Streets Are for Building Community Wealth. Here’s Why That’s So Important.

Streets can be about many things, but unless they are building wealth for the community, they won’t survive. Period.

Your City’s Accounting Is Unnecessarily Obscure. It’s Time To Pull Back the Veil.

We expect city budgets and financial reports to inform citizens and community leaders alike, but in reality, local government accounting is unnecessarily complicated, confusing, and illogical.

Wealth and Buildings

In the realm of urban planning, there’s plenty of discourse out there about housing affordability—but what about household wealth building?

Philadelphia Is Launching the First Public Bank Owned by a City

Is this an amazing idea that could have transformative benefits for people…or a horrible idea ripe for corruption and mismanagement?

Upzoned, Podcast, Top Story, FinanceStrong TownsMay 18, 2022Podcast, podcast, Upzoned, banks, finance, local finance, Philadelphia

A Minnesota Judge Throws the Book at Immoral Tax Assessments

This case shows why local governments need to do a better job accounting for maintenance costs.

It Isn’t Just Us, the Entire Nation Is Burdened With Property Tax Inequities

Recently, the North Carolina Ad Hoc Appraisals Committee was challenged to face their own biases and fix their broken property tax assessment system. Here’s what happened.

Taking a Magnifying Glass to Property Tax Inequities

What is the real reason behind our striking property tax disparities?

Not Just Bikes: Where We've Been Living This Whole Time (New Video)

Two of our favorite storytellers—Urban3 and Not Just Bikes—come together in this awesome video.

Urban3, Video, Top StoryJohn PattisonMarch 8, 2022Not Just Bikes, Urban3, Value Per Acre, maps, finance, resilience

Truth in Accounting: Making Cities' Finances Transparent for All

Citizens can’t make informed decisions if they don’t know the financial condition of their government. This nonpartisan nonprofit is making those numbers both available and transparent.

For Small Developers, Strong Towns Need Strong Banking

Any attempt to design cities that are for people and not cars is all for naught if there are no means to finance it.

Holy Leaping Dollars, Batman!

Unless we start making better accounting choices today, we’ll be facing service cuts and tax increases every year going forward. …That is, until the day we can’t anymore.

Fixing Finance for Small-Scale Development

For most small-scale developers, capital is a significant barrier to doing small infill projects. But that isn't because the money isn't there to be had.

Can Navigating Your City's Budget Be...Fun??

Making city budgets accessible to the average citizen is crucial for building stronger places. Here’s 4 examples of cities that made their budgets not only accessible, but even fun!

How “Closed-Loop Capital” Builds Local Businesses and Stronger Local Economies

A relatively new funding mechanism helps small businesses build support in the community, even without all the resources of a larger startup.

Community, Finance, Top StoryNick MathewsApril 8, 2021Nick Mathews, local business, finance, community, crowdfunding

The Great GASB!

There are major flaws in the accounting standards that shape municipal finance in American cities. But there’s an opportunity too: a chance to comment on—and perhaps change—those standards going forward.

Finance, Infrastructure, Local Government, Top StoryJoe MinicozziFebruary 17, 2021finance, municipal finance, infrastructure spending

Just Print the Money

The changes that need to be made to fix our cities will never come about in a culture whose solution for everything is “Just print the money.”

Podcast, Finance, Top StoryStrong TownsNovember 30, 2020Modern Monetary Theory, New York, stock market, finance, Podcast

David McAlvany: Legacy is an Accumulation of Little Decisions

No matter the domain or field—city government, planning and engineering, and even our own families and communities—we all leave a legacy. The question is: will it be the legacy we intended to leave?