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The Strong Towns Podcast is a weekly conversation on the Strong Towns movement, hosted by Strong Towns Founder and President Charles Marohn and frequently featuring special guests. The podcast explores how we can financially strengthen our cities, towns, and neighborhoods and, in the process, make them better places to live. Join Chuck in examining how everything from urban design to economics to systems theory to psychology helps inform this core question.
Episodes
Aug 10, 2026
Aug 10, 2026
1hr 5 min
A strong bond rating can tell investors that a city is likely to repay its debt. It says much less about whether that city can afford to replace the roads, pipes, and other infrastructure its residents depend on. Richard Ciccarone, president emeritus of Merit Research Services, developed a new metric using financial statements from nearly 2,000 cities to estimate that burden. When he compared the infrastructure burden with government bond ratings, the correlation was surprisingly weak. Cities can remain attractive to creditors while aging assets accumulate replacement costs that no bondholder can force them to address.
Additional Show Notes
- Richard Ciccarone (LinkedIn)
- Infrastructure & Capital Assets Commitment Burden: Quantifying the Hidden Fiscal Risk (PDF)
- 'We Built the Best Interstate System. Now It’s Falling Apart.' (Video)
- Mission Accomplished Report (Site)
- Chuck Marohn (Substack)
This podcast is made possible by Strong Towns members. Thank you! Join fellow members discussing this episode in The Commons.
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