Friday Faves - Your Weekly Strong Towns Roundup

It was a big week here at Strong Towns, as we finally got to launch the second book in our series, Confessions of a Recovering Engineer: Transportation for a Strong Town. We've been working toward this release for a long time, so it was hugely gratifying to be able to put the book out into the world, and to see the reception it's already been getting from readers!

The momentum doesn't end this week, though—in fact, this is just the beginning. The Confessions Book Tour is now in full swing, and we'll be traveling all over the U.S. and Canada. If you want to stay in the loop on when we'll be coming to a place near you, make sure to join our email list, and keep an eye on our events page!

And if you still haven't ordered the book yet, what are you waiting for? Head on over to the Confessions website to get your copy today!

Here’s what Strong Towns staff were up to this week:

Image via Twitter.

John: This Twitter thread caught our eye recently. According to this analysis, 20% of every tax dollar this subdivision sent to its city went to pay for just one repave. We’re not sure of the author’s full name, or even which city he’s writing about. But not for lack of trying—we actually asked Robin P. (aka @BourbonPlanner) if he’d be interested in expanding this tweet into an article for us. Not surprisingly, given the unwanted attention it would bring to the city, the higher-ups said no. But maybe there’s something fitting about that, too. Because while the fiscal analysis is specific to one anonymous subdivision, the negative balance sheet is indicative of the Suburban Development Pattern. Are you ready to #DoTheMath on your city? This article is a good place to start.

Local historian Damon Fordham standing at the former entrance of the Highland Terrace neighborhood. Image via Washington Post.

Daniel: A depressing exercise in deja vu courtesy of the Washington Post: South Carolina is poised to expand a highway in suburban Charleston through overwhelmingly Black neighborhoods, requiring the demolition or relocation of nearly 100 homes and businesses. This is one of a slew of such projects on the table right now around the country, including in Shreveport (which we’ve covered extensively) and Houston. These projects join a long history of systematically routing interstate highways through the communities with the least political power to fight back. Work like the Post’s detailed exposé, which focuses heavily on the personal lives and experiences of those facing displacement (again!), is important to remind us that this isn’t long-buried history but a fight that continues today.

The quote from the project’s director—paraphrased, “I feel bad about this but we have no choice”—is particularly telling. This isn’t a story about scheming, cackling, racist villains so much as it is a story about the hubris and lack of imagination of those with the power and the purse strings in our transportation system, who simply can’t imagine an answer to congestion other than, “Widen the roads!” Even if it means destroying communities to do so.

Image via Flickr.

Rachel: This week was all about the book launch, but I wanted to make sure our colleague, Sarah’s, article didn’t get lost in the shuffle. On Wednesday, she published an excellent piece about the economic and community drain of storage facilities, with plenty of data to back it up. But if you’re looking around your neighborhood thinking, “Why is so much space given over to this huge, ugly storage building that provides little tax revenue or employment?”—it’s not all bad news. Ogden, Utah, has successfully outlawed storage facilities in its central core and they’re not the only place. Maybe it’s time for your city to do the same, and make way for more productive and meaningful businesses to move in, instead.

Image via WikiCommons.

Lauren: Some family members of mine have been raving about The Chosen, a multi-season online series about the life of Jesus Christ. I didn’t think much of it until I realized that it’s a crowdfunded series hosted on an independent streaming site and application. This approach to creation and distribution is extremely exciting in a media environment where access to a given story is dependent on which streaming services you’ve subscribed to, and what they’ve decided to give you, in return. Many of these companies are creating content based on an ever-more-standardized set of values, and some of them are even editing old projects and removing “problematic” episodes altogether. This decentralized approach has a lot of potential to bring us boundary-testing ideas and start new conversations. If you’re not really an indie movie person (neither am I, most of the time), or if Christ film adaptations are generally too serious or heavy for you (me too, friend) don’t worry—The Chosen is well-produced, lighthearted, fun, and uplifting. And, you’ll notice a lot of old wisdom regarding city-building, housing, incremental development, and community strength.

Image via BIG.

Sarah: Who doesn’t love an eccentric billionaire? Tech CEO Marc Lore is planning the “city of the future” with quite a few ambitious features. Lore states it will be the “most open, most fair, and most inclusive city of the world.” With futuristic technology straight out of a sci-fi movie and architectural designs to draw anyone's eye, this idea of Telosa really sparked my interest. The city is planned to be made from scratch, somewhere in the United States, and will take inspiration from cities such as Tokyo, New York, and Stokholm. I can’t lie, it’s a fun idea. The city has an ambitious opening date of 2030, I’m excited to keep tabs on this and see what comes of it!

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Finally, from all of us, a warm welcome to the newest members of the Strong Towns movement: Alexander Stoyanov, John Purnell, Ian Taylor, George Frenzel, Edward McMahon, Kurt Franke, Evan Leister, Daniel Bollman, Michael Himes, Michael Wickett, Andre Soucy, Vernon Woodworth, Ariel Levari, Nicholas Rasmussen, and Alaina Pitt.

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What stories got you thinking this week? Please share them in the comments!