Megan Kimble: The Toll Urban Highways Take and the People Fighting Back

Megan Kimble, journalist and author of “City Limits: Infrastructure, Inequality, and the Future of America's Highways,” joins us to talk about highway expansion in Texas and the groups fighting to stop it.

How an Opera Singer Joined the Fight Against Freeways

When COVID-19 put her career on pause, opera singer Ally Smither found a new passion: fighting highway expansion.

Community Stories, Top StoryAsia MieleszkoMay 10, 2024advocacy, end highway expansion, bottom-up, arts, texas

75-Year-Old Houston Advocate Refuses To Surrender to Highway Expansion Project

At 75, she didn’t think she’d spend her time fighting freeways, but that’s exactly where Susan Graham finds herself. Founder of Stop TxDOT I-45, Graham has been fighting highway expansion in Houston for almost five years — and she’s nowhere near done. (Get to know Graham before she brings her knowledge to the national stage at the Strong Towns National Gathering, May 14-15!)

Here’s the Real Reason Houston Is Going Broke

Houston’s fiscal problems are less critical than other major cities with large budget shortfalls—yet, their mayor is correct when he said his city is broke, that the financial approach of the city is clearly not working. Here’s why.

We Have to Save the Abandoned Places, Because No One Else Will

Monte Anderson is a local developer who sees it as his mission to revive his community—not only through neighboring relationships, but also by saving the abandoned and broken spaces.

Dallas Used To Be Walkable

Dallas wasn't built for the car: it was paved over for it. This new bill can help it rebuild.

Parking Minimums Might Be on the Way Out in Dallas

Local officials in Dallas are considering eliminating minimum parking requirements in the city—and predictably, the measure has both critics and proponents.

Podcast, Top StoryStrong TownsFebruary 14, 2024upzoned, podcast, parking minimums, end parking mandates and subsidies, texas

When an Intersection Becomes a Cemetery

In the last three years alone, this San Antonio intersection has seen more than 20 crashes—several of them fatal. How long do residents have to wait before something is done about it?

News, Top StoryAsia MieleszkoFebruary 14, 2024Crash Analysis Studio, texas, safe and productive streets, car crash, intersections

Build Tapestries, Not Just Buildings

We should think of city blocks like tapestries.

Owens, Top StoryTiffany Owens ReedFebruary 13, 2024texas, design

Meet the Freeway Fighters Who Are Suing the Texas Department of Transportation

Adam Greenfield and Bobby Levinski are part of the grassroots movement Rethink35, which is filing a lawsuit against the Texas Department of Transportation over their plans to expand I-35 in Austin.

Podcast, Top StoryStrong TownsFebruary 12, 2024podcast, end highway expansion, texas, freeway widening, urban freeways

The Bottom-Up Revolution Is…Fighting Freeway Widening in Austin

Adam Greenfield and Miriam Schoenfield are doing some of the most challenging work an advocate can take on in their city: fighting a massive highway expansion project.

Podcast, Top StoryStrong TownsFebruary 8, 2024The Bottom-Up Revolution, end highway expansion, freeway widening, texas, highways

A Slow and Steady (but Bittersweet) Victory Against Arcane Parking Mandates

No thanks to parking mandates, it took two years of fighting to get this local coffee shop open in Dallas…but even then, it wasn’t a total win for its owner.

Your Participation Is Encouraged, but Not Wanted

Why does TxDOT bother inviting Houston residents to come comment on the North Houston Highway Improvement Project…if they are going to make it so hard to actually do so?

It’s Always Too Late: How Freeway Fighters Are Kept out of the Conversation

Freeway fighters in Houston are going up against a grim truth in highway expansion projects: that those most impacted by them are almost always the most marginalized in the decision-making process.

Top StoryAsia MieleszkoJanuary 22, 2024freeway widening, urban freeways, end highway expansion, texas, advocacy, highways

The Latest Cities To Repeal Costly Parking Minimums

#BlackFridayParking is approaching, and we want to share some of the latest cities in North America that have challenged decades-old parking requirements that have wasted productive land on automobile storage.

The Bottom-Up Revolution Is…Café Owners and Conversation Leaders

Aimee and Cody Frederick are selling coffee, cultivating real estate, leading a Local Conversations group, hosting a podcast, and serving on the zoning and planning commission in Richmond, TX.

PodcastStrong TownsOctober 26, 2023The Bottom-Up Revolution, local conversations, coffee shops, texas

Texan Local Advocates Put Couches and Potted Plants in Parking Spots

Each year on Parking Day, coveted curbside parking spaces in Denton, TX, are claimed by couches, games, potted plants, information tables, and conversations about the city’s future.

They Were Sold a Boulevard. What They Got Was a Highway.

Residents of the Farmers Market District in Dallas, TX, thought they were buying into a “walkable” neighborhood…except its 9-lane road is too dangerous to walk by. And the city’s attempts at making it safer aren’t helping.