Sometimes You Need To Destroy a Perfectly Good Mansion

Why preserving the past shouldn’t mean foreclosing our future.

Top StoryWill GardnerFebruary 9, 2024historic preservation, neighborhoods, massachusetts, Incremental Housing

How To Ensure the Projects Your City Says “Yes” to Set It Up for Long-Term Prosperity

“Is this a good project, or will it set up my city for financial insolvency??” Here’s how to find out.

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

New Florida Development Aims To Give Rent-Burdened Workers a Leg Up

Immokalee, FL, sits 30 miles from glitzy Naples, yet it’s one of the most rent-burdened places in the state. Local nonprofits are teaming up to change that by planning a new community for Immokalee’s agricultural workers.

Community Stories, Top StoryBen AbramsonFebruary 8, 2024Incremental Housing, rural, renters, affordable housing, housing crisis, developers

You’re My (Housing) Type: A Valentine’s “Infill Housing Love Letter” Campaign

The rhetoric around housing can get pretty heated, so here’s how one advocacy group in Winnipeg, MB, decided to show a little love and positivity to the residents of some new infill housing.

Coming Back Down to Earth After a “Next-Level” Downtown Revitalization

Here’s a grounded look at why an elevated walkway didn’t do as much to save downtown Morristown, TN, as residents once hoped.

Podcast, Top StoryStrong TownsFebruary 7, 2024upzoned, podcast, downtown, revitalization, economic growth

The Best Argument for Parking Mandates (Is Still Wrong)

“Abolish parking mandates? But won’t street parking be overrun, if developers aren’t required to provide adequate parking?” If you’ve been asking this question, then this article is for you.

Herriges, Top StoryDaniel HerrigesFebruary 7, 2024end parking mandates and subsidies, Land Use, policy change

4 Ways a City Can Hide Its Insolvency Using Accounting

If we’re not paying attention, it can be hard to tell whether a city is using debt to simply to smooth out cashflows, or if it’s just covering up insolvency. Here are four telltale signs of the latter scenario.

Top StoryMichel Durand-WoodFebruary 6, 2024transparent local accounting, municipal finance, financial solvency

Fact and Fiction in Oregon’s Department of Transportation

The Interstate 5 Rose Quarter Improvement Project in Oregon is the poster child for how departments of transportation deceptively package harmful highway expansion projects.

Top StoryAsia MieleszkoFebruary 6, 2024end highway expansion, oregon, department of transportation, freeway widening, highways

Shima Hamidi: Narrow Lanes Save Lives

We talk with Dr. Shima Hamidi of the Johns Hopkins Bloomberg School of Public Health, whose research cuts into the core assumptions of the civil engineering profession in regard to traffic design.

Podcast, Top StoryStrong TownsFebruary 5, 2024podcast, safe and productive streets, narrow streets, safety, car crash

Pre-Permitted Plans Help Kalamazoo Bring Housing Back

Like so many other places, the city of Kalamazoo, MI, has been facing a cascade of housing challenges. Here’s how they’re tackling them using pre-approved housing plans.

Parking Mandates Are Bad Policy

The parking reform bill Strong Towns has endorsed is necessary to get Minnesota cities unstuck.

Marohn, Top StoryCharles MarohnFebruary 5, 2024end parking mandates and subsidies, policy change, parking minimums, minnesota

How Transportation Funding Is Used to Manipulate Cities

You’ve just been sworn into your first elected office, and you’re committed to improving your city’s transportation network… But not so fast: not all money is free.

Citizen Development = Higher Value Per Acre

Conventional thought would tell us that the new commercial developments in a city should be the most productive compared to the older buildings downtown, but that’s not necessarily the case.

Creating Neighborhood Connections, One Snow Sculpture at a Time

Winter can be an isolating time, but here’s one easy, fun way to keep your community together during the year’s colder months!

Emma Durand-Wood, Top StoryEmma Durand-WoodFebruary 1, 2024snow, community, canada

Why Does Someone Need To Die for a Street To Be Made Safer?

There’s no excuse: when members of a community see a dangerous street for what it is, it shouldn’t take a death (or several deaths) for the city to finally take action.

Today’s Generation of Families Are “Disillusioned” by Suburbia

Five families from Chicago, Atlanta, Dallas, Los Angeles, and Pittsburg move to the suburbs in search of the American dream…only to find decline.

Podcast, Top StoryStrong TownsJanuary 31, 2024upzoned, podcast, suburbs, growth ponzi scheme, Ponzi Scheme

This Town Actually Gets Things Done. What Makes It Different?

Searching for a place where people work together and things actually get done? Look no further than Jasper, IN, where a gorgeous downtown renovation serves as an example of a place that’s “built by many hands.”

Community Stories, Top Story, TrendingSeairra JonesJanuary 31, 2024indiana, success stories, small towns, downtown, strongest town contest

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.