Episodes
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.
ADDITIONAL SHOW NOTES
Monday Jun 17, 2024
How To Escape the Housing Trap: A Special Q&A Session
Monday Jun 17, 2024
Monday Jun 17, 2024
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
Friday Jun 14, 2024
Member Drive Week Special: Most Public Engagement Is Worthless
Friday Jun 14, 2024
Friday Jun 14, 2024
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
Thursday Jun 13, 2024
Thursday Jun 13, 2024
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.