If you value the end state of a walkable, diverse, dynamic place with a lot of local character, then you must also value the process that gets you there.
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Design affects us in a multitude of ways, and when we look to nature as inspiration for designing the built environment, the core takeaways are: adaptation and incrementalism.
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The environmental groups suing Minneapolis to block implementation of its groundbreaking 2040 Plan have a limited understanding of environmentalism, but a keen grasp of how to slow down policy reform.
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The belief that we’re going to radically transform our cities from the top down defies reality. Despite widespread anxiety about urban growth and change, the vast majority of places aren’t changing very much at all.
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Let's talk about some core Strong Towns concepts: complexity, incrementalism, fragility, and more!
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For our real-estate markets to allow incremental development to be economically viable, there are some challenges we need to confront.
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We need people who will build in the places where big, corporate developers won’t. But how do we get enough small-scale developers back to make a difference?
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We must stop building more infrastructure in our cities and switch instead to a model of intensive maintenance, combined with making better use of what has already been built.
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What if we had a class of semi-amateur developers 10 or 100 times larger than it is today?
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The classic story...with a Strong Towns twist.
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Conventional planning is based on what professionals think people want or need. Now imagine a city that improves according to the actual needs and desires of its residents. The first is a gamble, the second is an adaptation.
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Decades into the Suburban Experiment, many towns and cities have precious few old buildings left. Those that remain could be adapted to new uses—but cities are making that hard.
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Incremental change doesn’t mean slow change. In fact, unleashing the power of the many to make small changes in response to immediate needs may be the only approach that is up to the scale of the problems our cities face.
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The recent remake of a classic video game features an unusual setting—an urban slum—and some surprising real-world insights about how people who have nothing build a place that’s worth something.
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A strong town is one that can adapt incrementally over time. Here’s how a group of climbing enthusiasts helped a Michigan college town do just that.
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The famous "Growth Machine" theory of local politics explains a lot about the shape of our cities and their present-day problems. But not in the way you think.
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The Strong Towns approach to development, as seen in HBO’s “Deadwood.”
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Making places strong isn’t all about big, “sexy”, top-down projects. And the fact that we call these things “sexy” might be a part of the problem.
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Building stronger towns isn’t just about planning, engineering and development. We need to address questions about cultivating rich and abundant lives in our neighborhoods. How do we live out our values when so much of the built environment seems to be working against us?
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If your city is struggling to balance its budget, it’s not enough to just cut costs and not seek to increase revenues. That’s like a cyclist who tries to improve their performance only by losing weight.
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