This week on the Strong Towns Podcast, Chuck discusses the role of planning in correcting for legacies of segregation and inequality. Is more enlightened policy enough to change course? Or do we need to more fundamentally rethink who has the power to shape cities?
Read More"Developers in my city are only building luxury housing. They're not building anything that ordinary people can afford." If you’ve said this lately, or heard someone else say it, here are five possible reasons why.
Read MoreTragedy predictably occurs when our road designs combine high speeds and randomness.
Read MoreIn the past two weeks, we’ve re-run some of our best content of 2018, and explored new topics including how to know when your town is ready for a parking garage; how to double your city’s bus ridership through a smart, iterative strategy; a novel intersection design for people on foot; why cities work better when we tolerate imperfection; the value (or lack thereof) of a planning certification; and more!
Read MoreAs a cycling advocate, I avoid talking about the times when riding a bike in the city is scary, because I don’t want to deter would-be new riders from giving it a try. There’s only one problem with pretending I’m never afraid: it isn’t true.
Read MoreKea Wilson shares her five favorite Strong Towns-adjacent reads (and one favorite watch) of the year. From the short works of Jane Jacobs to a nonfiction epic about Americans who live out of their cars, and more!
Read MoreThe most important thing for a local government is to avoid ruin.
Read MoreGentrification and concentrated poverty are two sides of the same coin. We’ve engineered our cities so that neighborhoods get either too much investment or too little: the trickle or the fire hose.
Read MoreIf granting exceptions to your city’s planning rules is so common as to have become the norm, perhaps it’s time to reconsider the rules themselves.
Read MoreIt is the experiences of real people that should guide our planning efforts. Their actions are the data we should be collecting, not their stated preferences.
Read MoreIn this episode of our podcast It’s the Little Things, Jacob chats with Strong Towns President Chuck Marohn about how you can get ideas for making your neighborhood stronger, including how both the concerned citizen and the public official can act on ideas, how to share them with your tribe, and how to take the next incremental step in making your neighborhood stronger.
Read MoreHere are a few ideas to make you a more effective—and interesting—public hearing participant.
Read MoreIf Strong Towns is successful—really successful—you won't hear about it, because the vast majority of the change we produce won't be attributed to us at all. It will be embedded in the broader culture.
Read More3 dollars and cents arguments that definitively prove the need for people-oriented, walk-friendly places.
Read MoreInnovative models from around the country address homelessness by starting with small, inexpensive, and imperfect solutions. What can Akron, Ohio learn from these examples?
Read MoreToday we're bringing you the video—and audio, if that’s more your jam—from the latest edition of our live, bimonthly ask-us-anything webcast, Ask Strong Towns.
Read MoreA few weeks ago, Amazon announced major new operations in not one, but three locations: Queens, NYC; Crystal City, near Washington, DC; and Nashville. Our biggest question is not for Amazon but for the cities and states that offered them massive subsidy packages: Why?!
Read MoreI don’t know why I’m an certified planner anymore. More importantly, it’s not clear to me why the world will be a better place if I am.
Read MoreWhen we aim for perfection, imperfections will disturb us. But, when we aim for imperfection, other imperfections build character.
Read MoreIn this episode of our podcast It’s the Little Things, Jacob chats with Caitlin Bigelow—Founder of Maxable Space—about how you can build an accessory dwelling unit (ADU), including how to check the required zoning, encourage your peer that ADUs are a strong way to build your neighborhood, and discover the benefits beyond passive rental income.
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