Designing for Resilience: Policies Are Great, but Design Is What Will Change Your Life

Citizens and city leaders striving to pivot from car-based design to more resilient models of growth and development need to start planning our places with the end in mind—the “end” being everyday life, itself.

Owens, Top StoryTiffany Owens ReedJanuary 10, 2023urban design, biking, fragility, texas 2 Comments

Not a Stranger, Not a Friend: The Second-Ring Relationships Our Cities Need More Of

Relationships with neighbors once made up an important part of our social fabric, forming the basis for civic collaboration and local problem solving. Here’s how we can get those relationships back.

Owens, Top StoryTiffany Owens ReedDecember 6, 2022community, public space, neighborliness, coffee shops, texas 2 Comments

Speed Traps Have No Long-Term Effect on Speeding

This Strong Towns member was skeptical of claims that a speed trap had successfully slowed the cars on a local street…so, he conducted a speed study. Here are his results.

NewsSeairra JonesNovember 14, 2022streets, speeding, speed, enforcement, law enforcement, member story, transportation, texas, safe and productive streets, member week 21 Comments

"Should I Protest My Property Taxes?"

The process for appealing your property taxes can be obscure, even when the appeal is merited (and more often than not, it is). This simple guide will help prepare you for when your property is next assessed.

Top StorySeairra JonesJuly 26, 2022property tax, Just Accounting for Health, local government, homeowners, North Carolina, urban3, texas, transparent local accounting, home buyer, michigan, local economy Be the First to Comment

City Wants To Transform 14-Mile-Long Stroad

This vital corridor in El Paso is getting a makeover!

Top StoryRobert SteutevilleJuly 7, 2022road diet, streets, Street Design, streetscape, roads, safety, success stories, transportation, transit, suburban retrofit, texas, stroad, safe and productive streets Be the First to Comment

TxDOT Proposes to Dig a $1 Billion Infrastructure Grave in Downtown Dallas

For years now, TxDOT has considered removing Interstate 345 in downtown Dallas…only to conclude their study by coming up with a much worse plan.

Podcast, Top StoryStrong TownsJuly 6, 2022podcast, infrastructure, transportation, transportation spending, highways, freeways, freeway removal, urban freeways, DOT, upzoned, texas 6 Comments

TxDOT Ignores El Paso’s Needs To Make a Grab at Infrastructure Dollars

TxDOT’s latest boondoggle: a highway expansion that threatens to cut right at the heart of downtown El Paso.

Top StoryRobert StorchMarch 31, 2022highways, freeway widening, freeways, urban freeways, transportation, infrastructure, infrastructure spending, texas 1 Comment

In Hospitable Cities, You’re Welcomed by Design

Some neighborhoods can feel downright hostile, especially to outsiders. But many places have become this way due to inhospitable design, not inhospitable people.

Top Story, OwensTiffany Owens ReedMarch 31, 2022placemaking, urban design, Neighborhood Design, suburban experiment, human scale, walkability, public space, food trucks, neighborhood revitalization, traditional development pattern, texas, neighborhoods 1 Comment

Can a Houstonian Approach to Homelessness Work in L.A.?

L.A. is facing an increasing problem with homelessness. Can it learn something from the efforts of another large Sunbelt city?

Podcast, Top StoryStrong TownsMarch 9, 2022podcast, housing, housing crisis, upzoned, texas, homeless, home buyer, california Be the First to Comment

Texas DOT Doubles Down on Urban Highway Expansions

San Antonio residents were working on a downtown road diet and neighborhood redevelopment…until TxDOT decided to completely ignore the will of 78% of local voters.

Top StoryJay StangeFebruary 8, 2022DOT, road diet, roads, streets, texas, stroad, end highway expansion, safe and productive streets 1 Comment

Snow Day: Can Your City Pass the Winter Test?

The effects of winter weather on your town is one way to gauge its resilience.

Top Story, OwensTiffany Owens ReedJanuary 27, 2022snow, small towns, natural disasters, public space, texas, antifragility, new york, public transportation 5 Comments

American Suburbs Are a Horror Movie and We’re the Protagonists

Walking alone to the grocery store is, for me, like walking through a creepy hallway at night. Why? Because America is filled with liminal spaces.

Top StoryShina ShayestehJanuary 13, 2022walkability, pedestrians, suburban development pattern, suburban experiment, psychology, texas, safety 19 Comments

Love Letters to Your Neighborhood: 5 (Perfectly Legal) Guerilla Art Projects for the Whole Family

These temporary artwork instillations (that anyone can create) are a great way to connect with your neighbors, and help them connect with your community, in turn.

Top StoryMary Elizabeth PhillipsDecember 8, 2021arts, neighborliness, community, texas, neighborhoods 2 Comments

Lessons from Magnolia’s “Village”

Surprise, surprise: Americans love dense, walkable places connected to a sense of history.

Top Story, OwensTiffany Owens ReedNovember 30, 2021urban design, tourism, master planned, texas 3 Comments

A Community Forced to Play the Infrastructure Squid Game

Residents of this Houston neighborhood thought they were winning the lottery with a government-sponsored infrastructure project. Instead, they endured a seven-month-long nightmare.

Top StoryJuan Antonio SortoNovember 30, 2021streets, neighborhood change, infrastructure maintenance, race, texas, hurricanes, infrastructure, neighborhoods 3 Comments

Is it 2021 or 1961 at America's DOTs?

Here’s a roundup of five highway boondoggles that are threatening neighborhoods right now in the U.S. Think of it as a hall of shame.

Herriges, Top StoryDaniel HerrigesSeptember 16, 2021highways, freeway widening, freeways, urban freeways, race, texas, south carolina, neighborhoods, oregon, louisiana 5 Comments

A Highway Cap in El Paso: False Road to Equity?

El Paso and TxDOT are using concepts aimed at making things better for people impacted by urban highway projects...to justify something that makes them worse.