Upzoned
Society & Culture
About
Join Abby Kinney, Chuck Marohn, and occasional surprise guests to talk in depth about just one big story from the week in the Strong Towns conversation, right when you want it: now.
Episodes
- When The Ribbon Cutting Is the Cheapest Part
The Upzoned podcast discusses a $54 million park overhaul in Des Moines, which began with an $8.4 million first phase that exceeded estimates. Experts Jamie Sabbach and Michel Durand-Wood explain that construction is only about 20% of an a…
- Inside the Politics of ‘Safer Streets’
The Upzoned episode "Inside the Politics of Safer Streets" discusses traffic calming strategies, drawing on a CityLab piece. Guests explore why Vision Zero faces challenges, how Ann Arbor integrates safety into projects, and the reluctance…
- When Your City Feels Like Housing Musical Chairs
This episode discusses how zoning transforms housing into a competitive struggle, leading to instability even in prosperous cities. It examines how the lack of affordable housing options and the rise of remote work exacerbate these issues,…
- New York’s Bracket And The Politics Of Maintenance
Upzoned discusses New York City’s "Bracket" competition, which gamified city maintenance issues like broken hoops and dumping sites. Guests Carlee Alm-LaBar, Edward Erfurt, and Alexander Lazard analyze how this reveals dynamics of complain…
- Unpacking The Myth That Growth Pays For Growth
This episode discusses the shortcomings of development cost charges in making new growth financially self-sustaining. It covers Ontario's halved development charges, British Columbia's fee structure impacting infill development, and Winnip…
- The $600K Snow Budget That Became a $6 Million Problem
A Massachusetts town budgeted $600,000 for snow and ended up spending $6 million clearing its streets. Norm Van Eeden Petersman, Daniel Herriges, and Gracen Johnson trace the links between winter operations, stormwater, supply chains, labo…
- What LA’s Trash Problem Reveals About Its Streets
While Los Angeles gets ready for the Olympics and World Cup, residents watch trash pile up in the places tourists never see. Chuck, Norm, and Carlee trace the links between auto‑oriented growth, a strained city budget, and basic services t…
- Why a Legal Home Addition Sparked Outrage in Fairfax County
A multigenerational home addition sparked national attention and local outrage in Fairfax County, Virginia. Chief Technical Advisor Edward Erfurt sits down with guest host Norm Van Eeden Petersman to explore why legally allowed housing can…
- Zoning Reform Is Only Step 1 in Fighting the Housing Crisis
Utah wants to override local zoning to boost housing supply, but allowed by right doesn't mean possible in practice. Abby and Edward dig into the hidden barriers — complicated permits, scarce financing, and broken systems — that stop housi…
- What Happens When Official Decisions Clash With Community Traditions?
Who decides when community traditions change? Lafayette, Louisiana, recently rerouted its Mardi Gras parade. The goal was to improve public safety, but the change left neighborhoods, businesses, and long-standing customs in the lurch. Gues…
- How To Fix Washington DC's New Rules for Outdoor Dining
Last week, we heard how DC's outdoor dining regulations threaten local businesses. Today, urban designers Abby Newsham and Edward Erfurt explore how DC could course-correct. They share creative ways that cities can maintain safety while su…
- DC Is Charging Thousands for Outdoor Dining. Is This a Good Idea?
Washington DC is charging restaurants thousands of dollars to keep their streateries — outdoor dining areas built during Covid-19. Are these fees fair compensation for public space, or will they kill the local businesses they were meant to…
- 5 Ways Ordinary People Are Making Their Places Stronger
Abby is joined by Carlee Alm-LaBar, the chief of staff for Strong Towns, and John Reuter, advisory board member for Strong Towns. They discuss several stories of people across the country taking action to make their communities better, fro…
- Will Elon Musk's Data Centers Actually Help Memphis?
Elon Musk's company xAI is building massive data centers in Memphis, promising economic transformation. But at what cost? Abby is joined by Strong Towns Blog Editor and podcast host Asia Mieleszko to dissect the billion-dollar AI infrastru…
- Historic Bridge Battle: Will 1 Town Profit While the Other Pays?
Two towns, two states, and two historic bridges that nobody wants to pay for. Brattleboro, Vermont, wants to reactivate two historic bridges with a pedestrian greenway. Hinsdale, New Hampshire, worries about increased crime and being saddl…
- When a Town's Biggest Taxpayer Becomes Its Biggest Problem
What do you do with 720,000 square feet of dead mall? Towns across America are struggling to find the answer as their malls shut down, leaving budget craters and infrastructure nightmares in their wake. Abby is joined by Carlee Alm-LaBar,…
- 2 Towns, 2 Responses to the Housing Crisis. Which Will Succeed?
