The kindness of strangers, a history of “triple-decker” houses in New England, and the passing of a friend—these are just a few of the stories from around the web that the Strong Towns staff were reading and talking about this week.
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The way be build towns and cities in North America is a radical departure from how our ancestors did it (even a few generations ago) and how cities are built elsewhere in the world. Here are 7 key differences.
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To make your community a magnet for people, talent, and new investments, make this a priority.
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Last November, Minneapolis made duplexes and triplexes legal on any residential lot—an achievement that became a model for other towns and cities. Let’s check in.
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Zoning reform is an opportunity for common ground for those on the political Right and Left. What will it take to get there?
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Strong Towns has an open position. If you want to be part of the Strong Towns Team, this is your opportunity!
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The streetcar suburb was the dominant development type in American cities between about 1890-1930. What lessons can we learn about how to build our cities today?
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An incredible video from 1906 San Francisco—colorized and digitally remastered—depicts a time when streets were truly available for every type of user.
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Chain stores often claim they can’t break from their standard design templates when moving into your city. Don’t believe it.
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Vacancy rates are a crucial piece of bottom-up feedback. They can tell us when the housing ecosystem is out of equilibrium. But there are larger questions they can’t answer.
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The “growth machine” is too big to fail. What if it fails anyway?
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Pulling back the curtains on travel demand forecasting, a timely series on rural mayors, and why some neighborhoods are hotter than others. These are just a few of the stories from around the web that Strong Towns staffers were reading and talking about this week.
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Ponzi schemes fail because they are built on illusions: there is no there there. So what happens when an entire continent of towns and cities is caught up in a kind of Growth Ponzi Scheme? We are finding out.
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When you want to change a community, you begin by changing your own behaviors. Here are 9 small (yet powerful) actions to get started.
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Most public engagement is “worse than worthless.” But it doesn’t have to be. These 5 basic steps will lay the groundwork for a community where residents truly guide the future of their city.
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The pandemic is exposing the fragility of the New York City’s rental economy. Vacancy rates are the highest they’ve been in over 10 years, and rent costs are dropping. What might this say about the city’s long road to recovery?
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Parking is so ubiquitous that it’s hard to see just how much we have of it. But the data shows us. The data also reveals what a waste of precious resources all that parking is.
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Quick, inexpensive interventions do more than add a little color to a place. They can catalyze the transformation of a neighborhood into a better connected, more prosperous place.
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An unproductive intersection looks different to different people: engineers, departments of transportation, tax assessors, etc. But bringing it to life starts with seeing it through still someone else’s eyes.
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The oldest buildings in your city have endured for a reason. They’re also the ones most likely to be around long into the future. Why not show them a little love?
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