2020 has thrown one challenge after another at our cities. Here are 5 effective strategies local leaders are using to adapt and respond.
Read More
Community consensus sounds nice. But, as a final standard for planners, it ends up supporting the status quo rather than challenging it.
Read More
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.
Read More
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.
Read More
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.
Read More
From health care to the economy, the pandemic is exposing the fragility of institutions we’ve long taken for granted.
Read More
Economic upheaval, political dysfunction, social disorder—James Howard Kunstler saw it coming. He can also show us a way out.
Read More
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.
Read More
Policing is a divisive subject. One expert’s balanced and thoughtful perspective points us to a better way.
Read More
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.
Read More
Big money “pedestrian” projects are often not for pedestrians at all. Their real purpose is to serve faster car traffic.
Read More
It’s tempting to think the challenges we face in the “unprecedented year” of 2020 require big, top-down, unprecedented solutions. But this may be exactly the right time for the “little way.”
Read More
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.
Read More
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.
Read More
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.
Read More
This is Part 1 in a three-part series about why our cities deserve better than cookie-cutter, state-level land use reforms.
Read More
Wastewater engineers and the communities they serve may be suffering from the same delusion—that the good life will go on forever.
Read More
The kindness of strangers, a history of “triple-decker” houses in New England, and the passing of a friend—these are just a few of the stories from around the web that the Strong Towns staff were reading and talking about this week.
Read More
The way be build towns and cities in North America is a radical departure from how our ancestors did it (even a few generations ago) and how cities are built elsewhere in the world. Here are 7 key differences.
Read More
To make your community a magnet for people, talent, and new investments, make this a priority.
Read More