We should require our local governments to develop some discipline and reliability in their permitting approach. These are practices that demonstrate respect for both our civic institutions and the people they are supposed to serve.
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Human behavior can be influenced in subtle—and often very pro-social—ways through design of place.
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We have a lot of work ahead at Strong Towns to meaningfully engage people of color and to grow the racial diversity of our movement. We’re committed to doing that work.
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App developers are promising that any citizen with a smart phone can take part in planning their city like never before. But is there more to community engagement than what you can fit within the borders of a screen?
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It’s hard to have a coherent conversation on affordable housing when most of those involved in the discussion directly benefit from — and in some ways depend on — higher housing prices.
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Using routine traffic stops as a pretext to root out other types of crime is as disingenuous as it is unhelpful. We need to design intuitively safe streets—and then use traffic enforcement for the minority of drivers who are actually driving recklessly.
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Last week, we announced the biggest news in the Strong Towns universe in a long time: our founder wrote a book. This week, we’re taking you behind the scenes.
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Strong Towns has been an international movement for change for over ten years. Now, it’s becoming a book—and this fall, we’re embarking on a continent-wide tour to promote it.
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If electric vehicles become the norm, our fuel tax-funded infrastructure might suffer. What should cities do?
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The property tax punishes modest improvements and rewards steady decline. People who take steps to add value to their property pay more taxes, while slumlords and speculators pay less. There are a lot of reasons for cities to switch to a tax on land value, and more states should allow cities to make that change.
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Slowing down drivers can save pedestrian lives. But is a little widget in your car the best way to do it?
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Modern Monetary Theory suggests that recessions can be avoided – along with lots of unnecessary pain – if policymakers will commit the resources to preempt them. Sounds like the same promise the Forest Service made fighting fires last century.
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You probably use Zillow to shop fantasy mansions in cities you could never afford. But would you sell them your house?
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Revisiting a 2017 conversation between Charles Marohn and Chris Arnade about the toll of economic and social disintegration in American communities.
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Amazon has pulled out of the deal with New York City. It’s unlikely subsidies are going away, so what can other cities learn so they don’t repeat mistakes?
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Modern Monetary Theory is the financial foundation of the Green New Deal. It’s an experiment our cities don’t want to undertake.
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Cities need to be exposed to low levels of stress and disorder in order to become more antifragile over time. Technocratic planning which seeks to make our world too predictable merely sets the stage for future crises.
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Why build a downtown transit system if you’re just going to close it at peak demand?
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If your city is struggling to pay the bills, could joining forces with the rich county next door be the answer?
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Cities are complex, organic, emergent things—and we impose top-down order on them at our own peril.
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