The Strong Towns Podcast

In the inaugural podcast of 2018, Rachel hosts a conversation with Chuck Marohn to discuss fresh content, recent favorite books and exciting announcements to kick off the new year. 

Chuck and Rachel ask for help choosing new intro music for this podcast (vote here!). Then they recap recent events in Florida and share the best podcasts of 2017. Finally, they close with Chuck's favorite books from the year.

Mentioned in this podcast:

• Vote for our new podcast music: https://www.strongtowns.org/survey
• Our Best Podcast Episodes from 2017
• Favorite Books from 2017
• Speaking of Faith: Why Religion Matters--and How to Talk About It by Krista Tippett

Strong Towns members Bo Wright and Haile McCollum wrote dueling essays this year, debating the merits and drawbacks of small town southern life. Bo's October essay "Why I'm Leaving My Small Southern Town," inspired Haile to write her own: "The Case for Small Southern Towns." So we brought them on the podcast to discuss further.

Rachel Quednau hosts this friendly, spirited conversation about what Bo and Haile find valuable about life in the small town south, and what they'd like to see change. They talk about how small towns suit people differently at different phases of their life, and how small towns can be both ideal and challenging places in which to get involved with the life of the community. Finally, they discuss the particular need for the Strong Towns message in small southern towns.

Chuck and Rachel discuss a recent event in Washington state, which inspired today's article: "The Ideology of Traffic." They also chat about an upcoming meeting in Chicago and Best of 2016 content. 

MENTIONED IN THIS PODCAST:

• "The Ideology of Traffic"
• Best of Strong Towns
• Global Grid's Top 20 Urban Planning Websites of 2016
• Webcast: Creating a Strong Towns Comp Plan
• Strong Towns article archive

Chuck and Rachel discuss a recent trip to Montreal and the language differences present there. They also share several exciting announcements including new Strong Towns t-shirts, a new Strong Towns book, and the 2017 Annual Report. Plus they share a final update on the membership drive.

Mentioned in this Podcast:

• Event in Panama City, Florida
• Strong Towns 2017 Annual Report
• Introducing our New Book
• The Color of Law: A Forgotten History of How Our Government Segregated America by Richard Rothstein
• Evicted: Poverty and Profit in the American City by Matthew Desmond
• Don't Make Me Think: A Common Sense Approach to Web Usability by Steve Krug
• Get the new Strong Towns t-shirt and Strong Towns book in our Shop!

The infamous "master builder" of New York City, Robert Moses, is the subject of a new rock musical, opening today (November 30) in New York.

In this podcast episode, Kea Wilson interviews Karen Carpenter, director of the musical, Bulldozer: The Ballad of Robert Moses, as well as the musical's writer, Peter Galperin. They discuss why they selected this controversial figure as the subject for their musical and how they went about depicting his vision and story within the show. They also talk about other characters — like Jane Jacobs — who are part of the musical and the actors they selected to fill these roles. Finally, Karen and Peter touch on the positive accomplishments of Robert Moses and how his influence shaped New York for good and for bad.

Bulldozer dramatizes Robert Moses’ evolution from a young idealist fervent with a desire to build the greatest city in the world to a power-insulated enemy of the people, corrupted, lost and alone. Performances run today (November 30) through January 7 at the Theatre at St. Clement's at 423 West 46th Street in the heart of Manhattan's theatre district. Get more information and tickets at bulldozer.nyc.

In this podcast episode, Chuck and Rachel review the highlights (lowlights?) from Strong Towns' annual #BlackFridayParking event and share some exciting news...

They also provide an update on the 2017 member drive. We're so close to our goal of 2,000 members. Help us get to #2000Strong by joining today. Become a member of Strong Towns: www.strongtowns.org/membership

This Friday is our annual #BlackFridayParking event — a nationwide action drawing attention to the harmful nature of minimum parking requirements.  Each year on Black Friday, one of the biggest shopping days of the year, people across North America are invited to snap photos of the (hardly full) parking lots in their communities to demonstrate how unnecessary these massive lots are. Participants then upload those photos to social media with the hashtag #blackfridayparking.  Get more info about how to participate here: www.strongtowns.org/blackfridayparking

In this podcast, Chuck Marohn interviews Monte Anderson, owner of Options Real Estate and founding member of the Incremental Development Alliance, based in the Dallas area. Monte discusses the challenges that parking minimum laws create for developers, and how these requirements especially exclude small-scale developers. He also discusses how to approach parking needs in a more auto-centric region of the country and how to find the right amount of parking that's truly necessary to serve a commercial or residential development. 

Strong Towns staff members Chuck Marohn and Bo Wright check in on the final day of our 2017 Member Drive to talk about their hopes for the future of the Strong Towns movement. They discuss the intentional choices that the Strong Towns organization has made about how we disseminate our message and push for change, and they talk about our vision for reaching more communities to transform the cultural conversation in America.

Chuck and Bo also share some of the organization's plans for 2018, including creating some platforms and opportunities that our members have specifically requested. Take a listen to find out what's in store for next year.

If you've been procrastinating this week, now is the time when we really need you to step up. Take a minute to join this movement as a member of Strong Towns. We're doing big things together and we want you to be part of it! Visit www.strongtowns.org/membership to join today.

A year ago, Shreveport, Louisiana was on the brink of building a highway right through the poor inner-city neighborhood of Allendale. As residents came together and rallied against this project in order to protect their homes and their community, Strong Towns became an inspiration and a voice for their efforts. In addition to sharing stories about the people and the community that would be ripped apart as a result of this highway, Strong Towns also focused on the fundamentally flawed economic arguments propping up the project in the first place.

We proved just how financially harmful this highway would actually be, in opposition to local leaders claiming that the project would benefit their city. You can see all our work on Shreveport here. As a result of this national focus on the issue, lawyers from across the country including the Sierra Club's legal team have now stepped in to offer assistance and the fight against the highway is gaining momentum.

In our latest podcast episode, Chuck Marohn chats with John Perkins about how Strong Towns helped shift the conversation in his town of Shreveport, Louisiana in powerful ways.

We want to help other communities like the Allendale neighborhood fight back against harmful projects. We want to help more towns grow strong and resilient for all of their residents. If you care about this mission, join us: www.strongtowns.org/membership.