A Million Local Heroes

It takes a million local heroes to change the multitrillion-dollar North American development machine. We’re getting closer, but this Member Week, we need your support.

Marohn, Top StoryCharles MarohnNovember 14, 2022member week

An Update on the Strong Towns Lawsuit

Here’s the latest on our ongoing legal action against the Minnesota board of engineering licensing—now officially Minnesota v. Marohn.

Engineering Reform, Marohn, Top StoryCharles MarohnNovember 11, 2022engineering ethics, engineers

MoDOT Is Proud of Their Highways. Missourians, Not So Much.

MoDOT recently put out a tweet celebrating the 50-year anniversary of a highway that tore up Kansas City’s downtown. Here are just some of the (rightfully) angry reactions they got.

Marohn, Top Story, NewsCharles MarohnNovember 10, 2022missouri, DOT, transportation, highways, urban freeways, freeways, infrastructure cult, infrastructure, engineers, traffic engineering, end highway expansion

Water System Crises and Solutions

What are the origins of our current water systems, and how should we think about them, going forward?

Podcast, Marohn, Top StoryStrong TownsNovember 7, 2022podcast, water, infrastructure, infrastructure maintenance, history

McGilchrist Still Isn’t an Improvement, but Here’s the Math

We've said it'll take 39 years for Salem, OR, to recoup the money they're spending on the McGilchrist Street “Improvement” Project, and you've asked us to provide more proof for this assertion. So, let's do the math.

Marohn, Top StoryCharles MarohnNovember 2, 2022transportation, transportation spending, traffic engineering, projections, end highway expansion, transparent local accounting, safe and productive streets, oregon, local economy

The Highway Boondoggles Report

Frontier Group’s Tony Dutzik comes onto the podcast today to talk about their annual “Highway Boondoggles” report. In light of last year’s infrastructure bill, just how much funding is being wasted on highway expansion?

Podcast, Marohn, Top StoryStrong TownsOctober 24, 2022podcast, highways, highway spending, freeway widening, freeways, transportation, infrastructure, infrastructure cost, end highway expansion

Introducing Edward Erfurt as Our Director of Community Action

Join us in welcoming the newest member of the Strong Towns team!

Marohn, Top StoryCharles MarohnOctober 19, 2022announcement, Strong Towns

What Customer Service Should Mean for a City

Many local governments have taken on a “the customer is always right” mindset, but that’s simply not the best approach, especially for decisions that should be made at the block level.

Podcast, Marohn, Top StoryStrong TownsOctober 10, 2022podcast, local government, city government, localism, neighborliness, neighborhoods

That's Not an Improvement

Engineers who work on municipal infrastructure need to stop ubiquitously describing their projects as “improvements”—especially when the project is actually harmful, not helpful.

Marohn, Top StoryCharles MarohnOctober 10, 2022traffic engineering, engineers, infrastructure, infrastructure maintenance, infrastructure cost, transportation, transportation spending, freeway widening, end highway expansion, safe and productive streets

What Will Housing Prices Be a Year From Now?

If one thing’s clear about the housing market, it’s that it’s currently more sensitive to factors outside of your community—outside of your control—than anything within.

Marohn, Top StoryCharles MarohnSeptember 26, 2022housing, housing cost, housing affordability, housing market, housing policy, Incremental Housing, homeowners, finance, home buyer

Hawaii's Suburban Experiment

How does the suburban development pattern present itself in a smaller island space, versus in the contiguous United States?

Podcast, Marohn, Top StoryStrong TownsSeptember 26, 2022podcast, suburban experiment, suburban development pattern, Hawaii, suburbanization, growth ponzi scheme

The Jackson Water Crisis Is Not a Fluke. Your City Could Be Next.

For seven weeks Jackson’s residents had to bear the brunt of a failing water system, and unfortunately it was bound to happen.

Podcast, Marohn, Top StoryStrong TownsSeptember 19, 2022podcast, suburban experiment, suburban development pattern, mississippi, water, sprawl, fragility, growth ponzi scheme

This Ice Machine Is a Case Study in Neighborhood Decline

When you prioritize fast car movement on a street that should be for building community wealth, don’t be surprised when you end up getting neither.

Marohn, Top StoryCharles MarohnSeptember 19, 2022streets, capitalism, decline, small towns, suburban development pattern, minnesota, stroad, safe and productive streets, neighborhoods

Financial Fragility Is To Blame for Jackson’s Water Crisis

The Suburban Experiment is a bad business model, and nothing demonstrates that more clearly than Jackson, Mississippi’s, ongoing water crisis.

MarohnCharles MarohnSeptember 12, 2022infrastructure, infrastructure maintenance, fragility, mississippi, development pattern, infrastructure cost, finance, suburban experiment, local economy, growth ponzi scheme

Licensing Board to the Engineering Profession: "Stay in Line"

The Minnesota licensing board has essentially issued a warning to professional engineers: Stay in line or you will face attack by colleagues who disagree with you.

Engineering Reform, Marohn, Top StoryCharles MarohnAugust 30, 2022engineering ethics, engineers

Not Just Bikes and Strong Towns: What America Keeps Getting Wrong About Public Transit

Why is it that in the U.S. and Canada, we're always being told that we can't justify the ridership for transit projects? And why is it that when we do build transit, it struggles to gain riders?

Podcast, Marohn, Top StoryStrong TownsAugust 15, 2022podcast, Not Just Bikes, transit, suburban transit, canada, transportation, public transportation, europe

Why Is Rhode Island Building New Roads When Its Current Roads Are Falling Apart?

Rhode Island has built far more highways than it can afford to maintain. So why on earth is it building another one?

Marohn, Top StoryCharles MarohnAugust 15, 2022highways, highway spending, maintenance, infrastructure, infrastructure cult, Nero Project, Rhode Island, DOT, roads, end highway expansion

“Bias Writ Large” in the Property Tax Assessment System

There are some obvious anomalies that are being overlooked in the property tax assessment system. Joe Minicozzi of Urban3 pulls back the curtain in this episode of the Strong Towns Podcast.

Podcast, Marohn, Top StoryStrong TownsAugust 8, 2022podcast, finance, public finance, municipal finance, Just Accounting for Health, North Carolina, urban3, taxes, transparent local accounting, local economy

One of the Most Dangerous Assumptions We Have Made

Car crashes aren’t the result of mere human error or recklessness, they’re the result of design. Beth Osborne of Transportation for America digs into this in our latest podcast episode.