The Paris of the Plains Can’t Afford Its Fountains Anymore

Kansas City is known for its beautiful fountains, but Parks and Rec says the city doesn’t have the funds to maintain this source of civic pride.

Upzoned, Podcast, Maintenance, Top Story, Transparent AccountingStrong TownsSeptember 28, 2022Podcast, podcast, Upzoned, Maintenance, Parks, Parks and Recreation, parks, Kansas City, Kansas

Hawaii's Suburban Experiment

How does the suburban development pattern present itself in a smaller island space, versus in the contiguous United States?

Podcast, Marohn, ST Podcast, Top Story, Transparent AccountingStrong TownsSeptember 26, 2022Podcast, podcast, Growth Ponzi Scheme, suburban experiment, suburban development pattern, Hawaii, suburbanization

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

The Suburbs Are a “One-Life-Cycle” Product

A recent CNBC documentary features Strong Towns insights from Charles Marohn about why suburban development is so risky.

Housing, Quednau, Top Story, Transparent AccountingRachel QuednauSeptember 20, 2022suburban development pattern, suburban experiment, suburbs, incremental development, incrementalism, incremental, Incremental Housing, housing cost, housing, housing affordability, housing crisis, Housing Crisis, Housing

The Jackson Water Crisis Is Not a Fluke. Your City Could Be Next.

For seven weeks Jackson’s residents had to bear the brunt of a failing water system, and unfortunately it was bound to happen.

Podcast, Marohn, ST Podcast, Top Story, Transparent AccountingStrong TownsSeptember 19, 2022Podcast, podcast, Growth Ponzi Scheme, suburban experiment, suburban development pattern, mississippi, water, sprawl, fragility

This Ice Machine Is a Case Study in Neighborhood Decline

When you prioritize fast car movement on a street that should be for building community wealth, don’t be surprised when you end up getting neither.

Marohn, Roads and Streets, Top Story, Safe & Productive Streets, Transparent AccountingCharles MarohnSeptember 19, 2022Safe and Productive Streets, streets, STROADS, Brainerd MN, Minnesota, capitalism, decline, neighborhood, Small Towns, small towns, suburban development pattern

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

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.

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.

Engineering Profession, Engineering Reform, Top Story, Transparent Accounting, Safe & Productive StreetsPatrick QuigleySeptember 1, 2022engineering profession, engineering ethics, engineers

Mall Money, More Problems

Yet another failed mall (this time in Milwaukee, WI) proves to be a drag on—and an active harm to—its surroundings.

#DotheMath, Quednau, Top Story, Safe & Productive Streets, Transparent AccountingRachel QuednauSeptember 1, 2022malls, financial solvency, #DoTheMath, finance, Value Per Acre, Wisconsin, Milwaukee, milwaukee, shopping malls, public investment

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.

“Bias Writ Large” in the Property Tax Assessment System

There are some obvious anomalies that are being overlooked in the property tax assessment system. Joe Minicozzi of Urban3 pulls back the curtain in this episode of the Strong Towns Podcast.

"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.

Why You Should Care About Property Taxes as a Renter

If you don’t own a home, and don’t have plans to own one anytime soon, you might think property taxes don’t concern you. But, what if we told you that they definitely do?

Finance, Sheppard, Top Story, Transparent AccountingSeairra SheppardJune 28, 2022Just Accounting for Health, tax revenue, tax base, Tax Base, property tax, homeowners, Homeownership, homeownership, rent, renters, finance, local finance, Transparent Local Accounting

We Don’t Like These Curves: What Is the J-Curve and What Is It Costing You?

These curves are costing Americans a lot, both financially and physically.

Finance, Sheppard, Top Story, Transparent AccountingSeairra SheppardJune 21, 2022Just Accounting for Health, homeowners, Homeownership, property tax, tax revenue, finance

To Address the Housing Crisis, We Need a Fairer Tax System

Two charts illustrate the massive housing shortage in Buncombe County, NC, and show why we need to get property taxes right.

Housing, Sheppard, Urban3, Top Story, Transparent AccountingSeairra SheppardMay 17, 2022housing, housing crisis, Housing Crisis, housing affordability, Housing, housing cost, tax revenue, Just Accounting for Health, Urban3

Should Airbnbs Be Taxed as Residential or Commercial?

How have we come to the conclusion that most short-term rentals are taxed as “residential,” when many have no residents?

Housing, Sheppard, Urban3, Top Story, Transparent AccountingSeairra SheppardMay 10, 2022Just Accounting for Health, Urban3, airbnb, property tax, tax revenue, homeowners, Homeownership, North Carolina, housing, housing market

It Isn’t Just Us, the Entire Nation Is Burdened With Property Tax Inequities

Recently, the North Carolina Ad Hoc Appraisals Committee was challenged to face their own biases and fix their broken property tax assessment system. Here’s what happened.

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