Chuck and Rachel discuss Chuck's recent vacation, favorite summer movies, Suburban Poverty week and Chuck's recent essay about the future of the US economy.
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You cannot build a place of enduring value that isn't homey, that isn't loved.
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If the global economy is like a hot air balloon, we're only given the option to continually go higher -- despite the risk -- or cut all the air and crash. Those options aren't good enough.
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Here's what got the most reads on our site this week.
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Suburbia is a massive experiment, and millions of Americans are finding out that it doesn’t work.
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Langley Park’s auto-oriented development pattern imposes unneeded costs and burdens upon those who can least afford them.
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In a thinly veiled attempt to keep "those people" out of a local mall, this spring, the Valley West Mall in West Des Moines demanded that a bus stop that services the mall be removed from its property.
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What if our goal wasn’t to build the most stuff in the shortest amount of time for the least amount of money?
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Caution: This post contains graphic images of housing displacement. Viewer discretion is advised.
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It’s apparently acceptable for suburbs to actively discourage – and in this case, actually relocate – low-income renters. By pretending this sort of thing only happens in Brooklyn or San Francisco, we leave the low-income households who used to live in these now-demolished Marietta apartments vulnerable to very real displacement.
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This suburb is a growing place, but it's not a successful place. It risks becoming an increasingly isolating place full of people who are cut off from the economic mainstream.
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The reconfiguration of a bus route to reach lower-income suburban areas is a symptom of the problem, not the real treatment.
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This interactive map lets you explore concentrations of suburban poverty and their growth over the last four decades.
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The deck is stacked against suburban residents trying to make it out of poverty and the current network of nonprofit and government-based service agencies is not set up to help them.
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Our de facto national housing policy of drive-till-you-qualify suburban development works well enough for people with an education and a professional salary. It fails the working class entirely and that’s by design.
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The state of Florida went all-in on the suburban experiment in a way that few other places did. Overbuilt and half empty, many Florida suburbs will never climb out of debt and decline.
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What will happen to Homeowner's Associations in an America with increasing suburban poverty? It will be messy.
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Rachel and special guest, Michelle Erfurt (Strong Towns' Pathfinder) discuss Suburban Poverty Week and dive into the event calendar for the rest of 2016.
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The spectre of poverty haunts hundreds of American suburbs and effects millions of Americans. Let's take a look at the data behind suburban poverty: its causes, impacts and current trends.
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Next time you want to label a town as 'family oriented' - don't just think about the young and middle-aged people that are able to depend on an automobile at a moment's notice. Ask yourself, would your 13 year old kid or elderly grandma with a walker have their freedom and be happy there?
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