Podcasts about strong towns

After moving to Chattanooga, Lisa hit three potholes in three years and ended up buying five new tires. She knew people elsewhere had taken pothole repairs into their own hands, and as a mosaic artist, she already had the materials to try her own version. Soon, bright smiley faces started appearing in Chattanooga's streets. They attracted attention from drivers, neighbors, and eventually the city itself, raising questions about safety, public space, and what happens when one resident decides to fix something in her own strange, joyful way. Now Lisa keeps stacks of smileys in her car, ready for the next pothole that could use a little silliness. ADDITIONAL SHOW NOTES Potholes of Chattanooga (Instagram) Chattanooga's Smiley‑Face Potholes Show Creative Civic Problem‑Solving (Article) Norm Van Eeden Petersman (LinkedIn) Do you know someone who would make for a great Bottom-Up Revolution guest? Let us know here.   This podcast is made possible by Strong Towns members. Thank you! Join fellow members discussing this episode in The Commons.

After six years of legal fights, we finally have a federal court ruling in Chuck's dispute with Minnesota's engineering licensing board. Chuck and Strong Towns executive director John Reuter go back to the complaint that started the case, why Chuck's temporarily lapsed license became the opening for the board's action, and how a dispute over his public advocacy turned into years of hearings and litigation. Chuck also reflects on reaching the end of a fight that has followed him for years and what the decision could mean for other engineers who have held back from speaking publicly about their profession. Additional Show Notes Confessions of a Recovering Engineer (Site) Can an Engineer Speak Out for Reform? (Article) Chuck Marohn (Substack)   This podcast is made possible by Strong Towns members. Thank you! Join fellow members discussing this episode in The Commons.

Near El Morro, one of Puerto Rico's most recognizable historic sites, a government road project called for cutting down 26 mature trees, widening a road, adding a roundabout, and turning part of a grassy area into parking. Giancarlo Gonzalez, an Old San Juan resident and founding member of a Strong Towns Local Conversation in San Juan, explains how neighbors discovered the plan and began asking why it was needed at all. Their petition has drawn more than 8,000 signatures, pulled the National Park Service into the fight, and forced new scrutiny of a project residents say was moving forward without their input. ADDITIONAL SHOW NOTES Save El Morro (Site) VSJ Peatonal Local Recommendations:‍ Spiga Materia Prima Tiffany Owens Reed (Instagram) Do you know someone who would make for a great Bottom-Up Revolution guest? Let us know here!   This podcast is made possible by Strong Towns members. Thank you! Join fellow members discussing this episode in The Commons.

A six-year-old rides his scooter to a playground a quarter mile from home. Two days later, Child Protective Services is at his family's door. His case is one of several in a recent New York Times article asking whether letting children play outside alone has effectively become a crime. Chuck Marohn talks with Lenore Skenazy, founder of the Free-Range Kids movement and president of Let Grow, and planner and pedestrian-safety advocate Angie Schmitt about “worst-first thinking,” neglect laws, and the decline of walking and biking to school. Parents are expected to raise capable, independent kids while also keeping them under constant watch, while the built environment often makes even short walks to school or the playground harder for children to navigate on their own. ADDITIONAL SHOW NOTES "Should Letting Children Play Alone Outside Be a Crime?" by Ian Frisch, Nytimes.com (August 2026) Chuck Marohn (LinkedIn) Lenore Skenazy (LinkedIn), Let Grow (Site) Angie Schmitt (LinkedIn), Love of Place (Substack) Downzone: World War Z: An Oral History of the Zombie War by Max Brooks (Site) The Wisdom of Not Knowing: Discovering a Life of Wonder by Embracing Uncertainty by Estelle Frankel (Site) A Marriage at Sea: A True Story of Love, Obsession, and Shipwreck by YSophie Elmhirst (Site) Theme Music by Kemet the Phantom.   This podcast is made possible by Strong Towns members. Thank you! Join fellow members discussing this episode in The Commons.

When Arec Ligon moved to Brownsburg, Indiana, he was frustrated by how few places nearby seemed worth lingering in. That frustration became Linger, a growing map of user-submitted third places across the country. Instead of ranking businesses, the site asks different questions: Is this place welcoming? Can people stay without spending much? Is the walk there actually comfortable? Arec built Linger around contributions from people who know these places firsthand which lets the map capture qualities a search engine usually misses, including the local stories that explain why people keep coming back. ADDITIONAL SHOW NOTES Linger (Site, Instagram) Arec Ligon (LinkedIn) Norm Van Eeden Petersman (LinkedIn) Do you know someone who would make for a great Bottom-Up Revolution guest? Let us know here.   This podcast is made possible by Strong Towns members. Thank you! Join fellow members discussing this episode in The Commons.

Strong Towns members filled the Commons with questions, and Chuck sat down to answer as many as he could. Should cities require data centers to pay for their own eventual cleanup? Has Strong Towns been too wary of the YIMBY movement? Are e-bikes headed toward a backlash before cities have figured out what they're good for? He also gets into tiny homes, land value taxes, coworking spaces, dream podcast guests, and whether Strong Towns ideas are actually becoming mainstream. Members can join the Commons to submit future questions, read Chuck's columns before publication, and take part in the discussions that follow. Additional Show Notes Friday News Digest (Site) A Mayor Willing to Tell His City the Truth (Article) Local Conversations (Site) The Commons (Site) Strong Towns Membership (Site) Chuck Marohn (Substack)   This podcast is made possible by Strong Towns members. Thank you! Join fellow members discussing this episode in The Commons.

