Buncombe County Has the Conversation No One Wants to Have: Property Taxes

All over the U.S., studies have shed light on how much residents in lower-valued homes are being overassessed on property taxes. Now, Buncombe County, NC, is offering residents a space to appeal their assessments.

Sheppard, Transparent Accounting, Urban3, Top Story, NewsSeairra SheppardFebruary 2, 2023finance, tax revenue, tax exemption, property tax, Transparent Local Accounting, Urban3, Just Accounting for Health

Road-Widening Project Threatens 30-Year-Old Farmers Market

Residents of Mooresville, NC, are outraged as a road-widening project and ensuing regulatory dispute pushed by city officials threaten the future of a longstanding farmers market.

End Highway Expansion, Local Government, Sheppard, News, Top StorySeairra SheppardJanuary 23, 2023End Highway Expansion, farmer's market, local business, local politics, local government, North Carolina, DOT, freeway widening

Roundabout Woes in North Denver

Design flaws in these Denver roundabouts are undermining their potential as tools for calming traffic.

Sheppard, Safe & Productive Streets, Transportation, Top StorySeairra SheppardJanuary 11, 2023Roundabouts, Safe and Productive Streets, Safety, safety, traffic engineering, colorado, transportation

Traffic Engineers Blame YOU for THEIR Mistakes

MDOT’s M.O.: create deadly streets, and then blame drivers for high traffic death rates.

#SlowtheCars, Roads and Streets, Sheppard, Transportation, Top StorySeairra SheppardDecember 9, 2022safety, Safe and Productive Streets, Street Design, streets, forgiving design, car crash, engineers, traffic engineering, transportation, #SlowTheCars

Spanish Fork Prioritizes Driver Speed Over Child Safety

Residents of Spanish Fork, UT, have raised the alarm about a dangerous stroad where children regularly cross, but local officials refuse to acknowledge the danger until someone gets injured or killed.

Northside Neighborhood in NC Reduced Property Tax Values by $7 Million

Neighbors in Chapel Hill, NC, mobilized to raise awareness of property tax inequities within their community…and ultimately brought about a $7-million reduction in home assessed values.

#DotheMath, Finance, Sheppard, Top Story, News, Transparent AccountingSeairra SheppardNovember 29, 2022local finance, property tax, Just Accounting for Health, Transparent Local Accounting, homeowners, Homeownership, homeownership, North Carolina, #DoTheMath

Toronto’s Curbside Patios Made 49 Times More Money Than the Parking They Replaced

A recent study on curbside dining in Toronto found that there are loads of financial possibilities waiting in empty parking spaces.

#BlackFridayParking, Parking, Sheppard, Top Story, End Parking Mandates, NewsSeairra SheppardNovember 22, 2022Parking, parking, parking minimums, End Parking Mandates and Subsidies, #BlackFridayParking, canada, Canada, Toronto, local finance, finance, local business

Speed Traps Have No Long-Term Effect on Speeding

This Strong Towns member was skeptical of claims that a speed trap had successfully slowed the cars on a local street…so, he conducted a speed study. Here are his results.

What Does $106 Million Get You in Maine? A Redundant Highway Expansion That Nobody Wants.

Maine residents want road maintenance. MaineDOT is giving them more roads.

CDOT Leads the Way in Not Building Highways

Traffic headaches in Denver, CO, have caused the state to realize that widening highways just isn’t working, anymore. Instead, Colorado is making a huge shift in its transportation priorities.

#NoNewRoads, Infrastructure, Sheppard, Success Story, Transportation, Top Story, End Highway ExpansionSeairra SheppardOctober 25, 2022success, success stories, colorado, Denver, transportation, Infrastructure, infrastructure, local government, End Highway Expansion

Check Your Temperature—You Might Have an Assessment Fever

This new interactive map shows homeowners how their home assessment compares to other properties nearby—and has exposed that many homes of similar value are being overassessed.

Sheppard, Housing, Top Story, Transparent AccountingSeairra SheppardOctober 18, 2022homeowners, Homeownership, homeownership, property tax, Just Accounting for Health, Transparent Local Accounting, mapping, maps, #DoTheMath

Springfield Delays Redesign of Deadly Street To Prioritize Traffic Flow

Springfield took a step forward in fixing this deadly stroad…but Department of Public Works officials are forcing the city to take two steps back again.

The Pillaging of Detroit

Stunning new data analysis on the homes lost to tax forfeiture in Detroit shows that, in just a three-year span, $300 million in real estate transferred from homeowners living in Detroit to outside owners.

Finance, Housing, Sheppard, Top Story, Transparent AccountingSeairra SheppardSeptember 20, 2022Detroit, Michigan, property tax, homeowners, Homeownership, homeownership, poverty, Poverty, local government, Transparent Local Accounting, Just Accounting for Health

Main Street vs. Big Box Stores: A Western North Carolina Analysis

Property taxes represent the largest source of revenue for most local governments, and data shows that even unglamorous downtown areas offer more value as taxable properties than big box stores.

L.A. Continues Delaying Infrastructure That Could Save Lives

Everyone who uses streets would benefit from L.A.’s mobility plan…if only the city would actually implement it.

Build Galesburg for People, Not Cars

Galesburg, IL, is talking about Strong Towns ideas, centered around a question that many Strong Towns readers are familiar with: “Is our downtown built for cars instead of people?”

Sheppard, Urban Design, Top StorySeairra SheppardAugust 23, 2022downtown, Small Towns, main street, car dependency, auto-oriented, people centered places, design, Illinois, incrementalism, bottom-up

Can America’s Unfair Property Tax System Ever Be Fixed?

Strong Towns interviews Dr. Christopher Berry, of the University of Chicago, on how we can begin making meaningful changes to the U.S.’s broken property tax system.

We Often Don’t Think About Design—But It Tells Us How To Think

Design affects us in a multitude of ways, and when we look to nature as inspiration for designing the built environment, the core takeaways are: adaptation and incrementalism.

Incrementalism, Sheppard, Zoning, Top StorySeairra SheppardAugust 9, 2022design, urban design, Neighborhood Design, aesthetics, incrementalism, incremental, incremental development, incremental growth, zoning, traditional development pattern

"Should I Protest My Property Taxes?"

The process for appealing your property taxes can be obscure, even when the appeal is merited (and more often than not, it is). This simple guide will help prepare you for when your property is next assessed.

Springfield Gets Started on Fixing State Street

City leaders in Springfield, MA, recently started a project to calm traffic on State Street, one of the city’s deadliest places for walkers and bikers.

Get Involved

Resources

About

Site