Snow Days Tell Us a Lot About the Fragility of Our Cities

Even just a little bit of snow can reveal a lot about the vulnerability of the suburban development pattern.

Edward Erfurt, Top StoryEdward ErfurtFebruary 23, 2024snow, fragility, schools, buses, suburban development pattern

Downtowns are the symbolic heart and soul of a city, and the economic center, writes Emma Durand-Wood. To build a resilient one, you need diversity in housing, jobs, shops, services, and more.

Could This New Approach to Public Housing Actually Work?

A suburb of Washington, DC is exploring a new approach to creating more affordable housing through public-private partnerships.

Podcast, Top StoryStrong TownsFebruary 21, 2024upzoned, podcast, public housing, affordable housing

Going After Corporate Homebuyers is Good Politics but Ineffective Policy

Investors in the Housing Market: Myths Versus Reality — and other reasons why scapegoating corporate homebuyers is a distraction from solving housing dysfunction at the root.

Herriges, Top StoryDaniel HerrigesFebruary 21, 2024advocacy

The Symbols in the City

Everything in the city communicates something about what we value.

Owens, Top StoryTiffany Owens ReedFebruary 20, 2024safe and productive streets, sidewalks

Roundabouts and Raised Crosswalks Alone Won’t Slow Traffic

If any city or county wants to be effective in creating a safer street, they’ll develop multiple responses to calming traffic, instead of relying on only one or two changes that still prioritize thru-traffic.

Top StorySeairra JonesFebruary 20, 2024safe and productive streets, Crash Analysis Studio, car crash, maryland, Crosswalk

Eric Goldwyn: Why U.S. Transit Is So Expensive (and How To Fix It)

Eric Goldwyn, a leading urban scholar and program director at the Marron Institute of Urban Management, joins us to talk about the importance of both transit and local government.

Podcast, Top StoryStrong TownsFebruary 19, 2024podcast, transit, transparent local accounting, local government

Cities Can't Be About Moving Cars

Some complain that getting rid of parking mandates is just an underhanded way of making auto use harder and harder in cities. But harder for whom, exactly?

Is Tracking Traffic Deaths a Priority in Your City?

If cities cared about traffic deaths, we would witness them taking an urgent response to crashes, and we would see city halls tracking traffic deaths in real time, because a new fatal crash would mobilize people.

Top StoryAsia MieleszkoFebruary 16, 2024car crash, safe and productive streets, vision zero, traffic engineering, maps

America *Must* End Highway Expansions

Until we have a credible plan for maintaining our existing transportation infrastructure, we must stop building more roads and bridges. Period.

There’s More Than One Way To Save a Street Tree

When trees get cut down to make way for new development, it can raise people’s hackles. But here’s why we can embrace both infill development and still care about our urban trees.

Parking Minimums Might Be on the Way Out in Dallas

Local officials in Dallas are considering eliminating minimum parking requirements in the city—and predictably, the measure has both critics and proponents.

Podcast, Top StoryStrong TownsFebruary 14, 2024upzoned, podcast, parking minimums, end parking mandates and subsidies, texas

When an Intersection Becomes a Cemetery

In the last three years alone, this San Antonio intersection has seen more than 20 crashes—several of them fatal. How long do residents have to wait before something is done about it?

News, Top StoryAsia MieleszkoFebruary 14, 2024Crash Analysis Studio, texas, safe and productive streets, car crash, intersections

6 Rules for Actually Changing People’s Minds

If you’re in the business of trying to change the world around you, sooner or later you’ll need to be a persuasive communicator—but being persuasive isn’t just about getting your facts right.

Herriges, Top Story, TrendingDaniel HerrigesFebruary 14, 2024advocacy

Build Tapestries, Not Just Buildings

We should think of city blocks like tapestries.

Owens, Top StoryTiffany Owens ReedFebruary 13, 2024texas, design

It’s a Stroad Now, but What Used To Be There?

A collection of historic photos helped this advocate show how urban renewal marred his hometown, and left an inhospitable mess in its wake.

Meet the Freeway Fighters Who Are Suing the Texas Department of Transportation

Adam Greenfield and Bobby Levinski are part of the grassroots movement Rethink35, which is filing a lawsuit against the Texas Department of Transportation over their plans to expand I-35 in Austin.