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

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Latest Podcasts

(Transcripts Included)

From Biostatistics to Better Streets in Fayetteville

From Biostatistics to Better Streets in Fayetteville

How One Tiny House Helped Shift Boise’s Housing Rules

How One Tiny House Helped Shift Boise’s Housing Rules

Walking, Visibility, And One Mom’s Fight For Safer Streets

Walking, Visibility, And One Mom’s Fight For Safer Streets

Humility Versus Hubris in American Urbanism

Humility Versus Hubris in American Urbanism

Latest Stories

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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Beware Tricksy Incrementalism: Gradual Implementation Doesn’t Make a Project Incremental

"Cities that truly embrace incrementalism understand that interesting places are emergent by nature."

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How Costco Broke Into a Surprising New Market: Modular Housing

To skip delays and debate, a California Costco added 400,000 square feet of housing to its plans — a move that unlocked a faster approval process.

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The Monster House: Why a Change in Neighborhood Scale Isn’t a Bad Thing

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Shortages and Spillovers: How People Misunderstand the Housing Crisis

Housing shortages are housing spillovers.

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How Modern America Is Optimized for Loneliness, Misery and Poor Health

Rates of loneliness and unhappiness are on the rise in the United States, but our European counterparts don’t seem to have the same problem. Why? Part of the reason is the way our built environment isolates us.

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Colorado Banned Most Occupancy Limits. Here Is Why It Matters

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City Engineers Are Unbelievably out of Touch on Parking Reform

City engineers rely on faulty logic and misrepresentations to maintain the status quo. Here are the top four arguments against parking reform and why they’re wrong.

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Habitat for Humanity: Lessons From the Front Lines of the Housing Crisis

Learn how Habitat continues to pursue housing construction in the face of difficult conditions, why good schools are more important than you realize, and why Habitat owners participate in the construction of their own homes.

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What’s There To Do Here? How Social Activities Expose a City’s Values

"The activities we see in a community tell us something about the values and priorities of that city."

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Alienation Is a Losing Game: What Urbanists Can Learn From the Haters

To change peoples' minds, we have to make an effort first to listen.

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