We Used to Just Call These “Houses”

By Daniel Herriges, Strong Towns

We have a way in the modern world of rediscovering things that humans have always done but branding them as something trendy and a little alien. So it goes with the explosion of interest in "tiny houses" as an answer to what ails cities struggling to house and attract people. The ironic thing about tiny houses is that they're nothing new; it's just that, in surprisingly recent memory, our culture had a different name for them. We called them "houses."

Make Room for the Bus: Review

By Bart Hawkins Kreps, An Outside Chance

While new light-rail systems, subways, inter-urban commuter trains all have their place, simply giving buses preference on existing roads could improve urban quality of life while bringing carbon emissions down – long before the planning and approval process for new train lines is complete.

Transitioning from Competition to Collective Resilience

By Tom Llewellyn, Shareable

Paris has been on the cutting edge of a worldwide municipal movement dedicated to making cities more resilient to the physical, social and economic challenges that are a growing part of the 21st century.

Why Detroit Could Be the Engine for the Green New Deal

By Eleanore Catolico, YES! magazine

This resilience and continued drive of Detroiters makes the city the prime location to implement Green New Deal reforms. A national dialogue about the Green New Deal cannot ignore its application on the local level, Onwenu says, especially around reframing how outsiders have touted the city’s revitalization.

Human Rights from the Ground Up

By Jackie Smith, Great Transition Initiative

The initiative to which I have dedicated my energies is the growing global “human rights cities” movement. This movement is a response that has been building from cities around the world to address the growing urgency for protections of people’s basic needs such as housing, water, energy, and other rights.

Rethinking the Good City: Vallejo’s Bold Vision

By John de Graaf, Front Porch Republic

“Fortunately,” he says, “we here in California believe in climate change. We believe in the ecology of our land. We believe that we can make the positive changes that need to be made so that we have life on this planet.” And not only life, but a good life.

Spanish Municipal Elections: What Happened with the New Municipalist Projects?

By Sol Trumbo Vila, Open Democracy

We live in a moment of crisis and opportunity, and the Spanish experience shows that it is possible to incorporate veteran left parties, grass roots activists and disfranchised social democratic and progressive voters into broader transformative processes.

Can a Strong Towns Approach Create Healthier Neighborhoods—Beyond Finances?

By Jacob Moses, Strong Towns

Want to better your community but don’t know where to start? Enter It’s the Little Things: a weekly Strong Towns podcast that gives you the wisdom and encouragement you need to take the small yet powerful actions that can make your city or town stronger.

A Revolution on the Streets of India

By Nidhi Gulati, Sarika Panda Bhatt, Project for Public Spaces

Raahgiri Day is one of the world’s most recognizable open streets events—a weekly event in which residents of Delhi, India reclaim their streets from cars.

What Do we Know about Climate Change Mitigation in Cities?

By William F. Lamb, Carbon Brief

So what do we actually know about climate mitigation in cities? In our new paper, published in Nature Climate Change, we take stock of all the city case studies currently available in the peer-reviewed literature.