Redlining Maps Were Burned—But the Fundamentals Are Still Taught

Why is this official course from the International Association of Assessing Officers still teaching outdated redlining practices to categorize neighborhoods?

Transparent Accounting, Top StorySeairra SheppardApril 25, 2023redlining, Transparent Local Accounting, race, Race, Neighborhoods, Assessments, Just Accounting for Health

Washington State Bill Would Reduce Low-Level Traffic Stops

We need to approach traffic safety in a way that encourages safe traveling through design, not through police enforcement.

News, Top StoryBen AbramsonMarch 10, 2023traffic stops, race, policing

Cincinnati Bridge Battle Highlights Historic Highway Harms

Cincinnati activists are bringing a civil rights claim against the Ohio Department of Transportation in order to put a halt to a multibillion-dollar infrastructure boondoggle.

End Highway Expansion, News, Top StoryBen AbramsonFebruary 21, 2023End Highway Expansion, highways, Ohio, transportation, transportation spending, race, Race, advocacy

Will There Still Be Chinatowns in Utopia?

“Community character" is often invoked to support exclusion and discrimination, but there are also communities whose unique "character" matters—a lot. How (if at all) should local government support such places?

Neighborhoods, Herriges, Top StoryDaniel HerrigesJanuary 18, 2023neighborhood, Neighborhoods, local government, local regulation, race, Race, housing policy

The Impact of Systemic Racism on Jackson's Water Crisis

Strong Towns member and former Jackson, MS, resident Amanda Lanata comes to the Strong Towns Podcast to discuss the role that racism played in the city’s recent water crisis.

Podcast, Marohn, ST Podcast, Infrastructure, Race, Top StoryStrong TownsNovember 21, 2022Podcast, podcast, water, Infrastructure, infrastructure maintenance, race, race relations, Race, mississippi

A Rough Beast Slouches Toward the Brent Spence Bridge

As local and regional politicians move forward on a $3 billion highway widening project, a local group of activists in Cincinnati are fighting for an alternative plan.

Infrastructure, #NoNewRoads, Transportation, Top StoryRyan CraneAugust 22, 2022highways, End Highway Expansion, freeway widening, Cincinnati, Ohio, race, Race, Infrastructure, infrastructure, infrastructure cult, transportation, transportation spending, #NoNewRoads

In Buncombe County, NC, Billions of Dollars of Home Value Go Untaxed

As an ad hoc committee recently discovered, owners of higher-valued properties are more likely to receive a tax break…simply because of bad data.

Process Versus Visible Outcomes

The U.S. Department of Transportation would have you think it cares about equity—but budgets are often more telling than rhetoric.

Upzoned, Podcast, Infrastructure, Federal Government, Race, Top StoryStrong TownsApril 27, 2022Podcast, podcast, Upzoned, Infrastructure, infrastructure, federal government, federal funding, race, Race, budget

The NIMBYs Made $6.9 Trillion Last Year

We keep looking for villains to blame for the housing affordability crisis—but are we pointing fingers at the wrong culprits?

City Observatory, Housing, Top StoryJoe CortrightApril 20, 2022housing, housing cost, housing affordability, housing crisis, Housing Crisis, housing market, Housing, homeowners, Homeownership, homeownership, race, Race, City Observatory, Joe Cortright

Is It Time for a National Zoning Atlas?

This advocacy group created the first online map to show how an entire state zones for housing. And they want to take the effort nationwide.

Herriges, Race, Zoning, Top StoryDaniel HerrigesMarch 30, 2022advocacy, zoning, Connecticut, mapping, maps, housing, Housing, race, Race, segregation

Freeway Widening for Whomst?

Widening freeways is no way to promote equity.

Property Tax Inequities Stir Movement for Change in Asheville

Strong Towns is partnering with Just Accounting for Health and Urban3 in a project to uncover the presence, and effects, of biases in tax assessment standards.

Finance, Sheppard, Top Story, Transparent AccountingSeairra SheppardFebruary 15, 2022tax revenue, property tax, race, Race, Urban3, North Carolina, Just Accounting for Health

A Community Forced to Play the Infrastructure Squid Game

Residents of this Houston neighborhood thought they were winning the lottery with a government-sponsored infrastructure project. Instead, they endured a seven-month-long nightmare.

Infrastructure, Local Government, Neighborhoods, Roads and Streets, Maintenance, Top StoryJuan Antonio SortoNovember 30, 2021Infrastructure, streets, neighborhood, Neighborhoods, neighborhood change, Houston, infrastructure maintenance, Hurricanes, hurricane harvey, race, Race

The Infrastructure Bill, Racial Equity, and Local Government: How Should the Money Be Spent?

The $1 trillion infrastructure bill is being signed into law. But who gets to decide how the money will be spent, and will they make the right decisions for communities of color?

Freeway-Widening Grifters: Woke-Washing, Fraud, and Incompetence

ODOT has resorted to some truly cheap and deceptive marketing tactics to promote their new freeway-widening project.

Is it 2021 or 1961 at America's DOTs?

Here’s a roundup of five highway boondoggles that are threatening neighborhoods right now in the U.S. Think of it as a hall of shame.

My Family's Kansas City Story

One family’s history tells volumes about the development of Kansas City since the 1950s.

Davis, Neighborhoods, Race, Urban3, Top StorySarah DavisSeptember 15, 2021Kansas City, Kansas, redlining, neighborhood, Neighborhoods, highways, history, History, race, Race, race relations, Urban3, freeways

A Highway Cap in El Paso: False Road to Equity?

El Paso and TxDOT are using concepts aimed at making things better for people impacted by urban highway projects...to justify something that makes them worse.

CNU, Infrastructure, Local Government, Transportation, Top StorySito NegronSeptember 3, 2021local government, El Paso, Texas, transportation, race, highways, CNU

The Way We Tax Properties Is Broken. Here Are 5 Steps to Fix It.

The inequities in the tax assessment system are national. But the solutions will have to come from the bottom-up.

Race, Davis, Housing, Urban3, Top StorySarah DavisSeptember 1, 2021Assessments, Urban3, Tax Code, property tax, race, Poverty, North Carolina, Deschutes County, Oregon, Buncombe County series, housing

Assessment Inequities Hurt Black Households

If we want to live in a free and equitable society where everyone has the potential to succeed and experience prosperity, we have to understand where the inequities begin.

Neighborhoods, Race, Top StorySarah DavisAugust 25, 2021race, Buncombe County series, North Carolina, Assessments, housing, property tax

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