An eight-mile gap keeps Los Angeles from having a continuous river bike route through the heart of the city. Voters approved hundreds of millions of dollars to help close it, but years of planning have pushed the project toward a possible billion-dollar price tag. Carlee Alm-LaBar is joined by transportation advocate Dave Snyder, Pasadena city councilmember and longtime local government leader Rick Cole, and Strong Towns chief technical advisor Edward Erfurt to examine how a straightforward connection became a megaproject. Flood control, emergency access, environmental concerns, neighborhood connections, labor requirements, and long-term reliability have each added something defensible to the plan. Meanwhile, a simpler path could reportedly close the entire gap with the money already available. ADDITIONAL SHOW NOTES "The eight-mile gap in the L.A. River bike path downtown has a billion-dollar problem" by Mack Baysinger, Latimes.com (August 2026) Downzone: Start Your Farm: The Authoritative Guide to Becoming a Sustainable 21st-Century Farmer, by Ellen Polishuk and Forrest Pritchard (Site) the Movement Newsletter (Substack) Carlee Alm-LaBar (LinkedIn) Dave Snyder (LinkedIn) Rick Cole (LinkedIn) Edward Erfurt (LinkedIn) Theme Music by Kemet the Phantom.   This podcast is made possible by Strong Towns members. Join fellow members discussing this episode in The Commons.

Anne Keehnen has spent years building relationships in Nacogdoches, Texas, one conversation and one local effort at a time. She's run for city council, worked with younger residents on walkability, stayed involved in city meetings, and kept looking for ways to connect people around street safety and neighborhood life. Anne compares that work to building good compost: the conversations and relationships accumulate, creating better conditions for the next idea to take root. Anne describes what she has learned from staying with a place for years and why seeing the same people, listening to their stories, and earning their trust can become part of the work itself. ADDITIONAL SHOW NOTES Reclaiming Your Community: You Don't Have to Move out of Your Neighborhood to Live in a Better One by Majora Carter (Book) Strong Towns Speech Club (Site) Norm Van Eeden Petersman (LinkedIn) Do you know someone who would make for a great Bottom-Up Revolution guest? Let us know here.   This podcast is made possible by Strong Towns members. Thank you! Join fellow members discussing this episode in The Commons.

Most neighborhoods have an invisible boundary where public space ends and private property begins. Rachel Harms Mahlandt started questioning that boundary after discovering tiny installations scattered around Portland: a rubber duck exchange, a toy car swap, miniature galleries, and other invitations to stop and interact. She eventually built her own, then began mapping hundreds of similar projects through Sidewalk Joy. What started with a dinosaur diorama in her front yard has become a way for strangers to linger, trade something small, meet a neighbor, and treat the edge of private property as a place for connection. ADDITIONAL SHOW NOTES Rachael Harms Mahlandt (LinkedIn) Sidewalk Joy (Site) Local Recommendations:‍ Zuckercreme Strawberry Museum Mr. Plywood Threshold Brewery Tiffany Owens Reed (Instagram) Do you know someone who would make for a great Bottom-Up Revolution guest? Let us know here!   This podcast is made possible by Strong Towns members. Thank you! Join fellow members discussing this episode in The Commons.

Hartman, Colorado, reached a point where it could no longer function as a town. Its water system was unsafe, every member of the town board had resigned, and no one remained with the authority to hold an election or sign the agreements needed to fix the water. Norm Van Eeden Petersman is joined by Joshua Hopkins, mayor of Chugwater, Wyoming, and Strong Towns executive director John Reuter to look past the political infighting and ask what happened before the final collapse. The question facing places like Hartman and Chugwater is increasingly basic: How much town can a very small community actually afford to maintain? ADDITIONAL SHOW NOTES "Colorado declares town abandoned amid water and leadership crisis" by Ramon Antonio Vargas, Theguardian.com (August 2026) Norm Van Eeden Petersman (LinkedIn) Joshua Hopkins (LinkedIn, Instagram) John Reuter (LinkedIn) Articles mentioned and Downzone: How a Rodeo Arena Can Strengthen A Rural Community (Bottom-Up Short Episode) Don't Give Up on Your Small Town (Article) Whatever Happened to the Music Teacher? How Government Decides and Why by Donald Savoie (Book)  Influence: The Psychology of Persuasion by Robert B. Cialdini (Book) Chugwaterite (Instagram) Theme Music by Kemet the Phantom.   This podcast is made possible by Strong Towns members. Thank you! Join fellow members discussing this episode in The Commons.

Somerset, Kentucky, had historical markers scattered around downtown, but Jody McRoberts suspected many people barely noticed them. Through Strong Towns Pulaski, she turned those overlooked signs into a reason for people to slow down and look more closely at the place they lived. The group organized a walking tour, recruited five volunteer guides, and partnered with the local historical society to add research beyond what was written on each marker. One stop at the century-old Virginia Theater opened up a bigger question: What is an old building worth to a downtown when saving it costs money, but losing it would leave a hole behind? ADDITIONAL SHOW NOTES Strong Towns Pulaski (Facebook Group, YouTube) Somerset Kentucky Walking Tours (YouTube Channel) Norm Van Eeden Petersman (LinkedIn) Do you know someone who would make for a great Bottom-Up Revolution guest? Let us know here.   This podcast is made possible by Strong Towns members. Thank you! Join fellow members discussing this episode in The Commons.

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.

Density is often pictured as a huge apartment building surrounded by pavement, while a yard is treated as something only suburbia can provide. Dr. Alicia Pederson, founder of Courtyard Urbanist, wants cities to look at the block differently. Courtyard blocks arrange many small multifamily buildings around shared green space, giving families larger homes, nearby neighbors, and somewhere for children to play. The form can provide more housing and more usable outdoor space at the same time, while creating enough density to support local shops and transit. American cities haven't run out of ways to build good family housing; they've written many of those possibilities out of their zoning codes. ADDITIONAL SHOW NOTES Dr. Alicia Pederson (LinkedIn) Courtyard Urbanist (Site) Local Recommendations:‍ Merz Apothecary Gene's Sausage Shop Tiffany Owens Reed (Instagram) Do you know someone who would make for a great Bottom-Up Revolution guest? Let us know here!   This podcast is made possible by Strong Towns members. Thank you! Join fellow members discussing this episode in The Commons.

