Minneapolis made waves when it ended single-family zoning. Yet the devil’s in the details—and some of the details that will make or break this policy are being decided right now.
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The godshuizen of Bruges offer a strikingly beautiful example of homes designed for elderly to age in place.
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Too often, city planners defer to “context” in the most superficial way—privileging the massing of buildings over the deeper forces that define a neighborhood’s identity.
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Don't let your city's leaders backtrack on good urban design practice because of the pandemic.
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A wildfire update, a public-private conflict in Florida, and more in our weekly update post.
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Community organizations have an indispensable role to play during a crisis. It starts with asking one deceptively simple question.
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Big data and new technology make bold promises about solving urban problems. Not only do they fall well short of solutions, but can actually make things worse.
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Community consensus sounds nice. But, as a final standard for planners, it ends up supporting the status quo rather than challenging it.
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There’s a a lot of misunderstanding about developers: what they do and how their business model works. Here are 6 things you need to understand to have informed conversations about development in your city.
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New York City may be down but it’s definitely not out. A New York native reflects on what makes the city resilient amidst a deadly pandemic.
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If you want to dig into the Strong Towns approach and see the many sources from which we draw wisdom and inspiration, this list is for you.
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From health care to the economy, the pandemic is exposing the fragility of institutions we’ve long taken for granted.
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Wildfires in the West, the spooky wisdom of place-based architecture, “kayak church,” and more. These are a few topics from around the web that the Strong Towns staff were reading and talking about this week.
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Policing is a divisive subject. One expert’s balanced and thoughtful perspective points us to a better way.
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What’s missing from most comprehensive plans? Dollars and cents. Here’s a simple reform that will focus the conversation on development patterns that create real wealth.
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Big money “pedestrian” projects are often not for pedestrians at all. Their real purpose is to serve faster car traffic.
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With plummeting ridership, cuts in services, and higher fares, U.S. transit may be in mortal danger. But the seeds of the current crisis were planted long before the pandemic.
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Conventional approaches to annexation — and even annexation reform — have failed to create stronger cities and towns. Here’s a modest proposal for a better way.
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A lot of bad public engagement sets the impossible goal of identifying the community’s “vision” for a place by asking people about their preferences—usually with questions they’re ill-equipped to answer. There’s a better way.
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Wastewater engineers and the communities they serve may be suffering from the same delusion—that the good life will go on forever.
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