Today, I want to look at a utility investment near my hometown of Brainerd, Minnesota. At first glance, it seems like an extreme case, but looking at it with a touch of scrutiny reveals a lot of insight into why America’s basic infrastructure systems are failing and will not be maintained.
Read MoreIn this special episode of Bottom-Up Shorts, host Norm Van Eeden Petersman is joined by Edward Erfurt, chief technical advisor for Strong Towns, to discuss real-world examples of a transformative 4-step approach to public investment.
Read MoreTo build a Strong Town is to develop governing habits and shared cultural understandings that result in a long run of small wins that may be individually imperceptible but cumulatively result in broad and meaningful change. Today, I want to share one of those small wins with you.
Read MoreMost city officials are operating in good faith, trying their best to make decisions that will help their community. Even when they've made bad decisions in the past, it's never too late to start making good ones.
Read MoreLocal governments that follow a “mindlessly pro-business” approach sacrifice community well-being in the name of commerce, but end up devastating their cities’ downtowns by misunderstanding what helps an area succeed economically. It’s time to realize that helping local businesses means helping the community, too.
Read MoreEast Grand Avenue in St. Paul, Minnesota, manages to maintain a unique and magical sense of place even while being car-centric. Here’s how it does it, and how other cities can design their built environments to capture that sense of place.
Read MoreBuilding affordable housing seems like a win for cities struggling in the Housing Trap. But between its top-down nature and the public subsidies it requires, affordable housing can actually make things worse.
Read MoreCity engineers rely on faulty logic and misrepresentations to maintain the status quo. This was made blatantly clear in a recent letter from the City Engineers Association of Minnesota (CEAM) — and it’s why a growing number of engineers are breaking from the party line to support reform. Here are CEAM’s top four arguments against parking reform and why they’re wrong.
Read MoreUnderstanding the real costs and long-term liabilities of our infrastructure is essential for the long-term prosperity of our places. Unfortunately, this detail is often overlooked in our decision-making process.
Read MoreA bill to legalize certain forms of “missing middle” housing statewide in Minnesota appears dead in the legislature. Yet, here are 4 reasons why it’s still not a total loss.
Read MoreTony Jordan of the Parking Reform Network and Chris Meyer, legislative assistant to Senator Omar Fateh, talk all things parking reform on this week’s episode of the Strong Towns Podcast.
Read MoreSome complain that getting rid of parking mandates is just an underhanded way of making auto use harder and harder in cities. But harder for whom, exactly?
Read MoreThe parking reform bill Strong Towns has endorsed is necessary to get Minnesota cities unstuck.
Read MoreMinnesota legislators have introduced a bill that would eliminate minimum parking mandates statewide—and Strong Towns was there to cheer them on.
Read MoreResidents of Chisholm, MN, have shown that you don’t need to invest a lot of time and money to bring value to your community, and to provide a space for entrepreneurship.
Read MoreIn Minneapolis and St. Paul, parking reform has helped increase the overall supply of homes, reduce the cost of construction, and shift the cities toward a less car-centric design.
Read MoreFor the second time, a group of Minneapolis residents—enabled by existing law—have halted implementation of the city’s Minneapolis 2040 plan over its supposed environmental impact. Here’s why they’re doing more harm than good.
Read MoreCities and towns big and small across the nation are ending parking minimums.
Read MoreThe Minnesota Department of Transportation says they’re “rethinking” this freeway, but then came up with 10 proposals for roads for automobiles, just of different configurations. How rethought is that, really?
Read MoreA local fitness center in Chisholm, MN, shows that you don’t need to look far outside of your city or town to find the best people to develop it.
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