The Strong Towns Podcast

Welcome to our Final Four round of the Strongest Town Competition. We invite you to listen to the following interview that Charles Marohn, president of Strong Towns, conducted with representatives from a town in our contest. Once you've finished listening to it, along with its competitor, Hoboken, NJ (they'll be released at the same time), please visit strongtowns.org/strongesttown to vote. Ryan Whaley (local business owner) and Eric Wobser (City Manager) discuss Sandusky's supportive community, the amenities that their waterfront location offers, the historic architecture, and the walkable neighborhoods. They also share their community's challenges with connectivity and creating a welcoming atmosphere for diverse residents.

Welcome to our Final Four round of the Strongest Town Competition. We invite you to listen to the following interview that Charles Marohn, president of Strong Towns, conducted with a representative from a town in our contest. Once you've finished listening to it, along with its competitor, Sandusky, OH (they'll be released at the same time), please visit strongtowns.org/strongesttown to vote. Phil Jonat, a lifelong New Jersey resident, talks about how Hoboken is a place where people can raise kids and grow old, plus the amazing Italian food, gorgeous riverfront, diverse businesses, and vibrant downtown. He also opens up about the challenges of affordability in this desirable city.

Chuck and Rachel discuss a recent trip to South Carolina, a week of open SlackChats and the March Madness competition. Plus, Chuck shares insights on economist, Tomas Sedlacek.

Strong Towns staff, Rachel Quednau, Jason Schaefer and Yuri Artisbise discuss the Strongest Town contest and share their personal predictions for the winners. Jason provides an update on the current standings. Learn more at strongtowns.org/strongesttown. CityLab has dubbed it "perhaps the most adorable bracket-style competition around."

Chuck is back from vacation. He and Rachel discuss pedestrian crossing and safety issues, along with the Strongest Town march madness competition, plus an upcoming live broadcast from the staff.

Chuck Marohn steps back to look at the Growth Ponzi Scheme and where it has taken us today. How do we currently deal with slow-downs in growth? How do anti-fragile, resilient, and fragile communities handle challenges differently? Chuck pulls from economists and scientists like Tomas Sedlacek and Jared Diamond to consider what the end of the Growth Ponzi Scheme might look like. It ain't pretty.

Juan Mullerat and Steve Wright run an urban design firm called PlusUrbia. In this interview hosted by Rachel Quednau, they discuss their newest project, helping to transform an urban highway --Calle Ocho in Little Havana, Miami-- back into a walkable boulevard. Learn more about the project and get involved at myCalle8.org.

Jason Schaefer makes a guest appearance along with Rachel Quednau while Chuck is out on vacation. They discuss a recent trip to Puerto Rico, the upcoming Strongest Town March Madness competition, membership and Tina Fey's book, Bossypants.

On this Leap Day, Chuck and Rachel discuss housing finance policy (last week's theme), a recent staff retreat to Disneyland, and a new membership page, plus behavioral economics.

Daniel Kay Hertz is a Senior Fellow at City Observatory and a graduate of the Harris School of Public Policy at the University of Chicago. He joins the Strong Towns Podcast this week to talk about housing finance and how it impacts disadvantaged neighborhoods.

Monte Anderson of Options Real Estate is a developer from the wrong side of town. Instead of fleeing for greener pastures and easier money, however, he stayed in his community and worked to make it better. Here's how he did it.

Ian Rasmussen is an attorney, certified planner and an urbanist from New York City. He's also a board member at Strong Towns. And once upon a time, Ian and his family tried to purchase and renovate a mixed use building in Dobbs Ferry, NY. This podcast is all about the frustrations of a really intelligent and sophisticated person attempting to do something rather straightforward -- and needed -- and being stymied at every turn.

This week we're examining the impacts of federal housing finance policy, Chuck is joined by Christopher Jones and Sarah Serpas of Regional Plan Association, a New York-based non-profit organization that recently released a report titled The Unintended Consequences of Housing Finance. You can follow our ongoing conversation on housing finance at www.strongtowns.org/housing.