What if the easiest way to overcome opposition to new housing was simply to pay people to accept it? A recent article in The Atlantic argues that after state laws, packed public meetings, and economic appeals have failed to overcome local resistance, cash payments might succeed where persuasion has not. Chuck Marohn is joined by John Reuter, executive director of Strong Towns, and Dr. Chloe Groome, treasurer of Strong Towns Chicago, to test that idea against what they've seen in real neighborhoods. Their discussion turns to what happens when new neighbors are framed as a burden, and whether cash can do the work that persuasion, trust, and local relationships have failed to do. "A Perfectly Crude Solution to America's Housing Shortage" by Rogé Karma, Theatlantic.com (July 2026) Chuck Marohn (LinkedIn) John Reuter (LinkedIn) Dr. Chloe Groome (LinkedIn), Strong Towns Chicago (Site) Articles Mentioned and Downzone: The Human Condition by Hannah Arendt (Site) Farm To Taber (YouTube Channel) Stolen Revolution: Betrayal and Hope in Modern Iran by Yeganeh Torbati and Bozorgmehr Sharafedin (Site) Theme Music by Kemet the Phantom.   This podcast is made possible by Strong Towns members. Thank you! Join fellow members discussing this episode in The Commons.

Most city-building games let players draw roads, place buildings, and watch a convincing skyline appear. Cristian Gonzalez kept noticing what was missing: homelessness, discrimination, parking, disconnected jobs, and the people who bear the cost when the economy turns. By leaving those things out, the games teach players to see cities as collections of buildings rather than places shaped by transportation, inequality, public services, and human behavior. His indie game Microlandia reverses the usual formula with cartoonish graphics and a demanding simulation that challenges the simplified logic of traditional city-builders, where growth often arrives without transportation constraints or social consequences. Microlandia gives players a place to test what happens when those tradeoffs enter the model and see how one decision reshapes the rest of the city. ADDITIONAL SHOW NOTES Microlandia (Site) Norm Van Eeden Petersman (LinkedIn) Do you know someone who would make for a great Bottom-Up Revolution guest? Let us know here.   This podcast is made possible by Strong Towns members. Thank you! Join fellow members discussing this episode in The Commons.

Atlanta's Buford Highway supports apartment communities, small businesses, and an international food scene that draws people from across the region. It also carries six to eight lanes of fast traffic, and drivers use it as an alternate route when nearby interstates clog. More than 20% of trips happen outside a car, yet roughly 90% of the corridor's space is reserved for vehicles. Rebecca Serna, executive director of Propel ATL, and Sagirah Jones, the organization's program director, hosted walk audits to put residents, planners, and elected officials on the same road and show how people navigate it every day. The audits exposed an unexpected barrier: many people supported bigger changes while remaining convinced that someone else would never allow them. Additional Show Notes Rebecca Serna (LinkedIn) Sagirah Jones (LinkedIn) Propel ATL (Site) Buford Highway Community Walk Audit Summary of Findings (PDF) AARP Walk Audit Tool Kit (Site) '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.

A wider highway promises faster trips, new investment, and billions of dollars flowing into Houston. Susan Graham and Ally Smither have spent years asking who receives those benefits and who is asked to move, breathe more pollution, or watch another neighborhood get divided. Recorded at the 2024 Strong Towns National Gathering, this session follows Stop TxDOT I-45 through lost votes, a federal pause, and the long work of keeping people involved after the project moves forward anyway. The same system now struggling to maintain what it already built is still asking communities to make room for more. ADDITIONAL SHOW NOTES Ally Smither (LinkedIn), 'How an Opera Singer Joined the Fight Against Freeways' (Article) Susan Graham (LinkedIn), '75-Year-Old Houston Advocate Refuses To Surrender to Highway Expansion Project' (Article) Stop TxDOT I-45 (Site) We Built the Best Interstate System. Now It's Falling Apart. (Video) Mission Accomplished Report (Site) Tiffany Owens Reed (Instagram) Do you know someone who would make for a great Bottom-Up Revolution guest? Let us know here!   This podcast is made possible by Strong Towns members. Thank you! Join fellow members discussing this episode in The Commons.

What happens when one generation holds much of the country's housing wealth and has little reason to give it up? Chuck Marohn talks with Strong Towns board chair Andrew Burleson and historic property renovator Richard Rumrill about boomers buying bigger homes, even as younger families wait for those houses to come back onto the market. The generational frustration is easy to understand, but the expected handoff assumes older homeowners will be ready to leave. What happens when the people expected to move have nowhere they want to go, and everyone behind them is still waiting? ADDITIONAL SHOW NOTES "Boomers Were Supposed to Downsize. They Are Buying Bigger Homes Instead." by Rachel Louise Ensign, Wsj.com (July 2026) Chuck Marohn (LinkedIn) Andrew Burleson (LinkedIn), Free Range City (Substack) Richard Rumrill (LinkedIn), Strong Towns RVA (Site) Articles Mentioned and Downzone: Regime Change: Inside the Imperial Presidency of Donald Trump by Maggie Haberman and Jonathan Swan (Site) Kids Over Cars (Substack) #42 Charles Duff: North Atlantic Cities - The Forgotten Blueprint for the Future Building Culture (Podcast) The North Atlantic Cities by Charles Duff (Site) Theme Music by Kemet the Phantom.   This podcast is made possible by Strong Towns members. Thank you! Join fellow members discussing this episode in The Commons.

Residents are often told to get involved at City Hall, but first they have to figure out where to go, who has authority, and which committee will actually hear them. Jacob Hyman learned that firsthand when his attempt to advocate for multimodal transportation turned into a frustrating tour of local government. As a civil engineer and leader of Strong Towns Steubenville, he helped build a power map showing the officials, boards, departments, and relationships behind city decisions, giving residents a clearer route into a system that had been difficult even to describe. Hyman will also be a speaker at the Civic Leader Summit in Pensacola, Florida, from October 6–8, where he'll lead a session on building power maps for local communities, and early-bird tickets are available now. ADDITIONAL SHOW NOTES Jacob Hyman (LinkedIn) Strong Towns Steubenville (Site) Norm Van Eeden Petersman (LinkedIn) Do you know someone who would make for a great Bottom-Up Revolution guest? Let us know here.   This podcast is made possible by Strong Towns members. Thank you! Join fellow members discussing this episode in The Commons.

