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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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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After a fatal crash, Rochester citizens and officials got to work, identifying factors that contributed to the crash, updating street design policies to make streets safer, and establishing a Community Traffic Safety Team to address other dangerous factors before crashes occur.
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Chuck was recently invited onto The Building Culture Podcast to debate the housing crisis with California YIMBY’s Nolan Gray. It was a great conversation that explores how these movements align and differ in their approaches to housing.
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To create change, you need community engagement. Unfortunately, many cities have complicated systems for engagement that take a lot of time and effort to work with. Here's how one community in West Virginia is cutting through that red tape.
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Fletcher Williams was hit by three cars in a 13-month period — all within a half-mile radius in Bradenton, Florida. And he’s only one of many crash victims. The design of these streets is inhumanely dangerous and must be changed.
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In this episode of Upzoned, host Abby Newsham is joined by Kevin Klinkenberg, an urban designer and planner, to discuss how a middle-class life has become increasingly difficult for younger generations to attain.
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After a cyclist was killed in a car crash, residents of Indianapolis worked with Strong Towns to conduct the first Crash Analysis Studio. City officials have taken notice and instituted new initiatives to create safer streets.
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In this episode, host Norm Van Eeden Petersman is joined by Jake Loftis, a pastor and Local Conversation leader. They discuss the ways that North America’s built environment can lead to social isolation and how Loftis used his local paper to combat that isolation.
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In Blair, Nebraska, Jake Loftis and his Local Conversation are turning the idea of New Year’s resolutions into a powerful tool for community transformation.
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To escape the housing crisis, we need a lot of housing to be built quickly. The key isn't large, ponderous projects; it's fast, widespread incremental development. We know the types of units that can be scaled and we know how to build them. The only thing we need now is for cities to devote themselves to doing it.
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Over the years, Chuck has added audio clips to the Strong Towns Podcast outro music to memorialize influential moments and experiences. Today, in honor of that music being retired, he breaks down these clips, explaining why they’re significant and how these experiences influenced him and the Strong Towns movement.
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The terms chosen to describe upcoming road work often misrepresent the actual projects, ascribing a positive or negative bias that affects how political leaders interpret and underwrite them. The DOT Decoder is the perfect gift for decoding three common terms used by departments of transportation and their engineers.
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In this episode, host Tiffany Owens Reed is joined by Chloe Groome and Aaron Feldman, co-leads of the Local Conversation group Strong Towns Chicago, to discuss the initiatives their group is working on and their coalition strategy for driving change.
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Conducting a walking audit is an quick, easy and free step that anyone can take to start improving their place. In this article, trained architect and urban designer Edward Erfurt demonstrates how to do so, using a recently completed sidewalk project in his community as an example.
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Advocacy work means a lot of waiting and hoping for a better future. That makes it a lot like Advent (the weeks before Christmas on the Christian calendar). But waiting during Advent isn’t discouraging or boring: It’s hopeful, active and joyful. Here are a few ways to bring that approach to your community, whether you celebrate Christmas or not.
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In this episode, host Norm Van Eeden Petersman is joined by Joshua Hopkins, the newly elected mayor of Chugwater, Wyoming, to discuss how a rodeo arena he built is benefiting his community.
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Parks and recreation departments handle a lot more programs and face a lot more challenges than many people may realize. So, here are a few things that newly elected officials should know about this department as they step into their role.
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On this episode of the Strong Towns Podcast, Chuck continues answering housing questions submitted by Ohio State University students, covering topics from building codes to local action.
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An annual tradition, here is Chuck Marohn’s list of favorite books that he read in 2024.
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