Littleton, Colorado, wants to ban everything other than single-family homes. The neighboring town of Lakewood wants to allow more housing variety. Norm and Abby dive into what's driving these radically different responses to the housing cr…
- Public Transit Will Collapse in a Year. Should We Save It?
By the end of 2026, many U.S. cities could see large parts of their public transit systems crumble under a lack of federal funding and a development pattern that was never designed to support it. In this episode, Chuck Marohn and Abby News…
- LA Just Avoided 1600 Layoffs. Is That a Good Thing?
The city of Los Angeles recently announced that it saved 1,600 jobs that were at risk of being cut to balance its $1 billion budget deficit. But did it actually fix anything, or is it just shuffling money around to hide the problem? What r…
- Tulsa Offers Remote Workers $10K To Move. Is It Paying Off?
The Tulsa Remote program pays remote workers $10,000 to relocate to Tulsa for a year. A study found that, for every dollar spent, Tulsa sees $4.31 in economic benefits, including increased local spending, tax revenue, and job creation. Abb…
- Housing Supply Is About to Exceed Demand. Now What?
As baby boomers downsize, relocate, or pass away, millions of homes are projected to rejoin the housing market by 2030, potentially exceeding housing demand by 1 million homes. In today's episode, Chuck and Abby discuss how generational sh…
- Can a Tax on House Flipping Stop Canada's Housing Crisis?
For years, investors and speculators shaped Canada's housing market. But now, people who actually live in those homes are beginning to have more influence. Today, Abby is joined by Norm Van Eeden Petersman, Strong Towns' director of member…
- How Mortgage Fraud Makes the Housing Market More Expensive
Several high-profile members of the government have been accused of committing mortgage fraud recently, including Texas Attorney General Ken Paxton and Federal Reserve Governor Lisa Cook. Today, Chuck and Abby explore how mortgage fraud di…
- Are Sponge Cities the Flood Control Fix We Need?
Join Abby and guest John Pattison as they dive into the benefits and drawbacks of "sponge cities," cities that incorporate natural features like wetlands into their stormwater management infrastructure. Is this method more resilient in the…
- Why Data Center Electricity Use "Scares Me to the Bone"
Data centers power everything from cloud computing to artificial intelligence, and they use a massive amount of electricity, sometimes even rivaling major cities. Watchdogs claim that tech companies aren’t absorbing the costs of this elect…
- Why Colorado Is Facing a Senior Housing Crisis
Colorado's population is rapidly aging. Soon, one in five people in the state will be be over 65 years old. Limited housing stock means seniors are stuck in too-large homes that they can’t afford to maintain. In turn, that means there’s fe…
- Why LA Is Struggling To Rebuild 6 Months After Wildfires
In January 2025, wildfires swept across Los Angeles with record-breaking destruction. To encourage swift rebuilding, Governor Newsom suspended environmental regulations. But six months later, only a fraction of homeowners have even receive…
- Want To Use This Rural Road? That’ll Be $50K
In Lincoln County, South Dakota, a growing agriculture company is being charged $50,000 annually for wear and tear on township roads caused by the company's trucks and machinery. Abby and Edward discuss the balancing act between infrastruc…
- Suburbs Broke the American Sunbelt. Now What?
Sunbelt cities like Phoenix, Dallas, and Atlanta have long prided themselves on having affordable and abundant housing. However, they’re now seeing stagnation in housing construction and rapidly rising costs. Today, Abby is joined by Rache…
- How To Stop Slumlords and Protect Urban Spaces
Today, Abby is joined by Bernice Radle, a small-scale developer and historic building preservationist from Buffalo, New York. They cover two developing stories: First, a new bill was proposed that would give the Buffalo housing court more…
- A Strong Towns View of the New SpaceX Company Town
Residents of Boca Chica, Texas, have voted to turn their community into a new official city called Starbase. This new municipality is tightly controlled by SpaceX leadership and most residents are SpaceX employees, which has raised concern…
- California Universities Face a $17 Billion Growth Ponzi Scheme
As of the 2023-24 academic year, the University of California faces $9.1 billion in deferred maintenance, while California State University faces $8.3 billion. In today’s episode, Chuck and Abby explore how this problem arose, how it mirro…
- Will Privatizing Mortgages Fix the Housing Market?
President Trump has proposed the privatization of Fannie Mae and Freddie Mac, organizations that back the majority of mortgages in the U.S. and have been under a government conservatorship since the 2008 financial crisis. In this Upzoned e…
- Can We Take Community Wealth Back From Walmart and Kroger?
