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Removing an Urban Highway Is Step One. Here’s What Comes Next

Removing an urban highway is a big win—but the work doesn’t stop there. Providence shows how cities can take the next steps to repair their communities.

Highways
Removing an Urban Highway Is Step One. Here’s What Comes Next
This Summer’s Hottest Trend? Ditching Parking Mandates.

In three different states, one big idea is catching on: stop forcing parking where it’s not needed, and start building places people actually want.

Parking
This Summer’s Hottest Trend? Ditching Parking Mandates.
The Infrastructure Conversation I Didn’t Expect in New Zealand

When I flew halfway around the world to New Zealand, I expected it to be radically different from North America. But the problems they’re facing are strikingly, painfully familiar.

The Infrastructure Conversation I Didn’t Expect in New Zealand
This $1.8B Project Shows Why State DOTs Need a New Playbook

North Carolina’s I-26 Connector illustrates everything wrong with the way state DOTs operate—especially in an area still recovering from Hurricane Helene. But it also shows how these systems can change.

Highways
This $1.8B Project Shows Why State DOTs Need a New Playbook
Forget Megaprojects—This Teacher Has a Better Way to Fix Cities

What if fixing your city didn’t require a billion-dollar plan—just a neighbor with a shovel and a bold idea? In Bloomington, a high school teacher is quietly leading a local revolution, one small step at a time.

Local Conversations
Forget Megaprojects—This Teacher Has a Better Way to Fix Cities
Small-Scale Housing Wins Big in Bend, Oregon

How do you grow without losing what makes your town special? In Bend, Oregon, Jesse Russell is proving it can start with smaller homes.

Housing
Small-Scale Housing Wins Big in Bend, Oregon
The Sims Are Taking Over the City

If urban planning is playing SimCity in real life, then the Strong Towns movement isn’t made up of distant players — it's made up of the Sims who live and work in the city every day. And they're taking over the game.

The Sims Are Taking Over the City
West Virginia Is the Canary in America’s Infrastructure Coal Mine

West Virginia’s $1.6 billion Road to Prosperity program was supposed to cover maintenance costs and reignite economic growth. Seven years later, the money’s gone and the situation has gotten worse.

Highways
West Virginia Is the Canary in America’s Infrastructure Coal Mine
This Canadian City is Ditching Red Tape for Rowhouses

Calgary is cutting delays—not corners—to deliver more housing where it’s needed. And your city should be paying attention.

Housing
This Canadian City is Ditching Red Tape for Rowhouses
The Intersection of Waste and Opportunity

An intersection redesign in Fairbanks, Alaska, proves that road projects are not always improvements—and that DOT priorities are often out of touch with reality.

Highways
Accounting
The Intersection of Waste and Opportunity
Bangor’s Bold Moves on Housing

Bangor, Maine, isn’t holding out for silver bullets. It’s getting to work—clearing the way for more homes in creative, community-minded ways.

Housing
Bangor’s Bold Moves on Housing
3 Things To Keep in Mind When Removing an Urban Highway

In 2011, the Rhode Island Department of Transportation decided to do something extremely unusual: It removed an urban highway. Here are three lessons to learn from their success.

Highways
3 Things To Keep in Mind When Removing an Urban Highway
Stop Banking on Subsidies and Start Building What Works

As Norwalk navigates a housing crisis, one thing is clear: the path forward isn’t scale for scale’s sake—it’s building smarter, more affordably, and with the community in mind.

Accounting
Stop Banking on Subsidies and Start Building What Works
Answering the Top 3 Questions About Abundance and the Strong Towns Approach

A couple of weeks ago, Chuck did a Q&A about how the book “Abundance” differs from the Strong Towns approach. There were some good questions, so we’ve consolidated his answers here.

Housing
Answering the Top 3 Questions About Abundance and the Strong Towns Approach
How to Build the Perfect City

While urban planning can sound boring, how we choose to live is as fundamental a question as exists.

How to Build the Perfect City
Student Journalist Goes "All Out" to Spotlight Car Dependency and Spark Change

Student journalist William Donofrio is part of a growing group of changemakers who are noticing, documenting, and sharing the struggles their places face.

Student Journalist Goes "All Out" to Spotlight Car Dependency and Spark Change
How To Turn a Deadly Stroad Into a Safe Street: The Broad Street Project

How did one of the most dangerous streets in Rhode Island turn into a safe and comfortable place for people to walk, bike, and shop? It’s all about community and local context.

Streets
How To Turn a Deadly Stroad Into a Safe Street: The Broad Street Project
Five Crashes in 16 Months: One Denver Family’s Breaking Point

The house is beautiful. The neighborhood is charming. The street? Designed like a drag strip—and it's launched multiple cars into one family's living room.

Streets
Five Crashes in 16 Months: One Denver Family’s Breaking Point
Healing a Neighborhood with Paint and Possibility

Harrisonburg skipped the renderings and went straight to the street—using a live demo to calm traffic and earn back trust.

Streets
Healing a Neighborhood with Paint and Possibility
The Light Still Shines

It’s easy to get angry or check out when faced with your place’s continued decline. That doesn’t mean you should stop fighting for it.

The Light Still Shines
Maryland’s Quick-Build Projects Are a Model for Every State DOT

How do you make streets safer when your tools made them unsafe in the first place? If you’re the Maryland Department of Transportation, you start building a new toolbox.

Streets
Maryland’s Quick-Build Projects Are a Model for Every State DOT
A Tribute to Leon Krier: The Thinker Who Changed My Path

Leon Krier leaves behind a generation of designers, planners, and urbanists who see the world differently because of him. I owe him more than I can put into words.

A Tribute to Leon Krier: The Thinker Who Changed My Path
Housing Is Not a Numbers Problem—It’s a Systems Problem

When we recognize the housing crisis as a systems and strategy problem, we realize that there is no shortage of things cities can do right now to address it.

Housing
Housing Is Not a Numbers Problem—It’s a Systems Problem
I Refuse To Accept That My Best Days of Walkability Were in College

Instead of relegating walkability to college campuses and tourist towns, let’s embrace it as a key to community strength.

Streets
I Refuse To Accept That My Best Days of Walkability Were in College

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