The numbers don’t lie: business-as-usual suburban development won’t bring a booming town long-term financial strength. But it turns out that to #DoTheMath is only the first step toward changing your community's business model.
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Equipped with “grit and grind”—but also with a whole lot of good data on the financial consequences of past development decisions—Memphis, Tennessee is taking smart steps toward a bottom-up renaissance. Just ask its Chief Operating Officer, Doug McGowen.
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You can’t build stroads, subsidize big box stores and accept endless edge development, and have that work out for you just because you threw a block party, painted a mural and put in a temporary bike lane.
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When a small Massachusetts town made national news as its entire police force quit, it was easy to have preconceived notions about what the moral of the story must be. Then a reader from the town reached out to give us this far more nuanced and interesting explanation.
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Cobb County, Georgia, has long been all-in on debt-fueled, unsustainable growth, and faces a tough road ahead as poverty grows and its ability to provide services declines. What are some rational responses to this predicament?
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We have chosen a rural life—who pays for our infrastructure? The short answer is: we don't have much of it, but we take care of our own needs. Strong towns require strong citizens: people who learn to take control of their lives and do for themselves things that are doable.
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It's possible that large parts of Flint could be served with really high quality water for drinking and sanitation at a fraction of the cost while preserving the existing, lead-infested system for fire fighting purposes only.
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5 steps to tackle transportation funding insolvency.
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Scranton, Pennsylvania is not a wealthy place, but it is a place with underappreciated intrinsic wealth. Bet on older mid-size cities like Scranton, whose built-in advantages leave them well-positioned to weather future economic disruption.
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Cities are complex places. We need to embrace the complexity, and the difficult and sometimes painful feedback that comes along with it, if we want our cities to grow strong and resilient. Best of Blog 2014.
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Seth Zeren provides this week's version of the Monday Member News Digest, a look at the blog posts written this past week by Strong Towns members.
Read MoreWe have a cultural misunderstanding about the economic benefits of mobility.
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