The Strong Towns Podcast

Can your city escape the housing trap simply through blanket rezoning? Is completely eliminating zoning compatible with an incremental approach? How should your city handle historic designations that are blocking housing development? Strong Towns President Chuck Marohn answers all these questions and more in this episode of the Strong Towns Podcast.

This Q&A session comes on the heels of a member-exclusive event where Chuck discussed his and Daniel Herriges’ new book “Escaping the Housing Trap: The Strong Towns Response to the Housing Crisis.” If you’re interested in gaining access to this kind of event, become a member today.

ADDITIONAL SHOW NOTES

• Click here to order your copy of “Escaping the Housing Trap: The Strong Towns Response to the Housing Crisis.”

• Chuck Marohn (Twitter/X).

This is the final episode in the Strong Towns Podcast's special Member Drive series. Every day, Chuck has read one of his best articles that you might’ve missed. Today, he’s reading one of Strong Towns’ most popular articles, “Most Public Engagement Is Worthless.” This article explores the typical methods used by city planners when collecting feedback from the public and why they often fail. Instead of focusing on what people think they want — since most of the time they don’t know themselves — planners should focus on people’s actions and then adjust their policies to compliment the way real people actually live.

If you enjoy this podcast, or any of the other work Strong Towns does, become a member today. Be the change your city needs.

ADDITIONAL SHOW NOTES

• Become a member today!
• Chuck Marohn (Twitter/X).

This is the fourth episode in the Strong Towns Podcast's special Member Drive series. Every day, Chuck is reading one of his best articles that you might’ve missed. Today, he’s reading “If We Made Shoes Like We Make Housing, People Would Go Barefoot.” This article is an excerpt from Chuck’s most recent book “Escaping the Housing Trap,” coauthored with Daniel Herriges. It discusses how restrictions on types of housing have caused massive price spikes, wiped out starter homes and made any housing incredibly difficult to acquire. Make sure to check back in tomorrow to catch the final installment of this special series.

If you enjoy this podcast, or any of the other work Strong Towns does, become a member today. Be the change your city needs.

ADDITIONAL SHOW NOTES

• Become a member today!
• Chuck Marohn (Twitter/X).

This is the third episode in the Strong Towns Podcast's special Member Drive series. Every day, Chuck is reading one of his best articles that you might’ve missed. Today, he’s reading “How Fannie Mae Puts a Chokehold on Local Home Financing Solutions.” This article explains how mortgage financiers rose to dominance through an “orgy of debt and price appreciation” and how they continue to twist the conversation around housing to further increase prices and debt. Make sure to check back in tomorrow to catch the next installment of this special series.

If you enjoy this podcast, or any of the other work Strong Towns does, become a member today. Be the change your city needs.

ADDITIONAL SHOW NOTES

• Become a member today!
• Chuck Marohn (Twitter/X).

This is the second episode in the Strong Towns Podcast's special Member Drive series. Every day, Chuck is reading one of his best articles that you might’ve missed. Today, he’s reading “One Billion Bollards,” which discusses the current engineering norm of prioritizing drivers’ safety over that of pedestrians — and how this blatant disregard for people’s lives is “nothing less than institutionalized mass murder.” Make sure to check back in tomorrow to catch the next installment of this special series.

If you enjoy this podcast, or any of the other work Strong Towns does, become a member today. Be the change your city needs.

ADDITIONAL SHOW NOTES

• Become a member today!

• Chuck Marohn (Twitter/X).

In honor of Member Drive, the Strong Towns Podcast is publishing five episodes this week. Every day, Chuck will read one of his best articles that you might’ve missed. Today, he’s reading “The Cost of an Extra Foot,” which explains why engineers love overdesign and what that means for cities’ finances. Make sure to check back in tomorrow to catch the next installment of this special series.

If you enjoy this podcast, or any of the other work Strong Towns does, become a member today. Be the change your city needs.

ADDITIONAL SHOW NOTES

• Become a member today!

• Chuck Marohn (Twitter/X).

Megan Kimble is an Austin-based journalist and author who’s spent the last four years writing about urban highways and highway expansion in Texas. Today, she’s joining us to discuss her new book “City Limits: Infrastructure, Inequality, and the Future of America's Highways,” where she explores three highway projects in Austin, Dallas and Houston, and the different groups fighting to stop them.

ADDITIONAL SHOW NOTES

• Megan Kimble (Website).

• Chuck Marohn (Twitter/X).

• Join our email list to get all of our content on highway expansion!

The Messy City is a podcast that discusses urban planning and design issues. Its host, Kevin Klinkenberg, recently invited Strong Towns President Chuck 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: takeaways from “Escaping the Housing Trap: The Strong Towns Response to the Housing Crisis,” the logistics of building new sports stadiums, and how Disney World simultaneously embodies and contradicts Strong Towns’ principles.

ADDITIONAL SHOW NOTES

• Order your copy of Escaping the Housing Trap: The Strong Towns Response to the Housing Crisis today!

• The Messy City podcast (Substack) .

• Chuck Marohn (Twitter/X).

The Strong Towns approach to housing has some obvious tensions with NIMBYism, but what about YIMBYism? That’s the topic for discussion on the table for today’s episode of the Strong Towns Podcast, because while our approach has more in common with the YIMBY (“Yes in My Backyard”) crowd than differences, there are some nuances that are worth addressing. And if you want to take a serious deep dive into the Strong Towns approach to housing, then you’ll be glad to know that Escaping the Housing Trap: The Strong Towns Response to the Housing Crisis is going to be released tomorrow—so order your copy now!

ADDITIONAL SHOW NOTES

• Order your copy of Escaping the Housing Trap: The Strong Towns Response to the Housing Crisis today!

• Chuck Marohn (Twitter/X).

This week on the Strong Towns Podcast, host Chuck Marohn is joined by Alex Alsup of Regrid, an organization that, among other things, has put together the only 100% complete national parcel map for the United States. Alsup chats with us about this 10-year project and some of the data and analyses Regrid has gotten out of it—including what percentage of property in any given jurisdiction is locally owned, and the implications of these numbers.

ADDITIONAL SHOW NOTES

• Check out the national parcel map here.

• Click here to read Regrid’s “Owned Away From Home” report.

• Find Alex Alsup via LinkedIn or his Substack, The Chargeback.

• Chuck Marohn (Twitter/X).

• Pre-order your copy of Escaping the Housing Trap: The Strong Towns Response to the Housing Crisis today!