Having to shut down major pieces of infrastructure because it can’t afford to repair or replace them is a bad position for a city to be in. But in some cases, it’s just the wake-up call officials need to start making better decisions.
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You can’t call something an accident if you’re not doing anything to prevent it. You definitely can’t call it an accident if you intentionally put people in harm’s way through the design of your streets and the positioning of your infrastructure.
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I’d rather smother a boot in gravy and eat it than deal with a labyrinth of city regulations, procedures and fees. Loopholes are a great way to avoid that. Here are three loopholes to help you move forward when your project is running up against a bureaucratic nightmare
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For a city, being in good financial condition isn't just about having good reporting practices and not defaulting on debt payments. It's about fulfilling responsibilities and providing a good quality of life to residents.
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Winnipeg, Manitoba’s new transportation plan uses all the right words to seem like it’s prioritizing maintenance and multimodal transit, but its funding allocation tells a very different story.
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Highway expansion projects have a devastating impact of city finances while only providing minor benefits. This case study explores the financial details of a highway expansion project in Winnipeg, Canada, and discusses how people can take action to stop this kind of project.
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Once a city acknowledges that it can’t afford maintain its infrastructure, it’ll change its investment pattern to be more resilient….right? Actually, many cities try to make more money magically appear so they can continue that pattern. Here’s why “How do we get more money?” is the wrong question and what cities should be asking, instead.
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As prices rise, housing affordability has become an increasingly popular topic of discussion across North America. However, in our current system, affordable housing is an oxymoron: Housing is treated as an investment, and good investments constantly increase in price. To escape this paradox, we must change the way we think about housing.
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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.
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Having your city prioritize high-speed traffic through your neighborhood is like having people traipse through your living room with their boots on.
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Let’s bust five myths on this highway expansion project.
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A recent advertising insert in the Winnipeg Free Press would have us believe that road expansion will solve not only homelessness, but crime and addiction, as well. Let's investigate these lofty claims.
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This public toilet in Winnipeg, MB, is a case study in why city governments need to pay attention to the power of small bets.
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The proposed annual budget for Winnipeg, MB, reveals the true cost of the Suburban Experiment, and the vibrancy that the city (and so many others like it) has sacrificed in many of its neighborhoods.
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The way we build our neighborhoods in North America is nothing like making a pizza. But maybe it should be.
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Traffic engineers in Canada wear an iron pinky ring as a reminder of their responsibility to public safety. So why, then, do they routinely make street design choices that kill people every day?
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A small, local, mixed-use business versus a new Amazon warehouse. Let’s put these two business proposals before the Shark Tank (Winnipeg edition).
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Don’t be fooled: Winnipeg’s newly proposed “rapid transit” project is actually a road-widening project in disguise. And it aims to borrow money so the City can destroy millions of dollars of its own tax base.
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When it comes to our places’ roads, we need to start asking: “How much is this gonna cost us?”
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Massive property damage and pedestrians being injured (or killed) is our transportation system functioning precisely as designed. This is how it was designed to work.
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