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Strong Towns @strongtowns.org · 13/01/2026

Cheap is not the same as affordable. This is one of the key lessons from this year’s Christmas Cookie Inflation Index, started by Strong Towns President Charles Marohn in 2019. Read more about this year’s CCII on our site. ow.ly/a38u50XWmFN

Text excerpts discuss grocery store consolidation, labor disputes, and impacts on workers after Rainbow's closure.

Chart showing a 3.6% decrease in the Christmas Cookie Inflation Index for 2023, highlighting ingredient price changes over recent years.

A colorful assortment of holiday cookies with a quote about the difference between cheap and affordable overlaid in bold text.

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Strong Towns @strongtowns.org · 09/01/2026

“We keep adding lane-miles to networks we can’t afford to care for, while telling ourselves that the next project will finally deliver the returns the last one didn’t.” —Charles Marohn Read more in “Transportation After the Age of Expansion” on our site. ow.ly/er9l50XUgvy

Concrete bridge structure against a blue sky with clouds, featuring text about successful transportation investment.

Close-up of steel beams extending from a bridge under construction against a blue sky with clouds.

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Strong Towns @strongtowns.org · 08/01/2026

Did you notice this housing trend shift in 2025? Zillow’s 2025 Zeitgeist Report revealed an interesting change: people are searching less for stylistic upgrades and more for homes that can adapt to life’s changes.

Suburban neighborhood with houses and a curved walkway under a partly cloudy sky, highlighting Zillow's housing market search data.

Zillow's 2025 report shows homebuyers favor adaptable homes over stylistic upgrades in search trends.

A modern home with an outdoor dining area next to a pool, highlighting ADU, guest house, and in-law suite options for flexible living.

Text explaining that ADUs, casitas, and similar housing types have existed for generations and are common in neighborhoods.

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Strong Towns @strongtowns.org · 07/01/2026

When you have 20 different "national goals," many of which conflict with each other, then a project that destroys a neighborhood but saves 3.2 minutes of travel time can get the green light. We need a return to the laser focus and careful execution that made the Interstate Highway System possible.

Map showing a proposed highway route in Shreveport, Louisiana, highlighting communities affected to save 3 minutes of travel time.

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Strong Towns @strongtowns.org · 06/01/2026

Which kind of land use is the most financially productive: roads, parking, or buildings? Looking at this comparison, it isn't even close. Info courtesy of our friends at Urban3.

Comparison of land use value in Memphis showing buildings at $45.39 per sq. ft., parking at $1.35, and roads at -$0.81, urging efficient land use.

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Strong Towns @strongtowns.org · 05/01/2026

Trends come and go, but what’s always “in” is humbly observing where your community struggles. What’s always “in” is thinking of the next smallest thing you can do to address that struggle. Then you do it. Do it now. And repeat.

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Lakeshore Rail Alliance @lakeshorerail.bsky.social · 11/12/2025

Great @strongtowns.org Towns video on how designing everything around the car makes life more difficult, especially for those who don't want to or can't drive: youtu.be/tZG-JNvYDPI

youtu.be

8 Grocery Bags, No Car - And One Texas Town’s Transit Journey

YouTube video by Strong Towns

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Strong Towns @strongtowns.org · 08/12/2025

Jane Jacobs published The Death and Life of Great American Cities during a time when the country demolished lively neighborhoods for highways in the name of progress.

Old film stills with captions that read: “The heart of [this neighborhood] was where this road runs behind me, the Cross-Bronx Expressway. And all I could think of was that this didn’t have to be.” Stills and text from New York: A Documentary Film by Ric Burns, excerpted on Patell and Waterman's History of New York YouTube Channel

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Jimmy Hendricks @jimismash.bsky.social · 05/12/2025

On these platforms we hear a lot from people with strong opinions about housing, but a lot of that boils down to "I've lived in housing for most of my life, so I'm an expert." Instead, we should be listening to the people that are actually out there trying to build things:

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Hannah “Charles Barkley” Pechan @hpechan.bsky.social · 05/12/2025

Great thread on the importance of aligning reform with reality.

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Strong Towns @strongtowns.org · 04/12/2025

Statewide zoning reform isn’t producing the wins everyone expected. For example, state law can declare that small backyard cottages are legal. But unless cities can review them, permit them, and builders can finance them, legalization will remain largely symbolic.

Graphic with a duotone photo of a state capitol building in the background. Text reads: “Allowed by right does not equal possible in practice.”

