The Gathering "Swarm" of Small-Scale Developers

 

Host Abby Kinney, an urban planner in Kansas City, and Strong Towns Senior Editor Daniel Herriges.

It’s no secret here at Strong Towns that the many places that urbanists consider to be the most enduring and timeless and wonderful—from small towns to big cities—were the result of incremental development. In other words, they weren’t the result of careful planning, but rather of a decentralized process with ad hoc adaptation over time.

Rooted in the creation of these places were ecosystems of tradespeople, laborers, lenders, and small-scale developers. The latter, in particular, are the focus of Strong Towns Senior Editor Daniel Herriges’s recent series, Unleash the Swarm: Reviving Small-Scale Development in America’s Cities.

In this week’s special episode of Upzoned, host Abby Kinney talks with Daniel about incremental development, and what work still needs to be done in order to truly build up a “swarm” of small-scale developers across North America.

Additional Show Notes

 
 
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Abby Newsham
Abby Newsham

Abby Newsham is the cohost of the Upzoned podcast. Abby is an urban design and planning consultant at Multistudio in Kansas City, Missouri. In her own community, she works to advance bottom-up strategies that enhance both private development and the public realm, and facilitates the ad-hoc Kansas City chapter of the Incremental Development Alliance. When she’s not geeking out over cities, Abby is an avid urban mountain biker (because: potholes), audiobook and podcast junkie, amateur rock climber, and guitarist. You can connect with Abby on Twitter at @abbykatkc.

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Daniel Herriges
Daniel Herriges

Daniel Herriges has been a regular contributor to Strong Towns since 2015 and is a founding member of the Strong Towns movement. He is the co-author of Escaping the Housing Trap: The Strong Towns Response to the Housing Crisis, with Charles Marohn. Daniel now works as the Policy Director at the Parking Reform Network, an organization which seeks to accelerate the reform of harmful parking policies by educating the public about these policies and serving as a connecting hub for advocates and policy makers. Daniel’s work reflects a lifelong fascination with cities and how they work. When he’s not perusing maps (for work or pleasure), he can be found exploring out-of-the-way neighborhoods on foot or bicycle. Daniel has lived in Northern California and Southwest Florida, and he now resides back in his hometown of St. Paul, Minnesota, along with his wife and two children. Daniel has a Masters in Urban and Regional Planning from the University of Minnesota.

 
Podcast, Herriges, Top StoryStrong Townspodcast, incremental development, incrementalism, small scale developers, small scale development, upzoned