Strong Towns

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.

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. https://ow.ly/a38u50XWmFN

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.

“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. https://ow.ly/er9l50XUgvy

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.

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.

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

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.

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.

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.

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.

Thank you for your donation! We appreciate your support. 💛

8 Grocery Bags, No Car - And One Texas Town’s Transit Journey YouTube video by Strong Towns

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

How a Dying Midcentury Mall Found New Life | Strong Towns Rather than join the ranks of abandoned malls, Indianapolis' Glendale Mall demonstrates the promise of suburban retrofitting and the power of small, steady development over time.

The redevelopment was recently highlighted by @strongtowns.org www.strongtowns.org/journal/2025...

We’re housing fans!!! 🙋

You might be interested in our limited-run podcast called Stacked Against Us, all about the housing crisis and local, bottom-up responses that cities can take on right now. Here’s the link! www.strongtowns.org/stacked-agai...

This is what the (surprise!) fifth and final episode of Stacked Against Us will explore. The episode drops tomorrow; get caught up on the series: buff.ly/YNjf05p

Instead, she championed something different: a more decentralized, diverse, and, yes, messy city life created by many hands, grown from the ground up.

But her argument went deeper than specific land use decisions. Jacobs was calling out the top-down, technocratic mindset: the belief that a few formulas could design a better city than the people actually living in it.

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

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.

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:

Great thread on the importance of aligning reform with reality.

Graphic with a duotone photo of a state capitol building in the background. Text reads: “We outline what it takes to build the culture in our Housing-Ready City toolkits. Get them at strongtowns.org/housingready” The covers of the toolkits are also shown.

Screenshot of the article “Why State Housing Reform is Failing (and What We Can Do About It)”. Read more on strongtowns.org

We have tools and resources to help you get started with building a Housing-Ready City with a culture that nurtures local development.

Get the toolkits: buff.ly/V641Hdg

And read the full article: buff.ly/6SLVwUv

Graphic with a duotone photo of a state capitol building in the background. Text reads: “Legalization is a good first step, but that’s it. It’s a first step. The next is actually building an ecosystem around making these changes possible.”

Legalization is a good first step, but that’s it. It’s a first step. The next is actually building an ecosystem around making these changes possible.

Graphic with a duotone photo of a state capitol building in the background. Text reads: “As Edward Erfurt notes, there are things that state mandates can’t do.” Select text in a screenshot are highlighted.

There are some things that state mandates can't do, like build teach staff members, build trust between the city and builders, and form local partnerships.

Graphic with a duotone photo of a state capitol building in the background. Text reads: “Builders still couldn’t make the projects work. They could not make these work not because the idea was wrong, but because there's no broader system to support small-scale development in place. The smallest of projects must navigate systems designed for the largest of developments. A 600-square-foot backyard cottage must comply with the same development standards, permitting submission requirements, and timelines as a 2,500-square-foot house on a one-acre lot.”

The smallest of projects must navigate systems designed for the largest of developments. A 600-square-foot backyard cottage must comply with the same development standards, permitting submission requirements, and timelines as a 2,500-square-foot house on a one-acre lot.

Graphic with a duotone photo of a state capitol building in the background. Text reads: “While Strong Towns’ Chief Technical Advisor Edward Erfurt was in Flagstaff, Arizona, the city council had declared a housing emergency. Here’s what happened, in his words:” Select text in a screenshot are highlighted.

While Strong Towns’ Chief Technical Advisor Edward Erfurt was in Flagstaff, Arizona, the city council had declared a housing emergency. The city and community were on board with ADUs, but builders still couldn’t make the projects work because there's no broader system of support.

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.”

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.

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

Screenshot of the article “How Fayetteville’s New Program Makes It Easy To Build Housing.” Read more on strongtowns.org

Read more in “How Fayetteville’s New Program Makes It Easy To Build Housing” on our site! buff.ly/hxkexmZ

Graphic with text: “City staff worked with local developers and builders to find and proactively address obstacles to building. Like the city’s sidewalk requirement. Instead of requiring each builder to install a sidewalk themselves, they could instead pay a fee, and the city would later add sidewalks when more homes are built in the area. This makes the process more efficient and coordinated.”

Graphic with text: “The program currently applies only to the downtown and Walker Park neighborhoods, two of the oldest neighborhoods that are well suited for infill development. But the program is a practical example of how thoughtful city interventions can make a real difference.” The map of where the program applies is also visible.

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.

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.

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.

EPISODE 319 DR. TEPI MCLAUGHLIN: It's No Accident Why We're Inactive YouTube video by Active Towns

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

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Back the movement for stronger places today. buff.ly/SUd8A1o

Today is Giving Tuesday. The challenges our cities face are growing, but so is the strength of this movement. Every story we share, every idea we spread, and every tool we build exists because people like you are committed to showing up.

Grainy photo of a photo with tracing paper. Text reads: “But if the Suburban Experiment trained us to experience isolation as prosperity and consumption as citizenship, the bottom-up movement is teaching us the opposite.”

Grainy photo of a photo with tracing paper. Text reads: “We will not outsource belonging.”

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.