The Highway Trust Fund brings in roughly $45 billion a year and spends closer to $80 billion. Congress keeps the system running by borrowing the difference and moving that money into a program still treated as if road users fully fund it. Rebecca Higgins, vice president of policy at the Eno Center for Transportation, explains how the fund reached this point and why the gap keeps growing. She and Chuck examine the choices lawmakers have avoided for decades, including higher taxes, lower spending, new fees, or a smaller federal role, and what happens when highway funding begins competing with other underfunded national priorities. Additional Show Notes Rebecca Higgins (LinkedIn) The Eno Center for Transportation (Site) The Last Exit: Fixing the Highway Trust Fund while Solvency is still Solvable (Report) 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.

Americans have been told that buying a home is one of the safest ways to secure their future. But when retirement depends on home values continuing to climb, affordability begins to look like a threat. Carlee Alm-LaBar is joined by Daniel Herriges, co-author of Escaping the Housing Trap, and Alli Thurmond-Quinlan, executive director of the Incremental Development Alliance. Together, they push beyond the idea that housing is simply an investment problem. Limited supply, narrow housing choices, transportation, retirement, and municipal finance are all tied into the same system, leaving people with fewer ways to find security at every stage of life. ADDITIONAL SHOW NOTES "The Housing Crisis Is Also a Retirement Crisis" by Kyla Scanlon, Nytimes.com (July 2026) Downzone: From Strength to Strength, by Arthur C. Brooks (Site) Construction Physics (Substack) World Cup 2026 (Site) Carlee Alm-LaBar (LinkedIn) Daniel Herriges (LinkedIn) Alli Thurmond-Quinlan (LinkedIn) Theme Music by Kemet the Phantom.   This podcast is made possible by Strong Towns members. Join fellow members discussing this episode in The Commons.

In most suburban neighborhoods, a corner store or small commercial space can feel years away, even when residents want places to gather and local businesses need somewhere to begin. Rather than wait for a zoning change, Lauren Penn worked with a neighbor to turn their front yards into a tiny market with a baker, a coffee roaster, artists, children selling handmade goods, and people who might not otherwise have met. The project grew out of her interest in the “missing middle” of local economies: the space between an idea at home and a full commercial lease. For parents, especially mothers, markets like this can offer a realistic way to test a business idea and earn income during a season of life that does not fit neatly into a standard work schedule. ADDITIONAL SHOW NOTES Lauren Penn (Site, LinkedIn) Stronger Denton (Site) Stronger Neighborhoods (Site) Pop-Up Market Makers (Site) How One Front Yard Became a Neighborhood Pop Up (Bottom-Up Short) Local Recommendations:‍ Thai Ocha L'Amitié Bistro Two Gentleman of Verona Gelato North Lakes Park Tiffany Owens Reed (Instagram) Do you know someone who would make for a great Bottom-Up Revolution guest? Let us know here!   This podcast is made possible by Strong Towns members. Thank you! Join fellow members discussing this episode in The Commons.

Andrew Price spent nine years living without a car in Hoboken, New Jersey, where most daily trips could be handled on foot or by transit. Once he bought a car, even routine outings came with a new calculation: where he would park, how much it would cost, and whether driving was actually the easier option. An early Strong Towns member, Price examined places, non-places, and the difference between fine-grained and coarse-grained urbanism in articles. He reflects on how owning a car made him a stronger urbanist, a realization that connects back to his first years in Arkansas, where lawns, roads, and parking lots filled the landscape, but finding a place to sit outside with lunch still meant getting back in the car. ADDITIONAL SHOW NOTES Andrew Price (Blog, LinkedIn, X [Twitter]) Places and Non-Places and Fine-Grained vs. Coarse-Grained Urbanism by Andrew Price (Articles) Norm Van Eeden Petersman (LinkedIn) Do you know someone who would make for a great Bottom-Up Revolution guest? Let us know here.   This podcast is made possible by Strong Towns members. Thank you! Join fellow members discussing this episode in The Commons.

Cities often spend years studying a street before making a change, only to discover that the public is reacting to plans no one has actually experienced. Krista Nightengale, executive director of Better Block, explains another approach: build a temporary version, invite people into it, gather data, and adjust what does not work. She and Chuck talk about winning over skeptical engineers, learning from residents, and making safer streets without waiting for a perfect plan. The goal is not to prove the first idea was correct, but to learn enough, quickly enough, to make the next decision better. Additional Show Notes Krista Nightengale (LinkedIn) Better Block (Site) Wikiblock (Site) Chuck Marohn (Substack)   This podcast is made possible by Strong Towns members. Thank you! Join fellow members discussing this episode in The Commons.

Modern family life offers mothers an endless supply of services meant to make isolation more manageable, but Lauren Penn began wondering why so much support had to be purchased in the first place. After a violent crash near the crosswalk her children use to get to school pushed her into local activism, she began connecting unsafe streets and missing sidewalks to the exhaustion many mothers experience while coordinating transportation, childcare and social life largely on their own. Lauren shares how books, advocacy and small experiments with her daughters changed what she thought a neighborhood could provide. A place can either force every need into another private transaction or make room for families to help one another. ADDITIONAL SHOW NOTES Lauren Penn (LinkedIn) Stronger Denton (Site) Stronger Neighborhoods (Site) Pop-Up Market Makers How One Front Yard Became a Neighborhood Pop Up (Bottom-Up Short) Tiffany Owens Reed (Instagram) Do you know someone who would make for a great Bottom-Up Revolution guest? Let us know here!   This podcast is made possible by Strong Towns members. Thank you! Join fellow members discussing this episode in The Commons.

