Reinforce the Main Street Ecosystem in Your Place

Resource-focused cities of the past built wealth in a downtown core surrounded by neighborhoods. Here’s how to recreate that ecosystem in your place, today.

Community, Economic Development, Marohn, Resource Trap, Top StoryCharles MarohnMay 27, 2021resource trap, RBC Series, community, main street, Traditional Main Street, Resource Trap - Core Content

Build Community Wealth with Incremental Investment

We must stop building more infrastructure in our cities and switch instead to a model of intensive maintenance, combined with making better use of what has already been built.

#DotheMath, Community, Economic Development, Incrementalism, Maintenance, Marohn, Top StoryCharles MarohnMay 26, 2021resource trap, RBC Series, incremental growth, incrementalism, community, little bets, resilience, Resource Trap - Core Content

Accelerate Success in Your Place with Economic Gardening

Conventional economic development practice focuses on recruiting new businesses to relocate to the community. In reality, the most stable and prosperous businesses are those that are homegrown.

Economic Development, Marohn, Resource Trap, Strategies, Top StoryCharles MarohnMay 21, 2021RBC Series, Economic Gardening, local economy, resource trap, local business, how to, Resource Trap - Core Content

Communities Need to Make Space for Entrepreneurs

Entrepreneurship plays an important role in building prosperous local communities. Here are some steps for creating a more active ecosystem of entrepreneurs in your place.

Community, Economic Development, Marohn, Resource Trap, Top StoryCharles MarohnMay 20, 2021local business, local economy, Entrepreneurship, small business, how to, resource trap, RBC Series, Resource Trap - Core Content

How to Retain Capital in Your Community

Let’s go beyond the “buy local” mantra and start replacing things we send money out of the community for with viable local alternatives.

Community, Economic Development, Local Food, Marohn, Resource Trap, Top StoryCharles MarohnMay 19, 2021how to, RBC Series, resource trap, local economy, local food, local business, localism, Resource Trap - Core Content

The Modern Approach to Development Doesn't Work for Local Communities

There is much we can learn from cities of the past—especially small, remote cities that grew up around the exploitation of natural resources.

Economic Development, Incrementalism, Marohn, Resource Trap, Top StoryCharles MarohnMay 18, 2021RBC Series, history, traditional development pattern, economics, resource trap, incrementalism, Resource Trap - Core Content

Why Communities Must Break Out of the Resource Trap

Resource-based communities rarely experience the prosperity their labor makes possible for others. It doesn’t have to be this way.

Marohn, Resource Trap, Top StoryCharles MarohnMay 17, 2021local finance, series, RBC Series, resource, community, resource trap, Resource Trap - Core Content

Engineers Should Not Design Streets

Engineers are great at building roads, but we should never ask them to build our streets.

#SlowtheCars, Marohn, Engineering Profession, Top Story, Engineering ReformCharles MarohnMay 6, 2021roads, traffic engineering, engineers, streets

Bond Ratings are for Investors (Not Taxpayers)

A great credit rating is not a blessing for a young community if it is interpreted as a license to borrow without discipline.

Finance, Marohn, Top StoryCharles MarohnApril 26, 2021local government, Growth Ponzi Scheme, local finance, Eagan, Minnesota

The Federal Government Doesn't Own Infrastructure

The federal government pays the upfront costs for infrastructure, but the responsibility for its maintenance is yours. Forever.

Federal Government, Infrastructure, Local Government, Maintenance, Marohn, Top StoryCharles MarohnApril 19, 2021Infrastructure, federal government, American Jobs Plan, maintenance, infrastructure maintenance

How Local Leaders Should Adapt to the American Jobs Plan

Do no harm: put your people and their needs at the heart of your approach. Here’s how.

Federal Government, Infrastructure, Marohn, Politics, Top StoryCharles MarohnApril 16, 2021American Jobs Plan, American Jobs Plan series, federal government, federal funding, maintenance

The American Jobs Plan Delays Necessary Infrastructure Reform

The top-down approach puts systems ahead of people and politics ahead of place—which is not what we need if we want to actually fix our infrastructure.

Federal Government, Infrastructure, Marohn, Politics, Top StoryCharles MarohnApril 15, 2021American Jobs Plan, American Jobs Plan series, Infrastructure, federal government, infrastructure bill, top-down

When it Comes to Infrastructure, the American Jobs Plan is Business as Usual

The Plan pretends to dig us out of the infrastructure hole we've dug ourselves into. In reality, it's making the hole bigger.

#InfrastructureCrisis, Federal Government, Infrastructure, Marohn, The Infrastructure Cult, Top StoryCharles MarohnApril 14, 2021American Jobs Plan series, American Jobs Plan, Infrastructure, infrastructure bill, federal government

The Half-Truth on Infrastructure at the Heart of the American Jobs Plan

The story has been that we don’t spend enough on infrastructure. But what’s the whole truth?

Federal Government, Infrastructure, Maintenance, Marohn, Top StoryCharles MarohnApril 13, 2021infrastructure bill, American Jobs Plan series, infrastructure maintenance, federal government

The American Jobs Plan Will Make Our Infrastructure Crisis Worse

There is nothing in the plan that is going to substantively change the trajectory of the North American development pattern.

#InfrastructureCrisis, Federal Government, Infrastructure, Marohn, Top StoryCharles MarohnApril 12, 2021Infrastructure, infrastructure bill, federal government, American Jobs Plan, American Jobs Plan series

The Mailbox: Can traffic cameras make our streets safer?

Our streets are “dangerous by design.” We answer a listener’s question about the role of automated enforcement in making them safer.

#SlowtheCars, Marohn, Roads and Streets, Strategies, Tactical Urbanism, Top StoryCharles MarohnApril 5, 2021Safety, #SlowTheCars, tactical urbanism, speed, traffic engineering

Buying a house? Here's why you should consider a small town.

The housing market has been insane for decades. That it’s less insane in a small town is only one reason you should consider buying there.

Housing, Rural, Top StoryCharles MarohnMarch 16, 2021Small Towns, rural, housing market, housing cost, housing, Brainerd MN, real estate

Should we do this project? A Strong Towns answer.

Our answer to this question is a pair of filters. If you can’t pass these filters, it’s a bad project.

Marohn, Infrastructure, #DotheMath, Top StoryCharles MarohnMarch 1, 2021#DoTheMath, Local-Motive Tour, Kevin Shepherd, infrastructure spending, how to

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Son las experiencias de personas reales que deben guiar nuestros esfuerzos de planificación. Sus acciones son los datos que deberíamos recopilar, no sus preferencias declaradas.