E-Bikes: The Frankenstein's Monster of Transportation?

A recent Atlantic piece paints e-bikes as an awkward, doomed-to-fail mashup of the motorcycle and the bicycle. What’s the Strong Towns take?

Upzoned, Podcast, Top Story, Bikeability, TransportationStrong TownsSeptember 14, 2022Podcast, podcast, Upzoned, bikes, e-bikes, biking, bicycling, bikeability, transportation

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.

Suburbia Was a Housing Program

Suburbia was an experiment—an experiment in the service of building lots of housing very quickly.

Housing, Suburban Experiment, Top Story, Incremental Housing, Transparent AccountingAddison Del MastroSeptember 12, 2022Addison Del Mastro, suburban experiment, suburbs, suburban development pattern, housing, housing policy, housing cost, housing crisis, Housing Crisis, housing affordability, NIMBY, Incremental Housing

Financial Fragility Is To Blame for Jackson’s Water Crisis

The Suburban Experiment is a bad business model, and nothing demonstrates that more clearly than Jackson, Mississippi’s, ongoing water crisis.

Finance, Infrastructure, Marohn, Transparent AccountingCharles MarohnSeptember 12, 2022Infrastructure, infrastructure, infrastructure maintenance, fragility, mississippi, development pattern, Growth Ponzi Scheme, infrastructure cost, finance, local finance, suburban experiment

The Block Party

This Sunday, a Strong Towns member invites our Neighborhood Storyteller to see how his neighborhood alliance is building community…with a block party!

Neighborhood Storyteller, Theilen, Community, Neighborhoods, Top StoryKarla TheilenSeptember 11, 2022neighborhood storyteller, montana, neighborhood, neighborhood association, community, community development, community engagement

Friday Faves - Your Weekly Strong Towns Roundup

Pizza rolls, protective groundwater, and the Chinese Revolution. These are just some of the stories from around the internet that Strong Towns staff were reading and talking about this week.

Friday Faves, Top StoryStrong TownsSeptember 9, 2022friday faves, Friday Faves

Large Trucks Need Better Street Design

It's hard being the driver of a large truck, these days. You want your urban truck-driving experience to be better, but how? Answer: By supporting great pedestrian and cycling projects!

#SlowtheCars, Roads and Streets, Top Story, Safe & Productive StreetsNorman Van Eeden PetersmanSeptember 9, 2022Safe and Productive Streets, Safety, Pedestrian Safety, pedestrian safety, bicycling, protected bike lane, bike lanes, #SlowTheCars, car culture, transportation

The Bottom-Up Revolution Is…Planting Street Trees and Neighborhood Connections

Emma Durand-Wood is a Strong Towns member who is a leader in her neighborhood association and a big advocate for street trees in Winnipeg.

Podcast, The Bottom-Up Revolution, Top Story, Success Story, Membership, Member ProfilesStrong TownsSeptember 8, 2022Podcast, street trees, neighborhood association, success, success stories, canada, Canada

The Starter House Is Nearly Extinct

Increasingly, for entire cities in the U.S., buying a starter home on a modest income is no longer an option.

Housing, Herriges, Top Story, Incremental HousingDaniel HerrigesSeptember 8, 2022housing cost, housing, housing affordability, housing crisis, Housing, Incremental Housing, housing market, housing policy

6 Tips for Hosting Your First Local Conversation

Want to get together with your neighbors to talk about Strong Towns ideas? Here’s some tips on getting started.

Community, Pattison, Top StoryJohn PattisonSeptember 7, 2022local conversations, community, Community

Letting Ugly Things Grow

If you value the end state of a walkable, diverse, dynamic place with a lot of local character, then you must also value the process that gets you there.

Herriges, Incrementalism, Urban Design, Top Story, Incremental HousingDaniel HerrigesSeptember 7, 2022urban design, urbanism, aesthetics, ecology, incremental growth, incrementalism, incremental

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.

You Don’t “NEED” More Space

We often speak to the “good old days” as a measure of the U.S. at its best…but in 1950, the average American home was 983 square feet, as opposed to the 2,300 square feet of today.

Horbovetz, Top Story, Incremental HousingArian HorbovetzSeptember 6, 2022housing, housing cost, Housing, cars, car culture, urbanism, capitalism

Mansion Blight: How the Most Expensive Homes Drain Community Wealth

Mansions on large lots, not rundown properties in low-socioeconomic-status neighborhoods, are the real blight on a community’s financial health.

Friday Faves - Your Weekly Strong Towns Roundup

Survival, bulldozers, and Evel Knievel. These are just some of the stories from around the internet that Strong Towns staff were reading and talking about this week.

Friday Faves, Top StoryStrong TownsSeptember 2, 2022friday faves, Friday Faves

The Bottom-Up Revolution Is…Moving from Planning to Action

Strong Towns member Spencer Gardner is the new planning director for the city of Spokane, WA, and he’s been helping his city take action on important housing issues.

Podcast, The Bottom-Up Revolution, Top Story, Success Story, Membership, Member Profiles, Gardner, Housing, ZoningStrong TownsSeptember 1, 2022Podcast, Spokane, planning profession, urban planning, Incremental Housing, accessory dwelling units

Engineers: Will You Be Someone, or Will You *Do* Something?

All truth passes through three stages. First it is ridiculed. Second, it is violently opposed. Third, it is accepted as being self-evident. We’re at the second stage in the case of engineering reform.