• Principles to guide infrastructure investment for the future

    When you see news about the infrastructure around us, remember your own personal budget: how would you wisely spend your resources of time and money?
    How have your finances been lately? I imagine that the pandemic and this recent period of unprecedented inflation impacted your bank account in some not so positive ways. The recent state of the economy has also seriously impacted how governments and developers handle their finances when it comes...Read more

  • Financial fragility is to blame for Jackson’s water crisis

    Note: This article first appeared on Strong Towns .​ Public Square editor Robert Steuteville is on leave through the last week of October. I’ve spent some time trying to understand what has happened with the water system in Jackson, Mississippi. For locals who have lived through the long unfolding...Read more

  • The great suburban Ponzi infrastructure experiment

    Charles Marohn's new book presents a way out for American cities that are trapped in a vicious cycle: Build neighborhoods one small step at a time rather than going straight to utopia.
    Planner and engineer Charles Marohn has a knack for coining words and phrases that encapsulate big problems in the built environment. One is “stroad,” a thoroughfare that combines the characteristics of roads and streets and serves neither purpose well. Others include “the great suburban experiment...Read more

  • Transforming an industrial-warehouse district

    Opportunity Zone finance is helping to kickstart development around an underutilized section of the Beltline in Atlanta.
    Southwest Atlanta, near the city’s famous Beltline, is an area in transition. Some of the historic neighborhoods to the north and east, inside this section of the Beltline, have experienced a wave of real estate activity in the last few years—but areas outside of the Beltline are still suffering...Read more