Can a humble corner bookstore make your city wealthier and more resilient? These small businesses have surprising staying power—and in many ways are an indicator species of a strong neighborhood.
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Making places strong isn’t all about big, “sexy”, top-down projects. And the fact that we call these things “sexy” might be a part of the problem.
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Sure, it’s all well and good to talk about ending parking minimums. But what about doing it in ultra-car-dependent Los Angeles?
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California’s recent wildfires have ignited a conversation about whether the suburban experiment has put too many Golden State residents at risk. But this expert says it may not be so simple.
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Medina, Washington is struggling to pay its bills. How can this be? And what does it mean for towns and cities that don’t have the two richest people in the world living there?
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Building stronger towns isn’t just about planning, engineering and development. We need to address questions about cultivating rich and abundant lives in our neighborhoods. How do we live out our values when so much of the built environment seems to be working against us?
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Strong Towns believes towns need to be obsessive about their revenues. But does that really mean building more revenue-generating prison centers?
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What if Airbnb—maligned by urbanists everywhere—didn’t have to be part of the problem, but could rather be part of the solution for making our neighborhoods stronger, more adaptable, and more resilient? Drawing both from personal experience and historical precedent, a Strong Towns staffer makes just that case.
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Two diehard urbanists swore they would never open a neighborhood-killing Airbnb. They changed their minds. Here’s why.
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Think tanks and government agencies aren’t solving our housing crisis nearly as fast as our cities need. Should we let the public have a shot—and give the person with the winning idea a big prize if they can make a dent?
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Hint: even if you get a road for free, you still have to pay to maintain it.
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The most successful companies iterate. Before they go “all-in” on a new product, they prototype, test, learn and adapt. If only there was a similar process cities could use before committing massive resources to something that may not work. Oh wait, there is! In defense of the much-maligned pilot project.
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Hint: the Right isn’t any better.
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Tech giant Square has announced that they’re moving to downtown St. Louis, sponsored by some big tax incentives—and they’re putting up the funds to demolishing derelict homes in the adjacent neighborhoods to boot. Is that really the only forward for the Gateway City?
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In North America, stadium projects are almost synonymous with silver bullet disasters. But does that have to be true?
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Vision Zero aims to end all traffic deaths. Can they do it on a national scale?
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What if to build Strong Towns, we don’t just need to think outside of our partisan political boxes, but stop thinking of them as boxes at all?
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Unpacking “smart cities” hype through a Strong Towns lens: when should we get excited about technological fixes to our cities’ problems? And when is sticking with a low-tech (but tried, tested, and resilient) approach more prudent?
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A failed mall can feel like a monument to your community’s economic failure. A presidential hopeful has an idea to bring them back to life. But is it a good thing?
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For decades, many city leaders have thought the only way to end blight was to tear down the eyesores and start fresh. Mobile, Alabama had another idea.
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