Strong Towns

Building third places—social spaces that foster community interaction and productive engagement—doesn't need to be expensive or take years to enact. In this session, Jonathan Zoccoli and Azael Alvarez, landscape designer and project manager, respectively, at Better Block alongside Carlee Alm-LaBar of Strong Towns, will teach practical strategies for creating third places and getting the community buy-in you need to do so. Join us on October 31, 2024 at 12pm CT for this live session, or check out the recording afterward. https://buff.ly/3C4xYPC

Monday Motivation: Time to unmask what’s really been haunting your town.

One of the reasons people protest the elimination of parking mandates is because they’re afraid that it’ll take choices away from them. But reducing often-arbitrary mandates doesn’t take choices away — it gives people more. It gives people the choice to live in smaller, more affordable houses on smaller lots. It gives businesses the choice of how much parking to provide. It gives cities the choice use valuable space more productively.

You might be able to pave the road, but will you be able to maintain it indefinitely? Even if you could, is that really the best use of your limited funds? When deciding whether to start a new infrastructure project, local officials need to consider the long-term costs associated with it.

What choices could your community make if parking mandates weren’t in the way? One of the reasons people protest the elimination of parking mandates is because they’re afraid that it’ll take choices away from them. But reducing often-arbitrary mandates doesn’t take choices away — it gives people more. It gives business owners and developers the choice in how much parking they want to pay to provide. It gives people the choice to buy smaller, more affordable houses on smaller lots. It gives cities the choice to use their land in more productive ways.

Many parents are understandably worried about their children’s safety on Halloween — combining excited children running around in the dark with dangerous street design is a recipe for disaster. But trick-or-treating can also be important to neighborhood cohesion: The shared activity builds community bonds that make neighborhoods safer, stronger, and more pleasant. So, here are a few ways you could make your neighborhood streets safer, so your kids can trick-or-treat without fear.

When elements commonly used in highway design — such as wide lanes, unused shoulders, turn lanes and clear zones — are incorporated into the design of an urban street, drivers perceive an extra margin of safety. Drivers consistently respond to that added margin of safety by increasing speeds. When placed in a complex environment with unpredictable behavior — such as cars making turns or people biking and walking near traffic — high-speed design greatly increases the risk of crashes.

A strong town treats its land as a valuable and limited resource that must not be wasted. A strong town also treats its transportation systems as means of building community wealth, not ends in themselves. Towns that have parking mandates and subsidies fail to do either.

Feeling fired up about Crash Analysis Studio, but don't know how to bring it up with your community? Here are some ideas to help you get started.

After a car crash in her San Antonio, TX community, Yamini Karandikar nominated the incident for the Crash Analysis Studio. Participating in this process not only led to safer streets in San Antonio, but also brought the community together to address future challenges with a Strong Towns approach. In this Local-Motive session, Karandikar, alongside Edward Erfurt (head of the Crash Analysis Studio program) will share their journey, insights, and practical strategies for building safer streets and bringing neighbors together around that shared goal. They will delve into the process of crash analysis and how it can be a catalyst for community-led change. Join us on October 24, 2024 at 12pm CT for this live session, or check out the recording afterward. To get tickets: