Cities are complex, organic, emergent things—and we impose top-down order on them at our own peril.
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Incremental development doesn’t mean slow development. Here’s how big places that need housing fast can get there using the Strong Towns approach.
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In this episode of our podcast It’s the Little Things, Jacob chats with Latoya Wilson—founder of the Rebuild Workforce Consultancy—shares how you can invest in the youth in your community, including how to understand the learning landscape for youth, how to create programs that are beneficial for students, and how to make your investments last throughout a student’s time in primary school and beyond.
Ever heard someone say, “You can’t live in that part of town if you have kids. The schools are bad!” In this classic podcast episode from 2015, Chuck Marohn talks with Steven Shultis of Rational Urbanism about the myths vs. reality of urban schools.
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Almost every suburban house has one. But is the home garage an American institution or a national disgrace?
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In this episode of our podcast It’s the Little Things, Jacob chats with Jenna Jarvis—environmental engineer out of St. Louis, Strong Towns member, and winner of our Why I Joined Strong Towns fall member drive contest—about how you can start decide which of our ideas to implement first, including how to start small, how to get your peers involved, and how to keep the momentum going as you plan new actions.
When it comes to infrastructure spending, politicians on both ends of the political spectrum get it wrong—but in different ways.
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New Jersey has been using a “cap and trade” model to let single family neighborhoods buy their way out of growth for decades. Should your city follow suit?
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In this episode of our podcast It’s the Little Things, Jacob chats with Caroline Dobbins-Hurteau—staff member at Albion Reinvestment Corporation—about how you can start a successful pop-up shop, including how to pitch the idea to downtown organizations, how to find prospective tenants, and, most important, how to make it an incremental yet lasting success in your city or town.
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The dollar store might seem like a smaller, friendlier alternative to the big box. But its proliferation tells us something powerful about the way we build our towns.
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In this episode of our podcast It’s the Little Things, Jacob chats with Jordan Deffenbaugh—primary organizer of the Local Conversation Strong Towns Sioux Falls—about how you can spread the Strong Towns message locally, including how to spread the vision among your neighbors, how to give your neighbors a sense of ownership in the process, and, most important, how to get into the nitty-gritty of making your city or town stronger.
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Tulsa, OK is the latest city to offer remote workers some tempting incentives if they’ll move there for only a year. Is this a smarter approach to economic development, or do our cities need to #dothemath?
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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?
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In this episode of our podcast It’s the Little Things, Jacob chats with Strong Towns President Chuck Marohn about how you can get ideas for making your neighborhood stronger, including how both the concerned citizen and the public official can act on ideas, how to share them with your tribe, and how to take the next incremental step in making your neighborhood stronger.
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A few weeks ago, Amazon announced major new operations in not one, but three locations: Queens, NYC; Crystal City, near Washington, DC; and Nashville. Our biggest question is not for Amazon but for the cities and states that offered them massive subsidy packages: Why?!
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In this episode of our podcast It’s the Little Things, Jacob chats with Caitlin Bigelow—Founder of Maxable Space—about how you can build an accessory dwelling unit (ADU), including how to check the required zoning, encourage your peer that ADUs are a strong way to build your neighborhood, and discover the benefits beyond passive rental income.
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We’re sharing the video and audio from our November 2018 live webcast Q&A with renowned urban planner, walkability expert, and author of Walkable City Rules, Jeff Speck.
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Big boxes arguably helped to kill the classic main street. Can they also bring it back?
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In this episode of our podcast It’s the Little Things, Jacob chats with Darren Smith—Founder, President, and CEO of Traipse—about how you can boost your historic business district with gamification, including how to gamification can boost tourism, get more traffic for merchants, and make your historic business district the destination it deserves to be.
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In an earlier Strong Towns Podcast, Chuck Marohn chatted with urban analyst Aaron Renn, who made the case for Carmel, Indiana’s massive debt as an investment in a high-quality place for posterity. In today’s episode, Chuck pushes back more forcefully on the assumptions underlying Carmel’s big gamble.
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