Not Just Bikes: The Houses that Can't Be Built in America (New Video)

If you fly low over most North American cities, you’ll notice a pattern: a vast sea of single-family detached homes and, in the distance, an island of tightly-packed skyscrapers, including residential apartment buildings dozens of stories high.

For too long, in too many places, those have been the choices for Americans and Canadians looking to buy or rent a home: single-family houses on the one hand and big apartment complexes on the other. That’s because, since about World War II, the “middle housing” options that fall between—duplexes, triplexes and fourplexes, courtyard cottages, mid-rise apartments, and more—have been missing, next to impossible to build, zoned out of existence.

Missing middle housing is the subject of the latest video from Not Just Bikes, a popular YouTube channel started by Jason Slaughter, a Strong Towns member in Amsterdam, The Netherlands. Last fall, Slaughter—a native of London, Ontario—began a series on Strong Towns and financially insolvent cities. This video, while not officially on NJB’s Strong Towns playlist, nevertheless covers a topic we’re passionate about here. Slaughter talks about how middle housing went missing in the U.S. and Canada. He compares the situation in North America to countries in Europe, especially the Netherlands, and describes some of the progress being made in cities like Portland, Minneapolis, and Vancouver.

After watching this video, consider going deeper with these Strong Towns resources:

• “Will 2021 Be the Year Zoning Reform Reaches Critical Mass?” by Daniel Herriges

• “Making Normal Neighborhoods Legal Again,” by Daniel Herriges

• “Thinking Big about Building Small” (webcast with Daniel Parolek, the planner who coined the term “missing middle”)

• “5 Ways to Make the Missing Middle Less Missing,” by Daniel Herriges

• “8 Things Your Town Can Do to Add More Housing (Without Spending a Dime),” by Nolan Gray

• “The Lively & Liveable Neighbourhoods that are Illegal in Most of North America” (Not Just BIkes)

• Strong Towns Videos (Not Just Bikes)