A Year of Living with Intention

This year, I want to focus on how our small, everyday actions add up to something meaningful for the places we live in.

Marohn, Top StoryCharles MarohnJanuary 3, 2022strong towns approach

The Best Books I Read in 2021

An annual tradition, here is Chuck Marohn’s list of his favorite books he read in 2021.

MarohnCharles MarohnDecember 17, 2021books

Christmas Cookie Inflation Index, 2021 Update

The Christmas Cookie Inflation Index has risen 10.6% in the last year. This is compared to the official inflation rate of 6.8%.

Marohn, Top StoryCharles MarohnDecember 15, 2021Inflation, poverty, Economy, economics

How Do You Actually Fix a Stroad?

We respond to a question posted for us on Reddit about a stroad that seems unfixable—and maybe that’s because it is.

Marohn, Top StoryCharles MarohnDecember 3, 2021strong towns approach, Not Just Bikes, roads, strip malls, transportation, stroad

An Update on Our Lawsuit Against the Minnesota Board of Engineering Licensure

The most frequent request we’re getting these days is for a status update on our lawsuit with the Minnesota board of licensure. Here are the answers we can give you, for now.

Engineering Reform, Marohn, Top StoryCharles MarohnDecember 1, 2021engineering ethics, engineers, announcement

An Ode to Donald Shoup

For #BlackFridayParking week, we’re paying homage to Donald Shoup, whose work has been hugely influential to Strong Towns.

Where Parking Reform Ideas Go to Die...or Not?

You might be used to good ideas getting killed by committee. Here’s some inspiration to keep pushing, regardless.

The Next Generation of Strong Towns Leaders

The next generation of local leaders won’t consign themselves to serving as wards of the state. Instead, they’ll step up as the highest level of organizing for members of a community.

Marohn, Top StoryCharles MarohnNovember 18, 2021local government, leadership, member week

What Question Brought You to Strong Towns?

Is there a question that brought you to this movement? What answer were you seeking when you first found us?

Marohn, Top StoryCharles MarohnNovember 15, 2021member week

My Journey from Free Market Ideologue to Strong Towns Advocate, Revisited

I’ve had to reconcile my foundational belief in markets with my experiences working with cities. This has been a painful process.

Will We Have an Infrastructure Bill? Who Cares?

We get a lot of questions about a federal infrastructure bill, but at the end of the day…does it really matter?

The Strong Towns Hiring Process

We often get questions about our hiring process, so we’ve laid it all out here so that others can put it to use in building their own teams.

Marohn, Top StoryCharles MarohnSeptember 20, 2021Strong Towns, jobs

The Environment Question

Where does the Strong Towns approach intersect with environmentalism?

Marohn, Top StoryCharles MarohnSeptember 16, 2021environment, strong towns approach, Electric Vehicles, walkability, streets

Learning from Biology, Not Physics

In general, engineers treat cities like a physics problem, but what we need is engineers who are able to humbly grasp the overwhelming complexity of human habitat and work.

Marohn, Top StoryCharles MarohnSeptember 10, 2021engineering ethics, engineers, leadership, confessions of a recovering engineer

The Bottom-Up Revolution is... Taking a Strong Towns Approach to Transportation

Chuck Marohn joins this week’s show to talk about his new book.

"Improvements"

So many engineering projects are formally called "improvements." The subtle bias of this language provides a glimpse at the values embedded within the profession.

All Traffic Models Are Wrong

Traffic engineers use projections of future traffic to make recommendations and decisions on transportation investments… The problem is, those projections are all wrong.

Just Another Pedestrian Killed

This one’s on you, engineering profession. Society is done tolerating this level of indifference, incompetence, and incoherence. What are you going to do?