The gas tax doesn't cover highway costs, killing our will to build more stuff, an infrastructure "surge" in North Dakota, school district says "no" to gambling and teenage gypsies trying to earn a buck.
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What would our neighborhoods look like if we voluntarily reduced the amount of infrastructure? This isn’t a purely academic question. As municipal, state, and federal budgets get squeezed there’s going to be a point at which we have no choice but to stop building new roads and even reduce the amount of maintenance on the roads we already have. We could approach this situation with dread and a sense of loss, or we could embrace it as an opportunity to get a better quality of life for a whole lot less money.
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A continued look at a Nassim Nicholas Taleb speech titled Small is Beautiful, but also Less Fragile.
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It's not a complete street unless it is completely safe.
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Last week, I was pulled into a task force conversation on affordable housing by a couple local champions. The situation is this: our government operating subsidies for affordable housing are drying up. I'm putting together a "next-steps" sort of document for this task force and my brain keeps running in circles. I'd love to crowdsource from the best. Please fill me in on your Strong Towns approach to affordable housing in the comments. What would you do?
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Your town is not strong if some of your residents lack homes.
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Meet Tennessee Department of Transportation Commissioner John Schroer whose goal is to have the country's best DOT. He's certainly a breath of fresh air.
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What is sad is that these guys are so good at communication in general but so BAD at communicating to the masses of people who need to be on board to make this kind of thing happen.
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“I want more people living downtown. I want it more dense. But to permit the use to change fifteen years from now without public approval is not OK. I have this neighborhood where I have an expectation, and then it changes. That’s not OK.”
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We took a system where gentrification was a positive force for wealth creation among the underprivileged and, under the guise of improving their situation, changed the system in a way that now primarily benefits the wealthy, where it benefits anyone at all.
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Tennessee going maintenance only, demolition on Main Street, the death of oil drillers, QE forever and don't be poor and drive.
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This week Chuck Marohn dissects a speech that Nassim Nicholas Taleb gave recently titled Small is Beautiful, but also Less Fragile. This is part one of two on this subject.
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The complexity of humanity always makes better places than the simplicity of cars.
#wecandothis
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America’s cultural belief is that growing cities experience not only opportunity and prosperity today, but the growth allows them to experience success far into the future. There is a built-in assumption that new growth pays for itself today and generates enough wealth to sustain itself generation after generation.
These are flawed assumptions.
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There are some people who see solutions where others see only problems. I love those people. Watch this and visualize the untapped potential in the United States, all the places we've built and aren't making very productive use of.
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Fredericton is more or less Stars Hollow. It is like a caricature of a Big Town, with more quirky personalities than you could script. Some of my favourite characters are those that have stuck it out the longest. I could list a growing roster of older adult friends I've made this year that I'd love to recruit to Team Strong Towns. Since this is a largely online community, we may miss out on a lot of their wisdom on here. So what I've learned from experience after great experience is just to go make friends with older people! They've been one of my richest sources of information and inspiration in trying to improve my city.
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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.
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Instead of drive like your kids live here how about design like your kids live here.
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We have built a system we can't afford. The proposed solution? Supersize it, so it's even bigger and less affordable. We can do better.
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Why is the United States government or even the state of Connecticut considering spending any money at all on a roadway project that is so clearly local?
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