Inspired by Strong Towns, the town of Thunder Bay, Ontario recently hosted a demonstration event, modeling an economically prosperous street.
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Inspired by a Strong Towns presentation, Pelham, Ontario is reexamining its development practices and making plans for a more financially stable future.
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Two stories from Canada and Indiana show how decreases in parking minimums can be achieved and give us an idea of the results these decreases have.
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This video of Mississauga, ON shows us that density will not save the suburbs.
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Victoria is a Canadian town with a bold mission: To become the best small biking city in the world. In this interview, Victoria's mayor talks about how the city plans to accomplish this goal and what it will mean for their community.
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Great design can meet multiple interests. That was the case for this urban big box store which balanced the needs of a large-scale retailer with the surrounding walkable, mixed-use neighborhood.
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The trials and tribulations of getting things done, and why change is so difficult for government agencies.
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The incremental, low-cost, block by block method with which bike lanes are being installed means that we can continue to test and discover their values (or drawbacks) in our towns.
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The majority of young people now go to school longer to compete in an economy that pays less for full-time work while charging much, much more for the primary cost of living — a home.
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We pay lots of money for property to live on, but we pay nothing to store our vehicles on public roads.
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All people are entitled to equal treatment under the law. So where did we get this notion that public roads should be only for one type of user — the motorist?
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Built and social environments are interdependent and right now, that relationship in the world around me is out of sync. Indigenous people who have lived on this land for thousands of years have a lot to teach us.
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I've been lucky to witness the emergence of the Fredericton Makerspace. I say lucky, because if we did not have some relentlessly dedicated volunteers pouring themselves into the project, it would still be one of those great ideas that never happened. But this week, I stood in the Makerspace woodshop and watched people build together.
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Cities like to form on water. It follows that there are thousands of cities out there struggling with their own version of North Side, South Side. The phenomenon reminds me of Jane Jacobs on border vacuums.
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Let's say you're building an apartment building with over 20 units (arbitrary number). If it's not obvious that your parking should be opt-in and underground, maybe the development isn't a great idea to begin with?
At Strong Towns, we seem to like quick tools that help with the mental math of cities. For example, I loved the Strong Towns Strength Test which asked, "Take a photo of your main street at midday. Does the picture show more people than cars?" Maybe this parking lot thing is another weather-vane with built in wisdom. It's not to be relied upon, but can give you a good hunch to start from.
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Smart retailers everywhere are experimenting with urban-format stores, despite it forcing them to squish their big-box tendencies. This is probably my favourite so far. I can't tell if it's Québec standing up to Rona and saying, "Thou shalt not parking lot," or if it's Rona deciding that they want to grow their neighbourhood retail presence by forcing smallness upon themselves. Either way, it does the job.
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1) Chuck made a video appearance in Fredericton!
2) Also, I had my first experience of going door-to-door on my street.
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Fredericton is more or less Stars Hollow. It is like a caricature of a Big Town, with more quirky personalities than you could script. Some of my favourite characters are those that have stuck it out the longest. I could list a growing roster of older adult friends I've made this year that I'd love to recruit to Team Strong Towns. Since this is a largely online community, we may miss out on a lot of their wisdom on here. So what I've learned from experience after great experience is just to go make friends with older people! They've been one of my richest sources of information and inspiration in trying to improve my city.
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