We are all weathering the same storm, but in different boats


Although Giving Tuesday usually happens near Thanksgiving, today has been designated as a special #GivingTuesdayNow because of COVID-19. We urge you to continue supporting important local charities and relief efforts in your community. And for those of you who can, we ask you to consider also supporting our work, which we believe is truly more relevant and urgent than ever.

Uncategorized

Recap Webinar, Policy to Practice: What does prioritizing pedestrians actually look like?

In our latest installment of our monthly webinar series Complete Streets 301: Putting people first, we heard how Minneapolis has worked to prioritize pedestrians and advance multimodal transportation through advocacy, policy, and safer street design. A recording of the webinar is now available. You can also download a PDF of the presentation or read the brief recap below.

Complete Streets Uncategorized

Why we stayed in the city


Raising children in the city could be considered somewhat novel in a country where the conventional wisdom dictates a move to the suburbs as a family grows. But one family in Washington, DC is glad they stayed in the city, which they believe offers benefits that suburbs often can’t replicate. The challenge is to ensure that more families can reap the same benefits from living and growing in a city.

Uncategorized

How can the change coming to suburbs be harnessed for good?

The notion of the suburbs is nestled deeply in the collective imagination in America, but as we wrote recently, “the suburbs of today aren’t necessarily the suburbs of yesteryear.” In a future that is increasingly urban, where suburbs are rapidly changing, what changes should they consider to stay prosperous and resilient? 

Complete Streets Economic development Form-Based Codes LOCUS Transportation Uncategorized

The Smart Growth America ballpark championship

Here in Smart Growth America’s home of Washington, DC, the city is abuzz with World Series fever as game three gets underway tonight at Nationals Park near the Navy Yard area of the District of Columbia. This got us thinking: which Major League ballparks are in neighborhoods with development patterns most consistent with smart growth principles? 

Uncategorized

Federal transportation policy is undermining any progress on climate


The conversation on climate change tends to focus on a few big things—electric vehicles, renewable energy, putting a price on carbon. But no matter how much progress we make on those fronts, Democrats and Republicans remain deeply committed to antiquated policy that undermines any action we take on climate change: spending billions to build new highways, encouraging more and more driving.

Uncategorized

(Re)coding communities for smart growth


There’s a secret weapon available to communities that want to modernize their zoning codes and help make smarter growth the norm. FBCI’s Codes for Communities is a wide-ranging technical assistance program at Smart Growth America that covers all kinds of zoning reform and guidance on form-based codes. In just two years, the program has had tremendous impact in communities of all sizes across America.

Form-Based Codes Technical assistance Uncategorized