Fiscally-informed planning, design, & community engagement to help cities cultivate strong neighborhoods.
Dallas, TX
Joined April 2011
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Verdunity retweeted
America has a killer-car problem. Its roads are nearly twice as dangerous as the rich-world average. It doesn’t have to be that way econ.st/4eaTYGq
Verdunity retweeted
Stages of the Suburban Experiment Ponzi Scheme
Stage 1: Lots of growth. Aren't we smart!
Stage 2: First maintenance bills come due. Ouch, but hey, still growing!
Stage 3: Growth slows, maintenance costs mount, local taxes go up, debt goes up. Pain, but it's only temporary (fingers crossed).
Stage 4: Taxes up significantly, debt up more, yeah, sorry, we can't maintain that park or your street anymore. Need to invest in more growth.
Stage 5: Denial, dysfunction, and blame while things fall apart with more taxes and debt, maybe some predatory fines (note: bondholders are still getting paid).
This article⬇️describes the impact to housing (higher taxes) in Stages 3 and 4. There is worse to come, unfortunately, unless your city breaks free of this trap.
cnn.com/2024/06/11/business/…
Verdunity retweeted
STaR Members: Be like Sweetwater, Texas, winner of the 2023 Vernon Deines Honor Award for Comp Plan, nominated by AJ Fawver @VERDUNITY .
Apply now for a Small Town & Rural Planning Award.
Nominations open thru 1/31/24.
planning.org/divisions/small…
We will be at #APATX23 in Corpus in November! Come and visit us at our booth in the exhibitors' hall, or check out one of our sessions – On Thursday, @planning_guru will be chatting about the challenges small towns face with Wayne Childs of @generalcode
It is an intentional choice to buy a car and live in a larger home. If you make those choices, it's not your city's job (or other taxpayers) to subsidize those choices, especially at the expense of others who don't or can't afford to entertain those same choices.
“It’s not my duty as mayor to make sure you have a parking spot...For me, it’s the same as if you bought a cow, or a refrigerator, and then asked me where you’re going to put them." 💪 fastcompany.com/90952175/thi…
Verdunity retweeted
Car-dependent suburban sprawl is the most publicly expensive and publicly subsidized form of human habitation in human history. And that’s before you even start the math on the big picture costs & consequences. #SuburbanSprawl
Verdunity retweeted
Never forget, multimodal streets (aka “complete streets”) are simply more efficient, because they move, hold & serve more people within the same space. Whether you think streets are just for moving people, or are for a LOT more, they’re just better. HT @NACTO #citymakingmath
Verdunity retweeted
I wrote in @DMNOpinion about the need to update our parking code to better serve neighborhoods. If you care about housing, taxes, the environment, and yes even traffic itself, you should let City of Dallas know you want to eliminate parking minimums.
dallasnews.com/opinion/comme…
Kudos to #NorthCarolina for becoming 1st to make these policy changes statewide. This is the type of bold leadership we need to put U.S. cities back on a path that will keep housing and infrastructure affordable. Single family suburban development does not pencil long term!
Today #NorthCarolina became the first state to change its Residential 1-2 Family Code to the 1-4 Family Code, a reform that opens up:
- lower cost triplexes & quads
- more viable missing middle housing
- more flexible alignment with zoning
It’s potentially revolutionary for affordability. And no one is talking about it.
We enjoyed helping @sweetwater_tx put together their first ever comprehensive plan! Honored to have another plan we worked on recognized as a Vernon Deines winner for the 3rd time in the last 2 years! (Parsons, KS and @CityOfTaylor TX w Lionheart Planning)
#GoCultivate!
STaR 2023 Vernon Deines Honor Award for
Comprehensive Plan: City of Sweetwater (Texas) Comprehensive Plan
@sweetwater_tx @VERDUNITY
STaR Members log onto planning.org & d/l the newsletter to read all about it.
Verdunity retweeted
@txleg is voting soon on important bills that will impact housing affordability, public service/ infrastructure costs, and cities' fiscal health. I asked two city mgmt leaders to join me to discuss a few bills they're most concerned about. Listen & share! verdunity.com/go-cultivate/
In the latest episode of #GoCultivate, @planning_guru chats w Julianna Dodson about the challenges rural communities face and strategies to connect and align resources together to make these places stronger. Lots of resources linked in the shownotes too!
verdunity.com/podcast/ruralt…
William Fulton, former Director of Rice University’s Kinder Institute for Urban Research, Mayor of Ventura, CA, and Director of Planning and Development for San Diego. On this episode of Go Cultivate! we discuss his book; Place and Prosperity. verdunity.com/podcast/place-…
Verdunity retweeted
"Every time I go on a motorway in the U.S., I’m quite scared, because it’s very big. You have a lot of lanes, with heavy traffic, and at a certain speed, the minimum contact can have huge consequences." #DangerousByDesign
washingtonpost.com/transport…
Verdunity retweeted
This is greatness. The #suburbanexperiment might feel great for a while, and it fails in the end. @clmarohn I think you'll like this one.. Let's get back to cultivating #strongtowns dmagazine.com/publications/d…
Great move from Houston to OPEN the street to all users. More please!
“Houston Council just voted to reshape the city's downtown. In a unanimous vote, Council approved a plan to keep 7 blocks of Main Street downtown closed off to traffic permanently.”
Great move, Houston. Awful headline, @Houstonchron. The street is OPEN!
chron.com/news/houston-texas…
Verdunity retweeted
Walkable, mixed-use communities aren't confined to just big cities. We can build them in suburban and rural areas as well by reforming zoning and parking laws!
(Mount Gretna, PA)
ALT wooded path through houses in Mount Gretna, PA
ALT wooded path through houses in Mount Gretna, PA
ALT wooded path through houses in Mount Gretna, PA
ALT wooded path through houses in Mount Gretna, PA
Verdunity retweeted
It’s no longer enough for local governments to be resilient. In today’s volatile world they need to be antifragile. I’ll share my thoughts on how to get that done and I hope you can join me.
.@mayorfunk, fmr. Mayor of @KansasCity & President of Funkhouser & Assoc, wants to position your organization to grow stronger & smarter in the face of adversity.
Learn the Building Blocks of an Anti-Fragile Government @ #TLG2023!
tlg.transformgov.org/tlg2023 @StrategicGovt
Verdunity retweeted
“Parking reform has been building for years—but recently has hit a critical mass, according to experts…The benefits include more reuse of old buildings, reduction in housing costs & suburban sprawl— & even reduced vehicle miles traveled.” @CNUPublicSquare cnu.org/publicsquare/2023/03…