Many housing advocates celebrate large supplies of housing and low rents. However, this is only one stage of a larger boom-and-bust cycle and cannot be maintained. To break out of this cycle and sustainably improve housing accessibility, we need to redirect our focus to incremental development.
Read MoreA bill to legalize certain forms of “missing middle” housing statewide in Minnesota appears dead in the legislature. Yet, here are 4 reasons why it’s still not a total loss.
Read MoreIt's not that cities can’t or shouldn’t learn from each other. But there simply aren’t the kind of drag-and-drop solutions that some pundits (who are either naïve or dishonest) would like to claim.
Read MoreWhat does it really mean to say that housing can’t be both affordable and an “investment”?
Read MoreFor the first time this year, I attended the YIMBYTown conference, the annual gathering of the YIMBY (Yes In My Backyard) movement. Here were my impressions.
Read MoreHere’s one important question to ask about how your city regulates housing.
Read MoreInvestors in the Housing Market: Myths Versus Reality — and other reasons why scapegoating corporate homebuyers is a distraction from solving housing dysfunction at the root.
Read MoreIf you’re in the business of trying to change the world around you, sooner or later you’ll need to be a persuasive communicator—but being persuasive isn’t just about getting your facts right.
Read More“Abolish parking mandates? But won’t street parking be overrun, if developers aren’t required to provide adequate parking?” If you’ve been asking this question, then this article is for you.
Read MoreOne reason communities hesitate to acknowledge their dangerous stroads is because the problem is so big, addressing it would paralyze our existing planning bureaucracies. But there is still a way forward.
Read MoreSomerville, MA, is a thriving and vibrant city. So how is it that its own planners declared it an illegal place to build!?
Read MoreAnd why a lot of people will remain unimpressed by it.
Read MoreStrong Towns is a movement for everyone who is impatient for change, and who understands that the way we accelerate it is by empowering thousands of everyday people to make small bets.
Read MoreA recent public health study out of Johns Hopkins has found that narrow lanes reduce crashes on streets, and recommends that lanes as narrow as 9 feet wide be the default.
Read MoreRent control gets held up as a generic answer to high housing costs, but people often aren’t clear about what problem, exactly, they believe rent control is intended to solve.
Read MoreThe Housing Accelerator Fund is a grant program that will inject $4 billion into Canada’s cities and towns by 2026–2027. There are a lot of ways to use this money well…but also a lot of ways to use it poorly.
Read MoreMost of your city’s zoning likely prohibits multifamily housing—even of a modest form, like triple-deckers. If so, you have the arrogance of early zoning reformers to thank for it.
Read MoreOttawa’s “jaywalking” campaign is putting pedestrians in an impossible catch-22.
Read MoreFor the second time, a group of Minneapolis residents—enabled by existing law—have halted implementation of the city’s Minneapolis 2040 plan over its supposed environmental impact. Here’s why they’re doing more harm than good.
Read MoreResidents of Douglas Park in Vancouver have blocked the expansion of a local day care, citing it as a threat to the residential character of the neighborhood.
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