Episodes
4 days ago
4 days ago
On this week’s episode of the Strong Towns Podcast, Chuck is joined by Beth Osborne, the director of Transportation for America, to discuss the Highway Trust Fund. They cover its history, how it affects federal and state transportation policies, and its potential future.
Before joining Transportation for America, Osborne served as a deputy assistant secretary and acting assistant secretary in the U.S. Department of Transportation. She also worked in multiple congressional offices, served as the policy director for Smart Growth America, and served as the legislative director for environmental policy at the Southern Governors’ Association.
ADDITIONAL SHOW NOTES
Monday Sep 23, 2024
What’s the Best Career for Someone Who Wants To Build Strong Towns?
Monday Sep 23, 2024
Monday Sep 23, 2024
In this episode of the Strong Towns Podcast, Chuck addresses a question he frequently gets from young people: "What educational or career path should I take if I want to build strong towns?"
ADDITIONAL SHOW NOTES
Monday Sep 16, 2024
Exploring the Role of Religious Institutions in Community Development
Monday Sep 16, 2024
Monday Sep 16, 2024
At the Table is a podcast that discusses how community-based ministries can contribute to the common good via mutual relationships, spiritual practice, simplicity and an awareness of God’s activity in communities. They recently invited Strong Towns President Charles Marohn to appear on an episode. It was a great conversation, so we’re sharing that audio with you here on the Strong Towns Podcast, too. Up for discussion today, the Suburban Experiment, the role of religious institutions in community development and what it means for those institutions to be good neighbors.
ADDITIONAL SHOW NOTES
-
To hear more about the role faith communities play in a strong town, check out this Local-Motive session on October 17: “How Faith Communities Can Use Their Location and Space to Transform Neighborhoods.”
Wednesday Aug 28, 2024
From Crime to Common Practice: How Fraud Dominates the Housing Market
Wednesday Aug 28, 2024
Wednesday Aug 28, 2024
In this special episode of the Strong Towns Podcast, Chuck talks about fraud in the housing market. He discusses how it manifests, how it gradually saturates the market and how it’s connected to housing bubbles. He then explores how fraud plays a role in the current housing crisis and how federal and private organizations are trying to combat it.
ADDITIONAL SHOW NOTES
Monday Aug 26, 2024
Monday Aug 26, 2024
In this episode of the Strong Towns Podcast, Chuck discusses municipal finance with Michel Durand-Wood, a longtime Strong Towns contributor and local budget aficionado. They talk about the importance of the average person understanding municipal finance, the obstacles that can make such understanding difficult and how their approaches to discussing finance have changed over the years.
If you want to hear more from Durand-Wood, he’ll be co-hosting a Local-Motive session with Chuck on September 19, titled “Parsing Through Your Local Budget to Find Some Real Answers.”
ADDITIONAL SHOW NOTES
Monday Aug 19, 2024
Build the Damn Train: How To Bring High-Speed Rail to the United States
Monday Aug 19, 2024
Monday Aug 19, 2024
In this episode of the Strong Towns Podcast, Chuck discusses the report “How To Improve Domestic High-Speed Rail Project Delivery” with one of the report’s authors, Eric Goldwyn. They discuss the advantages of high-speed rail over other transportation options, the challenges that building such a system in the U.S. would pose and five key recommendations for overcoming those challenges.
Goldwyn is a leading urban scholar and program director at the Marron Institute of Urban Management, as well as a clinical assistant professor in the Transportation and Land-Use program at the NYU Marron Institute. To hear more from Goldwyn, check out this episode, where he discusses why U.S. transit is so expensive and how to fix it.
ADDITIONAL SHOW NOTES
-
“How To Improve Domestic High-Speed Rail Project Delivery,” by Eric Goldwyn et al., Transit Costs Project.
Monday Aug 12, 2024
The Traffic Enforcement Futility Loop
Monday Aug 12, 2024
Monday Aug 12, 2024
In this episode of the Strong Towns Podcast, Chuck takes a look at a recent fatal car crash that took place in Ontario. Unfortunately, deadly car crashes occur all the time across North America, and this one might not have even stood out if not for a tweet released in response by local law enforcement, which held the promise of a team that intends to investigate the crash…but for all the wrong reasons.
ADDITIONAL SHOW NOTES
Monday Aug 05, 2024
Why Local Leaders Can Address the Housing Crisis but Federal Programs Fail
Monday Aug 05, 2024
Monday Aug 05, 2024
In this episode of the Strong Towns Podcast, Chuck discusses the feedback systems that created the housing affordability crisis. He explains why federal and state government policies can’t solve the problem and that local leaders are the real key to addressing it. He also lays out some of the concrete actions local leaders can take to address the housing crisis in their cities.
ADDITIONAL SHOW NOTES
Monday Jul 29, 2024
Oh Crap! Dealing With Sewer Upgrades Is a Complicated Mess
Monday Jul 29, 2024
Monday Jul 29, 2024
Maumee, Ohio, winner of the 2024 Strongest Town Contest, is facing a big sewer infrastructure challenge. It needs to update its sewer system to comply with EPA regulations — an extremely large, expensive project. To handle this problem, the city is requiring residents who want to sell their homes to pay for the needed updates to their sewage systems, which is generating backlash from residents.
In this episode of the Strong Towns Podcast, Chuck explains the history of sewer infrastructure, how the Clean Water Act affects cities and the very limited options that cities have to handle this kind of challenge. He also points out that the Strongest Town Contest is about celebrating cities that are working hard to improve, rather than finding cities that are perfect. Just because Maumee is facing this challenge does not mean that it’s a failure — and it’s not alone in this struggle, either. All cities are either facing this challenge, too, or will be facing it in the near future. That’s the consequence of decades of unproductive growth.
ADDITIONAL SHOW NOTES
Monday Jul 22, 2024
The Truth About the Suburban Experiment: A Response to “Contra Strong Towns”
Monday Jul 22, 2024
Monday Jul 22, 2024
In this episode of the Strong Towns Podcast, Chuck responds to a recent Substack column that criticized the Strong Towns stance on the Suburban Experiment and infrastructure spending. He corrects some misconceptions from the column and discusses the ways that cities handle (or fail to handle) their finances and how that can lead to financial insolvency.