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We're changing *everything* about the North American pattern of development. Become a member today! strongtowns.org/membership
Read more in “How Fayetteville’s New Program Makes It Easy To Build Housing” on our site! buff.ly/hxkexmZ
December 3, 2025 at 11:48 PM
It also helps people know where to start—a crucial piece for getting new and local developers into the system. And moving from gatekeeping to guidance also means city staff work hands-on with developers and builders who are eager to build what the city needs.
December 3, 2025 at 11:48 PM
Fayetteville’s new housing program is a great example that illustrates recommendations in our Housing-Ready City toolkits.

The program gets permits out quickly, reducing confusion and friction that prevents housing from being built.
December 3, 2025 at 11:48 PM
It trained us to experience isolation as prosperity and consumption as citizenship.

But if the Suburban Experiment trained us this way, then Strong Towns, this bottom-up movement, is teaching us the opposite. It’s teaching us that we will not outsource belonging.
December 2, 2025 at 4:19 PM
The Suburban Experiment promised prosperity and wealth by spreading out. But the farther we spread out, the more abstract our systems became.

The Suburban Experiment didn’t just change our geography. It rewired our culture.
December 2, 2025 at 4:19 PM
Read more in "Complete Streets in Name Only: How Federal Transportation Policy Undermines Local Outcomes" on our site: buff.ly/6YesJwU
November 26, 2025 at 11:48 PM
By aligning itself with federal funding mechanisms, proponents allowed its priorities to be diluted.

Instead of producing streets that are safe, human-scaled, and integrated into neighborhoods, we’ve ended up with expensive projects that serve as compliance exercises.
November 26, 2025 at 11:48 PM
A citizen-led Crash Analysis Studio examining the crash found that the crossing itself is shadowed by poor lighting, flanked by signage that obstructs visibility, and surrounded by traffic traveling well above the posted 30 mph speed limit.
November 26, 2025 at 11:48 PM
Despite these accolades, a pedestrian — Hellen Jorgensen — was killed at the only designated crossing along the corridor.
November 26, 2025 at 11:48 PM
The Complete Streets movement began with a compelling, people-first vision: streets designed to be safe, accessible, and welcoming to everyone, not just cars.

But as this vision was absorbed into the federal transportation bureaucracy, it became a hollowed-out shell.
November 26, 2025 at 11:48 PM
“To do the experiment, I have to live in it.”

That’s what Monte Anderson told The New York Times when his work refitting his home into a multigenerational “roommate house” was spotlighted.
November 25, 2025 at 11:48 PM
Leawood can follow their example.

Read more in “Low Crime, High Risk: The Deadly Streets of Kansas City’s Safest Suburb” on our site. buff.ly/BJ9D3zK
November 24, 2025 at 11:48 PM
While some of the deadly corridors are getting a redesign, it’s worth asking what can be done sooner or in the interim. Other cities like Charlottesville, Jersey City, and Indianapolis are already making changes to their streets using insights from the Crash Analysis Studio.
November 24, 2025 at 11:48 PM
At least 15 times in the past 5 years, someone walking or riding a scooter or bicycle has been struck by a moving vehicle in Leawood, Kansas. Many of those struck were children.

The parents intuitively recognize that street design is a contributing factor. And it’s time to act.
November 24, 2025 at 11:48 PM
It wasn’t the exact plan the community had hoped for, but it’s still progress. Families are already walking along streets that feel safer, and the Local Conversation isn’t stopping here. They’ll keep pushing for additional improvements so every child can travel safely to school.
November 21, 2025 at 4:19 PM
Not every advocacy effort ends perfectly, but progress counts. Strong Towns Hallowell helped reduce traffic speeds near a local school, showing what a committed community can achieve. They’re hoping that next time, the city will act faster.
November 21, 2025 at 4:19 PM
Walking to school shouldn’t be a death defying stunt. That’s why Strong Towns Hallowell, a group of advocates in the historic Maine city of less than 3,000 people, is working with the city to make it safe. If it’s safe for children, it’s safe for everyone.
November 21, 2025 at 4:19 PM
New corporate landlords target declining markets in the Rust Belt and Midwest, confident they can profit despite local economic conditions.

How did we get here? And if corporate landlords strip communities of local control and regulation gets outsmarted, how can cities actually fight back?
November 20, 2025 at 4:19 PM
It’s the kind of road one might take to reach a truck repair yard, a bar and grill, or a portable toilet rental service.

The language of “improvement” masks the project’s actual function: capacity expansion.
November 19, 2025 at 11:48 PM
McGilchrist Street in Salem, Oregon is not a critical corridor of commerce. It is a low-intensity, low-value industrial street.

So why is it getting $28.4 million in funding for an “improvement” project?
November 19, 2025 at 11:48 PM
First 20-year mortgages, then 30-year loans. Now 50.

Each one buys time, not stability.
November 18, 2025 at 4:19 PM
You can't paper over fragility with longer loans. You can’t make homes affordable by making debt cheaper. You can’t solve a local housing crisis with national financial engineering.
November 18, 2025 at 4:19 PM
Last week, the Trump administration announced support for a 50-year mortgage.

Except, this won't make housing more attainable, more affordable, more stable.
November 18, 2025 at 4:19 PM
This project highlights a broken infrastructure funding system:

In the 2000s, Chester, PA officials pitched a revitalization plan centered around a waterfront soccer stadium, speculative development, and two new highway ramps to improve access from I-95.
November 17, 2025 at 11:48 PM
We addressed these questions in a Strong Towns Member Exclusive Event. To get access to this, and future exclusives, become a member today: buff.ly/ohcZXTp
November 14, 2025 at 11:48 PM