
The “Strong Towns” Book Is Out Today - Breadmaker
https://www.strongtowns.org/journal/2019/9/30/strong-towns-book-release-day-satbook
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andys627
If you do one thing, email your city council members and ask them to eliminate
parking requirements. Here's a sample email which also explains why:

Parking minimums should be eliminated or significantly reduced in central
neighborhoods where we've invested in bike lanes, walkability, and transit.

By insisting that we dedicate space for cars even in areas where residents
have expressed interest in walking, biking, and using transit, parking
minimums "build in" demand for driving and make it easier for people to drive
than to use the transit alternatives they prefer.

Parking minimums also make housing more expensive even as our region faces a
critical affordable housing shortage. The housing crunch disproportionately
affects the poorest among us, who often don't have cars or struggle to afford
gas. Why are we requiring these critically affected people to shoulder the
cost burden created by parking minimums?

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pwinnski
This looks like it's chock-full of interesting ideas, but who is the target
audience for the book? I don't believe I have much control over how my city is
organized.

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closeparen
City governments are really accessible. There are regular public hearings
where _anyone_ is entitled to monologue at decision-makers for several minutes
at a time, sometimes with hilarious results. I mean, could you imagine the
President being required to sit through 3-minute-per-person public comments?

Elections are swayed by tiny numbers of votes. Power rests with small groups
of retired homeowners who bother to show up. And decisions made there have a
greater impact on your life than most elements of federal policy.

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tmh79
>> Power rests with small groups of retired homeowners who bother to show up.
And decisions made there have a greater impact on your life than most elements
of federal policy.

so much this, young americans are systemically disenfranchised by how local
governments are run

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mieseratte
> so much this, young americans are systemically disenfranchised by how local
> governments are run

If by "routinely disenfranchised" you mean "regularly fail to show up to vote"
then I would agree with you. Perhaps with the exception of university students
registered at a parental home, I don't see how one could claim young Americans
are materially disenfranchised in regards to local elections.

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coryrc
Council meetings are held when normal people need to be at work.

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mieseratte
In my neck of the woods they are held in the evenings, well after a typical
9-5 working day.

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tfandango
Same, I agree with the above poster re: failing to show up. I was involved for
a number of years in an attempt to get a aquatic center built in my city to
support both club and high school swim teams. By far the most difficult thing
about it was getting kids (who would be the largest beneficiaries) to show
support in city council meetings.

Ironically, we are almost there, but my swimmer is about to graduate and will
probably never swim in the pool.

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hlfshell
I finished it last night. I wish a number of the arguments had provided more
numbers to back up its points. In one section early on it uses a chart of city
cost/profit from a given works, using a real world example, and then presents
a chart to show its flow- but doesn't give any numbers on the axis. I liked
the arguments presented in the book, but this made my brain worry about
cherrypicked data.

Also, the entire last chapter could be cut entirely - it was an unneeded
addition to the book.

All in all, a decent read, some interesting arguments.

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mark-r
I've always enjoyed the Strong Towns blog posts that occasionally get featured
here on HN. Is the book a repackaging of the blog or is it new material? How
does it compare?

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burlesona
The book is all new material, but you could also think of it as a distillation
of ten years of blog posts into something you can read in a day.

If you want to get your head around the entire idea of Strong Towns so you can
decide how you feel about it, the book is the fastest and easiest way to do
it.

Be warned, though, once you start to see the dysfunction in our cities, you
can't unsee it.

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bandrami
Just finished it. Simultaneously infuriating and persuasive.

