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Stacked Against Us Podcast | Strong Towns

We’re housing fans!!! 🙋 You might be interested in our limited-run podcast called Stacked Against Us, all about the housing crisis and local, bottom-up responses that cities can take on right now. Here’s the link! www.strongtowns.org/stacked-agai...

strongtowns.org

How a national economic gamble broke housing, and why local resilience is the only way forward.

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This is what the (surprise!) fifth and final episode of Stacked Against Us will explore. The episode drops tomorrow; get caught up on the series: buff.ly/YNjf05p

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Instead, she championed something different: a more decentralized, diverse, and, yes, messy city life created by many hands, grown from the ground up.

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But her argument went deeper than specific land use decisions. Jacobs was calling out the top-down, technocratic mindset: the belief that a few formulas could design a better city than the people actually living in it.

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Jimmy Hendricks @jimismash.bsky.social · 05/12/2025

Jane Jacobs published The Death and Life of Great American Cities during a time when the country demolished lively neighborhoods for highways in the name of progress.

Old film stills with captions that read: “The heart of [this neighborhood] was where this road runs behind me, the Cross-Bronx Expressway. And all I could think of was that this didn’t have to be.” Stills and text from New York: A Documentary Film by Ric Burns, excerpted on Patell and Waterman's History of New York YouTube Channel

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On these platforms we hear a lot from people with strong opinions about housing, but a lot of that boils down to "I've lived in housing for most of my life, so I'm an expert." Instead, we should be listening to the people that are actually out there trying to build things:

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Hannah “Charles Barkley” Pechan @hpechan.bsky.social · 05/12/2025

Great thread on the importance of aligning reform with reality.

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We have tools and resources to help you get started with building a Housing-Ready City with a culture that nurtures local development. Get the toolkits: buff.ly/V641Hdg And read the full article: buff.ly/6SLVwUv

Graphic with a duotone photo of a state capitol building in the background. Text reads: “We outline what it takes to build the culture in our Housing-Ready City toolkits. Get them at
strongtowns.org/housingready” The covers of the toolkits are also shown.

Screenshot of the article “Why State Housing Reform is Failing (and What We Can Do About It)”. Read more on strongtowns.org

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Legalization is a good first step, but that’s it. It’s a first step. The next is actually building an ecosystem around making these changes possible.

Graphic with a duotone photo of a state capitol building in the background. Text reads: “Legalization is a good first step, but that’s it. It’s a first step. The next is actually building an ecosystem around making these changes possible.”

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There are some things that state mandates can't do, like build teach staff members, build trust between the city and builders, and form local partnerships.

Graphic with a duotone photo of a state capitol building in the background. Text reads: “As Edward Erfurt notes, there are things that state mandates can’t do.” Select text in a screenshot are highlighted.

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The smallest of projects must navigate systems designed for the largest of developments. A 600-square-foot backyard cottage must comply with the same development standards, permitting submission requirements, and timelines as a 2,500-square-foot house on a one-acre lot.

Graphic with a duotone photo of a state capitol building in the background. Text reads: “Builders still couldn’t make the projects work. They could not make these work not because the idea was wrong, but because there's no broader system to support small-scale development in place. The smallest of projects must navigate systems designed for the largest of developments. A 600-square-foot backyard cottage must comply with the same development standards, permitting submission requirements, and timelines as a 2,500-square-foot house on a one-acre lot.”

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While Strong Towns’ Chief Technical Advisor Edward Erfurt was in Flagstaff, Arizona, the city council had declared a housing emergency. The city and community were on board with ADUs, but builders still couldn’t make the projects work because there's no broader system of support.

Graphic with a duotone photo of a state capitol building in the background. Text reads: “While Strong Towns’ Chief Technical Advisor Edward Erfurt was in Flagstaff, Arizona, the city council had declared a housing emergency. Here’s what happened, in his words:” Select text in a screenshot are highlighted.

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Brent Travels @brenttravels.bsky.social · 04/12/2025

Statewide zoning reform isn’t producing the wins everyone expected. For example, state law can declare that small backyard cottages are legal. But unless cities can review them, permit them, and builders can finance them, legalization will remain largely symbolic.

Graphic with a duotone photo of a state capitol building in the background. Text reads: “Allowed by right does not equal possible in practice.”

Graphic with a duotone photo of a state capitol building in the background. Text reads: “Statewide zoning reform isn’t producing the wins everyone expected. For example, state law can declare that small backyard cottages are legal. But unless cities can review them, permit them, and builders can finance them, legalization will remain largely symbolic. The permissions may have changed, but the reflexes never adapted.”

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One of the developers on this project presented in Kansas City recently and was really impressive. Some cool work happening in Fayetteville.

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Strong Towns @strongtowns.org · 03/12/2025

Read more in “How Fayetteville’s New Program Makes It Easy To Build Housing” on our site! buff.ly/hxkexmZ

Screenshot of the article “How Fayetteville’s New Program Makes It Easy To Build Housing.” Read more on strongtowns.org

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Strong Towns @strongtowns.org · 03/12/2025

It also helps people know where to start—a crucial piece for getting new and local developers into the system. And moving from gatekeeping to guidance also means city staff work hands-on with developers and builders who are eager to build what the city needs.

Graphic with text: “City staff worked with local developers and builders to find and proactively address obstacles to building. Like the city’s sidewalk requirement. Instead of requiring each builder to install a sidewalk themselves, they could instead pay a fee, and the city would later add sidewalks when more homes are built in the area. This makes the process more efficient and coordinated.”

Graphic with text: “The program currently applies only to the downtown and Walker Park neighborhoods, two of the oldest neighborhoods that are well suited for infill development. But the program is a practical example of how thoughtful city interventions can make a real difference.” The map of where the program applies is also visible.

