California recently passed a statewide rent control bill. Will it protect tenants, alleviate the housing crisis, and strengthen communities? Or is it another massive #california intervention that will do little to clean up the mess made by the LAST massive intervention?
Read MoreIt's easy to get into a rut and miss the beauty and promise of our places. Here's how beekeeping led one writer to discover that the neighborhood can hold the key to our sense of purpose, hope and joy.
Read MoreFast-growing Austin is at a crossroads. Officials there are weighing the adoption of a new land development code. Will the city settle for the status quo—drive-by urbanism and a code that doesn’t adequately address the need for more housing? Or can something better emerge?
Read MoreWe all know the pitfalls of master-planned communities, right? Sterile. Homogenous. Certainly not adaptable or resilient over time. Is there a way around it? Maybe, if this fascinating case study from Germany has anything to teach us. And it all starts with one word: Baugruppen.
Read MoreSalvador “Sal” Galdamez—founder and president of nonprofit York XL—shares how you can bring your neighbors together around bottom-up action to create more prosperous, healthy, and empowered neighborhoods.
Read MoreDan Burden has been called the “Johnny Appleseed of pedestrian and bike design.” You asked one of the world’s foremost experts on planning for healthy, active communities your questions in our latest Ask Strong Towns—and now we’re sharing the video.
Read MoreA leading infill developer in Victoria, BC is building beautiful homes that address the housing crisis and make neighborhoods stronger. They’re also changing the conversation about what’s possible.
Read MoreSkeptics cite empty buses and trains as proof that public transit isn’t worth the investment. But what if they applied their same standard to our rural highways?
Read MoreOur economic system prizes growth above all. This has created a looming disaster, at both the local and national levels. How did we get here? And is there an alternative?
Read MoreWant to feel a deeper attachment to the neighborhood you call home? Here are six action items guaranteed to connect you with neighbors and inspire creative ways to leverage your resources for the common good.
Read MorePublic officials trying to make their city’s street more humane are often thwarted by the professional engineers giving them advice. If that’s your city, it’s time to make a change.
Read MoreThe Strong America Tour kicks off this week in the Pacific Northwest. Everywhere we go — Spokane, Seattle, Kenmore, and Victoria — we see residents breathing new life into even the unlikeliest of neighborhoods.
Read MoreHint: even if you get a road for free, you still have to pay to maintain it.
Read MoreIn Seattle, policy victories tend to be long-fought and hard-won. What will it take to achieve a city that can flex, evolve, and meet its residents’ needs in a more organic way, without every change becoming an arduous political battle?
Read MoreMy bedroom community’s streets are aging, and we recently learned that we need to double our pavement preservation spending to keep them from declining further. Here’s what we’re doing about it—and why the Strong Towns philosophy is instrumental for us.
Read MoreA remarkably diverse coalition of activists is moving the needle in Seattle on the question of who—and what—belongs in the city’s neighborhoods. And they’ve scored two big policy victories in 2019. Is it enough?
Read MoreA Youtuber who goes by donoteat01 brilliantly uses the Cities:Skylines video game as a storytelling tool—in this case, to help us understand the ugly human consequences of the postwar urban freeway-building era.
Read MoreCary Westerbeck—Strong Towns member and Founder of Bothellites for People-Oriented Places (Bo-POP)—shares how you can create people-oriented places in your own community, including how to educate people about people-oriented places, how these places create more financially resilient places, and how you can demonstrate your vision.
A new report on the interstate highway system from the Transportation Research Board of the National Academy of Sciences is not propaganda for the road-building industry. So why does it still read like it is?
Read MoreThe poorest neighborhoods also tend to be the warmest. That’s according to a fascinating study of the 97 largest American cities. Here’s why extreme heat is more likely to affect the poor and what communities can start to do about it.
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