Posts by Ben Abramson
Why Rochester, New York, Is a Leading Example in Crash Response

After a fatal crash, Rochester citizens and officials got to work, identifying factors that contributed to the crash, updating street design policies to make streets safer, and establishing a Community Traffic Safety Team to address other dangerous factors before crashes occur.

Read More
How Minimum Lot Size Requirements Maximize the Housing Crisis

Allowing housing units to be built on small or irregular lots is a gamechanger for cities that are fighting the housing crisis. Here’s why that allowance is so important and how three developers are using small units and creativity to bring more housing options to their communities.

Read More
Travel Tip: Don’t Stay in the Places You Wish Were Never Built

Driving from my dismal exurban hotel to the walkable downtown of a Florida beach town led me to a resolution: Start seeking out the kind of lodging that accentuates the best reasons for visiting a place, and hopefully discourage the kind of development that’s contributing to its demise.

Read More
These Cities Recently Passed Parking Reforms (and Yours Can Too)

We’ve assembled a guide to three towns and cities of varying sizes that have recently revised their parking regulations. That way, when you decide to pursue parking reform in your own community, you can use them as examples of how parking reform strengthens cities.

Read More
New Website Helps You Add a Backyard Cottage With One Click

Detached cottages and additional residential units are becoming legal in many places, but zoning laws and design decisions can stop people from building. Resimate seeks to solve that, performing instant analyses of lots and helping customers purchase a variety of eligible designs from small-scale developers.

Read More
Small Wins and Dedicated Allies: Why We’re Undaunted by Everything We’re Up Against

From a dangerous transportation system to a development pattern that siphons wealth instead of building it, people who are trying to build stronger towns face many daunting challenges. The good news is that they’re rising to the occasion. Here are a few examples of how people really can change the world one block, neighborhood or city at a time.

Read More
Working for Strong Towns Made Me a Better Driver (and Cyclist and Pedestrian)

Being a member of the Strong Towns movement isn’t just about increasing your knowledge of city planning and what your town can do better. It’s also about allowing that knowledge to affect your own behavior. No change is cheaper than behaving in a way that helps everyone get home safely

Read More
How a Subway Is Helping Toronto Fight the Housing Crisis

When fighting the housing crisis, you need to get creative. Toronto is doing just that. Not only have they created a partnership between public officials and private developers, but they’ve also identified a valuable urban resource that often flies under the development radar: transit property.

Read More
Habitat for Humanity: Lessons From the Front Lines of the Housing Crisis

Habitat for Humanity offers a wide range of programs to help people become homeowners, giving the organization a unique perspective on the housing crisis. Strong Towns sat down with two representatives to learn about this perspective, including how Habitat is handling high building costs and why Habitat owners participate in the construction of their homes.

Read More