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Strong Towns @strongtowns.org · 03/12/2025

Fayetteville’s new housing program is a great example that illustrates recommendations in our Housing-Ready City toolkits. The program gets permits out quickly, reducing confusion and friction that prevents housing from being built.

Graphic with text: “Housing News: Fayetteville, AK launched a new housing program that gives residents a clearer, faster path to building homes”

Graphic with text: “With a catalog of nearly 30 permit-ready plans, the program reduces uncertainty, speeds up permitting, and lowers costs.” Examples of pre-approved plans are also shown in the background.

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Active Towns @activetowns.bsky.social · 03/12/2025

YAY! IT’S PREMIERE DAY: Pls tune in today, Wed, Dec 3rd, at 2 pm EST for my chat with @healthtepi.bsky.social from Perth, Australia, about the institutional subsidization of motonormativity that directly contributes to epidemic levels of physical inactivity. youtu.be/ZGIatCdRQVY

youtu.be

EPISODE 319 DR. TEPI MCLAUGHLIN: It's No Accident Why We're Inactive

YouTube video by Active Towns

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Your support is crucial. Back the movement for stronger places today. buff.ly/SUd8A1o

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Today is Giving Tuesday. The challenges our cities face are growing, but so is the strength of this movement. Every story we share, every idea we spread, and every tool we build exists because people like you are committed to showing up.

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It trained us to experience isolation as prosperity and consumption as citizenship. But if the Suburban Experiment trained us this way, then Strong Towns, this bottom-up movement, is teaching us the opposite. It’s teaching us that we will not outsource belonging.

Grainy photo of a photo with tracing paper. Text reads: “But if the Suburban Experiment trained us to experience isolation as prosperity and consumption as citizenship, the bottom-up movement is teaching us the opposite.”

Grainy photo of a photo with tracing paper. Text reads: “We will not outsource belonging.”

The Suburban Experiment promised prosperity and wealth by spreading out. But the farther we spread out, the more abstract our systems became. The Suburban Experiment didn’t just change our geography. It rewired our culture.

Grainy photo of a photo with tracing paper. Text reads: “The Suburban Experiment didn’t just change our geography. It rewired our culture.”

Grainy photo of a photo with tracing paper. Text reads: “It trained us to experience isolation as prosperity and consumption as citizenship.”

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mmarginet @mmarginet.bsky.social · 26/11/2025

As Charles Marohn wrote just last week: We’re living through our own Gutenberg moment now. And the real lesson is that “the technology didn’t destroy the system; it revealed its rot and accelerated the change that was already underway.”

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Lots of news around the injuries and deaths of vulnerable road users in #Winnipeg. Sharing the recording of Transportation For A Strong Town in Winnipeg a few years ago. We have so much work to do. youtu.be/Hq00oq4ygyM?... #wpgpoli #mbpoli #cdnpoli @strongtowns.org

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Transportation for a Strong Town: Charles Marohn in Winnipeg

YouTube video by GreenActionCentre

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Tiny Beaches @tinybeaches.bsky.social · 26/11/2025

Put this to the top of your “listen-next” list… 🤩 Diane Alisa is a rising star with her new book: “Love Letter to Suburbia: How to Restore the American Village” #Strongtown @clmarohn.bsky.social @strongtowns.org podcasts.apple.com/ca/podcast/t...

podcasts.apple.com

Has the

Podcast Episode · The Strong Towns Podcast · 2025-11-24 · 59m

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Sightline Institute @sightline.org · 26/11/2025

On Friday, join @parkingreform.org and @strongtowns.org in the #BlackFridayParking tradition of documenting vacant spots on the biggest shopping day of the year. If there's even unused parking when demand is at its peak, why are we saddling our cities with all this asphalt 365 days a year?

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Read more in "Complete Streets in Name Only: How Federal Transportation Policy Undermines Local Outcomes" on our site: buff.ly/6YesJwU

Screenshot of the article “Complete Streets in Name Only: How Federal Transportation Policy Undermines Local Outcomes.” Read more on strongtowns.org

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By aligning itself with federal funding mechanisms, proponents allowed its priorities to be diluted. Instead of producing streets that are safe, human-scaled, and integrated into neighborhoods, we’ve ended up with expensive projects that serve as compliance exercises.

Text reads: “By aligning itself with federal funding mechanisms, Complete Streets proponents allowed its priorities to be diluted. Instead of producing streets that are safe, human-scaled and integrated into the fabric of neighborhoods, we’ve ended up with expensive projects that serve as compliance exercises for grant eligibility. We shouldn’t only rely on federally-funded complete streets to have safe streets.”

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A citizen-led Crash Analysis Studio examining the crash found that the crossing itself is shadowed by poor lighting, flanked by signage that obstructs visibility, and surrounded by traffic traveling well above the posted 30 mph speed limit.

Text reads: In 2023, a citizen-led Crash Analysis Studio in Hyattsville found several issues that the city could address immediately to prevent future crashes. These were a few of them.” Yellow arrows on a photo of Ager Road point to redundant, confusing signage, slip lanes instead of actual turns, and 26 feet to the median as elements of the design that led to the crash.

Despite these accolades, a pedestrian — Hellen Jorgensen — was killed at the only designated crossing along the corridor.

Text reads: “Take Ager Road in Hyattsville, Maryland as an example. This project cost about $15 million and was heralded as a model fo the “Green-Complete Streets” approach. Despite these accolades, a pedestrian — Hellen Jorgensen — was killed at the only designated crossing along the corridor.” A photo of a memorial at Ager Road is also shown.

Take Ager Road in Hyattsville, Maryland as an example, less than 7 miles away from Washington D.C. The Ager Road project cost approximately $15 million and was heralded as a model of the "Green-Complete Streets" approach.