Tomorrow is Thanksgiving, a holiday whose name suggests a time for deep reflection. If you're struggling with all of this like me, the day couldn't come at a better time.
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Pretty much everything we talk about in our corner of the city-building world is correcting for the wreckage left by auto-domination. Driverless cars could potentially change the auto-culture and role of vehicles in our lives. What kind of impact might this have on the priorities and approaches of Strong Citizens?
Maybe this driverless talk is just hype and I'm speaking in extreme hypotheticals. But I think it's worth asking: if motorized transportation were cheaper, easier, more pleasant and convenient than ever - if it were electrified to boot, where do we stand?
Do driverless cars actually make any difference to a Strong Town?
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Once again, the Infrastructure Cult's narrative was picked up and magnified by the old media. This past weekend, 60 Minutes (yes, that is still a show) ran a piece called Falling Apart: America's Neglected Infrastructure. It contained all of the Cult's usual talking points.
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This coming Tuesday, November 25 is our next Strong Towns webinar. As you may have seen over social media and the blog, we have a new presentation and initiative called Transportation in the Next American City. It has been in beta test over the last two months and now we want your feedback.
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Welcome to Monday and the recap of the past week of member content. Lots of great content about suburbs, starting out with Next STL.
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Join us this Friday for #blackfridayparking, a nationwide event to draw attention to the ridiculousness of minimum parking requirements.
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Chuck is on his way back from sunny Austin this morning, so I’ll be bringing you the FND. It's also my first one, so be gentle, will ya?
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In my work with Lafayette, I had shared with me a nice supplementary approach from the city of Suwanee, Georgia, that can be used while a full accounting is being done. It is a scoring matrix that does a rough -- but very smart -- scoring in a true Strong Towns spirit.
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Engineer and shared-space designer Ben Hamilton-Baillie returns to the podcast to talk about how to get started with building shared space, the chances of success in the United States and some memories of his father, a World War II veteran who lead and assisted a number of escapes from German prisoner-of-war camps.
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Last week I shared on our social media feeds a story from The Week titled, It's time to abolish the Interstate Highway System, by Evan Jenkins. It was a bad headline -- the article doesn't suggest we go out and tear down the interstates but that we shift the way we fund it -- but most writers don't get to pick their own headlines.
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I read your blogs regarding cities being primarily sales tax funded. My question is how do you move away from that model? Given the property tax nose dive in our area in 2008 is property tax really a viable alternative? Are there other options? Thanks!
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Strong Towns member and Senior Planner at the city of Hutto, Texas, Erika Ragsdale, needed to share some complex information on the productivity of different development patterns in her fast-growing community. Here is what she came up with.
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Here are ten simple questions we call the Strong Towns Strength Test. A Strong Town should be able to answer “yes” to each of these questions.
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This has been a really amazing week. What started out with my desire to share the stories of some of our members with you became one of the more enjoyable things I’ve been able to do this year. If you’ve not had a chance, check out each of these short interviews and be blown away by the broad group of people that find a common cause in Strong Towns. I want to do more of these in 2015 and maybe even make it a regular feature, it was that good.
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Hans Noeldner - energy and environmental activist - talks about winter biking, transportation as a social justice issue and getting started living a Strong Towns life.
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Mike Christensen, graduate student at the University of Utah, talks about meeting Chuck at CNU, working as a GIS professional and connecting with people on social meeting.
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Gracen Johnson - Place Activator from New Brunswick - talks about promoting good ideas, working with Strong Towns and how worms have brought her closer to her neighbors.
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Sara Joy Proppe, project manager at Schaefer Richardson, talks about her neighborhood work, volunteering and why churches are strong, yet largely untapped, resources for cities. Proppe is also working on the Proximity Project based out of Minneapolis.
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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.
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