Recent Streetsblog USA posts about Development

Housing Market Study: Idahoans Demanding Walkable Urbanism

By Angie Schmitt | Jun 26, 2013 | No Comments

People in Idaho, Montana, and Colorado want to live in walkable places. That’s the finding of a recent housing market study by Sonoran Institute, a group that supports conservation and community development in the American West. The institute examined thousands of home sales around six cities in those three states since 2009. Only about 16 […]

International Funders Shift Investments Toward Sustainable Transportation

By Tanya Snyder | Aug 13, 2012 | 6 Comments

If you think the United States is doing a bad job shifting toward sustainable transportation, take a look at the developing world. The places with the most to lose from auto-oriented development are doubling down on it — to the enormous detriment of their citizens, especially the poorest. The number of cars in the world […]

The Greenwashing of Sprawl

By Angie Schmitt | Apr 11, 2012 | 13 Comments

Twenty-eight miles southeast of Cleveland, there is a development that bills itself as “Ohio’s FIRST Green Certified Residential Community.” According to the developer, The Lakes of Orange “offers a rare, one-of-kind opportunity to build and live in a green and sustainable environment.” “Reserve your place in eco-history today,” its website implores. “We are accepting lot […]

Mixed-Use Development Delivers Huge Public Returns Compared to Sprawl

By Angie Schmitt | Jan 24, 2012 | 5 Comments

Walkable development pays — that’s the conclusion of a study recently outlined in Planetizen. For cities and towns facing tight budgets — just about everywhere in the United States right now — the smart way to boost tax revenue is to encourage mixed-use, walkable development, as the above graphic amply illustrates. The for-profit development company […]

When “Old and Blighted” Development Beats “Shiny and New” Suburbanism

By Ben Goldman | Jan 3, 2012 | 3 Comments

There are plenty of hidden costs to auto-oriented development: increased levels of air and water pollution, safety risks posed to pedestrians and cyclists. But as Strong Towns Blog points out, some costs are hardly hidden at all. The authors of the comprehensive plan for Brainerd, Minnesota (pop: 13,590) probably thought they had a great idea: […]

Texas Sprawl Builders Funneled Taxpayer $ to Highway That Enriched Them

By Angie Schmitt | Nov 2, 2011 | 11 Comments

If the U.S. had a national transportation policy, this story of corruption and waste never would have happened. But an enduring feature of the current policy predicament is that once federal funding is in the hands of state DOTs, they more or less have a blank check, and the merit of any given transportation project […]

Show More Stories