“The Strong Towns voice needs to be heard by elected and appointed officials across the US. ”
— Toby Dougherty of Hays, KS
“Strong Towns is doing some of the most important work in this country.”
— Stephen Lassiter of Tulsa, OK
“Strong Towns is a simple concept with a never-ending depth behind it.”
— Lawrence Andre of Mission, KS

Thank you to everyone who became a member this week. We can't do this without you.

See you back here on Monday when we resume our regular schedule.

Featured
Top 5 Stories from the Week (April 15–April 19, 2019)
Top 5 Stories from the Week (April 15–April 19, 2019)

Strengthening the most financially productive parts of our cities is not easy work, and this week’s top stories explored different tools for that work, from design standards to missing-middle housing to ensuring that core government services are actually located in the core. We also published an important message from our president, reaffirming our commitment to growing the racial diversity of the Strong Towns movement.

Can Any City Really Survive on Locally-Grown Food Alone?
Can Any City Really Survive on Locally-Grown Food Alone?

A robust urban farming landscape can make your city stronger. But can it really, y’know…feed your citizens?

Question of the Week: What is the Right Density for a Strong Town?
Question of the Week: What is the Right Density for a Strong Town?

Your Strong Towns Knowledge Base question of the week, answered here.

The Connection Between Place and Behavior
The Connection Between Place and Behavior

Human behavior can be influenced in subtle—and often very pro-social—ways through design of place.

Can Removing Lanes From a Busy Street Actually Make Traffic Better?
Can Removing Lanes From a Busy Street Actually Make Traffic Better?

A deep, dredged ship canal is a recipe for catastrophic flooding in a hurricane, whereas a coastal marsh absorbs the surge of water in a way that lets life continue to flourish. This analogy has something important to teach us about urban streets.

How is Apartment Renovation Like Beekeeping?
How is Apartment Renovation Like Beekeeping?

Bringing a neighborhood back from the brink of ruin, one building at a time, is hard, thankless work—like raising bees when you could just go buy a jar of honey. But when it works, each successful project helps “pollinate” the surrounding area with the seeds of revival, in a virtuous cycle.

Why Would a Town Ban Duplexes in Its Core Neighborhoods?
Why Would a Town Ban Duplexes in Its Core Neighborhoods?

Denton, Texas seemed to be on the verge of an important step toward financial resilience: allowing its core neighborhoods to incrementally evolve and provide much-needed new housing. Now, is the city on the verge of moving in the wrong direction instead?

Losing Essential Services to the Suburbs is Bad For Everyone
Losing Essential Services to the Suburbs is Bad For Everyone

Now that my city’s downtown is starting to thrive, we’re facing a new problem: a barrage of attempts to move centrally-located public facilities to unwalkable, suburban (and even undeveloped) areas.

The Ben & Jerry's Theory of Transportation Economics
The Ben & Jerry's Theory of Transportation Economics

Once a year, Ben & Jerry’s gives away ice cream for free—and people line up around the block because the price is so low. There’s a lesson here about urban roads and congestion.

How Does Your (Economic) Garden Grow?
How Does Your (Economic) Garden Grow?

We conclude our podcast greatest-hits series by revisiting a 2013 conversation with Chris Gibbons, the originator of Economic Gardening. Helping home-grown companies expand—rather than importing jobs from elsewhere—Economic Gardening is the essence of a Strong Towns approach to economic development.

Strong Towns and Race
Strong Towns and Race

We have a lot of work ahead at Strong Towns to meaningfully engage people of color and to grow the racial diversity of our movement. We’re committed to doing that work.

Top 5 Stories from the Week (April 8–April 12, 2019)
Top 5 Stories from the Week (April 8–April 12, 2019)

This week we crowned a victor in the Strongest Town Contest, and some of our most popular articles dug deep into the various aspects of America’s housing crisis—including why it’s so difficult to solve, but also why it’s not as expensive as we often think to do some real good.

Will Smart City Technology Really Make Our Places Stronger?
Will Smart City Technology Really Make Our Places Stronger?

App developers are promising that any citizen with a smart phone can take part in planning their city like never before. But is there more to community engagement than what you can fit within the borders of a screen?

Announcing the Winner of our 2019 Strongest Town Contest
Announcing the Winner of our 2019 Strongest Town Contest

And the 4th annual Strongest Town title goes to….

Building Design Requirements Are Sometimes Bad for Cities. But Abolishing Them All is Worse.
Building Design Requirements Are Sometimes Bad for Cities. But Abolishing Them All is Worse.

A new Arkansas law prohibits cities from regulating the design of single-family homes in almost all instances. This is a bad idea which takes away an important tool in a city’s toolkit to nurture strong, productive places.

Why One City Stopped Asking "How Are We Going to Move Cars Across Town"?
Why One City Stopped Asking "How Are We Going to Move Cars Across Town"?

The right question is how we’re going to get people to the things that make their lives better. Transportation problems look different once you’re having that conversation.

Why Grocery Co-ops Build Strong Towns and How to Start Your Own
Why Grocery Co-ops Build Strong Towns and How to Start Your Own

Jacqueline Hannah—assistant director at the Food Co-op Initiative—shares how you can start a neighborhood grocery co-op in your town, including how to pitch the vision to community members and elected officials, how to translate your enthusiasm into action, and how the Food Co-op initiative can help through every step of the process.

Can We Afford a Better Alternative to Suburbia?
Can We Afford a Better Alternative to Suburbia?

Forward-thinking developers are building communities that take into account the hidden long-term costs of suburban development, and offer a more resilient alternative. But what if that alternative results in homes that are too expensive to be within reach of most Americans? And does it have to?

Who Benefits From Lower Housing Prices?
Who Benefits From Lower Housing Prices?

It’s hard to have a coherent conversation on affordable housing when most of those involved in the discussion directly benefit from — and in some ways depend on — higher housing prices.

Doing the Math on Housing the Homeless
Doing the Math on Housing the Homeless

What would it actually cost to put a roof over the head of every person experiencing chronic homelessness? Some number crunching suggests not as much as you think, and an amount we could afford—especially given what it already costs not to.

Strongest Town Contest: Championship Round
Strongest Town Contest: Championship Round

Pensacola, FL and Portsmouth, NH are our final two contestants for the title of 2019’s Strongest Town! Check out the live webcast audio and video, and then cast your vote!

Routine Traffic Stops Should Not Be Used to Fight Violent Crime
Routine Traffic Stops Should Not Be Used to Fight Violent Crime

Using routine traffic stops as a pretext to root out other types of crime is as disingenuous as it is unhelpful. We need to design intuitively safe streets—and then use traffic enforcement for the minority of drivers who are actually driving recklessly.

Top 5 Stories from the Week (April 1–April 5, 2019)
Top 5 Stories from the Week (April 1–April 5, 2019)

This week we held the semifinal round of our #StrongestTown contest. But we also brought you some fresh new content about cities from huge to tiny getting a bit stronger. Read about NYC’s new congestion pricing plan, Syracuse’s hope of undoing a costly past mistake, and how tiny Elkin, NC is being revived by its own residents, $100 at a time.