Spring Cleanup: A Classic Community-Builder

With regular repetition, community cleanups build something that’s lasting: a sense of commitment, pride, and place attachment.

Emma Durand-Wood, Top StoryEmma Durand-WoodApril 4, 2024community, neighborliness

How Muskegon, MI, Is Building Hundreds of Homes on Vacant Lots

Like so many places, Muskegon, MI, has a shortage of housing and a surplus of vacant lots. That’s why it’s enacted a program that allows it to redevelop those lots into affordable housing—at a low risk to the city.

“Redesigning” Cincinnati With the Connected Communities Plan

Cincinnati is currently undergoing a significant planning reformation effort, which involves unveiling what’s being called the Connected Communities plan. Joining us to talk about it is Cincinnati urban planner John Yung.

Podcast, Top StoryStrong TownsApril 3, 2024upzoned, podcast, Incremental Housing, ohio, National Gathering, Land Use

To Fix Housing in America’s Expensive Cities, Don’t Emulate the Inexpensive Ones

It's not that cities can’t or shouldn’t learn from each other. But there simply aren’t the kind of drag-and-drop solutions that some pundits (who are either naïve or dishonest) would like to claim.

Counter the Experience Bias…With New Experiences

It’s hard for people to be excited about something they’ve never experienced before. How can we use positive experiences to change that?

Owens, Top StoryTiffany Owens ReedApril 2, 2024public transportation, bus, transit, safe and productive streets

Brooklyn Has Been Closing Streets to Traffic Every Summer. That Might End.

New York’s popular Open Streets program might not continue this summer, as it is purportedly getting too expensive to maintain.

Top StoryAsia MieleszkoApril 2, 2024safe and productive streets, new york, open streets

Maumee, OH, Is Taking Back Its Streets—By Removing Them

Like many U.S. towns, Maumee, OH, has a state highway that cuts through their Uptown. For decades, it’s been known as a dangerous road…but no longer: the city is taking back its streets and making them places for people, not cars.

How Norfolk, NE, Is Bringing People Back to Public Spaces

Norfolk, NE, knows that people are the indicator species of a successful place, and it’s doing all it can to make its public spaces friendly to its people.

"What’s the Most Exciting City for Cycling Nerds? New York? Minneapolis? How About Edmonton?"

In 2015, Edmonton, a city of 1 million situated in the Canadian Prairies of Alberta, was the first city in the country to adopt Vision Zero—and they’ve taken that adoption seriously.

Selma’s Citizens Unite To Revitalize the Town They Love

Local activists in Selma, NC, started small, but they’ve grown into a coalition of citizens, civic groups, and city leaders striving to improve housing, transportation, and the local economy.

Here’s the Real Reason Houston Is Going Broke

Houston’s fiscal problems are less critical than other major cities with large budget shortfalls—yet, their mayor is correct when he said his city is broke, that the financial approach of the city is clearly not working. Here’s why.

Waiting for the Bus Doesn’t Have To Be This Bad

Why don’t the small things get funding?

Top StoryAsia MieleszkoMarch 29, 2024bus, transit, public transportation, safe and productive streets, infrastructure

The Bottom-Up Revolution Is…a Grassroots Community Advocate

Armando Moritz-Chapelliquen is a passionate community organizer in Pennsylvania's Lehigh Valley.

Podcast, Top StoryStrong TownsMarch 28, 2024The Bottom-Up Revolution, advocacy, pennsylvania, economic development

This City Is Implementing Street Design That Will Save Lives

In Capitola, California, residents erupted in protest after Debra Towne, a beloved local senior, was hit and killed walking across a dangerous stroad. And unlike in so many other places, the city actually responded.

39 People Spoke Up After a Fatal Crash in Chattanooga. Is City Council Listening?

When Chattanooga’s Local Conversation learned of a crash that took the lives of a mother and child and severely injured the father, the group channeled their mourning into mobilization.

Unpacking the Question “Can Housing Be an Investment and Affordable?”

What does it really mean to say that housing can’t be both affordable and an “investment”?

Counting the Costs

Rethinking car culture is easier once we more broadly measure what we’re giving up.

Owens, Top StoryTiffany Owens ReedMarch 26, 2024transit, transportation spending, rail, infrastructure cost

Beyond Stroads: 5 Glossary Terms for Building a Strong Town

You know what a stroad is… Now how about these other coined phrases that help tell the story of the challenges that local advocates grapple with?

Top StoryBen AbramsonMarch 26, 2024end highway expansion, safe and productive streets

Why We Need To Show Empathy Toward Drivers in Conversations About Street Safety

Bike Talk is a Los Angeles-based radio show dedicated to the idea that we need to prioritize bikes as a form of public transportation, and they recently invited Strong Towns President Chuck Marohn to appear on an episode.

Podcast, Top StoryStrong TownsMarch 25, 2024podcast, safe and productive streets, bikes, bicycling, guest podcast

15 Years Ago, a Sacramento Dad-to-Be Asked a Question. Now He’s a Leading Advocate for Safer Streets.

Isaac Gonzalez couldn’t have foreseen a decade ago that he’d be one of the leading advocates for safer streets in his home city. “But once you notice it, you can’t un-notice it. And if you realize you can do something, you have to.”

Top StoryAsia MieleszkoMarch 25, 2024safe and productive streets, National Gathering, california, advocacy

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