Upzoned

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 saddled with the majority of maintenance costs while getting fewer returns. Abby and Norm discuss this dilemma, comparing it to similar bridge projects and identifying possible next steps for activating this underutilized infrastructure.

ADDITIONAL SHOW NOTES

• "Can Two Towns Preserve the Bridges That Connected Them?" by Alan Wirzbicki, The Boston Globe (September 2025)
• Abby Newsham (X/Twitter)
• Norm Van Eeden Petersman (LinkedIn)
• Theme Music by Kemet the Phantom.

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, Strong Towns' chief of staff and a former city staffer, to explore whether the answer is a grand redevelopment plan — or thinking radically smaller.

ADDITIONAL SHOW NOTES

• “A Town's Single Largest Taxpayer Is Also Its Biggest Headache” by Jim Zarroli, The New York Times (June 2025).
• Click here to listen to The Bottom-Up Revolution episode about the 24 Hour Citizen Project.
• ‍Abby Newsham (X/Twitter)

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 crisis and what happens when cities try to exempt themselves from change.

ADDITIONAL SHOW NOTES

• “Two Denver Suburbs Take Different Paths as Residents Face Housing Crunch: We Can Manage It, but Just Barely.” by John Aguilar, The Denver Post (October 2025).
• Abby Newsham
  
  • Painting Instagram
  • X/Twitter
• Norm Van Eeden Petersman (LinkedIn)
• Theme Music by Kemet the Phantom.

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 Newsham explore why transit can’t survive as a charity and how localized funding and smarter land use could create systems that actually work.

ADDITIONAL SHOW NOTES

• On October 24, Chuck will join the author of today's article, Jarrett Walker, for a member-exclusive deep dive into transit. Become a Strong Towns member to join in!
• “Should We Let Public Transit Die?” by Jarrett Walker, Bloomberg City Lab (September 2025)
• Abby Newsham (X/Twitter).‍‍
• Chuck Marohn (Substack)
• Theme Music by Kemet the Phantom.

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 role do unions play? And what should cities actually do when facing a major budget deficit?

Strong Towns Chief Technical Advisor Edward Erfurt dives into these questions with guest host Norm Van Eeden Petersman in this episode of Upzoned.

ADDITIONAL SHOW NOTES

• “Mayor Bass says layoffs averted after labor negotiations, "creative solutions" for next year city budget” by Chelsea Hylton, CBS News (September 2025).
• Finance Decoder
• Become a Strong Towns member to access weekly Ask Strong Towns Anything sessions.
• Norm Van Eeden Petersman (LinkedIn)
• Do you know someone who would make for a great The Bottom-Up Revolution guest? Let us know here!

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. Abby is joined by John Pattinson, Strong Towns’ community builder, discuss whether this kind of program is a smart way to boost the local economy.

ADDITIONAL SHOW NOTES

• “The Economic Benefits of Paying Workers to Move” by Rthvika Suvarna and Fola Akinnibi, Bloomberg CityLab (May 2025).‍
• Abby Newsham (X/Twitter).‍‍
• Theme Music by Kemet the Phantom.

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 shifts affect the housing market, what an excess of supply could mean for cities' financial stability, and how a simple "build, build, build" mindset could cause serious problems down the line.

ADDITIONAL SHOW NOTES

• “Forget YIMBY. The housing shortage could disappear on its own.” by Robert Showah, The Washington Post (September 2025).‍
• Abby Newsham (X/Twitter).‍‍
• Chuck Marohn (Substack)
• Theme Music by Kemet the Phantom.

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 membership and a Canadian, to discuss how this shift happened, how it'll affect Canada's housing market, and the implications for the rest of North America.

ADDITIONAL SHOW NOTES

• “End-users, rather than investors, expected to drive Vancouver housing market higher” by Kerry Gold, The Globe and Mail (September 2025).‍
• Abby Newsham (X/Twitter).‍
• Norm Van Eeden Petersman (LinkedIn)‍
• Theme Music by Kemet the Phantom.

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 distorts the housing market, why it happens so frequently — and why no one in the financial system is interested in stopping it.

ADDITIONAL SHOW NOTES

• “Ken Paxton Claimed Three Houses as His Primary Residence, Records Show” by Pooja Salhotra, The New York Times (July 2025).

• “Mortgage-Fraud Accusations Are Trump’s New Political Weapon” by Gina Heeb and Brian Schwartz, The Wall Street Journal (August 2025).

• Chuck Marohn (Substack)

• Abby Newsham (X/Twitter).

• Theme Music by Kemet the Phantom.

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 long term? Do the benefits outweigh the massive cost? How does this relate to the incremental, bottom-up approach? They’ll cover all this and more in today’s episode of Upzoned.

ADDITIONAL SHOW NOTES

• “‘Sponge City’: Copenhagen Adapts to a Wetter Future” by Paul Hockenos, Yale Environment 360 (July 2025).

• Abby Newsham (X/Twitter).

• Theme Music by Kemet the Phantom.