The latest ideas, insights and action from around the Strong Towns movement.

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Latest Podcasts

(Transcripts Included)

How To Live & Grow Wisely in the Utah Desert

How To Live & Grow Wisely in the Utah Desert

Do Highway Projects and Airbnb Rentals Help or Hurt Cities?

Do Highway Projects and Airbnb Rentals Help or Hurt Cities?

How Mr. Barricade Is Shaping the Future of Street Safety

How Mr. Barricade Is Shaping the Future of Street Safety

How To Run for City Council as a Self-Taught Advocate

How To Run for City Council as a Self-Taught Advocate

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Find our latest content here, plus some all-time favorites. More coming soon as we move over the rest. Visit the archive for everything else.

Blog Posts

How Detroit Residents Saved 17,000 Homes in 5 Years

Detroit residents are leading one of the most ambitious housing revivals in the country.

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This California City Made It Easier To Build Housing Quickly

Oakland, California, recently cut a big piece of red tape around housing, making permits available online in minutes. This is an example for all cities that need more housing.

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Kalamazoo Shows How Cities Can Make Housing Development Simple and Easy

Kalamazoo cut red tape and launched pre-approved housing plans, making it faster and cheaper to build new homes. Other cities can do the same.

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A Tale of Two Developments

You probably wouldn’t be able to tell these two buildings apart, yet their economic performance couldn’t be more different. A deep dive by geospatial firm Urban3 shows why that’s the case.

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Volunteers Use Red Chalk to Protect Pedestrians and Drivers Under California’s New Law

Since California's new daylighting law was implemented, unsuspecting drivers have accumulated over $700,000 in fines. Local advocates are stepping up to change that.

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New Resource Helps Portland Communities Take Action on Road Safety

Portland’s regional government is giving communities the data and tools they need to make streets safer.

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Never Say Never: A Case for “For-Awhile” Urbanism

Places are not static; they are dynamic. And sometimes, “for-awhile” uses can be the bridge that gets us from stagnation to vibrancy.

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Two Porch Crashes, One Block: Why Park Avenue Needs Quick-Build Safety Now

Late last month, a car smashed through a front porch along Park Avenue in Minneapolis — again. It’s time for the county to stop waiting and start acting.

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How Parking Day Brought This Louisiana City Back to Life

Here’s how Lafayette, Louisiana, went from a dying downtown to #6 in the country for outdoor dining.

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Sleeping Babies in the Town’s Living Room

When cities attempt to prescribe the exact way a building must be used, they risk regulating away the very life of a place.

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Northwest Arkansas by the Numbers: Stability or Sugar Rush?

What the Finance Decoder revealed about Fayetteville, Springdale, and Siloam Springs—through the eyes of a local Strong Towns member.

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How One California City Teamed Up With Residents To Stop Speeding

The city of Artesia, California, has been struggling with a speeding problem. Instead of just blaming drivers, city staff teamed up with local advocates to address the root problem: the street design.

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Portland Advocates Defend Life-Saving Street Design — and Win a Pause

A 66% decrease in crashes wasn’t enough to protect these traffic diverters, but the unified efforts of local advocacy groups and city officials might be.

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When a Street Kills a Child, We Put the Parents on Trial

When our infrastructure makes normal childhood behavior life-threatening, allowing kids to do typical childhood activities becomes reckless endangerment.

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These Delays Are Making Housing Less Affordable

Slow permitting, shifting utility requirements, and inconsistent rules threaten the small-scale development that cities rely on. Here’s one developer’s story.

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How Places Form People: The Moral Pedagogy of Urban Design

Design doesn’t just reflect our values — it forms them. If we want citizens who are engaged, generous, and resilient, we need places that cultivate those virtues.

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Why This Canadian City Said Goodbye to Parking Mandates (And How It Really Happened)

How a passionate group of locals cracked Nanaimo’s stubborn parking rules—and unlocked new possibilities for housing and community.

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The Road That Killed Legend Jenkins Was Working Exactly as Designed

When a child is killed on a street like West Hudson Boulevard, it’s not a tragic fluke. It’s the outcome we designed for.

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After 3 Crashes in 4 Days, Massachusetts Residents Rally for Safer Streets

Four days. Three crashes. Two lives lost. One life changed forever. For residents of Fairhaven and New Bedford, this wasn’t just a bad weekend; it was a turning point.

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Chicago and Denver Just Ditched Parking Mandates—What Does That Mean?

Chicago and Denver just joined a growing list of cities including Anchorage, Minneapolis, and Austin in rethinking how city space is used, and what we pay for. 

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Minneapolis Residents Take Action To Make Their Streets Safer

After a car crash damaged three houses, these Minneapolis residents are done waiting for officials to act. They're demonstrating a better way of responding to crashes.

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Burned Out and Backlogged: The Real Blockade in LA’s Post-Fire Recovery

Los Angeles is desperate to rebuild after the wildfires that destroyed nearly 60,000 acres back in January. So why is it that 6 months later, not much has changed?

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Is the City the Problem or the Solution?

State preemption can remove obstacles, but it can’t build the local capacity that's required for lasting reform.

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How To Make Your City Stronger With 4 Hours and a Shovel

Advocates in Lynchburg, Virginia, are proving that you don't need an official task force to make your city stronger. You just need to care enough to show up.

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