Forward-thinking developers are building communities that take into account the hidden long-term costs of suburban development, and offer a more resilient alternative. But what if that alternative results in homes that are too expensive to be within reach of most Americans? And does it have to?
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Why build a downtown transit system if you’re just going to close it at peak demand?
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Can a master-planned community be consistent with Strong Towns principles of iterative, bottom-up placemaking? We take a tour of Serenbe, Georgia, an experiment in New Urbanism and eco-conscious living on the far outskirts of Atlanta.
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A look at how regulations shape land use in Marietta, Georgia illustrates a vicious cycle: when your zoning code is premised on car-dependency, car-dependency becomes a self-fulfilling prophecy.
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Cobb County, Georgia, has long been all-in on debt-fueled, unsustainable growth, and faces a tough road ahead as poverty grows and its ability to provide services declines. What are some rational responses to this predicament?
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Cobb County, GA is a classic case of misplaced priorities. What could $400 million for a baseball stadium have achieved had it gone toward investing in citizens’ needs and achieving real wealth?
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Communities like Cobb County must address the problems that have plagued them from the outset by encouraging the style of development that produces true value per acre.
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County leadership continually brags about its low tax rate and high amount of services. But if you doubt the fundamental math behind that equation, there’s no need to look behind the curtain because the ratings agencies have given Cobb top marks.
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Why do places like Cobb County, Georgia keep spending more and more, while their municipal budgets go further and further into the red? This week at Strong Towns, we’re going to dig into the tale of Cobb County: a poster child for the Ponzi-scheme approach to growth.
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What would the opposite of the Strong Towns approach look like?
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Savannah, GA fulfills the desire for rural home space in a financially sound urban environment.
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Here's what two Strong Towns members find valuable about life in the small town south, and what they'd like to see change.
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Thomasville, GA took full advantage of a pivotal community moment to ask what its residents wanted and build on their ideas, strengthening its arts and local economy as a result.
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Caution: This post contains graphic images of housing displacement. Viewer discretion is advised.
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It’s apparently acceptable for suburbs to actively discourage – and in this case, actually relocate – low-income renters. By pretending this sort of thing only happens in Brooklyn or San Francisco, we leave the low-income households who used to live in these now-demolished Marietta apartments vulnerable to very real displacement.
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Road transportation is the leading contributor to air pollution, and dense, auto-dependent cities are most at risk.
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Here's a video featuring Chuck Marohn, Joe Minicozzi and Kevin Klinkenberg from an event earlier this year in Savannah. The extended Q&A is a must-watch.
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Marian Liou is the founder of We Love BuHi, a social enterprise organization, that helps to showcase local ethnic restaurants and works with restaurant owners to build a better neighborhood.
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If you're involved with urban planning in any fashion, and you don’t know about Savannah, Georgia, well, you’ve got a big hole in your education.
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We're about to unwind a huge experiment and it's not likely to go smoothly. Anything we want to accomplish is going to require extraordinary creativity, resourcefulness and political prowess. That's where the Incremental Development Alliance comes in.
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