Those two things are all you should need to be able to make sense of your city's zoning code. At least that's the philosophy guiding South Bend, IN planners as they overhaul the city's regulations to be more legible and useful.
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Is Strong Towns changing the conversation in our town? Have you taken action to make your place stronger that’s inspired by our message? We want to hear about it.
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A “green belt” suburb with its roots in the New Deal faces pressures associated with conventional, auto-oriented development. How should residents approach decision-making so that the town’s future is as rich as its past?
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Our preference for the incremental, iterative, and bottom-up is well-known. But does that mean there is no room for big dreams and master plans?
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Atlanta is one of the fastest gentrifying cities in the country. King Williams, an Atlanta-based writer and documentary filmmaker, describes what makes that city’s experience with gentrification unique, why gentrification is avoidable, and why Atlanta’s middle-class is now facing displacement too.
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We used to have a different name for the modest dwellings that now get labeled “tiny houses.” For most of history, this was simply a house—a low-cost way for people to put down roots in a place and begin to grow some wealth for themselves and the neighborhood.
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We have to stop looking at the stagnation and decline of our blocks and neighborhoods as a normal part of the development process.
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A growing community of Strong Towns readers are crowd-sourcing best practices, sharing stories, asking advice, and gleaning wisdom. Here is the Strong Towns movement at work.
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Among our top stories: why we should think about shrinking parking spaces as a first step to ending parking minimums altogether, the real problem with new American suburbs (hint: it’s not uncontrolled growth), and an unusual decorating practice in the Netherlands that brings neighbors together.
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New York’s newest BRT line is being called the “Miracle on 14th Street.” But why is it so miraculous?
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It’s an uncomfortable truth: doing the right thing for our communities usually means doing the hard thing. Or at least the less easy thing. What does this mean not only for the people who design our cities and towns but for those of us who live there?
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So you want to invest in real estate in your town—but you’re not so keen on taking out a mortgage and rolling up your sleeves. Is there another way to buy in to your community’s future?
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Using innovative storytelling events, an Oregon-based nonprofit is helping communities throughout the US and UK transform residents into neighbors, enemies into friends, and towns into communities.
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The executive director of The Hearth talks about the power of community storytelling to connect us to one another, make us more compassionate, and deepen our attachment to our towns and cities.
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In the age of Nextdoor and Facebook, many have (understandably) lost faith in the humble neighborhood association. But visit the oldest neighborhood association in Denton, Texas and you’ll discover why they can still play a big role in building strong towns.
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The problem with new American suburbs isn’t a "lack of planning" or “uncontrolled growth” or “inadequate infrastructure.” The problem is a lack of basic financial solvency.
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The ecological and economic benefits of having street trees are well-known. As one community is discovering, the process of planting trees comes with benefits all its own.
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In an age of near-constant change, should cities be making decisions based on trends, platforms, and even whole industries that may not be around in a few years? Two of the most disruptive industries hold some surprising answers.
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An unusual cultural practice in the Netherlands reveals the benefits of seeing your neighborhood…and being seen by it.
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One of our heroes here at Strong Towns has helped pioneer a simple but powerful process for building neighborhood wealth and strengthening community ties. This approach is absolutely transforming his city of Oswego, New York. We think you should copy it.
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