This week we are joined by the President and Founder of Small Change, Eve Picker. Small Change is working to help real estate developers doing incremental work in core neighborhoods find the capital they need while making it easier for individuals to make small investments in improving their neighborhoods (and share in the returns on that investment). This is an exciting podcast about the future of real estate finance. For those wanting to know more, Small Change is hosting a real estate crowdfunding conference on March 24. You can also follow them on LinkedIn.

On their weekly podcast, Rachel and Chuck discuss the way the Strong Towns movement and incremental development can be a path toward inclusion for women, minorities, and other marginalized communities. They also talk about a recent trip to Burlington, VT and an upcoming visit to Los Angeles and Pasadena, CA. Also included in this episode, book and movie recommendations from Chuck and Rachel.

Are your taxes paying for the cost of your street? Nitin Gadia has created an interactive mapping tool to explore the answer to this question in his hometown of Ames, Iowa. Nitin works for MapStory, an open platform for organizing our knowledge about how the world changes over time and space. We highly recommend that you visit http://www.strongtowns.org/journal/2016/2/11/podcast-nitin-gadia-on-mapping to view the map we discuss in this episode, as well as a guide for creating your own map and more from Nitin.

Chuck and Rachel discuss upcoming trips to Burlington, VT and Los Angeles, as well as the Flint water crisis and pipe maintenance issues throughout the country. They also touch on a couple books about the Nat Turner rebellion and the Holocaust.

From a beautiful little neighborhood in Oklahoma City, Chuck Marohn interviews ULI members Shane Hampton and Jane Jenkins in front of a live audience. The conversation is about Oklahoma City past, present and future.

Rachel and Chuck recap #NoNewRoads Week and discuss Chuck's busy week of travel in January, including a trip to Oklahoma City, Deerfield Beach, FL and the City Engineer's Association of Minnesota Conference, where he encountered some backwards messaging but was able to sway some engineers toward the Strong Towns message. Also, they take a brief look at Donald Trump and his appeal to the wage earning class.

Susan Handy of the University of California at Davis speaks on induced traffic and impacts of fighting congestion through adding capacity. A summary of the findings can be found here.

Former Mayor of Seattle, Michael McGinn, discusses the tunneling project currently underway in Seattle, the discussions that led to the decision to proceed with a tunnel and subsequent actions by the governor, legislature and city to deal with the aftermath. McGinn also discusses the tradeoffs of how we fund transportation and what it will take to start spending less and getting more.

A conversation with Kevin Blanchard, former Public Works Director for the city of Lafayette. Kevin was part of the conversations in Lafayette involving Strong towns and Urban 3. He was instrumental in making the conversation over the fiscal realities of transportation spending part of the broader community dialog. His insights come from experience and echo many of the things being discussed by public works directors around the country.

Chuck and Rachel discuss this week's #NoNewRoads campaign. They touch on the new federal transportation funding bill, issues in Texas, Minnesota and Washington state, as well as a fascinating new tool you can use to look at transportation funding priorities in your own state.

Rachel Quednau interviews Randy Simes all the way from Seoul, South Korea, to talk about the Ohio Department of Transportation’s expected announcement of a major shift toward “fix it first” policy, and away from new road projects. Randy is the founder and managing editor of UrbanCincy, news sources for Cincinnati’s urban core, as well as an urban planner who has worked around the world.

Special guest Joe Minicozzi joins Chuck Marohn to talk about the movie The Big Short and their own experience with big money and shady land deals.

Member Support Specialist, Jason Schaefer, makes a guest appearance on the podcast along with Rachel Quednau, to discuss the week's events in Santa Rosa, CA, as well as new members, favorite podcasts, and the book, The Four Hour Work Week. Plus they share an announcement about an upcoming Strong Towns campaign.

Strong Towns is having a board meeting this weekend and Chuck's thoughts are on the changes the organization has made over the past year and what we face in the future. This episode is about the organization behind the Strong Towns movement.

Chuck and Rachel discuss a recent trip to Olympia, WA for a Curbside Chat, plus diversity (or lack of it) in local government. They also discuss the question, related to a recent Strong Towns story: Should local governments run golf courses and other public amenities or not?