In this Upzoned episode, Abby is joined by Strong Towns Chief Technical Advisor Edward Erfurt to discuss the emergence of food deserts in the United States. In the 1980s, the U.S. government stopped enforcing price discrimination laws, let…
- What Does the Future Look Like for Tiny Towns?
Co-hosts Abby Newsham and Chuck Marohn discuss the challenges faced by Victoria, Prince Edward Island, a town in Canada that only has 139 full-time residents. In an attempt to attract new residents, the town has adopted its first five-year…
- How a Popular Development Practice Backfires on Homeowners
Residents of a neighborhood in Colorado are confronting a $434 million debt incurred by their community’s special taxing district, which was set up by developers to finance the neighborhood’s infrastructure. A group of neighbors are now or…
- How To Handle the Looming Shortage of Senior Housing
The U.S. senior housing market is poised to shift from a surplus to a shortage in the next five years, as the oldest baby boomers turn 80 by 2030. In this Upzoned episode, Abby is joined by Norm Van Eeden Petersman, Strong Towns’ director…
- How To Reform Chicago Zoning: The Western Avenue Project
In this episode, Abby is joined by Chicago aldermen Matt Martin and Andre Vasquez to discusses the Western Avenue corridor study, one of the most ambitious planning efforts Chicago has seen in decades. It includes widespread rezoning refor…
- Why Massachusetts Might Sue Its Cities Over Zoning Codes
In 2021, Massachusetts signed a law requiring communities that are served by the Massachusetts Bay Transit Authority (MBTA) to legalize multifamily housing development near MBTA transit stations. Recently, a state court ruled that the stat…
- How Homeowner’s Insurance May Change in the Wake of California Wildfires
In California, many major insurers have recently dropped homeowners in high risk areas from their plans, forcing them to seek alternate coverage with the state. However the state has nowhere near enough money to cover current property dama…
- Is Life More Difficult for Younger Generations?
In this episode of Upzoned, host Abby Newsham is joined by Kevin Klinkenberg, an urban designer, planner and executive director of a place management organization . They discuss how a middle-class life — especially homeownership — has beco…
- Motivated Reasoning: The Psychology Behind Big Municipal Projects
In this episode of Upzoned, co-hosts Abby Newsham and Chuck Marohn talk about satellite communities — towns that are developed a distance away from existing urbanized areas. They also discuss the psychological phenomena that incline people…
- Urban Forests Are the Stroads of Urban Environmental Policy
Canada needs an additional 3.5 million housing units by 2030, and that means Canadian cities — as well as many others throughout North America — are facing the challenge of building more housing without wasting natural resources like matur…
- The Goldilocks Option: Why Townhouses Might Be Just Right for Housing Development
In this episode of Upzoned, host Abby Newsham is joined by Andrew Ganahl, managing partner of a real estate development company that specializes in urban infill housing. They discuss a Washington Post article about townhouses, exploring th…
- Here’s Why You May See More Corner Stores in the Future
Post-COVID-19, there’s been a resurgence of interest in mixed-use neighborhoods, leading some cities to allow for small corner stores even in neighborhoods that are otherwise residential only. In this Upzoned episode, host Abby Newsham is…
- Deferred Maintenance Dilemma: Why Florida’s Condo Market Is Floundering
After the collapse of a Florida condo made national news in 2021, new safety regulations were enacted, requiring nearly 90% of Florida units to be updated. This left condo owners and buyers blindsided by a large backlog of deferred mainten…
- Can “Urban Homesteading” Help Cities Fight the Housing Crisis?
In this episode of Upzoned , host Abby Newsham is joined by John Anderson, a builder and developer in Georgia, to discuss the Strong Towns take on “urban homesteading,” where cities sell derelict houses to people for $1 in exchange for a p…
- What Is the Strong Towns Response to Natural Disasters?
Editor's Note: We are deeply saddened to see the damage Hurricane Helene has done to Western North Carolina. Please see the additional notes for ways you can help. In this episode of Upzoned, co-hosts Abby Newsham and Chuck Marohn discuss…
- Can Vehicle to Everything (V2X) Technology Make Streets Safer?
The U.S. Department of Transportation has announced a national deployment plan of vehicle-to-everything (V2X) technology, a wireless communication tool that allows vehicles to transmit data on speed, location, road condition and other basi…
- From Silos to Success: How To Make City Building More Collaborative
In this episode of Upzoned, co-hosts Abby Newsham and Chuck Marohn discuss the article “Toward a New Way of Educating City Builders” by Seth Zeren, a founding member of Strong Towns. They discuss the many different disciplines that are res…