In 2009, Chicago traded 75 years of parking meter revenue for a $1.2 billion payment that helped fill an immediate budget hole. Norm Van Eeden Petersman is joined by Tony Jordan, executive director of the Parking Reform Network, and Edward Erfurt, chief technical advisor at Strong Towns, to look at what the city actually gave up and why its recent $3.3 billion bid never made it to the finish line. The lease still shapes decisions about removing parking for bus lanes, bike lanes and wider sidewalks, while the revenue keeps flowing to a private operator instead of back into the places generating it. That leaves Chicago with a much harder question than whether the original deal was bad: what would it take to manage the curb again, regain flexibility and use that money to improve the streets themselves? ADDITIONAL SHOW NOTES "Mayor's $3 Billion Parking Meter Offer Was $800 Million More Than The Next Highest Bid, Investor Says" by Mick Dumke, Blockclubchicago.org (June 2026) Norm Van Eeden Petersman (LinkedIn) Tony Jordan (Site) Edward Erfurt (LinkedIn) Articles mentioned and Downzone: 'Why ‘SimCity' has no parking lots, and other insights from the lead designer' (Article) Simulating the Future: a webinar with Stone Librande (Video) A Wailing Of A Town: An Oral History of Early San Pedro Punk And More 1977-1985 by Craig Ibarra (Book)  Recoding America: Why Government Is Failing in the Digital Age and How We Can Do Better by Jennifer Pahlka (Book) Sam Walton: Made In America, by Sam Walton and John Huey (Book) Microlandia (Site) Theme Music by Kemet the Phantom.   This podcast is made possible by Strong Towns members. Thank you! Join fellow members discussing this episode in The Commons.

Cities regularly ask residents for feedback, especially when budgets tighten or difficult tradeoffs approach. Norm and Mary Kate Norton look at what changes when people respond as an organized group instead of a collection of individual voices. They trace how Local Conversations grow from first meetings and small projects into groups that can communicate clearly, build relationships with public officials and take part in larger policy fights. A good idea may open the door, but organized local support gives it a better chance of surviving the meeting, carrying into the next discussion and becoming something the city can't easily set aside. ADDITIONAL SHOW NOTES Mary Kate Norton (LinkedIn) Strong Towns Local Conversations (Map) Norm Van Eeden Petersman (LinkedIn) Do you know someone who would make for a great Bottom-Up Revolution guest? Let us know here.   This podcast is made possible by Strong Towns members. Thank you! Join fellow members discussing this episode in The Commons.

Putting a route near every community sounds fair until the buses only arrive once an hour. Jarrett Walker, author of Human Transit and principal of the firm helping Des Moines rethink its bus network, explains why cities cannot maximize frequency, coverage, and affordability at the same time. In Des Moines, the tradeoff comes with a 10% service cut, long waits, indirect routes, and streets that make some bus stops difficult or dangerous to reach. To understand whether the system is useful enough for people to actually rely on it, Walker asks a more revealing question: how much of the city can someone reach within a reasonable amount of time? Additional Show Notes Jarrett Walker (LinkedIn, Site) Human Transit (Book) Des Moines: Welcome to Your New Transit Network (Article) Final Network Report Reimagine DART (PDF) Chuck Marohn (Substack)   This podcast is made possible by Strong Towns members. Thank you! Join fellow members discussing this episode in The Commons.

Vacant commercial space can drag down a street, but Evan Snow sees something else: a chance to make room for local artists, small businesses, and community life. As co-founder of Zero Empty Spaces, Snow helps transform empty properties into affordable artist studios and cultural hubs. He explains why closed doors do not help property owners, downtowns, or neighborhoods, and why a temporary use can still give artists a lasting foothold outside the home studio. The model works because it keeps the first step small, giving artists affordable space while helping property owners show what a vacant storefront could become. Evan will also be speaking at the Civic Leader Summit in Pensacola, Florida later this year in October. ADDITIONAL SHOW NOTES Evan Snow (LinkedIn) Zero Empty Spaces (Site) Local Recommendations:‍ Yellow Green Farmer's Market Bike Trail Krakatao Indonesian food Tiffany Owens Reed (Instagram) Do you know someone who would make for a great Bottom-Up Revolution guest? Let us know here!   This podcast is made possible by Strong Towns members. Thank you! Join fellow members discussing this episode in The Commons.

This episode, we abandon our assumptions about how great Batavia is and give ourselves over to objectivity.Ward 4 Alderman Dustin Pieper is back to run through 10 questions that help determine whether a town is truly a strong town. Dustin runs the Strong Towns Batavia Local Conversation and has become well-versed in what makes a thriving, resilient town.Will Batavia pass the test? You'll have to listen to find out.PLUS: We introduce Area Code: Batavia's new co-host, Alexa Swidenbank and a brand new opening segment, Neighborhood Watch!For 630 Members: Alexa and Graham's Batavia FavsMore info on the Cat Cafe!The State of The Tri-CitiesMore about the Strong Towns MovementStrong Towns BataviaSubscribe to our newsletter to be updated about Area Code: Batavia and find out when new episodes are available. Join The 630 to support this podcast and our mission to create a stronger sense of belonging in our community. Members will receive:Free access to quarterly live shows.Off-week episodes of our bonus podcast, “The Batavia Insider”.Influence future Area Code: Batavia content. Your voice will help guide future topics and interviews.Regular opportunities to meet up in person with fellow Batavians who share your passion for our town and want to build stronger bonds.Area Code: Batavia is always looking for sponsors. Click here for more information.Area Code: Batavia is produced by Area Code Audio. It's hosted and produced by Richard Clark. Our associate producer and co-host is Alexa Swidenbank. Edited and mixed by Matt Linder. Additional production help from Jennifer Clark.Mentioned in this episode:212 Construction Group

Five years after wildfire destroyed most of Lytton, British Columbia, rebuilding remains slow despite more than $140 million in committed public funding. Norm Van Eeden Petersman talks with Michel Durand-Wood, author of You'll Pay for This, and Graham Watt, who manages strategic initiatives and flood recovery for Grand Forks, British Columbia. They look at what happens when a small town is pushed to rebuild everything at once, while also dealing with hazardous conditions, limited local capacity, consulting costs, modern codes, and the long-term obligation to maintain whatever comes next. The money creates a promise of recovery, but Lytton shows how hard it is to turn that promise back into a town. ADDITIONAL SHOW NOTES "Inside Lytton's contentious recovery, where concerns smoulder 5 years after wildfire" by Brenna Owen, Halifax.citynews.ca (June 2026) Norm Van Eeden Petersman (LinkedIn) Michel Durand-Wood (Site) Graham Watt (LinkedIn) Downzone: The Baby-Sitters Club  Human Nature by Kate Marvel (Site) The Blackthorn Key, by Kevin Sands (Site) Theme Music by Kemet the Phantom.   This podcast is made possible by Strong Towns members. Thank you! Join fellow members discussing this episode in The Commons.

