMED ON WHEN WE'LL BE SOMEWHERE NEAR YOU.

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SOME STUFF FROM THIS WEEK YOU MIGHT HAVE MISSED.

Featured
Two Simple Questions Illuminate How We Think About Development
Seth Zeren
Two Simple Questions Illuminate How We Think About Development
Seth Zeren

Two simple questions can help us understand why different groups don’t seem to speak the same language about growth and development in cities, and why seemingly-strange political alliances form around these issues.

Seth Zeren
We'll Make The World a Better Place By (Insert Your Planning Fad Here)
Strong Towns
We'll Make The World a Better Place By (Insert Your Planning Fad Here)
Strong Towns

This week on the Strong Towns Podcast, Chuck discusses the role of planning in correcting for legacies of segregation and inequality. Is more enlightened policy enough to change course? Or do we need to more fundamentally rethink who has the power to shape cities?

Strong Towns
Best of 2018: Why Are Developers Only Building Luxury Housing?
Daniel Herriges
Best of 2018: Why Are Developers Only Building Luxury Housing?
Daniel Herriges

"Developers in my city are only building luxury housing. They're not building anything that ordinary people can afford." If you’ve said this lately, or heard someone else say it, here are five possible reasons why.

Daniel Herriges
Why Do People Keep Being Killed on This Road?
Charles Marohn
Why Do People Keep Being Killed on This Road?
Charles Marohn

Tragedy predictably occurs when our road designs combine high speeds and randomness.

Charles Marohn
Top 5 Recent Stories (Nov 26–Dec 7, 2018)
Strong Towns
Top 5 Recent Stories (Nov 26–Dec 7, 2018)
Strong Towns

In the past two weeks, we’ve re-run some of our best content of 2018, and explored new topics including how to know when your town is ready for a parking garage; how to double your city’s bus ridership through a smart, iterative strategy; a novel intersection design for people on foot; why cities work better when we tolerate imperfection; the value (or lack thereof) of a planning certification; and more!

Strong Towns
Best of 2018: Why We Need to Talk About Car Aggression
Aubrey Byron
Best of 2018: Why We Need to Talk About Car Aggression
Aubrey Byron

As a cycling advocate, I avoid talking about the times when riding a bike in the city is scary, because I don’t want to deter would-be new riders from giving it a try. There’s only one problem with pretending I’m never afraid: it isn’t true.

Aubrey Byron
Five Gifts For the Strong Towns Advocate in Your Life (or Just For Yourself.)
Strong Towns
Five Gifts For the Strong Towns Advocate in Your Life (or Just For Yourself.)
Strong Towns

Kea Wilson shares her five favorite Strong Towns-adjacent reads (and one favorite watch) of the year. From the short works of Jane Jacobs to a nonfiction epic about Americans who live out of their cars, and more!

Strong Towns
Best of 2018: Winning is the Absence of Losing
Charles Marohn
Best of 2018: Winning is the Absence of Losing
Charles Marohn

The most important thing for a local government is to avoid ruin.

Charles Marohn
Best of 2018: Gentrification and Cataclysmic Money
Daniel Herriges
Best of 2018: Gentrification and Cataclysmic Money
Daniel Herriges

Gentrification and concentrated poverty are two sides of the same coin. We’ve engineered our cities so that neighborhoods get either too much investment or too little: the trickle or the fire hose.

Daniel Herriges
Let Them Apply for Variances
Nolan Gray
Let Them Apply for Variances
Nolan Gray

If granting exceptions to your city’s planning rules is so common as to have become the norm, perhaps it’s time to reconsider the rules themselves.

Nolan Gray
Best of 2018: Most Public Engagement is Worthless
Charles Marohn
Best of 2018: Most Public Engagement is Worthless
Charles Marohn

It is the experiences of real people that should guide our planning efforts. Their actions are the data we should be collecting, not their stated preferences.

Charles Marohn