Hey y'all,

I know this is probably a long shot but I want to make sure those who want to help can!

If your in this reddit I assume your someone who wants your city to be the best version of itself with all travel modes being safe! If you happen to be a resident of Pflugerville, Texas or are willing to come down and help us, come check out Pflugerville Urbanists! We would love for y'all to check us out!

https://www.facebook.com/share/g/m5NTpjz31rZknhCV/

What are the strong towns recommendations for active transportation plans?

Hi there, I'm getting into the "let's make our town/cities/communities better" and was wondering what are the main differences between the 2 approaches, if any.

thanks!

Chuck is coming to Longmont, Colorado this Thursday September 12 to present on “Escaping the Housing Trap”. The event begins at 6:30PM (doors at 6:00) at Heart of Longmont Church (350 11th Ave. Longmont, CO 80501). I have a few extra tickets I will give away for free if you're local, just send me a reddit DM!

Event details: https://www.strongtowns.org/eventspage/longmont-co-escaping-the-housing-trap

A Norfolk VA community was using visibility flags to help local pedestrians cross a dangerous stroad.

Do visibility flags work to reduce pedestrian injuries?

https://www.wavy.com/news/local-news/norfolk/dangerous-norfolk-intersection-raises-concern-about-pedestrians-crossing/amp/

Creating a new r/YIMBYGeorgia subreddit to help push for housing abundance in the state of Georgia. If you're in Georgia, I encourage you to join and get plugged in locally. Come hang out and organize with us!

Chuck posted this tweet in support of an anti-housing politician in Pittsburgh. I know he’s posted about Wall Street’s role in American housing, but this seems like a huge departure to start being anti-housing. Is there anything I’m missing here?

We learned after COVID that so many jobs can be done virtually if high speed internet is available. Progressive Insurance was like 95% at the height. This has allowed companies to hire anywhere that has a high speed line. Urbanization is great in theory, but packing more people per spare acre increases the value of the land and housing. Cities constantly regulate and constrain business and industrial operations that cause them to move to more business friendly environments (as the South with Megafactories just outside the city causing employees to drive. This removes the high paying low education/low skill opportunities from the city core. McDonald’s is not a career option, yet lack of other opportunities have made it so.

My thought? There are thousands of smaller towns withering away with homes for less than $100k that if they had high speed internet remote employees could prosper in. Maybe lower wages but if they owned their home they can garden etc. we can leverage the vastness of our Nation and reap the rewards of lower cost of living in small towns. Based on that further development can follow Strong Towns philosophy. Large cities are lost causes.

Hello! I'm a Bolivian city planner and in fact a new learner about city planning in The States. I have been reading some books related to Walkability places, the Color of Law, a little here, a little there, in order to have a better understanding of how cities work here.

However, I would like to participate in bookclubs regarding city planning and specifically books from Strong Towns.

One representative of ST is coming to the city where I live ( Bellingham) on October to talk about the book "Scaping the Middle House" and I would like to read the book before that. Would be great to have a group to join me and have some discussion about the book each couple of chapters or so. Please reach out to me if you are interested!

“It mostly goes to street rehab. So basically, when we keep your TABOR refund (as you’ve said we can), we use it for the streets. We use it to fill pot holes. We wanna use it for something that we think we can all agree on and we want it to be extremely transparent: Where does your TABOR refund go, where did your fifteen dollars and seventy one cents go? It went to fill potholes and keeping our streets in good condition.”

I'm glad they're transparent about this, it makes my job easier.

If you're being honest, you look at the people involved in this movement and the r/fuckcars movement and a lot of them are political radicals with an axe to grind. I know there are plenty of genuine people in this group. But I think the idea of flipping suburbia on its head and banning or restricting cars is little too appealing to people who would like to see their political enemies suffer.

Granted, this doesn't mean that it's the primary motivation for being in this movement. Human psychology is complex. But I am indeed saying that this urge figures prominently or somewhat prominently into the mix.

What are y'all's thoughts on pay for council members and mayors generally? Some cities' officials are paid like a full time job while others get token or no payments. Dallas, TX pays councilpersons $60k/year while Arlington, TX next door pays $2400/year.

Personally, I'm leaning toward councilors should always be paid a livable wage so that A) they can devote the time necessary to do a good job and B) people of modest means aren't priced out. In the Arlington example above, nobody can serve in these roles unless they work another job, are supported by someone else like a spouse or a retirement check, or are abusing the position for personal gain.