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The Real Reason Your Local Mall is Failing

The closing of the mall’s anchor store exposes how fragile the community’s business model is, providing an opening to shift approach.

Accounting
The Real Reason Your Local Mall is Failing
What's a STROAD and Why Does It Matter?

Show this video to anyone who needs a crash course in what makes our streets dangerous and how to make them safer and more financially productive.

Streets
Highways
What's a STROAD and Why Does It Matter?
Why Walkable Streets are More Economically Productive

3 dollars and cents arguments that definitively prove the need for people-oriented, walk-friendly places.

Streets
Why Walkable Streets are More Economically Productive
The Real Reason Your Downtown Died

Government and corporate decisions half a century ago robbed our cities of life and prosperity today.

Streets
The Real Reason Your Downtown Died
10 Questions to Ask Someone Running for Local Office

Want to figure out whether a local candidate for public office will uphold Strong Towns principles and values on the job? Ask them these 10 questions.

10 Questions to Ask Someone Running for Local Office
Why Parking Minimums Almost Destroyed My Hometown and How We Repealed Them

Plus 5 tips for repealing parking minimums in your community.

Parking
Why Parking Minimums Almost Destroyed My Hometown and How We Repealed Them
The Negative Consequences of Car Dependency

Towns that are designed for cars instead of people experience serious challenges that negatively impact small businesses, community health, and financial success for everyone.

Streets
The Negative Consequences of Car Dependency
Fine-Grained vs. Coarse-Grained Urbanism

There's a big difference between these two types of development and one will create a far better outcome for our cities.

Streets
Fine-Grained vs. Coarse-Grained Urbanism
Poor Neighborhoods Make the Best Investments

We can make low risk, high returning investments in our cities while improving the quality of life for people, particularly those who are not benefiting from the current approach.

Accounting
Poor Neighborhoods Make the Best Investments
The Real Reason Your City Has No Money

Problems have solutions. Predicaments have outcomes. We're in a predicament.

Accounting
The Real Reason Your City Has No Money
A Big, Sad Hole in the Cold Vermont Ground

It was going to be great, but it didn't turn out like the planners said it would.

Accounting
A Big, Sad Hole in the Cold Vermont Ground
What clearly makes us richer

Respected economists know that investing in infrastructure clearly makes us richer. It's obvious. No further discussion needed... Respected economists are wrong.

Accounting
What clearly makes us richer
How to Encourage Entrepreneurship in Your Town

A strong town needs strong local businesses.

How to Encourage Entrepreneurship in Your Town
Why I Love Trader Joe's Parking Lots

Notoriously bemoaned, Trader Joe's parking lots are known for their small size, tight spots & limited maneuvering areas. But that's actually a much better model than the wasted space that most grocery stores have in their parking lots.

Parking
Why I Love Trader Joe's Parking Lots
6 Principles for Building a Strong Town

6 principles for building stronger and more prosperous places.

Accounting
6 Principles for Building a Strong Town
The Density Question

What combination of increase in private investment and downsizing of public investment will give my city a private to public investment ratio of 30:1?

Accounting
The Density Question
The Negative Consequences of Car Dependency

Walkable, human-oriented communities tend to be the happiest and healthiest, where the younger generation is looking to live, and the most financially productive types of places to build and retain. Creating human oriented communities is the essence of creating a Strong Town.

Streets
The Negative Consequences of Car Dependency
The Death of Second-Ring Suburbs?

Aging suburbia is going through an identity crisis. Existing residents would like the place to stay much the same. New residents, including those who don’t live there yet, are demanding something else. The problem is that these places can’t continue to stay the same. Yet, the change is too difficult for many to swallow. This is why the default for most suburbs is decline. Growth isn’t built into their DNA.

Streets
The Death of Second-Ring Suburbs?

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