When Washington state asked which residents had access to frequent transit, it ran into a surprisingly basic problem: that question is hard to answer without knowing where sidewalks, crossings and curb ramps actually are. Dr. Anat Caspi, director of the Taskar Center for Accessible Technology at the University of Washington, joins the show to talk about Open Sidewalks, a project that helps communities map pedestrian infrastructure in a shared, usable format. Her team has mapped hundreds of thousands of sidewalks, and now residents can help add the local details that determine whether a route actually works in daily life. ADDITIONAL SHOW NOTES Dr. Anat Caspi (LinkedIn) Open Sidewalks Connect Map (Map) Norm Van Eeden Petersman (LinkedIn) Do you know someone who would make for a great Bottom-Up Revolution guest? Let us know here.   This podcast is made possible by Strong Towns members. Thank you! Join fellow members discussing this episode in The Commons.

Street trees, benches, slower speeds, and beautiful proportions are often treated as extras, added only after the “real” engineering work is done. Victor Dover argues that this gets the whole assignment wrong. In this episode, he talks about the second edition of Street Design: The Secret to Great Cities and Towns and why great streets have to be designed as places, not just routes. Dover makes the case that beauty belongs in the brief from the beginning, because when a street is designed only for traffic flow, that is all it can ever really become: a place for traffic. Additional Show Notes Victor Dover (LinkedIn) Street Design (Book) Dover, Kohl, & Partners (Site) Chuck Marohn (Substack)   This podcast is made possible by Strong Towns members. Thank you! Join fellow members discussing this episode in The Commons.

Fayetteville, Arkansas, is growing fast, and housing is getting harder to build. Clark Eckels and Nathan McCloskey of Fayetteville Strong talk about Rethink the Lot, a tactical urbanism pop-up that turned downtown parking spaces into small-scale housing people could walk through. The housing and parking debate can easily get stuck in zoning language, council meetings, and abstract trade-offs, but this project gave people a physical way to understand what those rules mean on the ground. Clark and Nathan explain what residents worry about, why parking minimums matter, and what changed when people stood inside a home where a car would usually sit. ADDITIONAL SHOW NOTES Clark Eckels and Nathan McCloskey (LinkedIn) Fayetteville Strong (Site, Instagram, Youtube Video) Local Recommendations:‍ Word Coffee Crisis Brewing Fossil Cove Brewing Hugos Hammontrees Fayetteville Public Library Razorback Greenway Tiffany Owens Reed (Instagram) Do you know someone who would make for a great Bottom-Up Revolution guest? Let us know here!   This podcast is made possible by Strong Towns members. Thank you! Join fellow members discussing this episode in The Commons.

Chuck Marohn has long been critical of housing research that treats affordability as a simple supply problem. This week, he brings Andrew Burleson, chair of the Strong Towns board, and Jeff Fong, a board member at YIMBY Action, a new paper on Australia's housing crisis that starts somewhere else: with the way price increases move between detached houses and apartments, and from one city to another. The paper argues that detached homes help lead the market, while the discussion keeps returning to a harder question: how much of the crisis is about housing supply, and how much is about the financial incentives built into the market? ADDITIONAL SHOW NOTES "The role of price spillovers in the Australian housing crisis: A two-market analysis" by Shu-Hen Chiang, Chyi Lin Lee, and Chi Man Eddie Hiu, Sciencedirect.com (June 2026) Chuck Marohn (LinkedIn) Andrew Burleson (LinkedIn), Free Range City (Substack) Jeff Fong (LinkedIn), Urban Proxima (Substack) Articles Mentioned and Downzone: Fifa (Site) 'We Can Never Go Back' (Substack) Apple in China: The Capture of the World's Greatest Company, by Patrick McGee (Goodreads) Theme Music by Kemet the Phantom.   This podcast is made possible by Strong Towns members. Thank you! Join fellow members discussing this episode in The Commons.

In New York City, the average rent is $4,700 a month and climbing. Over 500,000 housing violations are on file in the city, but the government database where they live is so outdated that most renters never see them. Farid Sofiyev, a sophomore and co-founder of Civic Reset NYC, built an interactive map of 40,000 of those violations and published the names of the 25 worst landlords in the city. This episode gets into how the map works, what the data reveals about NYC's rent crisis, and the zoning choices that got the city there. ADDITIONAL SHOW NOTES Farid Safiyev and Angelo Mazza (LinkedIn) Civic Reset (Site, Instagram, Podcast) Courtyard Urbanism: The Best of Both City and Suburb with Dr. Alicia Pederson (Podcast) Norm Van Eeden Petersman (LinkedIn) Do you know someone who would make for a great Bottom-Up Revolution guest? Let us know here.   This podcast is made possible by Strong Towns members. Thank you! Join fellow members discussing this episode in The Commons.

Pedestrian deaths have climbed sharply since 2009, yet transportation agencies often point to small, recent dips as proof that things are getting better. Beth Osborne, president and CEO of Smart Growth America, returns to the Strong Towns Podcast to talk about the latest Dangerous by Design report and the choices that keep making American roads so deadly. She and Chuck dig into why state-owned roads are especially dangerous, how street design shapes driver behavior, and why blaming pedestrians or waiting for automated vehicles keeps the focus away from the roads themselves. The big question is this: when will we stop treating roadway deaths as the cost of getting around and start changing the roads that make them predictable? Additional Show Notes Beth Osborne (LinkedIn) Smart Growth America (Site) Dangerous by Design 2026 Report (PDF) The Deadly Rise of Giant Trucks and S.U.V.s (Article) Chuck Marohn (Substack)   This podcast is made possible by Strong Towns members. Thank you! Join fellow members discussing this episode in The Commons.

