It's time to meet your movement. Hear inspiring speakers. Connect with fellow advocates. It's all happening at the Strong Towns National Gathering. Get your ticket before they're gone! strongtowns.org/national-gathe
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We're changing *everything* about the North American pattern of development.
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One of the simplest things you can do to change your place for the better is to change just one street for the better using tactical urbanism. and will show you how at the National Gathering May 30-31.
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In 2020, big cities and small towns alike came alive with streets designed for people. Today, most of those streets have reverted back to only being designed for cars. This shows that places can change for the better, or worse.
Let’s work together to change them for the better.
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Far too often, our cities prioritize the convenience of motor vehicles over the safety of people walking and biking.
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I talked to a city traffic engineer and it turns out one of the reasons we don’t have real protected bike lanes is because drivers don’t like it when they hit concrete barriers and damage their cars so cyclists are left with plastic sticks and paint for protection.
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“We’ve created this great public space. With so many of our parks and public spaces, we assume they’ve always been here and we take them for granted, but many of them were fought for, too, and that’s what we’re doing here.”
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For nearly 3 years, Esther Street in Peekskill, New York has been closed to motorized traffic, becoming a beloved gathering place. Now, the city may reopen it due to “numerous complaints.”
Let these before and after pictures remind us all that great streets are for PEOPLE.
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You'd probably look really good on a new electric bike from bit.ly/bike4ip Enter our sweepstakes now! #IPbike 🚲
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Legalizing incremental housing options allows neighborhoods to organically grow over time. Single-family homes can add ADUs, duplexes can become townhouses, and townhouses can become mixed-use flats with businesses below and housing above.
This is how we rebuild strong towns.
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We have roads that look like this all over North America, yet we keep building new ones.
Make it make sense.
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There’s the “freedom” to own a car and travel great distances with speed and protection from the elements.
Then there’s the “freedom” to live without car insurance, maintenance fees, gas, parking, tickets, traffic, and the constant threat of crashes.
“Freedom” is perspective.
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Excess parking is a financial drain on cities.
Housing is the heart of cities.
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If a road looks like this, no amount of signs or speed limits will curb speeding and accidents.
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Join us tomorrow to take a REAL look at the causes of a car crash that result from bad street design and take seriously how we might save lives building safer streets. Our 4th Crash Analysis Studio is happening at 11:15am CT Friday, April 28. Sign up now.
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Engineer opposed to bollards along the sidewalks because automobiles might get damaged.
The only surprise is that this honestly and widely held belief among professional engineers was spoken publicly. It's usually just subtext.
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Every North American city says they have a parking problem or a traffic problem. Let’s call it what it is. Every North American city has a car problem.
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For thousands of years, cities and villages around the world built mixed-use buildings with shops on the first floor and housing above.
It’s time to re-legalize this across North America.
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"Streets that use good urban design, focus on building a sense of place, and connect by biking and walking to a surrounding neighborhood dramatically outperform, in terms of wealth creation, any collection of auto-oriented streets we can construct."
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Streets designed for people walking and biking build more wealth than those designed for cars driving through — and it’s not even close. Let's focus on building places worth spending time in.
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Look at your downtown and ask yourself, does it say “drive to” or “drive through?”
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In the latest Strong Towns YouTube video, we get into how measuring the value per acre of cities is the best tool for determining financial productivity and long-term resiliency. Enjoy!
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"If transportation professionals refuse to put up bollards to protect people from the violence of an errant vehicle, how is this not abetting the slaughter of thousands every year?"
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If the federal government wants to fund transportation, skip the megaprojects. Start with a billion bollards. These will save more lives and help us build strong towns everywhere.
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"Why don't kids play outside anymore?"
Look outside. We've turned our public spaces into car-only zones filled with parking lots and wide roads.
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“What do you mean parking lots are the pinnacle of unproductive land use?”
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You don't have to be a trained architect or a person with deep pockets in order to become a small-scale developer in your community. Here's the story of a South Bend resident who cares deeply about his city and stepped up to make it better.
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Here's a win for your Friday: A $15 billion highway expansion project is (for now) cancelled. One small but solid step on the path to ending highway expansion across America.
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If you've been wondering, “What is the most powerful thing I can do in my community to advance or share the Strong Towns message?” The answer is really simple: walk into your city hall.
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Congratulations to Brattleboro, VT, winners of our annnual Strongest Town Contest! What an amazing community.
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Congratulations to Brattleboro, VT for winning the 2023 Championship. Brattleboro's work with CNU's Project for Code Reform highlighted specific planning and regulatory challenges and opportunities to reform the town's zoning code. Learn more:
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Motor vehicle accidents are the 2nd highest cause of injury death in American children. If we want to protect our kids, we need to get them out of and away from cars as often as possible. We can do this by building more places where people can safely walk or bike to destinations.
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You don't have to be a skilled public speaker or a natural-born leader in order to help your community get better. You can be "the organized one," "the tech pro" and a whole host of other roles that all help serve cities. bit.ly/3KCiByF
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Where can you hear from a badass small-scale developer, the guy who wrote the book on America’s zoning problems and a youtuber who’s a real nerd for cities? At our National Gathering in May. Get your ticket before they’re gone!
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Small cafes and corner stores should be allowed, by right, in every American neighborhood.
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We're psyched to welcome Evan to our team at Strong Towns!
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"A few weeks ago, I read some news that made me excited: my hometown of Milwaukee is going to be charging more for parking! That might sound like a crazy statement but yes, you read it right."
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Exhibit A of why we need change *everything* about the North American pattern of development.
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Most people use broad categories like "middle-class" or "low-income" to describe local housing markets, but we like to consider how they serve single people, young people, mid-career families, and retired folks alike.
Let's build places that accommodate different walks of life.
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