Analysis of MLK Addresses Shows Redlining Is Still at Work in U.S. Cities

A 2020 study revealed that areas around streets named after Martin Luther King Jr. are more segregated and poorer than the United States average. Now, data shows property values in these areas are affected, as well.

Top StoryTaylor SchenkerAugust 2, 2023race, transparent local accounting, redlining, gentrification, urban3, Reparations

What We Must Do To Address the Historic Harms of Highways

A compelling new report, Divided by Design, from Smart Growth America examines the tangled history of highway building and so-called urban renewal in the U.S.

Top StoryBen AbramsonJuly 24, 2023highways, race, history, urban renewal, end highway expansion

Taxed “Beyond Sanity”—And Not Getting the Services Promised

As Asheville, NC, promises to make up for past harms done to its Black community, it glosses over an ongoing disparity: less-wealthy homeowners (who are disproportionately Black) are overpaying on their property taxes.

Redlining Maps Were Burned—But the Fundamentals Are Still Taught

Why is this official course from the International Association of Assessing Officers still teaching outdated redlining practices to categorize neighborhoods?

Washington State Bill Would Reduce Low-Level Traffic Stops

We need to approach traffic safety in a way that encourages safe traveling through design, not through police enforcement.

News, Top StoryBen AbramsonMarch 10, 2023traffic stops, race, policing

Cincinnati Bridge Battle Highlights Historic Highway Harms

Cincinnati activists are bringing a civil rights claim against the Ohio Department of Transportation in order to put a halt to a multibillion-dollar infrastructure boondoggle.

News, Top StoryBen AbramsonFebruary 21, 2023highways, transportation, transportation spending, race, advocacy, end highway expansion, ohio

Will There Still Be Chinatowns in Utopia?

“Community character" is often invoked to support exclusion and discrimination, but there are also communities whose unique "character" matters—a lot. How (if at all) should local government support such places?

Herriges, Top StoryDaniel HerrigesJanuary 18, 2023local government, local regulation, race, housing policy, neighborhoods

The Impact of Systemic Racism on Jackson's Water Crisis

Strong Towns member and former Jackson, MS, resident Amanda Lanata comes to the Strong Towns Podcast to discuss the role that racism played in the city’s recent water crisis.

Podcast, Marohn, Top StoryStrong TownsNovember 21, 2022podcast, water, infrastructure maintenance, race, mississippi, infrastructure

A Rough Beast Slouches Toward the Brent Spence Bridge

As local and regional politicians move forward on a $3 billion highway widening project, a local group of activists in Cincinnati are fighting for an alternative plan.

In Buncombe County, NC, Billions of Dollars of Home Value Go Untaxed

As an ad hoc committee recently discovered, owners of higher-valued properties are more likely to receive a tax break…simply because of bad data.

Process Versus Visible Outcomes

The U.S. Department of Transportation would have you think it cares about equity—but budgets are often more telling than rhetoric.

Podcast, Top StoryStrong TownsApril 27, 2022podcast, infrastructure, federal government, federal funding, race, budget, upzoned

The NIMBYs Made $6.9 Trillion Last Year

We keep looking for villains to blame for the housing affordability crisis—but are we pointing fingers at the wrong culprits?

Is It Time for a National Zoning Atlas?

This advocacy group created the first online map to show how an entire state zones for housing. And they want to take the effort nationwide.

Herriges, Top StoryDaniel HerrigesMarch 30, 2022advocacy, zoning, Connecticut, mapping, maps, housing, race, segregation

Freeway Widening for Whomst?

Widening freeways is no way to promote equity.

Property Tax Inequities Stir Movement for Change in Asheville

Strong Towns is partnering with Just Accounting for Health and Urban3 in a project to uncover the presence, and effects, of biases in tax assessment standards.

Top StorySeairra JonesFebruary 15, 2022property tax, race, North Carolina, Just Accounting for Health, urban3, taxes

A Community Forced to Play the Infrastructure Squid Game

Residents of this Houston neighborhood thought they were winning the lottery with a government-sponsored infrastructure project. Instead, they endured a seven-month-long nightmare.

The Infrastructure Bill, Racial Equity, and Local Government: How Should the Money Be Spent?

The $1 trillion infrastructure bill is being signed into law. But who gets to decide how the money will be spent, and will they make the right decisions for communities of color?