The Strong Towns Podcast

Sam Quinones: Recovering Addicts Are Having a Bottom-Up Revolution in This Small Kentucky Town

Journalist and author Sam Quinones returns to the Strong Towns Podcast for the third time to discuss a recent, moving article he’s written for The Free Press: “Opioids Decimated a Kentucky Town. Recovering Addicts Are Saving It.” It’s the story of Hazard, a small town that was hit hard by the decline of coal mining and the rise of the opioid epidemic—and yet its residents aren’t letting their town go down without a fight.

ADDITIONAL SHOW NOTES

• “Opioids Decimated a Kentucky Town. Recovering Addicts Are Saving It,” by Sam Quinones, The Free Press (February 2024).

• Sam Quinones (Twitter/X).

• Sam Quinones (website).

• Chuck Marohn (Twitter/X).

Tony Jordan and Chris Meyer: Pushing for People Over Parking

This week’s episode of the Strong Towns Podcast is all about parking reform, and here to talk with host Chuck Marohn on the matter are Tony Jordan and Chris Meyer. Jordan is the president of the Parking Reform Network, a bottom-up nonprofit that’s working to educate the public about the impact of parking policy on climate change, equity, housing, and traffic. Meyer is the legislative assistant to Senator Omar Fateh, who was crucial in introducing a bill—the first of its kind in the nation—to eliminate parking mandates statewide in Minnesota.

ADDITIONAL SHOW NOTES

• Parking Reform Network (website).

• Chris Meyer (Twitter/X).

• Tony Jordan (LinkedIn).

• Chuck Marohn (Twitter/X).

Eric Goldwyn: Why U.S. Transit Is So Expensive (and How To Fix It)

On this week’s episode, host Chuck Marohn talks with Eric Goldwyn, a leading urban scholar and program director at the Marron Institute of Urban Management, as well as a Clinical Assistant Professor in the Transportation and Land-Use program at the NYU Marron Institute. He is known for his pioneering research on urban issues, fostering collaboration to improve city living, and he’s here to talk with us today about the importance of transit for the future of cities, as well as the importance of local government (and the fact that local government is more than just an appendage of state and federal government).

ADDITIONAL SHOW NOTES

• “Slow Boring x Transit Costs Project Event,” by Kate Crawford, Slow Boring (March 2023).

• Transit Costs (website).

• Eric Goldwyn (Twitter/X).

• Chuck Marohn (Twitter/X).

Meet the Freeway Fighters Who Are Suing the Texas Department of Transportation

One of the most egregious highway expansion projects we’ve encountered is the I-35 project in Austin, Texas. A lot of good people have been fighting it for a long time, and on this week’s episode of the Strong Towns Podcast, host Chuck Marohn will be talking with two of them: Adam Greenfield and Bobby Levinski. They’re both part of the grassroots movement Rethink35, which is working with other local organizations to file a lawsuit against the Texas Department of Transportation over their plans to expand I-35.

ADDITIONAL SHOW NOTES

• Learn more about Rethink35’s work on their website.

• Chuck Marohn (Twitter/X).

Shima Hamidi: Narrow Lanes Save Lives

On this week’s episode, Chuck talks with Dr. Shima Hamidi of the Johns Hopkins Bloomberg School of Public Health, who, in November 2023, published a study on how wide lanes on urban streets promote more crashes, whereas narrower lanes—as narrow as nine feet—are safer. The findings of this paper cut into the core assumptions of the civil engineering profession in regard to traffic design. Strong Towns wrote about the study when it first came out, and we’re excited to now have Dr. Hamidi on the podcast to tell us about her work, in her own words.

ADDITIONAL SHOW NOTES

• Read the study: “A National Investigation on the Impacts of Lane Width on Traffic Safety.”

• Check out the study’s homepage.

• Shima Hamidi (Twitter/X).

• Chuck Marohn (Twitter/X).

Minnesota Introduces First-in-the-Nation Bill To Eliminate Minimum Parking Mandates Statewide

On this week’s episode, Chuck Marohn talks about a trip he made to the Minnesota state capitol, where he was invited to take part in a press conference in which a bill was launched. Strong Towns is a bottom-up, member-based movement, and so getting involved in legislative action is not normally something that would be on Chuck’s docket. So, why make an exception this time? Simple: because this is a bill that states that no city in Minnesota shall mandate parking requirements.

ADDITIONAL SHOW NOTES

• Watch the full press conference here.

• Chuck Marohn (Twitter/X).

• Cover image source: Wikimedia Commons/SimonP.

Where Is Sprawl Good? (Featuring Joe Minicozzi)

At Strong Towns, we try to avoid using the word “sprawl” as a shorthand term in our content—and we’d even go so far as to say that sprawl isn’t the problem we’re trying to solve in our communities. All that said, are there any instances where sprawl is actually good? Hear Strong Towns President Chuck Marohn discuss this with Joe Minicozzi, principal of Urban3.

ADDITIONAL SHOW NOTES

• “Sprawl Is Not the Problem,” by Chuck Marohn, Strong Towns (April 2016).

• Urban3 (website).

• Joe Minicozzi (Twitter/X).

• Chuck Marohn (Twitter/X).

Reading Member Comments—Live From Buc-ee’s!

Alright, it’s not exactly “live,” but while visiting Austin, Chuck Marohn couldn’t resist stopping by a Buc-ee’s to marvel at this Texas-sized gas station. It’s emblematic of the overbuilt, spread-out, auto-oriented infrastructure plaguing states like Texas and so many others—but even in Buc-ee’s massive parking lot, there is hope to be found, in the form of comments from Strong Towns members. These are the people who have taken the first step toward fighting a hundred years of bad city development. Will you join them by becoming a member today?

We’re Seeing a Groundswell of People Doing Amazing Things in Their Communities

On this special Member Week episode of the Strong Towns Podcast, Chuck Marohn reflects how, despite being sick, his spirits were bolstered this week by the efforts of advocates he’s observed doing amazing work in their cities and towns. We get to support these local heroes through programs like Local Conversations and the Community Action Lab—and your donations are what support us so that we can continue making these programs happen. So, will you help us in making all of this possible by becoming a Strong Towns member today?

We Must Become More Sensitive to the Stress Our Cities Are Under

Different people are sensitive to different things around them, and this Member Week, we’re asking you to challenge yourself to become a little more sensitive to the things that are happening in your community. What do you see when you look around you? Crumbling infrastructure? Poor urban design? Dangerously designed streets? Insurmountable municipal debt?

You can see what’s happening. Now it’s time to do something about it. Start by joining this movement of bottom-up action to change the trajectory of our cities and towns: become a Strong Towns member today.