The Strong Towns Podcast

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.

In this podcast episode, Chuck breaks down Strong Towns' core insight about the American growth model — what's wrong with it and why it's bankrupting our country — then talks about how this movement responds to that problem in a thoughtful, non-partisan manner. There are no simple answers.

Success for our country will not come from the federal government or the corporate sector and trickle down to our communities. Rather, when we focus on the struggles of real people and make small, incremental investments over a period of time to improve them, that's when we'll see broad prosperity in our nation. That's when we'll be building Strong Towns.

Together, we can revolutionize our approach to growth and development. We can make our places stronger than they've ever been. Join the movement that's changing the world. Become a member: strongtowns.org/membership?

Mentioned in this Podcast:

• Tomas Sedlacek — check out our series on his economic theories
• The Curbside Chat

In this podcast on the second day of the Strong Towns Winter Member Drive, Chuck shares a bit about the history of Strong Towns and the wake up call he had while working as an engineer — building the very roads and big box stores he now recognizes as harmful for our towns and cities.

To build stronger towns, we have to shift the cultural conversation in American. It's a big challenge but with your help, we know we can do it. Join the Strong Towns movement today.

We've still got a ways to go before we get to our goal of 2000 members. Don't procrastinate. Become a member now.

On this podcast episode, Chuck Marohn shares an update on the Strong Towns movement and invites listeners and readers to join us as members during this important week. Help us spread the Strong Towns message across the globe. Become a member today. Help us become #2000Strong.

In this podcast, Rachel Quednau interviews long-time Strong Towns member Matthias Leyrer about how he has built a financially resilient household. They discuss topics ranging from a major home rehab project to how the birth of a child changes your perspective on what's important (with a few tangents in between). 

This article is part of an ongoing series about building personal and household resilience. Read more from the series here.

Chuck and Rachel recap recent events in Ashland, Virginia, Washington, D.C. and Northampton, Massachusetts. They also discuss upcoming events in Dallas, Texas and Monterey, California, plus a Strong Towns staff and board retreat. Finally, they check in about their holiday baking plans.

Mentioned in this Podcast:

• Event and member meet-up in Dallas
• Event in Monterey
• And Your Daughters Shall Prophesy: Stories From the Byways of American Women and Religion by Adrian Shirk
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