Van Buren, Maine, had a problem no town wants: it owned more than half of its downtown buildings through tax acquisition. When Luke Dyer became town manager after a long career in law enforcement, he was facing vacant storefronts, deteriorating buildings, flood-damaged land, and a downtown that had lost traffic after the port of entry moved away from Main Street. In this episode, Dyer shares how Van Buren began putting buildings back into productive use, turning an underused ice rink into pickleball courts, growing trees for Main Street in a community greenhouse, and converting its old town office into a business incubator. ADDITIONAL SHOW NOTES Luke Dyer (LinkedIn) Local Recommendations:‍ Acadian Village Tasty Food Restaurant Northern Maine Kolache York's Kitchen Tiffany Owens Reed (Instagram) Do you know someone who would make for a great Bottom-Up Revolution guest? Let us know here!   This podcast is made possible by Strong Towns members. Thank you! Join fellow members discussing this episode in The Commons.

When Charlotte and its regional planning body withdrew support for a $4.3 billion widening of Interstate 77, North Carolina lawmakers responded by threatening a $60 million penalty and a funding cutoff. Host Carlee Alm-LaBar is joined by Patrick Kennedy, whose Atlas of Inner-City Highway Impacts documents highway damage across 142 cities, and John Reuter, the newly named Executive Director of Strong Towns, to break down the sunk cost trap, the real math behind highway "assets," and why the local officials who pushed back may have saved far more than they spent. ADDITIONAL SHOW NOTES "N.C. Lawmakers May Claw Back $60M for Cancelled I-77 Project" by Ray Gronberg, Businessnc.com (June 2026) Downzone: Atlas of Inner-City Highway Impacts (PDF) Mission Accomplished (Site) Dealing with Dragons (Site) Fifa (Site) Carlee Alm-LaBar (LinkedIn) Patrick Kennedy (LinkedIn) John Reuter (LinkedIn) Theme Music by Kemet the Phantom.   This podcast is made possible by Strong Towns members. Join fellow members discussing this episode in The Commons.  

Horry County, South Carolina has grown so fast that the median household can no longer afford the median home. Dylan Thompson has lived there his whole life, and he's running for county council because he thinks the people making decisions about that growth should actually be accountable to the people living through it. He's a former pastor running under the Forward Party, focused on flooding, housing, and development policy, and making the case that those issues don't have to break along party lines; they're the same things his neighbors on both sides of the aisle are worried about. ADDITIONAL SHOW NOTES Dylan Thompson (Facebook, Site) Norm Van Eeden Petersman (LinkedIn) Do you know someone who would make for a great Bottom-Up Revolution guest? Let us know here.   This podcast is made possible by Strong Towns members. Thank you! Join fellow members discussing this episode in The Commons.

Strong Towns has always warned cities about the danger of fragile growth. Now, Chuck is applying that same lesson to the movement he helped build. In this episode, Chuck explains why Strong Towns can no longer depend on everything landing on his desk, and introduces the organization's new Executive Director. His guest shares how he found Strong Towns as a Sandpoint city council member, his organizing work in Idaho and at the League of Conservation Voters, and why he finally decided he had to be inside the organization, not just on the board. Together, they talk about culture, management, local conversations, and the kind of leadership Strong Towns needs for its next phase. Additional Show Notes John Reuter (LinkedIn) Strong Towns Team (Site) Chuck Marohn (Substack)   This podcast is made possible by Strong Towns members. Thank you! Join fellow members discussing this episode in The Commons.

Zoning reform matters, but Eric Kronberg says it is not enough on its own. Cities also need useful building types, realistic development math, better street design, thoughtful tax policy, and a clearer vision for what good neighborhoods can become. He and Tiffany explore why many cities say they want more housing but still make the most useful housing types illegal or impractical. They also talk about compact cottages, missing middle housing, Atlanta's affordability challenges, and the overlooked power of a simple box, a good porch, and a house people can picture on their own block. ADDITIONAL SHOW NOTES Eli Smith (LinkedIn) Kronberg Urbanists & Architects (Site) Housing Catalogue (Site) Local Recommendations:‍ Little Tart Bakery Summerhill Neighborhood Tiffany Owens Reed (Instagram) Do you know someone who would make for a great Bottom-Up Revolution guest? Let us know here!   This podcast is made possible by Strong Towns members. Thank you! Join fellow members discussing this episode in The Commons.

A decade ago, a row of North Park storefronts was cleared for a university housing project that never came. The businesses are gone, the buildings are mostly empty, and neighbors are still pushing Northeastern Illinois University to act. Norm Van Eeden Petersman is joined by Bernice Radle, an incremental developer in Buffalo, and Alex Montero of Strong Towns Chicago to ask why places like this get stuck. What begins as the story of one vacant block turns into a deeper question: once a place has been cleared for a future vision, what happens when that future never arrives? The conversation explores why smaller, incremental approaches can succeed where larger plans stall, and what gets lost when neighborhoods are left waiting. ADDITIONAL SHOW NOTES "Northeastern University Fought To Take Over A North Park Block. 10 Years Later, It's Still Vacant" by Millie DeVore, Blockclubchicago.com (May 2026) Norm Van Eeden Petersman (LinkedIn) Bernice Radle (LinkedIn) Alex Montero (LinkedIn) Articles Mentioned and Downzone: The Corner Side Yard (Substack) Cerrone (Spotify) Brittania Mine Museum (Site) Theme Music by Kemet the Phantom.   This podcast is made possible by Strong Towns members. Thank you! Join fellow members discussing this episode in The Commons.

