The financial struggles of Houston and the cities of the Silicon Valley area—as well as tens of thousands of others across North America—have the same underlying cause.
Like so many places, Muskegon, MI, has a shortage of housing and a surplus of vacant lots. That’s why it’s enacted a program that allows it to redevelop those lots into affordable housing—at a low risk to the city.
Houston’s fiscal problems are less critical than other major cities with large budget shortfalls—yet, their mayor is correct when he said his city is broke, that the financial approach of the city is clearly not working. Here’s why.
Like many U.S. towns, Maumee, OH, has a state highway that cuts through their Uptown. For decades, it’s been known as a dangerous road…but no longer: the city is taking back its streets and making them places for people, not cars.
What does it really mean to say that housing can’t be both affordable and an “investment”?
Every four years, a small but vocal portion of our audience calls on Strong Towns to react to the politics surrounding national elections. This is our response.
Demonizing the 91% of Americans who drive by putting them into the category of "asshole humans” is a bad and ultimately losing strategy for creating safer streets.
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.
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.
Dallas wasn't built for the car: it was paved over for it. This new bill can help it rebuild.
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.
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.
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.
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?
I was asked how much the typical suburban development is costing this Tennessee city. Here’s what I found.
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.”
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.
A top-down approach to addressing accidents fails to make streets safer. A local approach could change that.
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.
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.
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.
Engineers are great at building roads, but we should never ask them to build our streets.
Calgary — like so many North American cities — is like an intergenerational dine-and-dash. Our children will get the bill.