Big data and new technology make bold promises about solving urban problems. Not only do they fall well short of solutions, but can actually make things worse.
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2020 has thrown one challenge after another at our cities. Here are 5 effective strategies local leaders are using to adapt and respond.
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Community consensus sounds nice. But, as a final standard for planners, it ends up supporting the status quo rather than challenging it.
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There’s a a lot of misunderstanding about developers: what they do and how their business model works. Here are 6 things you need to understand to have informed conversations about development in your city.
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New York City may be down but it’s definitely not out. A New York native reflects on what makes the city resilient amidst a deadly pandemic.
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If you want to dig into the Strong Towns approach and see the many sources from which we draw wisdom and inspiration, this list is for you.
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From health care to the economy, the pandemic is exposing the fragility of institutions we’ve long taken for granted.
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Economic upheaval, political dysfunction, social disorder—James Howard Kunstler saw it coming. He can also show us a way out.
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Wildfires in the West, the spooky wisdom of place-based architecture, “kayak church,” and more. These are a few topics from around the web that the Strong Towns staff were reading and talking about this week.
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Policing is a divisive subject. One expert’s balanced and thoughtful perspective points us to a better way.
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What’s missing from most comprehensive plans? Dollars and cents. Here’s a simple reform that will focus the conversation on development patterns that create real wealth.
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Big money “pedestrian” projects are often not for pedestrians at all. Their real purpose is to serve faster car traffic.
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It’s tempting to think the challenges we face in the “unprecedented year” of 2020 require big, top-down, unprecedented solutions. But this may be exactly the right time for the “little way.”
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With plummeting ridership, cuts in services, and higher fares, U.S. transit may be in mortal danger. But the seeds of the current crisis were planted long before the pandemic.
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Conventional approaches to annexation — and even annexation reform — have failed to create stronger cities and towns. Here’s a modest proposal for a better way.
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A lot of bad public engagement sets the impossible goal of identifying the community’s “vision” for a place by asking people about their preferences—usually with questions they’re ill-equipped to answer. There’s a better way.
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This is Part 1 in a three-part series about why our cities deserve better than cookie-cutter, state-level land use reforms.
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Wastewater engineers and the communities they serve may be suffering from the same delusion—that the good life will go on forever.
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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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