How modifications to one city’s development codes are making it possible to add wealth and vibrancy to its struggling neighborhoods… without taking on huge future liabilities.
Read More
Patrick Deneen, author of the bestselling Why Liberalism Failed (hint: he doesn’t mean the political left), talks with our own Chuck Marohn about the political crisis facing Western societies, and how rediscovering a sense of rootedness in community—defaulting to loyalty over “looking for the exits”—might be the answer.
Read More
Two very different buildings in Spokane illustrate the unfulfilled promises of the post-war suburban experiment and the potential for new life in even the unlikeliest of neighborhoods.
Read More
The Strong America Tour starts this week with a swing through the Pacific Northwest. Here’s what to expect.
Read More
The power and peril of looking backwards. We look back to learn much-needed lessons, but how do we avoid romanticizing a past that maybe wasn’t that great to begin with?
Read More
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.
Read More
We hear it everywhere we go: people want, and cherish, the kind of complete neighborhood where you can meet most of your daily needs within a 15-minute walk. What will it take to create more such places in North American cities and towns?
Read More
Reclaiming the art of neighboring may be the closest thing we have to a solution for the social isolation, the political polarization, and the superficial relationships that plague our neighborhoods. To make our communities stronger and more connected, here are three shifts we all need to make.
Read More
Civic leaders, professional planners, activists and practitioners, or simply good neighbors — all of us can do better at acknowledging the ripple effect our decisions (large and small) have on our communities. These questions can help.
Read More
Flawed methodology. Lack of accountability. Discrepant data. Egregious assumptions. The new Urban Mobility Report will be used to make or justify transportation policies around the country, which makes it too wrong to be ignored.
Read More
Large swaths of our cities were built to reflect a post-World War Two boom that was an economic anomaly. But that party is long over…and, in many ways, wasn’t that great to begin with. So why do we keep romanticizing the past rather than thinking about the cities we need now?
Read More
The killing of Michael Brown’ in August 2014 brought global attention to police brutality and racial inequality in the U.S. While there have been some reforms in Ferguson over the last five years, other structural issues — including a city infrastructure largely not built to benefit the people who actually live there — remain the same or have gotten worse.
Read More
Our next Ask Strong Towns: Celebrity Edition webcast features special guest Melody Warnick, journalist and author of “This Is Where You Belong: Finding Home Wherever You Are.” Sign up to ask her your questions in this members-only live Q&A on October 16th!
Read More
We can destroy and rebuild all kinds of places and measure success in terms of Gross Domestic Product, but lets stop pretending that trading local wealth for national growth is a good thing.
Read More