New site, same mission! 🎉
Find our latest content here, plus some all-time favorites. More coming soon as we move over the rest. Visit the archive for everything else.
Journal

Browse

Thank you! Your submission has been received!
Oops! Something went wrong while submitting the form.
Who Says We Need Walkable Cities? A Former Republican Presidential Candidate.

Streets
Who Says We Need Walkable Cities? A Former Republican Presidential Candidate.
A Walk in Hoboken: What Makes It Different?

Hoboken, NJ, has gained fame online for its safe streets. But does this urbanist’s paradise live up to the hype, in person? We sent Strong Towns Staff Writer Asia Mieleszko to do some on-the-ground investigating to find out.

Streets
A Walk in Hoboken: What Makes It Different?
To Change the Behavior, Change the Environment: Lessons From the Blue Zones

This Netflix documentary about regions of the world with higher-than-average life expectancies holds some key insights for anyone who wants to see North American cities become thriving, healthy places for people.

Streets
To Change the Behavior, Change the Environment: Lessons From the Blue Zones
Dallas Used To Be Walkable

Dallas wasn't built for the car: it was paved over for it. This new bill can help it rebuild.

Streets
Dallas Used To Be Walkable
The Mayor Who Tried to Stop a Highway

When Mike McGinn didn’t see any other mayoral candidates challenging a proposed highway expansion project in Seattle, he stepped up to the plate and won the election. This is the story of his ensuing fight to stop his city from making a costly mistake.

Highways
The Mayor Who Tried to Stop a Highway
6 Rules for Actually Changing People’s Minds

If you’re in the business of trying to change the world around you, sooner or later you’ll need to be a persuasive communicator—but being persuasive isn’t just about getting your facts right.

6 Rules for Actually Changing People’s Minds
How to Daylight Your City’s Intersections (and Why It Matters)

Daylighting means removing visual obstructions in approaching intersections, so that users can better see and more safely cross each other’s paths. Here are 5 ways to do it cheaply and creatively in your city or town.

Streets
How to Daylight Your City’s Intersections (and Why It Matters)
If We Want a Shift to Walking, We Need To Prioritize Dignity

Why does walking feel so intuitive when we’re in a city built before cars, yet as soon as we return home, walking feels like an unpleasant chore that immediately drives us into a car?

Streets
If We Want a Shift to Walking, We Need To Prioritize Dignity
Stop Subsidizing Suburban Development, Charge It What It Costs

I was asked how much the typical suburban development is costing this Tennessee city. Here’s what I found.

Accounting
Stop Subsidizing Suburban Development, Charge It What It Costs
Wisconsin Foxconn Deal Cost Taxpayers Millions—And It Will Continue To Cost More Millions

Wisconsin offered a $3 billion dollar subsidy to Foxconn and were promised a $10 billion factory and 13,000 jobs in exchange. Instead, the locals got three empty buildings, a few hundred jobs, and a mountain of debt. Sorry, Wisconsin. As Ronny Chieng from the Daily Show put it, “You got catfished.”

Wisconsin Foxconn Deal Cost Taxpayers Millions—And It Will Continue To Cost More Millions
Pre-Approved House Designs Jump-Start Infill Development in South Bend

While other places keep finding ways to say “no” to new housing, this Indiana city is offering pre-approved development templates to small-scale developers at no cost.

Housing
Pre-Approved House Designs Jump-Start Infill Development in South Bend
Here’s Why We Respond in Force to One Amtrak Crash While Ignoring Thousands of Daily Car Crashes

A top-down approach to addressing accidents fails to make streets safer. A local approach could change that.

Streets
Here’s Why We Respond in Force to One Amtrak Crash While Ignoring Thousands of Daily Car Crashes
Seven Stroads That Have Been Converted to Streets

There are thousands of stroad sections in the US. Transforming a good number of them is important to to the goal of improving quality of life and mobility in cities and towns.

Streets
Seven Stroads That Have Been Converted to Streets
How Affordable Housing Distracts People From Housing Affordability

Building affordable housing seems like a win for cities struggling in the Housing Trap. But between its top-down nature and the public subsidies it requires, affordable housing can actually make things worse.

Housing
How Affordable Housing Distracts People From Housing Affordability
The Strong Towns Hiring Process

We often get questions about our hiring process, so we’ve laid it all out here so that others can put it to use in building their own teams.

The Strong Towns Hiring Process
Engineers Should Not Design Streets

Engineers are great at building roads, but we should never ask them to build our streets.

Streets
Engineers Should Not Design Streets
Best of 2020: Walkable Towns

Rural places can be walkable. But we shouldn’t have to go on vacation to find a walkable town.

Streets
Best of 2020: Walkable Towns
Here's What Not* to Do to Your Small-Town Main Street

How one small town in South Carolina destroyed everything that makes their downtown...a downtown.

Streets
Here's What Not* to Do to Your Small-Town Main Street
The Vanishing Houses of Detroit: A Street View Story

How one Detroit resident used Google Maps to chronicle the accelerating disappearance of its neighborhoods.

Housing
The Vanishing Houses of Detroit: A Street View Story
The Growth Ponzi Scheme: A Crash Course

Ponzi schemes fail because they are built on illusions: there is no there there. So what happens when an entire continent of towns and cities is caught up in a kind of Growth Ponzi Scheme? We are finding out.

Accounting
Housing
Highways
The Growth Ponzi Scheme: A Crash Course
I Did the Math on My Town’s Cul-de-Sacs. Here's What I Found.

A detailed analysis of 12 cul-de-sacs show the Suburban Experiment is a dead end. What will it take to make this city solvent?

Accounting
I Did the Math on My Town’s Cul-de-Sacs. Here's What I Found.
Niagara’s Fall and Asheville’s Unlikely Rise

70 years ago, these two historic cities were on a similar path. Then one fell into debt while the other was swimming in money. You might be surprised by what they each look like today.

Accounting
Niagara’s Fall and Asheville’s Unlikely Rise
Understanding the 85th Percentile Speed

This observation of human behavior has long been a source of frustration for safety advocates, but that doesn’t make it wrong.

Streets
Understanding the 85th Percentile Speed
"Kansas City's Blitz": How Freeway-Building Blew Up Urban Wealth

The choice to carve up Kansas City with freeways ranks among the worst planning mistakes in the region's history. Many decades later, the city is still is suffering the consequences.

Highways
"Kansas City's Blitz": How Freeway-Building Blew Up Urban Wealth

Subscribe to Our Email Newsletter

The urgent work of thousands of advocates — straight to your inbox.

Get important updates, top stories and notifications about when Strong Towns will be in your area.