Let's Talk Great Streets
Host Abby Kinney, an urban planner in Kansas City, and regular cohost Chuck Marohn, Strong Towns founder and president.
This week on Upzoned, we're shaking things up with something a little different: To celebrate the launch of the newest book in the Strong Towns series, Confessions of a Recovering Engineer: Transportation for a Strong Town, host Abby Kinney is interviewing Strong Towns President and author of the book, Chuck Marohn.
In particular, they discuss the fifth chapter of Confessions, which is all about great streets. So many cities bear remnants of formerly great streets—streets that were originally designed to be wealth generators, supporting public space and public activity. Those streets have since degraded in favor of allowing the free flow of cars, to move people in and out of cities as quickly as possible. Undoing this degradation is going to be a vital task for this generation, and generations to follow.
So, have a listen as Abby and Chuck discuss the insights Confessions provides about streets as platforms for building wealth, strategies for planning streets (including the use of a street design team), and more! Then afterward in the downzone, Chuck and Abby are both brushing up on their history, though Chuck's readings place him on the other side of the world, whereas Abby's studies situate her a little closer to home.
And if you're interested in reading more of Confessions of a Recovering Engineer, order it today at wherever books are sold!
When trying to make a walkable and vibrant street, urban planners often think in terms of hard infrastructure like road width and crosswalks. But soft infrastructure, specifically flowers and other colorful plant life, plays an important role as well.