This special episode explores the Strongest Town Contest, including what cities can learn from previous winners and a preview of this year's Contest. Joining the discussion are Strong Towns staffers Lauren Ronnander and John Pattison, as well as Stephen Gawron, the former mayor of the 2018 Strongest Town, Muskegon, Michigan. (Transcript included.)
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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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Do speed cameras actually make roads safer, or are they just another enforcement tool that fails to address the underlying design issues that cause speeding in the first place?
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Stanis Moody Roberts is a business owner from Portland, Maine, who has been organizing local opposition to a highway expansion for the past year. He joins today’s episode to discuss this journey and the progress his community has made.
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The Growth Ponzi Scheme encourages city governments to take on obligations they can never hope to sustain. Purcellville, Virginia, offers a stark example of where this path leads.
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In this episode, Norm is joined by Andrew and Anna Carley, Local Conversation leaders from Michigan. They discuss how they became one of the go-to groups that city officials turn to when they’re considering policy changes.
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Emily Hutcheson is a bike advocate in San Antonio, Texas, and a mom of three. She joins Tiffany on this episode of The Bottom-Up Revolution to discuss some of the initiatives she’s spearheaded to improve bike infrastructure in her city, including a bike club and bike bus.
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In this episode, Abby and Chuck discuss a recent court ruling that confirmed Massachusetts has the authority to sue cities and towns that don’t comply with its multifamily zoning requirements near transit stations.
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Spencer Coyne is the mayor of Princeton, British Columbia. He joins this Bottom-Up Short to explain how he’s implementing the Strong Towns approach in his city, including how to incrementally reform a zoning code and how to do a lot with a small amount of funding.
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Chuck discusses housing with Cullum Clark, director of the Economic Growth Initiative at the George W. Bush Institute. They talk about why there is so much resistance to new development and ways that officials and advocates could engage with the public to reduce that resistance.
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When actor Timothée Chalamet got stuck in traffic on the way to a movie premiere, he showed that rethinking how we travel can lead to better outcomes for everyone.
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In this episode, host Tiffany Owens Reed is joined by Ellie Riggs and Ryan Carter from Catawba Riverkeeper, a water-preservation organization. They discuss stormwater’s effect on the environment, how it’s connected to parking reform, and Riggs and Carter’s experience with advocacy at the state level.
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Here’s how Strong Towns Chicago is making its neighborhoods safer, more pedestrian-friendly and more inviting.
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In this episode, co-hosts Abby Newsham and Chuck Marohn discuss the impact of natural disasters on the insurance industry, the feasibility of government-run insurance programs, and what this might mean for California in the long term.
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In this episode, Local Conversation leader Michael Bassili explains how his group created a parking campaign that convinced their city council to eliminate parking mandates in their downtown.
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In this episode, Chuck discusses the common misbelief that an incremental approach to housing development is inherently slow, what that means for major cities, and how to make incremental housing more appealing to people who don’t want their neighborhoods to change.
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In this episode, host Tiffany Owens Reed is joined by Matt Harder, the founder of a participatory budgeting company, to discuss the importance of resident input on city budgets and the process of implementing a participatory method.
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While long-term safety initiatives like updating street design standards or starting a crash response team are important, they must be paired with immediate action. A recent crash in Rochester, New York, shows why.
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A mysterious plastic sign appeared on a Houston street, raising the speed limit to 60 mph — double the actual limit. Drivers didn’t seem to notice the difference.
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In this special episode of Bottom-Up Shorts, host Norm Van Eeden Petersman is joined by Edward Erfurt, chief technical advisor for Strong Towns, to discuss real-world examples of a transformative 4-step approach to public investment.
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