How much of car culture is attributable to the early designers and marketers who figured out how to make cars stylish and beautiful? A new book profiles GM’s Harley Earl, one of the forerunners of America’s automotive obsession.
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Like many small, historic cities, Ellicott City, Maryland is a resilient town that has always rebuilt and recovered after natural disasters. It would be a shame if it could not recover from a man-made one.
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Everything has a beginning, a middle, and an end. Our current institutions are in the process of failing and are unlikely to be reformed. Once the dust settles, we’ll create new institutions and a fresh cultural consensus that respond to pressing needs on the ground.
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Less than 20% of the country lives in regions with high-quality transit systems that serve most of the population. There is a stark divide between the six or eight large metros that are the most urban in the United States, and everywhere else.
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The history of Spokane, Washington is a microcosm of what American cities as a whole have experienced. Spokane has lessons to teach us, including the power of incremental (but rapid) growth.
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In 2012, we added our first strategic partners and Strong Towns transitioned from side project to a legitimate organization.
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The scale and value of what we’ve sacrificed in order to build parking lots and highways is staggering. Only by understanding that loss can we figure out how to build stronger towns.
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How can we be fair judges of city builders in the past while still maintaining a critical eye toward their failings?
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Our ancestors had the same impulse toward big, risky projects, but today we have the tools to amplify that impulse to even more dangerous proportions.
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Government and corporate decisions half a century ago robbed our cities of life and prosperity today.
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Plus some musings on the nature of our present-day cities, and what they once were.
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Most suffering is not inflicted by an evil mastermind. When things go wrong, it’s usually because regular people take part.
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In a California town, Main Street is preserved while everything around it shifts and the conditions that built Main Street are destroyed.
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The debate over historic preservation is ultimately more than one of aesthetics; it is one of cultural memory and even morality.
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Peoria, IL once produced 1/5 of the nation's liquor. Then Prohibition came and it all disappeared. Has the city learned its lesson?
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What can signmaking’s past and present tell us about our cities’ futures?
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A "museum without walls" draws visitors and residents to Asheville's downtown, providing an opportunity to learn about the city's history and culture, as well as encouraging patronage at local businesses.
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The Allendale neighborhood of Shreveport, LA has a rich history of both good times and hardship. Today, the area is on the rise with low crime and new investment. But an expensive highway project threatens to shut all that down.
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The only problem this highway project seeks to solve is, "How do we move more vehicles through Shreveport?" The perspective of residents whose neighborhood would be destroyed by the highway seems to count for nothing.
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When cities grow organically, they are productive platforms for generating wealth.
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