Akron, Ohio’s subsidies for redevelopment of the failed Rolling Acres mall are a textbook case of the sunk cost fallacy: the tendency to examine new opportunities not on their own merit, but in the context of past investments.
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Sometimes the best thing that can come from a project is to have it be a warning beacon for others.
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Chuck Marohn responds to critiques of his essay, Sprawl is not the Problem.
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What do homebuddies do? Homebudding: growing homeyness. (Or in Strong Towns terminology, they create productive places.) Here's a video with examples of homebudding.
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Incrementalism is a sure bet. It can’t fail. That’s the beauty of the Strong Towns message. Make lots of small bets with low risk. Allentown's NIZ project is orderly but smart. But still a gamble.
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Last Thursday I was part of a debate with Randal O’Toole – the self-identified Antiplanner from the Cato Institute – in Lafayette, Louisiana. I’m going to take the opportunity to reflect a little bit on things from my perspective.
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Following a Curbside Chat earlier this year, Waco, Texas, is taking some difficult and important steps towards getting their financial house in order.
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Dear Milwaukee, learn from the mistakes you didn't make. Don't build an entertainment district. Instead, let your city develop incrementally.
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I don't yearn for another bubble. I know the pain that will eventually come from that. What I want is a world that is real, one with a solid financial foundation that we can use to build strong cities, towns and neighborhoods.
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We have obsessive attention to detail on the things that matter to us and only pay superficial heed to those that don't.
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Happy Jane Jacobs Day! (And now Urban Renewal Remembrance Day as well.) Today would have been the activist and urban theorist's 99th birthday, and it seems like every year, evidence continues to amass of her wisdom, foresight, and appeal to all corners of the political spectrum.
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The megaproject is the least-dumb idea that consensus provides.
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A successful federally funded project to build handicap accessible street crossings.
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Strong Towns member blogs from around the country spotlight examples of how misguided development policy undermines a community's interests. Suburban ruins in California; deadly stroads in Pennsylvania; the faulty argument in favor of keeping an urban freeway in Dallas; doing the math on land use in suburban St. Louis; asking whether local government is serving its poorest constituents in Cedar Rapids; and calling out official corruption in Sarasota.
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Drunk driving is a behavior on which we spend a lot of effort discouraging and yet somehow largely ignore the importance of design. This article asks whether America has a drinking problem or a driving problem? What's worse yet, is that through things like minimum parking requirements and zoning we are virtually coding a problem into existence.
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The Monday Member Blogroll brought to you by Jesse Bailey.
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Cities are complex places. We need to embrace the complexity, and the difficult and sometimes painful feedback that comes along with it, if we want our cities to grow strong and resilient. Best of Blog 2014.
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