What if you could look at your city’s finances and understand what’s going on—not just this year, but over the long haul? Meet the Strong Towns Finance Decoder.
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Fragile cities are overextended, under-resourced, and deeply dependent on decisions made far away. Here’s what that looks like.
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Today, Chuck is joined by Mark Moses, author of “The Municipal Financial Crisis.” They cover everything from the dangers of relying on “balanced budgets” to the difference between city and business finances. (Transcript included.)
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Despite assertions to the contrary, a city's budget is almost exactly like a family budget.
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How do you direct city finances in a truly effective way? What role should the public play in a city’s financial decisions? Chuck and city finance expert Rick Cole cover these questions and more in this episode of the Strong Towns Podcast. (Transcript included.)
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Chuck is joined by Shayne Kavanagh, senior manager of research for the Government Finance Officers Association. Kavanagh discusses the role of finance officers as “decision architects” and shares some tactics they can use to improve their processes. (Transcript included.)
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The Finance Decoder reveals the long-term trends hidden behind annual balanced budgets. For Kansas City, those trends are deeply problematic.
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What cities have successfully financed housing at the local level? How does tax increment financing work? When should cities stop subsidizing large-scale housing projects? Strong Towns President Chuck Marohn answers all these questions and more in this episode of the Strong Towns Podcast. (Transcript included.)
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Ryan Andrews is the CFO of a small-scale development company and capital fund in Bend, Oregon. In this episode, he discusses the importance of local investment and explains how to channel the profits from housing development back to locals. (Transcript included.)
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Many people think that increased efficiency and economies of scale in the housing market are the key to affordability. However, these benefits are not actually appearing. We do need innovation, but not in the form of new interest rate manipulations or complex securitization schemes.
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On this episode of the Strong Towns Podcast, Chuck answers housing questions submitted by Ohio State University students, covering topics from the history of the housing market to financing housing development.
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Today, I’m going to show you what election years do to a nonprofit like Strong Towns, one dedicated to working from the bottom up, with everyone, regardless of how messy those relationships can be. It’s kind of ugly.
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In this episode of Upzoned, co-hosts Abby Newsham and Chuck Marohn discuss the problems with common natural disaster responses, such as managed retreat or rebuilding disaster areas to be more fortified, and suggest some alternatives.
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The U.S. is in a massive housing bubble fueled by widespread fraud. With banks incentivized to look away and Wall Street and Washington incentivized to keep housing prices artificially high, a bottom-up approach is the only hope for bringing sanity back to the housing market.
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Winnipeg, Manitoba’s new transportation plan uses all the right words to seem like it’s prioritizing maintenance and multimodal transit, but its funding allocation tells a very different story.
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In this episode of Upzoned, host Abby Newsham is joined by Jason Carter-Solomon, an incremental developer and commercial lender in Kansas City, to talk about financing small-scale development.
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We can’t wait for big government housing programs to fix the housing affordability crisis — in fact, they can actually make things worse. But don't lose hope. Local governments have the power to tackle the housing crisis in ways that actually work.
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Family Dollar is shutting down many of its urban stores, while Dollar General is expanding in rural areas. This week’s episode explores the reasons behind their differing success and the effect dollar stores have on neighborhoods.
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Many bus routes have moved away from traditional static signage to digital maps and schedules that can be updated in real time. But is this really the right move, or are there enough benefits to static signage to justify it sticking around?
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Highway expansion projects have a devastating impact of city finances while only providing minor benefits. This case study explores the financial details of a highway expansion project in Winnipeg, Canada, and discusses how people can take action to stop this kind of project.
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