Bringing a neighborhood back from the brink of ruin, one building at a time, is hard, thankless work—like raising bees when you could just go buy a jar of honey. But when it works, each successful project helps “pollinate” the surrounding area with the seeds of revival, in a virtuous cycle.
Read MoreDenton, Texas seemed to be on the verge of an important step toward financial resilience: allowing its core neighborhoods to incrementally evolve and provide much-needed new housing. Now, is the city on the verge of moving in the wrong direction instead?
Read MoreNow that my city’s downtown is starting to thrive, we’re facing a new problem: a barrage of attempts to move centrally-located public facilities to unwalkable, suburban (and even undeveloped) areas.
Read MoreOnce a year, Ben & Jerry’s gives away ice cream for free—and people line up around the block because the price is so low. There’s a lesson here about urban roads and congestion.
Read MoreWe conclude our podcast greatest-hits series by revisiting a 2013 conversation with Chris Gibbons, the originator of Economic Gardening. Helping home-grown companies expand—rather than importing jobs from elsewhere—Economic Gardening is the essence of a Strong Towns approach to economic development.
Read MoreWe have a lot of work ahead at Strong Towns to meaningfully engage people of color and to grow the racial diversity of our movement. We’re committed to doing that work.
Read MoreThis week we crowned a victor in the Strongest Town Contest, and some of our most popular articles dug deep into the various aspects of America’s housing crisis—including why it’s so difficult to solve, but also why it’s not as expensive as we often think to do some real good.
Read MoreApp developers are promising that any citizen with a smart phone can take part in planning their city like never before. But is there more to community engagement than what you can fit within the borders of a screen?
Read MoreAnd the 4th annual Strongest Town title goes to….
Read MoreA new Arkansas law prohibits cities from regulating the design of single-family homes in almost all instances. This is a bad idea which takes away an important tool in a city’s toolkit to nurture strong, productive places.
Read MoreThe right question is how we’re going to get people to the things that make their lives better. Transportation problems look different once you’re having that conversation.
Read MoreJacqueline Hannah—assistant director at the Food Co-op Initiative—shares how you can start a neighborhood grocery co-op in your town, including how to pitch the vision to community members and elected officials, how to translate your enthusiasm into action, and how the Food Co-op initiative can help through every step of the process.
Read MoreForward-thinking developers are building communities that take into account the hidden long-term costs of suburban development, and offer a more resilient alternative. But what if that alternative results in homes that are too expensive to be within reach of most Americans? And does it have to?
Read MoreIt’s hard to have a coherent conversation on affordable housing when most of those involved in the discussion directly benefit from — and in some ways depend on — higher housing prices.
Read MoreWhat would it actually cost to put a roof over the head of every person experiencing chronic homelessness? Some number crunching suggests not as much as you think, and an amount we could afford—especially given what it already costs not to.
Read MorePensacola, FL and Portsmouth, NH are our final two contestants for the title of 2019’s Strongest Town! Check out the live webcast audio and video, and then cast your vote!
Read MoreUsing routine traffic stops as a pretext to root out other types of crime is as disingenuous as it is unhelpful. We need to design intuitively safe streets—and then use traffic enforcement for the minority of drivers who are actually driving recklessly.
Read MoreThis week we held the semifinal round of our #StrongestTown contest. But we also brought you some fresh new content about cities from huge to tiny getting a bit stronger. Read about NYC’s new congestion pricing plan, Syracuse’s hope of undoing a costly past mistake, and how tiny Elkin, NC is being revived by its own residents, $100 at a time.
Read MoreThe votes are tallied, and it’s official: Pensacola, FL and Portsmouth, NH will vie for the title of Strongest Town! Tune in Monday at 12 noon CDT for a free live webcast with representatives of both towns, and then cast your vote!
Read MoreHow is it possible that so many of our cities are seeing their footprints grow, but their populations shrink? The answer to this paradox might surprise you.
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