Today, Chuck is joined by Ben Hunt, the creator of Epsilon Theory, to discuss the concept of the Widening Gyre, a “social equilibrium where bad people and bad ideas drive out good people and good ideas.” They cover how it manifests in American culture and how a community-focused approach is the best way out.
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Your city just announced a big infrastructure project, one with significant state and federal funding. You and your neighbors are likely wondering: why this project?
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For the first time since 2009, the Federal Highway Administration has filed an updated version of its Manual on Uniform Traffic Control Devices (MUTCD). But how effective will it actually be in making streets safer?
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Cities don’t need to pay for or try to create arts and culture programs. They just need to remove barriers to and support the organic culture already existing in their neighborhoods.
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Half a century ago, Kansas City destroyed its downtown to make way for parking. What if we used that same no-constraints, top-down approach, but this time to right the wrongs of the past?
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Progress on climate change can and will come if we use a bottom-up approach to changing our development pattern.
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A top-down approach to addressing accidents fails to make streets safer. A local approach could change that.
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The problems with "community input" are many and obvious. One misguided response is to favor more top-down policy making, simply overriding the objections of local "NIMBYs." But there is a third way.
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CDOT drafts a rule that intends to address both greenhouse gas emissions and Colorado’s spreading development pattern. But can this kind of top-down solution work?
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In 2016, Portland enacted an Inclusionary Housing policy affecting buildings of 20+ units. The result? The city now has a bunch of new 19-unit buildings. Let’s talk about intervening in a system as complex and adaptive as the housing market.
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A bill in Congress is pushing for a National Infrastructure Bank, which would mean (in theory) bold federal action to address America's infrastructure crisis. It's a big idea. It's also a really bad one.
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The Republican Roadmap isn't a real alternative to the American Jobs Plan, and even if it was, we must stop talking about our national infrastructure strategy in terms of “Democratic versus Republican” approaches.
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The top-down approach puts systems ahead of people and politics ahead of place—which is not what we need if we want to actually fix our infrastructure.
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Thousands of Christchurch residents weighed in on how to move their quake-ravaged city forward. Leaders dumped that plan for a top-down rebuild plan created behind closed doors…with predictable results.
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For example: Is it right to use Robert Moses means to undo the very harms created by Robert Moses?
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Five key issues illustrate the difference between the typical top-down approach to economic recovery and the bottom-up, Strong Towns approach.
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The problem with new American suburbs isn’t a "lack of planning" or “uncontrolled growth” or “inadequate infrastructure.” The problem is a lack of basic financial solvency.
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Wide, straight, monumental streets have always served the interests of those in power. They allow for the mobilization of military force, subordinate the unplanned chaos of the city to grandiose visions, and have been used to dispossess and displace small businesses, the poor, and racial and political minorities.
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