Graphic with a duotone photo of a state capitol building in the background. Text reads: “Statewide zoning reform isn’t producing the wins everyone expected. For example, state law can declare that small backyard cottages are legal. But unless cities can review them, permit them, and builders can finance them, legalization will remain largely symbolic. The permissions may have changed, but the reflexes never adapted.”

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Brent Travels @brenttravels.bsky.social · 04/12/2025

One of the developers on this project presented in Kansas City recently and was really impressive. Some cool work happening in Fayetteville.

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Strong Towns @strongtowns.org · 03/12/2025

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.

Graphic with text: “Housing News: Fayetteville, AK launched a new housing program that gives residents a clearer, faster path to building homes”

Graphic with text: “With a catalog of nearly 30 permit-ready plans, the program reduces uncertainty, speeds up permitting, and lowers costs.” Examples of pre-approved plans are also shown in the background.

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Active Towns @activetowns.bsky.social · 03/12/2025

YAY! IT’S PREMIERE DAY: Pls tune in today, Wed, Dec 3rd, at 2 pm EST for my chat with @healthtepi.bsky.social from Perth, Australia, about the institutional subsidization of motonormativity that directly contributes to epidemic levels of physical inactivity. youtu.be/ZGIatCdRQVY

youtu.be

EPISODE 319 DR. TEPI MCLAUGHLIN: It's No Accident Why We're Inactive

YouTube video by Active Towns

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Strong Towns @strongtowns.org · 02/12/2025

As Charles Marohn wrote just last week: We’re living through our own Gutenberg moment now. And the real lesson is that “the technology didn’t destroy the system; it revealed its rot and accelerated the change that was already underway.”

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mmarginet @mmarginet.bsky.social · 26/11/2025

Lots of news around the injuries and deaths of vulnerable road users in #Winnipeg. Sharing the recording of Transportation For A Strong Town in Winnipeg a few years ago. We have so much work to do. youtu.be/Hq00oq4ygyM?... #wpgpoli #mbpoli #cdnpoli @strongtowns.org

youtu.be

Transportation for a Strong Town: Charles Marohn in Winnipeg

YouTube video by GreenActionCentre

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Tiny Beaches @tinybeaches.bsky.social · 26/11/2025

Put this to the top of your “listen-next” list… 🤩 Diane Alisa is a rising star with her new book: “Love Letter to Suburbia: How to Restore the American Village” #Strongtown @clmarohn.bsky.social @strongtowns.org podcasts.apple.com/ca/podcast/t...

podcasts.apple.com

Has the

Podcast Episode · The Strong Towns Podcast · 2025-11-24 · 59m

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Sightline Institute @sightline.org · 26/11/2025

On Friday, join @parkingreform.org and @strongtowns.org in the #BlackFridayParking tradition of documenting vacant spots on the biggest shopping day of the year. If there's even unused parking when demand is at its peak, why are we saddling our cities with all this asphalt 365 days a year?

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Strong Towns @strongtowns.org · 26/11/2025

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.

Text reads: “The Complete Streets movement began with a compelling people-first vision: streets designed to be safe, accessible, and welcoming to everyone. But as this vision was absorbed into the federal transportation bureaucracy, it became a hollowed-out shell of its former self.”

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Strong Towns @strongtowns.org · 25/11/2025

“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.

Screenshot collage of Monte Anderson and Asia Mieleszko. Text reads: “It’s personal. Whenever I build something, I try to build it for someone I love.”

Screenshot of the New York Times article “Would the Housing Crisis Ease if Boomers Rented Out Their Empty Rooms?”

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Strong Towns @strongtowns.org · 24/11/2025

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.

Text reads: “Leawood is one of the safest, most desirable suburbs in the Kansas City Metro Area. And yet, people keep dying on its streets. At least 15 times in the past 5 years, someone has been struck by a moving vehicle in Leawood, many of them children.”

Text reads: “The parents intuitively recognize what the Crash Analysis Studio makes explicit: street design is a contributing factor. And furthermore, it’s time to act, not just plan for the future.” Screenshots from the article “Leawood parents push for safer streets after 10-year-old boy’s death” with quotations highlighted are also shown.

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Brent Toderian @brenttoderian.bsky.social · 22/11/2025

WATCH: If you really STILL don’t understand how car-dependent suburbia is HEAVILY SUBSIDIZED by downtown & all the urban parts of your city, please watch this EXCELLENT video by #NotJustBikes helped by #UrbanThree & @StrongTowns.org. And then please SHARE it as much as possible. youtu.be/7Nw6qyyrTeI

Series of graphics showing the high tax generation in urban parts of cities, and the negative tax generation relative to service costs in low density parts of cities.

