An overwhelming amount of information without context can be just as opaque as secrecy. That’s why transparency in city budgeting isn’t just about making numbers available — it’s about making them understandable. One city official in Maryland is making it his mission to do just that.
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David Jenkins is a city councilor and Local Conversation leader in La Plata, Maryland. He joins Norm to discuss his work with the city’s budget, particularly his efforts to share financial information in a simple way that lets residents participate in the budgeting process. (Transcript included.)
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In historic cities, land was treated as a scarce resource and every inch of it was used with ingenuity. This created productive and charming places that could meet the evolving needs of residents. Here are a few ways we can bring that traditional productivity and adaptable charm to modern cities.
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If any city or county wants to be effective in creating a safer street, they’ll develop multiple responses to calming traffic, instead of relying on only one or two changes that still prioritize thru-traffic.
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Maryland legislators have called for an infrastructure review of every crash that causes the death of a pedestrian or cyclist on state highways—but one local advocate is checking the state’s work, and there’s some problems with it.
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In Baltimore, some of the city’s least wealthy individuals may be overpaying on their property taxes by nearly $300 a year, whereas some of the richest could be underpaying by $14,000 or more.
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In December 2022, separated, buffered bike lanes were installed (despite opposition) on this road in Montgomery County, MD. Statistics now show no negative consequences for drivers, but a lot of positives for cyclists.
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Baltimore is reclaiming an urban landscape that has been made inhospitable by cars—using art!
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This “Complete Street” is really a stroad in disguise—and that’s led to some deadly consequences.
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White Flint, MD, presents a great case study for how a community can begin shifting the conversation on its transportation infrastructure and development pattern.
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Baltimore’s department of transportation is considering making the city’s temporary outdoor dining “parklets” a permanent fixture.
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Strong Towns member and City Councilperson Danny Schaible is leading the way toward safer streets in his Maryland town.
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This document shows just how much our arcane land-use regulations prohibit neighborhoods from developing organically and un-self-consciously.
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Our drive continues through the area once called “the ugliest place in Maryland.” When you look around, though, you can find the building blocks for an urban transformation in these suburbs.
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Let’s take a drive down Rockville Pike, a major thoroughfare near DC. What kinds of development patterns will we find as we pass through each ring of suburbia?
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We glorify our country’s rough-and-tumble entrepreneurial history, yet we often look down on people who embody it today, and on the commercial landscapes that result.
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Annapolis's downtown has become dominated by short-term rentals, and it’s beginning to degrade the community’s social capital.
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Sophia Hosain leads community composting programs to help strengthen local economies and food systems.
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Making your community stronger is too big a job for one person to do alone. Here’s how one Strong Towns member connected with likeminded people in his own city…and some practical steps on how you can do the same.
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A “green belt” suburb with its roots in the New Deal faces pressures associated with conventional, auto-oriented development. How should residents approach decision-making so that the town’s future is as rich as its past?
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