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PennDOT’s Feelings Don’t Care About Your Facts

"By the time you hear of it, it's too late."

Highways
PennDOT’s Feelings Don’t Care About Your Facts
The City as a Classroom

"From the moment they’re born, children are asked to adapt to a car-oriented world."

Streets
The City as a Classroom
The 4 Rules of Fostering Good Urbanism, According to Jane Jacobs

From compact blocks to old-building reuse, Jacobs’ framework offers a path for Southern cities to become financially stronger and more adaptable.

Housing
Members
The 4 Rules of Fostering Good Urbanism, According to Jane Jacobs
How to Make a Street Safer Before the Kids Go Back to School

This formula for improvement is observable and repeatable. How will you apply it in your place?

Streets
How to Make a Street Safer Before the Kids Go Back to School
The Housing Market Is a Bubble Full of Fraud, and It’s Going To Pop

The U.S. is in a massive housing bubble fueled by widespread fraud. With banks incentivized to look away and Wall Street and Washington incentivized to keep housing prices artificially high, a bottom-up approach is the only hope for bringing sanity back to the housing market.

Housing
The Housing Market Is a Bubble Full of Fraud, and It’s Going To Pop
From Hang Out To Hurry: Why Starbucks Wants To Redefine “Third Place”

Starbucks built its brand on being a third place — a communal hangout that fosters communication and conversation — but in recent years, its priorities have shifted to speed of service. Now, instead of returning to its roots, the corporation is trying to redefine what a third place is.

Streets
From Hang Out To Hurry: Why Starbucks Wants To Redefine “Third Place”
How Brainerd’s New Ice Machine Exposes Community Apathy and Decline

Brainerd, Minnesota’s newest addition isn't exactly cause for celebration.

Accounting
How Brainerd’s New Ice Machine Exposes Community Apathy and Decline
What Strong Towns Really Says About Infrastructure Spending

Are urban areas really more financially sustainable than suburbs? Do urban areas inherently have higher infrastructure costs? Here's what Strong Towns actually says about the Suburban Experiment and infrastructure spending.

Accounting
Highways
What Strong Towns Really Says About Infrastructure Spending
Beware Tricksy Incrementalism: Gradual Implementation Doesn’t Make a Project Incremental

"Cities that truly embrace incrementalism understand that interesting places are emergent by nature."

Housing
Beware Tricksy Incrementalism: Gradual Implementation Doesn’t Make a Project Incremental
How Costco Broke Into a Surprising New Market: Modular Housing

To skip delays and debate, a California Costco added 400,000 square feet of housing to its plans — a move that unlocked a faster approval process.

Housing
How Costco Broke Into a Surprising New Market: Modular Housing
The Monster House: Why a Change in Neighborhood Scale Isn’t a Bad Thing

Housing
The Monster House: Why a Change in Neighborhood Scale Isn’t a Bad Thing
Shortages and Spillovers: How People Misunderstand the Housing Crisis

Housing shortages are housing spillovers.

Housing
Shortages and Spillovers: How People Misunderstand the Housing Crisis
How Modern America Is Optimized for Loneliness, Misery and Poor Health

Rates of loneliness and unhappiness are on the rise in the United States, but our European counterparts don’t seem to have the same problem. Why?

Housing
Streets
How Modern America Is Optimized for Loneliness, Misery and Poor Health
Colorado Banned Most Occupancy Limits. Here Is Why It Matters

Housing
Colorado Banned Most Occupancy Limits. Here Is Why It Matters
City Engineers Are Unbelievably out of Touch on Parking Reform

City engineers rely on faulty logic and misrepresentations to maintain the status quo. Here are the top four arguments against parking reform and why they’re wrong.

Parking
City Engineers Are Unbelievably out of Touch on Parking Reform
Habitat for Humanity: Lessons From the Front Lines of the Housing Crisis

Learn how Habitat continues to pursue housing construction in the face of difficult conditions, why good schools are more important than you realize, and why Habitat owners participate in the construction of their own homes.

Housing
Habitat for Humanity: Lessons From the Front Lines of the Housing Crisis
What’s There To Do Here? How Social Activities Expose a City’s Values

"The activities we see in a community tell us something about the values and priorities of that city."

Streets
What’s There To Do Here? How Social Activities Expose a City’s Values
Alienation Is a Losing Game: What Urbanists Can Learn From the Haters

To change peoples' minds, we have to make an effort first to listen.

Streets
Alienation Is a Losing Game: What Urbanists Can Learn From the Haters
How an Opera Singer Joined the Fight Against Freeways

“Take the next step that’s aligned with your values, and let it unfold.”

Highways
Local Conversations
How an Opera Singer Joined the Fight Against Freeways
Oh Great, More Subsidized Housing (No, Not That Kind)

Housing
Accounting
Oh Great, More Subsidized Housing (No, Not That Kind)
75-Year-Old Houston Advocate Refuses To Surrender to Highway Expansion Project

At 75, Susan Graham didn’t expect to spend her time fighting freeways — but after nearly five years leading Stop TxDOT I-45 in Houston, she’s nowhere near done.

Highways
75-Year-Old Houston Advocate Refuses To Surrender to Highway Expansion Project
Housing Isn’t Meant to Be Affordable

Housing is an oxymoron: Housing is treated as an investment, and good investments constantly increase in price. To escape this paradox, we must change the way we think about housing.

Housing
Housing Isn’t Meant to Be Affordable
Pointless Parking Mandates Almost Killed a Food Hall in Pittsburgh

When the owners of Lawrence Hall bought the abandoned building, they had a vision of reviving it into a food hall that would support small businesses and help their community thrive. They never imagined that a few parking spots would put their dream on hold for seven years.

Parking
Pointless Parking Mandates Almost Killed a Food Hall in Pittsburgh
39 Collisions a Day: Fed Up Residents Fight for Safer Streets

"We’re up against a big system, but we’ll keep doing what we can."

Streets
39 Collisions a Day: Fed Up Residents Fight for Safer Streets

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