After listening to the lecture series Redefining Reality: The Intellectual Implications of Modern Science, Chuck has some questions about whether or not modern economics, with it's Keynesian paradigm, is stuck at the Newtonian phase and is in need of an Einstein.

Chuck and Rachel return from a holiday break with updates on the Strong Towns website, a look at 2016 and some travel this week to Washington.

Chuck and Rachel discuss new members, an upcoming trip to Pennsylvania and the Syrian refugee crisis. Chuck also recommends Great Courses on Audible.com and the book, Asia's Cauldron.

Chuck Marohn interviews Joe Minicozzi of Urban Three about parking minimums for #BlackFridayParking week.

Chuck Marohn interviews John Anderson about parking minimums for #BlackFridayParking week.

Chuck Marohn interviews Donald Shoup, Distinguished Research Professor in Urban Planning at the University of California, Los Angeles. His book, The High Cost of Free Parking, and his extensive research into the effects of parking on cities have made him a prominent voice on these topics. He joins Strong Towns for #BlackFridayParking week.

Our 1000th Member is Laura Nottingham from Omaha, Nebraska.

Author, speaker, social critique and friend of the Strong Towns movement Jim Kunstler joins the podcast to provide an update on The Long Emergency, America's ongoing struggle with economic turmoil, energy depletion and climate craziness.

Jason Schaefer and Rachel Quednau chat about the diversity of Strong Towns members, what it's been like working for the organization, and what they're looking forward to as the organization grows.

One of our more colorful contributors is Johnny Sanphillippo, the author of the blog Granola Shotgun. Johnny joins Chuck to contrast three cities in New Jersey and, in the process, gain some insight into what will follow America's Suburban Experiment. Become a member of Strong Towns this week by going to www.strongtowns.org/membership.

We kick off the #1000Strong member drive with an interview of Strong Towns Founder and President Chuck Marohn by Board Member John Reuter. John asks Chuck about the current state of the movement, some of the big things coming up, the inside on new staff members and some personal questions on his commitment to change. Go to www.strongtowns.org/membership to become a member today.

This week we chat with Placemaker Scott Doyon (Facebook / Web) about the Oakhurst Porchfest, a grassroots music festival held in Decatur, GA. Scott also wrote about the event on the Placemaker's blog.

In a solo monologue this week, Chuck talks about efforts to improve the sound quality of the podcast and then provides an analysis of traffic congestion in the hierarchical road network theory.

Chuck and Rachel discuss last week's trip to Maine, upcoming events this week in Austin, the Curbside Chat booklet, and even waterparks. Plus get Chuck's latest book recommendations.

Author, civil engineer and University of Minnesota professor David Levinson (Twitter) joins the podcast to talk about his new book, The End of Traffic and the Future of Transport, which he co-authored with Kevin Krizek. You can read Professor Levinson regularly on his blog, The Transportationist, as well as on Streets.MN.

Chuck and Rachel discuss last week's staff retreat and Member Meetup in Madison as well as Chuck's upcoming events in Maine this week. In addition, we discuss Chuck's recent reading list and welcome several new and renewing Strong Towns members.

This week, Strong Towns' staff (Chuck, Jason and Rachel) got together in Madison, WI for a speaking engagement and a staff retreat. We also hosted a Strong Towns meet up. This podcast episode features several Strong Towns members.

Toby Dougherty, city manager for Hays, Kansas, talks about his city's efforts to implement a Strong Towns approach.

Rachel and Chuck discuss last week's events in Ontario, Canada and Peoria, IL, the most beautiful city in North America and an exciting trip through US customs, plus the schedule for Chuck's trip to Idaho and Indiana this week and the book, The Selfish Gene.

This week's podcast is a conversation with one of the country's leading urban thinkers, Joe Minicozzi of Urban 3. Joe and Chuck talk about Brainerd, Lafayette, communicating complex ideas and Taco John's.

Rachel and Chuck discuss last week's events in Louisville, KY and Peterborough NH, Chuck's new title as "Colonel Marohn," plus the schedule for Chuck's trip to Toronto and Peoria this week and the book, D-Day Through German Eyes.

The question and answer session of the debate in Lafayette, Louisiana, between Chuck Marohn and Randal O'Toole.