Before Strong Towns became a national movement, its ideas spread through conversations, conferences, friendships and people willing to make room for a difficult message. For Member Week, Norm talks with Founders Circle member Paddy Steinschneider about watching Chuck Marohn's work gain traction and why the movement has always depended on more than one voice. Paddy reflects on the role members can play when a community realizes its streets, budgets, infrastructure or public life are not working. He describes Strong Towns members not as a strike force, but as people with a toolkit: ready to help when a community realizes its streets, budgets, infrastructure or public life are not working. ADDITIONAL SHOW NOTES Paddy Steinschneider (LinkedIn) Gotham Design & Community Development (Site) Norm Van Eeden Petersman (LinkedIn) Do you know someone who would make for a great Bottom-Up Revolution guest? Let us know here.   This podcast is made possible by Strong Towns members. Thank you! Join fellow members discussing this episode in The Commons.

Lars Doucet digs into a problem that shows up in expensive cities, sprawling suburbs, and even countries Americans often point to as models: land. Monopoly, he argues, became frustrating by design because it captured something real about how land markets work. The episode connects that lesson to housing costs, land value tax, Henry George, Norway, Texas, sprawl, and the uncomfortable question every city eventually faces: who gets the value created by a place? Additional Show Notes Lars Doucet (LinkedIn) Land Economics (Site) Land is a Big Deal (Site) Enacting Land Value Return in your hometown (Substack) Chuck Marohn (Substack)   This podcast is made possible by Strong Towns members. Thank you! Join fellow members discussing this episode in The Commons.

Nate Hood was the first person to donate to Strong Towns, back when the movement was still a blog, an irregular podcast, and a small circle of people asking better questions about cities. Norm Van Eeden Petersman talks with him about the early days of Strong Towns, the ideas that first made the movement feel different, and what has changed as those ideas have spread across North America. This is a story about growth, but also about why the movement's power still comes from people noticing what is broken nearby and doing the next small thing. ADDITIONAL SHOW NOTES Nate Hood (LinkedIn) Suburban Engagement Photos (Site) Norm Van Eeden Petersman (LinkedIn) Do you know someone who would make for a great Bottom-Up Revolution guest? Let us know here.   This podcast is made possible by Strong Towns members. Thank you! Join fellow members discussing this episode in The Commons.

Eli Smith, director of the Faith-Based Housing Initiative, joins the show to talk about churches turning underused land and aging buildings into housing and everyday community spaces. He explains how his team helps congregations understand their property, imagine specific projects, and gain the language and tools they need to work with developers, lenders, and local officials. Eli and Tiffany dig into the tension between commuter churches and a more rooted parish model, and why thoughtful design often leads congregations beyond a standard apartment block toward pocket neighborhoods and shared spaces. ADDITIONAL SHOW NOTES Eli Smith (LinkedIn) Faith-Based Housing Initiative (Site) What I've learned from faith-based housing (Substack) Local Recommendations:‍ The Franklin Inn Scoop Tiffany Owens Reed (Instagram) Do you know someone who would make for a great Bottom-Up Revolution guest? Let us know here!   This podcast is made possible by Strong Towns members. Thank you! Join fellow members discussing this episode in The Commons.

With the World Cup coming to North America, millions of visitors will encounter more than stadiums and soccer. They'll also encounter the transportation systems, infrastructure gaps, and car-dependent development patterns that shape daily life in U.S. cities. Norm Van Eeden Petersman talks with Chuck Marohn and Rick Cole about “catastrophic money,” the danger of building for spectacle instead of long-term value, and what major events reveal about the places that host them. These visitors will move on when the games are over, but the systems they struggled with will still be ours to live with. ADDITIONAL SHOW NOTES "The U.S. campaigned to host the World Cup. Now soccer fans will trade their countries' train system for the U.S.'s ‘D' rated infrastructure" by Catherine Gioino, Fortune.com (May 2026) Norm Van Eeden Petersman (LinkedIn) Chuck Marohn (LinkedIn) Rick Cole (LinkedIn) Articles Mentioned and Downzone: Just a thought: a Texas based World Cup (Article) The Mission: CIA in the 21st Century by Tim Weiner The Troubles: Ireland's Ordeal 1966-1996 and the Search for Peace by Tim Pat Coogan Only Murders in the Building (Site) Theme Music by Kemet the Phantom.   This podcast is made possible by Strong Towns members. Thank you! Join fellow members discussing this episode in The Commons.

A car had crashed into the same Madison coffee shop three times. That was enough for Josh Olson and Strong Towns Madison to push for a change on Willie Street — a dense, locally-owned corridor that doubles as a commuter shortcut during rush hour. The intervention they proposed cost a fraction of what the city had budgeted, took two weeks to implement, and ran as a two-month trial. Josh breaks down what made the argument land with city staff and commissioners, and what happened after the results came in. ADDITIONAL SHOW NOTES Strong Towns Madison (Site, Instagram) Josh Olson (LinkedIn) Counting Cranes (Substack) Norm Van Eeden Petersman (LinkedIn) Do you know someone who would make for a great Bottom-Up Revolution guest? Let us know here.   This podcast is made possible by Strong Towns members. Thank you! Join fellow members discussing this episode in The Commons.

Beth Osborne has watched the same story play out five times: a new federal transportation bill arrives with big language about goals and accountability, states adopt the right words, and nothing changes. Osborne, who led Transportation for America and worked inside USDOT, has been through five federal transportation reauthorizations, watched reform language get adopted and neutralized every single time, and arrived at a conclusion that would have surprised her younger self. Recorded at the Strong Towns National Gathering in Fayetteville, Arkansas, this conversation with Chuck Marohn digs into the gap between what the federal transportation program claims to do and what it actually delivers — on safety, on repair, on congestion, on emissions — and whether there's any version of federal involvement worth keeping. Additional Show Notes Beth Osborne (LinkedIn) Transportation for America (Site) Mission Accomplished Report (Site) The Highway Expansion Lightning Lane (Substack) Chuck Marohn (Substack)   This podcast is made possible by Strong Towns members. Thank you! Join fellow members discussing this episode in The Commons.