This week on the Strong Towns Podcast, Chuck talks with Sam Quinones, author of Dreamland: The True Tale of America’s Opiate Epidemic. What are the origins of the unprecedented rise in narcotic addictions and deaths, and what connections, if any, are there to the way we live and build our places?
Read MoreHigh home prices near many of Portland, Oregon’s rail stations are essentially mandatory. On most nearby lots, dividing the land into so much as a duplex would be illegal. If that’s not a recipe for luxury housing, what is?
Read MoreHilton Hotels sacrifices their customers in the name of efficiency. There is a lesson there for your city about the tradeoffs of efficiency.
Read MoreThis week, we explored the history of wide streets as a political project, why a successful place isn’t as simple as plopping down the right kind of buildings, how local planners find themselves hostage to decades-old “lines on paper”, the power of placemaking and art to bring a downtown back to life, misconceptions about what causes traffic congestion, and more.
Read MoreIn this week’s Upzoned podcast, Kea and Chuck discuss the new federal Opportunity Zones program. Is a big bucket of money what disinvested neighborhoods need? Or is using a federal program to develop a neighborhood like steering an ocean liner with a canoe paddle?
Read MoreOur Gathering Coordinator Ivy Vann recaps #StrongTownsNTX, the North Texas Regional Gathering. We brought together aspiring change-makers and seasoned experts from all over Texas and beyond, and helped them connect with each other and learn how to make their own communities stronger.
Read MoreA proposed bill in Washington State would require cities to allow a minimum housing density near transit stations. It is a well-intentioned response to a very real problem, but its one-size-fits-all nature risks unintended consequences.
Read MoreHow 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.
Read MoreAcross the Rust Belt and Midwest, immigrant entrepreneurs and residents are helping to mitigate the financial challenges faced by declining and shrinking cities.
Read MoreIn this episode of our podcast It’s the Little Things, Jacob chats with Alissa Walker, urbanism editor at Curbed, about how you don’t have to be a professional urban designer to have an impact on the built environment. Documenting your own observations can capture the attention of your peers and inspire much-needed improvements to the livability of your city.
Read MoreNovelty Colonies are unusual, themed settlements that promise the resident an alternative to the vinyl-sided raised ranch houses of suburbia. However, the charm of these settlements is superficial, and the good ideas they do offer would be better incorporated into our existing towns.
Read MoreA nonprofit placemaking organization is bringing events, parks, public art and more to downtown Fort Smith, Arkansas, one playful experiment at a time.
Read MoreTo assume that a street-forward, mixed use development will activate a lifeless area is like assuming that gardening is a matter of “just add water.” In reality, different urban environments—like different soils, climates, and plants—require different elements of care.
Read MoreCan stronger schools help a city grappling with an identity crisis get residents to put down roots? In Akron, Ohio, another transformation, driven not by celebrity philanthropy but by local partnerships, is sweeping through the school system.
Read MoreThis week on the Strong Towns Podcast, Chuck talks with Jase Wilson, the founder and CEO of Neighborly, about bringing small-scale investors back to the municipal bond market, empowering people to invest in the real, observed needs of communities they care about.
Read MoreWide, straight, monumental streets have always served the interests of those in power. They allow for the mobilization of military force, subordinate the unplanned chaos of the city to grandiose visions, and have been used to dispossess and displace small businesses, the poor, and racial and political minorities.
Read MoreDecades ago, we decided where roads will go. Whether it makes sense or not today, that is where they must go.
Read MoreDo we need to fail in order to succeed? When our experiments go awry—in science or otherwise—should we be dismayed, or treat it as just as vital information as if our hypotheses had been confirmed? Check out the latest episode of our new podcast Upzoned to hear Kea Wilson and Chuck Marohn wax philosophical about failure.
Read MoreWill this new development make traffic worse? The conventional wisdom about the relationship between development and traffic contains a number of important misconceptions.
Read MoreIn this episode of our new podcast It’s the Little Things, Jacob Moses chats with Nick Kittle, author of the recently released book Sustainovation: Building Sustainable Innovation in Government, One Wildly Creative Idea at a Time. Nick argues that—even in government—innovation is an attainable workplace culture that, when embraced, can create meaningful change in our cities, towns, and neighborhoods.
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