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Strong Towns @strongtowns.org · 21/11/2025

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.

Google Streetview of the intersection of Central and Hillcrest Streets in Hallowell, Maine. Text says: “Walking to school shouldn’t be a death defying stunt. This intersection in Hallowell, Maine is a well-known hazard in the community.”

Google Streetview of the intersection of Central and Hillcrest Streets in Hallowell, Maine. Text says: “Cars speed up this blind hill.” In small font are the words “What’s on the other side? Who knows!”

Google Streetview of the intersection of Central and Hillcrest Streets in Hallowell, Maine. Text says: And a lack of sidewalks makes this especially dangerous for people on foot.”

Screenshot of an article titled “Hallowell group gets grant for traffic calming at intersection” by Ethan Horton.

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Strong Towns @strongtowns.org · 20/11/2025

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?

Screenshot of the Apple Podcasts transcript of Stacked Against Us. These words are highlighted: Okay, okay, I have to catch you up to speed here.

Screenshot of the Apple Podcasts transcript of Stacked Against Us. These words are highlighted: They own 24,000 homes.

Screenshot of the Apple Podcasts transcript of Stacked Against Us. These words are highlighted: Why do their investors believe buying crumbling homes in struggling cities is a winning strategy? Why the confidence that the millions they’ve poured in will come back with interest?

Screenshot of the Apple Podcasts transcript of Stacked Against Us. These words are highlighted: Well, we answered that in the last episode, didn’t we? It’s all those post-2008 incentives, like a zero interest rate policy and quantitative easing, right? Yes, but there’s more to it.

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Strong Towns @strongtowns.org · 19/11/2025

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?

A streetview image of McGilchrist St in Salem, OR. Text reads “This is not a critical corridor of commerce or a growth hotspot. So why is Salem is investing $15.2 million of local funds into an “improvement” project?”

Text reads: “In 2022, the city of Salem, Oregon, received a $13.2 million grant from the federal RAISE program — short for Rebuilding American Infrastructure with Sustainability and Equity — to fund what was officially labeled the ‘McGilchrist Street Improvement Project.’ The project’s total cost was estimated at $28.4 million, with Salem contributing the remaining $15.2 million in local funds.”

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Strong Towns @strongtowns.org · 18/11/2025

Last week, the Trump administration announced support for a 50-year mortgage. Except, this won't make housing more attainable, more affordable, more stable.

A graphic with a key highlighted in light blue. Text reads: “Last week, the Trump administration announced support for a 50-year mortgage. If you care about housing affordability, here's why this doesn't help.”

A graphic with a key highlighted in light blue. Text reads: “Stretching a mortgage from 20 to 30 to 40…to 50 years…doesn’t make a home cheaper. It makes an expensive home look temporarily more attainable. But really, we're just stretching debt.”

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Dix @dixonij.bsky.social · 18/11/2025

Everything about the "Chester riverfront redevelopment plan" that had the Union's PPL (now Subaru) Park at the center of it was doomed to fail. The ramps drop you RIGHT at the parking lots and you have zero incentive to go outside the lots before games or stay in the area after the final whistle.

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Strong Towns @strongtowns.org · 17/11/2025

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.

Photo of the 1-95 ramps in Chester, Pennsylvania. The $77 million “award winning” ramps are circled. An arrow points to another access point half a mile away. This is meant to show how little, if anything, was gained by this project.

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Seth Grimes @sethgrimes.bsky.social · 16/11/2025

This year's World Day of Remembrance and Ride for Your Life were inspiring and uplifting. #WDOR2025 @waba.org @safestreetsdc.bsky.social @strongtowns.org

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Housing Forward Colorado @housingfwdco.bsky.social · 15/11/2025

New from @strongtowns.org: Small, precise zoning code text revisions that can unlock big opportunities for communities facing housing shortages. www.strongtowns.org/journal/2025...

strongtowns.org

How Small Zoning Code Changes Can Unlock Big Opportunity | Strong Towns

Small, precise zoning code text revisions can be a game-changer for communities facing housing shortages.

