In this episode of Upzoned, co-hosts Abby Newsham and Chuck Marohn talk about the crisis currently facing the Florida condo market. They discuss the backlog of deferred maintenance revealed by new safety regulations, what this means for individuals and communities, and possible paths forward.
Read MoreIn Florida, flooding from Hurricane Debby exposes how the suburban pattern of development can worsen natural disasters and make it more difficult for residents to evacuate.
Read MoreSarasota County, Florida, is planning to use hundreds of millions of dollars to subsidize housing. But this money isn’t going toward low-income housing — it’s going toward road construction for gated communities.
Read MoreDo you have a favorite food truck? These micro businesses are often features of their communities, and they represent an important stage of incremental development. But strict zoning laws can put these businesses at risk. Hot Dog House FL learned this the hard way when parking mandates evicted them from their main operating location.
Read MoreFlorida Governor Ron DeSantis signed legislation to accelerate road projects, claiming it will make driving less miserable. However, driving in Florida isn’t miserable because of a lack of roads —it’s miserable because the road network is designed in nonsensical, dangerous ways that increase congestion and make it impossible to drive anywhere in a straight line.
Read MoreTransit Alliance Miami, a transit and mobility advocacy group, hopes to encourage the development of more types of housing in Florida with draft legislation that would repeal costly parking minimums.
Read MoreThe battle against highway expansions can be one of the toughest fights an advocate will ever come up against. But as this Florida-based Local Conversations group has shown, persistence will eventually pay off.
Read MoreThe pre-approved building plan model is beginning to take hold across the country as a streamlined alternative to achieve a community vision. Here’s how one community in Florida is doing its own take on the concept.
Read MoreAn older resident lost his life while crossing a deadly stroad in Bradenton, FL. When Strong Towns member Danny Williams found out, he knew something had to be done.
Read MoreResidents of Winter Garden, FL, realized they needed to take action to revive their declining town. They did this by focusing on one straightforward goal: bring people back downtown.
Read MoreSettling down from a cross-country move, Strong Towns Editor-in-Chief Daniel Herriges reflects on what makes a place feel like “home,” and what prompts people to put roots in a location—even if it’s not a “perfect” place.
Read MoreThe state of Florida has a bold new strategy to eliminate the adverse effects of urban sprawl: Change the definition.
Read MoreGood urbanism doesn’t have to mean large apartment buildings or an immaculate row of brownstones; the ad-hoc version on display in this Florida neighborhood is more relevant as a model of adaptation for the rest of us.
Read MoreThe Conservancy of Southwest Florida has done the math on a proposed development in rural Collier County, FL, and what they discovered enabled them to take a large-scale developer to court.
Read MoreHeated discussion about a new condo in Sarasota, FL, has got locals calling the building an eyesore. But is this a case of misdirected ire?
Read MoreOne would expect a Republican governor to endorse free-market solutions on a local level, yet housing and zoning tend to scramble traditional political debates in unexpected ways.
Read MoreMost parking lots on Black Friday are not going to be full. Here’s one retail complex that’s an exception—but it just proves that having “enough” parking is always less important than creating a place people want to be.
Read MoreAlthough they stand in very different parts of the country, these college towns are spearheading the push to eliminate harmful, longstanding land-use policies.
Read MoreFind out why this stretch of Floridian stroad has been nicknamed “death valley” by locals.
Read MoreToday, city planning departments obsess over what happens inside buildings but pay scant attention to the quality of the space outside them.
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