Once a month we host Ask Strong Towns, a members-only live Q&A webcast. Here’s the video and audio from August 2019’s edition.
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Once ubiquitous, then endangered, the American front porch is making a comeback. From rocking chairs to rock music, a conference near Oxford, Mississippi celebrates the past, present, and future of the surprisingly powerful front porch.
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It’s a paradox, but cities can set the stage for the unscripted. These playful surprises cater both to young and the young-at-heart, and they endear the community to visitors and residents alike.
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The United States isn’t France, but there are still plenty of lessons to be learned—and myths to be busted—by looking at the way their streets are designed to build wealth.
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Infrastructure doesn’t have to be expensive. But in the U.S., we infamously spend a fortune on it… and not always for the best results. This and more in this week’s top 5 articles.
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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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Copenhagen’s famous biking culture—over 3 out of every 5 commutes are by bike—is lauded internationally as an achievement for the environment, public health, and—we’d add—fiscal sustainability alike. But they didn’t get there just by building bike lanes.
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We’ve been taught that a growing city inevitably needs wider highways. Even those who oppose specific road projects often accept this premise. But is it actually true?
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When my school district proposed tearing down buildings for parking, I and others suggested there were more creative and less destructive ways to solve these problems. We were scoffed at, and we lost. Hate to say, “I told you so,” but….
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Is the Strong America Tour coming to your town?
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Our special celebrity guest for the September edition of our "Ask Strong Towns webcast is Dan Burden, Director of Innovation and Inspiration at Blue Zones and one of Planetizen’s 100 Most Influential Urbanists.
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Strong Towns member Ben Harrison shares his experience serving on a citizen advisory committee and why you should run for something in your own community, including how to pitch your vision to city staff, how to introduce Strong Towns principles, and, how serving on these committees can help you feel closer to your community.
If your goal is to promote public safety, design streets for the humans you have, not the perfectly obedient ones you wish you had.
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So your city’s made progress on bike safety—there are some nice new bike lanes, and more people out and about on two wheels. How to keep the momentum going? That’s the situation in this Strong Towns member’s hometown, and he has some ideas to share.
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South Florida is known for its luxurious lifestyle and extravagant beachfront homes. These mansions must reel in big bucks for the city, right? Let’s see how productive they really are when we #DoTheMath.
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“Sustainable” is a buzzword that often conjures images of technological wizardry aimed at solving environmental problems. But what if our ancestors knew a lot more about sustainability than we give them credit for?
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Why does infrastructure cost so much to build in the U.S.? The fundamental reasons aren’t technical. We’ve structured our postwar economy to use overspending on infrastructure as a way to induce short-term growth.
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Does Boston—one of America’s oldest and densest cities—have too much parking? The verdict is in. This and more in our top 5 stories of the past week.
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Every year, Black Rock City burns down. But could it be the role model your city needs?
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A year after a 15-year-old was killed crossing the street from a rec center in Provo, Utah, these #StrongCitizens got together to demonstrate how much safer (and more pleasant) Provo’s city’s streets could be if not designed for high speed traffic. Find out how they did it.
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