This special edition of Upzoned was recorded last week at the 2024 National Gathering. Join host Abby Newsham as she talks to attendees about their efforts to build stronger towns. Interviewees: (0:00) Lisa Hutson, a business owner who’s turning an abandoned factory into a mixed-use community hub. (8:52) Sean Suder, a zoning reform expert who helps cities make their zoning codes more people-friendly and defensible. (18:40) Chris Wyatt, a transit advocate who’s working to make public transit more pleasant and useful. (26:00) Hannah Stanton-Gockel, a bike commuter who uses her marketing experie ..read more

This article was originally published, in slightly different form, on Strong Towns member Will Gardner’s Substack, StrongHaven. It is shared here with permission. In-line images provided by writer. (Source: Casey Lovegrove on Unsplash) Imagine for a moment that a developer came to your town to pitch a new shopping mall, sited on a local stroad. With a little help from the town on zoning and some additional investment in infrastructure to accommodate traffic from the highway, you’d have a shiny, new shopping destination. NIMBYs need not worry — the new mall wouldn’t disturb any existing neighb ..read more

(Source: Megan Kimble.) Megan Kimble is an Austin-based journalist and author who’s spent the last four years writing about urban highways and highway expansion in Texas. Today, she’s joining us to discuss her new book “City Limits: Infrastructure, Inequality, and the Future of America's Highways,” where she explores three highway projects in Austin, Dallas and Houston, and the different groups fighting to stop them. ADDITIONAL SHOW NOTES Megan Kimble (Website). Chuck Marohn (Twitter/X). Join our email list to get all of our content on highway expansion! RELATED STORIES ..read more

Parking reform creates interesting coalitions. This is evident here in my home state of Minnesota where the People Over Parking reform bill is advancing at the legislature. A recent senate hearing brought together advocates for more housing, small businesses, property rights and environmental protection to push for this needed reform. Strong Towns has already thrown its support behind this simple and targeted reform measure. Some groups and individuals don’t support parking reform because they think this is a local issue that the state shouldn’t be involved in. Yet, there is one group that op ..read more

Is there anything worse than spotting a public bathroom at the moment you need one, only to find that it’s locked? Okay, of course there are worse things than that, but it’s up there, isn’t it? Since having kids, I’ve become particularly attuned to the availability — or lack thereof — of public bathrooms in most places. It’s an amenity that’s treated as optional when it should really be treated as utterly vital. It’s kind of funny; over the years I’ve been lucky to visit family across Canada, and some of the memories that stand out most are well-done public bathrooms that were there for me wh ..read more

(Habit for Humanity volunteers. Source: Wikimedia Commons) For many Americans, their initial association with Habitat for Humanity may be “Jimmy Carter on a worksite,” but this international nonprofit has become a multifaceted housing developer that offers a wide range of programs to enable home ownership for a segment of the population that faces many impediments. Habitat’s work in some of the most economically challenged places in America has given the organization a unique perspective on the many aspects of the housing crisis. Strong Towns spoke with Tawkiyah Jordan, Habitat for Humanity’s ..read more

This article was originally published, in slightly different form, on cowriter Monte Anderson’s LinkedIn. It is shared here with permission. All pictures were supplied by the writers. Office buildings are experiencing significant changes due to shifts in work patterns and advancements in technology. Transforming suburban office spaces has become a key focus for architects, urban planners, and developers aiming to create more efficient, adaptable, and engaging work environments. Below, we explore five ideas to consider when retrofitting this type of property: 1. Parking Lot Potential Repurp ..read more

(Colorado State Capitol.) Sausage-making is a squishy business. The more of it you witness, the more you are struck by the pivotal role that unpredictable, almost random factors can play in whether a given policy idea becomes law. Bills with genuinely broad support may fail to be brought up for a vote because of the tricky dance of negotiating competing priorities as the annual session draws to a close. Interpersonal frustrations, animosities, or (on the flip side) friendships and favors owed can be pivotal. A vote needed to push a bill over the finish line can be lost or gained at the final ..read more

I’m in my stay-at-home-mom era and it’s more of an adventure than I ever imagined it would be. Between freelancing, managing naps and changing diapers, I don’t think there’s such a thing as a boring day for a mom. But there are still days when I look out the window of our apartment and feel like something’s missing. I try not to complain too much about living in Waco (having moved on from my just-moved-here-from-a-big-city-and-kinda-mad-about-it era) but there are some moments where I feel like a grumpy teenager, lamenting that “there’s nothing to do here.” That’s obviously not 100% true: The ..read more

“Tell me why I’m full of crap, over coffee.” I posted this message to the local Reddit page for my city, Halifax, Nova Scotia, six years ago. At the time, I was an urban affairs columnist at a local newspaper, where I wrote about issues like bus lanes and congestion charges. I was not popular on Reddit. Every week I was told why I was “asinine,” “absolutely ridiculous,” a “child,” and “so f****** dumb.” I wanted to understand why my columns attracted so much vitriol, and talking to people online wasn’t helping. So I figured, why not? Let’s meet in person. What I learned transformed me. In 201 ..read more