El Paso and TxDOT are using concepts aimed at making things better for people impacted by urban highway projects...to justify something that makes them worse.
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These Strong Towns members are helping build homes for those that need them and advocating for more flexible housing policy in Texas.
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What could it look like to have a USDOT committed to reversing course from the mistakes of the freeway era?
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Lack of affordability, the gap between the rich and poor, strained public infrastructure: California’s problems are now becoming Texas’s problems.
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Are cities being preempted almost to the point of irrelevance?
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Houston’s “Energy Corridor” gets a pedestrian makeover, but just one thing seems to be missing: Pedestrians.
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Plano, Texas is the unfortunate object lesson: We can’t solve the Suburban Experiment using the same kind of thinking we used when we created the Suburban Experiment.
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San Elizario’s creative “City In a Box” program is spurring entrepreneurship, while also addressing food scarcity and helping the town weather the coronavirus storm.
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Plano’s first comprehensive plan in 30 years contained good faith efforts to address the city’s looming financial crisis. The city council just scrapped it, reverting to the status quo development approach that caused the crisis to begin with.
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Think budget-busting infrastructure spending isn’t happening in YOUR city? Ask these two questions to find out.
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Texas has set aside $50 million in forgivable loans to help its 2.7 million small businesses. That’s less than 20 bucks apiece. An urban designer in Dallas knows where the state can get $15 billion more.
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The State of Texas is prepared to fully fund a massive freeway widening project through the heart of Austin. Have we learned nothing? (Answer: apparently not.)
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Okay, so you want to build a stronger community. But where do you start? Chuck Marohn and Kevin Shepherd (of Verdunity) discuss why this question is so important—and why there is no one-size-fits-all answer. Also discussed: the role of APEs in making our towns and cities fragile, comprehensive plans, and much more.
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The numbers don’t lie: business-as-usual suburban development won’t bring a booming town long-term financial strength. But it turns out that to #DoTheMath is only the first step toward changing your community's business model.
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Fast-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?
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Property tax cap laws have been around for decades and are now on the books in 44 states — most recently in Texas. So why are we still surprised when they make our local communities more fragile and less resilient?
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Leander, Texas, a suburb of Austin, is a quiet bedroom community that recently found itself with a commuter rail station. Can it afford to waste the opportunity to create the transit-oriented downtown it never had?
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More than ever of what we make is produced with little thought to its durability. But what happens when we apply this mindset to the very communities we live in?
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My hometown of Plano, Texas is the midst of a bubble. Everything seems fine! Taxes are low. The city provides great services. It has an AAA bond rating. The music is still playing, and therefore everyone must remain dancing. But we have a looming problem: staggering long-term infrastructure liabilities that we haven’t even fully accounted for.
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Denton, Texas seemed to be on the verge of an important step toward financial resilience: allowing its core neighborhoods to incrementally evolve and provide much-needed new housing. Now, is the city on the verge of moving in the wrong direction instead?
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