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San Diego Bikeist @sdbikeist.bsky.social · 14/11/2025

Highways/Freeways are good for connecting far flung places to each other. Running them through cities/neighborhoods was one of the worst ideas of the 20th century -

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Strong Towns @strongtowns.org · 14/11/2025

We built highways to connect our towns. But then we never stopped building them, even when the interstate highway system was finished. This is because we fundamentally misunderstand crucial facts about highways:

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Strong Towns @strongtowns.org · 14/11/2025

“Tell me why I’m full of crap, over coffee.” In 2024, Strong Towns Member Tristan Cleveland posted that message to his local subreddit. He wrote about issues like bike lanes and congestion charges for the local paper, and his opinions were not popular.

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Strong Towns @strongtowns.org · 13/11/2025

To address the housing crisis from the bottom-up, we must understand: 1. We are in a Housing Trap. Housing is an investment. Investment prices must go up. Housing is shelter. When the price of shelter goes up, people experience distress.

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antigoexpat.bsky.social @antigoexpat.bsky.social · 13/11/2025

DIY Roundabout! Good job!

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Strong Towns @strongtowns.org · 13/11/2025

The city of Artesia, California, was struggling with a speeding problem that sent cars hurtling into parked vehicles and even houses. City staff teamed up with Strong Towns Artesia to fix the street design that made the area so dangerous.

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Active Towns @activetowns.bsky.social · 13/11/2025

Strong Towns are inherently Active Towns because they are striving to be naturally walkable and bikeable places, which is why I’m proud to support @strongtowns.org as one of its founding members, and I invite you to join me in growing the movement now: bit.ly/3WPB15m See 🧵 for some fun extras...

bit.ly

Become a Member | Strong Towns

As a Strong Towns member, you’re not just supporting our work, you’re part of it. You just need to care about where you live and want to do something about it.

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Active Towns @activetowns.bsky.social · 13/11/2025

I have had the honor of working with @strongtowns.org since 2012 and have created a fantastic playlist of profile videos, podcast episodes, and even a handful of walking interviews with @clmarohn.bsky.social, which you can access here: bit.ly/StrongTownsP...

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Strong Towns @strongtowns.org · 12/11/2025

We fundamentally misunderstand these things about streets: 1. Streets are a liability, not an asset. 2. Street design is the primary factor in crash prevention and safety. 3. Streets should prioritize human movement, not automobile movement.

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Strong Towns @strongtowns.org · 12/11/2025

Bus stops in Buffalo, New York, often lack any kind of seating. It’s a daily struggle for people who rely on public transit, as they’re forced to wait for long periods of time with nowhere to rest.

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chlurg @chlurg.bsky.social · 11/11/2025

It’s Members Week! I’m incredibly proud to support @strongtowns.org because their work cuts to the heart of so much that’s wrong with our culture—how we build our cities and towns. Join me and become part of a movement dedicated to rebuilding real community! Link here: www.google.com/url?q=https:...

google.com

Redirecting

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Strong Towns @strongtowns.org · 11/11/2025

Parking mandates stifle the creation of homes and businesses. They cost the city money by making destinations farther and farther apart; you end up with more streets and roads per capita, more stormwater runoff to manage, and more liabilities on the city’s books.

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Mike Leake @mikejleake.bsky.social · 11/11/2025

I have largely given up cycling round this corner as too many drivers approached the blind bend too fast to react to the unexpected

Flattened concrete bollard and part of the vehicle that assailed it

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Strong Towns @strongtowns.org · 11/11/2025

Crashes aren’t accidents—they’re the predictable result of streets designed to forgive high-speed driving, even if that means putting people in harm’s way. Take, for example, this area of Portage Avenue in Winnipeg, Manitoba.

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Active Towns @activetowns.bsky.social · 11/11/2025

I have been a member of @strongtowns.org since the very beginning, because their work is changing how we build our cities and towns—one block at a time. And as Chuck and I say frequently, Strong Towns are Active Towns. Please join me in growing the movement during Member Week bit.ly/3WPB15m

bit.ly

Become a Member | Strong Towns

As a Strong Towns member, you’re not just supporting our work, you’re part of it. You just need to care about where you live and want to do something about it.

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Strong Towns @strongtowns.org · 10/11/2025

The Growth Ponzi Scheme: A city builds new infrastructure. That development brings in some quick revenue. But the long-term cost of maintaining all that infrastructure is far greater than the revenue it generates. So when the bills come due, the city doesn’t have any money.

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Ben King @benking.bsky.social · 10/11/2025

This is such an easy solution to a problem and will save lives.

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Kero @keroan.bsky.social · 10/11/2025

The Before looks like every road next to a school in Regina. Funny that 🤔

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