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

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Latest Podcasts

(Transcripts Included)

How Floor Plans Drive Families from Cities (and What Helps Them Stay)

How Floor Plans Drive Families from Cities (and What Helps Them Stay)

Bringing the Strong Towns Conversation to a Growing City

Bringing the Strong Towns Conversation to a Growing City

Is Crowdfunding A Good Way To Fund Local Projects?

Is Crowdfunding A Good Way To Fund Local Projects?

The Best Street Safety Win Is One Nobody Notices

The Best Street Safety Win Is One Nobody Notices

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Latest Stories

NYC’s Congestion Pricing Was Flawed—But Killing It Won’t Fix Traffic

The Trump administration’s elimination of congestion pricing was shortsighted, but NYC’s congestion pricing was deeply flawed from the start. If congestion pricing is ever going to work as intended, it needs to be revamped with the right priorities.

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How To Turn 7 Homes Into 28: The South Street Cottages Project

Reducing minimum lot sizes can unlock the potential for smaller, more affordable homes while meeting the needs of the community. Here’s how one developer got community support and multiplied housing availability.

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How Much Does a Mile of Road Actually Cost?

The Federal Highway Administration has a chart full of answers to that question you might find useful.

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Meet the City Leader Turning Vacant Lots Into Homes in Kalamazoo

From “impossible” to “let’s see what we can do." This is how Rebekah Kik turned city hall into a launchpad for neighborhood-driven development.

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Growth Ponzi Scheme Leaves Virginia Town With $34 Million Dilemma

The Growth Ponzi Scheme encourages city governments to take on obligations they can never hope to sustain. Purcellville, Virginia, offers a stark example of where this path leads.

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Co-Living Provides Community, Not Just Housing

You love your house, where it's located, and your neighbors. But what if it's too big for you?

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Citizen Development = Higher Value Per Acre

Conventional thought would tell us that the new commercial developments in a city should be the most productive compared to the older buildings downtown, but that’s not necessarily the case.

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Why Rochester, New York, Is a Leading Example in Crash Response

After a fatal crash, Rochester citizens and officials got to work, identifying factors that contributed to the crash, updating street design policies to make streets safer, and establishing a Community Traffic Safety Team to address other dangerous factors before crashes occur.

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We Need To Crash the Market for Entry-Level Homes

Incremental doesn’t mean slow. When every neighborhood can build a little, the whole country can build a lot.

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Christmas Cookie Inflation Index, 2024 Update

This year, official inflation is up 2.6% while the Christmas Cookie Inflation Index rose by 6.2%. What does that mean?

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How Single-Stair Reform Can Help Unlock Incremental Housing

We assumed two stairwells made buildings safer. The numbers say otherwise.

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Why Do Cities Have Liability Protection? (Hint: It’s Not To Protect Them.)

"When we fail to take action, we do a massive injustice to the public that we are supposed to be serving."

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How One Professor is Inspiring the Next Generation of Transportation Engineers

“You’re taught to take for granted what shows up in the codes.”

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Places and Non-Places

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The Phantom Freeway That Won’t Stop Haunting Alabama

The Northern Beltline project has been haunting Alabama for over 50 years, draining money, time and energy from other more productive and desired projects. Here’s how it came about — and why it refuses to stay dead.

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The 30-Year Mortgage Was Bad. The 40-Year Mortgage Will Be Even Worse.

The Federal Reserve just cut interest rates. Some people are celebrating the move as making housing more attainable, but it's really just reinforcing the housing trap. Need proof? Look no further than the 40-year mortgage.

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PennDOT’s Feelings Don’t Care About Your Facts

"By the time you hear of it, it's too late."

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The City as a Classroom

"From the moment they’re born, children are asked to adapt to a car-oriented world."

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The 4 Rules of Fostering Good Urbanism, According to Jane Jacobs

From compact blocks to old-building reuse, Jacobs’ framework offers a path for Southern cities to become financially stronger and more adaptable.

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How to Make a Street Safer Before the Kids Go Back to School

This formula for improvement is observable and repeatable. How will you apply it in your place?

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The Housing Market Is a Bubble Full of Fraud, and It’s Going To Pop

The U.S. is in a massive housing bubble fueled by widespread fraud. With banks incentivized to look away and Wall Street and Washington incentivized to keep housing prices artificially high, a bottom-up approach is the only hope for bringing sanity back to the housing market.

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From Hang Out To Hurry: Why Starbucks Wants To Redefine “Third Place”

Starbucks built its brand on being a third place — a communal hangout that fosters communication and conversation — but in recent years, its priorities have shifted to speed of service. Now, instead of returning to its roots, the corporation is trying to redefine what a third place is.

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How Brainerd’s New Ice Machine Exposes Community Apathy and Decline

Brainerd, Minnesota’s newest addition isn't exactly cause for celebration. Instead, this “high-tech” ice machine reveals deeper issues with public investment, community apathy and neighborhood decline that can plague cities.

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What Strong Towns Really Says About Infrastructure Spending

Are urban areas really more financially sustainable than suburbs? Do urban areas inherently have higher infrastructure costs? Here's what Strong Towns actually says about the Suburban Experiment and infrastructure spending.

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