Upzoned

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.

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 electricity use, causing rate payers’ electricity bills to spike as they’re forced to subsidize these data centers. Today, Edward and Abby discuss the far-reaching implications of this kind of land use.

ADDITIONAL SHOW NOTES

• “As electric bills rise, evidence mounts that data centers share blame. States feel pressure to act.” by Marc Levy, AP News (August 2025).

• Want to bring the conversation to your community? Book Edward as a speaker.

• Abby Newsham (X/Twitter).

• Theme Music by Kemet the Phantom.

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 fewer large homes for younger families who need them.

Today, Abby is joined by Katy Clagett, an incremental developer originally from Colorado who’s working to develop infill housing options for seniors. They discuss what Colorado’s situation means for communities and how we can reshape housing to be more adaptable to the needs of all age groups.

ADDITIONAL SHOW NOTES

• “As Colorado ages, seniors are colliding with the housing crisis” by Brian Eason, The Colorado Sun (June 2025).

• Learn how to create a more flexible housing market.

• Katy Claggett

• Abby Newsham (X/Twitter).

• Theme Music by Kemet the Phantom.

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 received permits, let alone started the rebuilding process. Chuck is joined by Edward Erfurt, Strong Towns’ chief technical advisor, to talk about why, as well as the deeper challenges of rebuilding in fire-prone areas.

ADDITIONAL SHOW NOTES

• “Why it’s taking LA so long to rebuild” by Umair Irfan, Vox (July 2025).

• Want to bring the conversation to your community? Book Chuck or Edward as a speaker.

• Abby Newsham (X/Twitter).

• Theme Music by Kemet the Phantom.

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 infrastructure costs and municipal budgets, especially in rural areas with few taxpayers. They explore the public process behind this kind of decision and offer suggestions on how it could be improved.

ADDITIONAL SHOW NOTES

• “Milk facility to pay $50,000 for road use” by Rae Yost, KELOLAND (July 2025).

• Want to bring the conversation to your community? Book Edward as a speaker.

• Abby Newsham (X/Twitter).

• Theme Music by Kemet the Phantom.

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 Rachel Leonardo, a trained architect and Strong Towns’ video creator, to discuss how rigid single-use zoning has locked cities into expensive fragility. They explore whether these cities can course correct and how they could become more resilient and prosperous in the long-term.

ADDITIONAL SHOW NOTES

• Here are 6 simple ways to make housing more affordable in your community.

• “Sprawl made the American Sunbelt affordable. Now it’s breaking it.” by Marina Bolotnikova, Vox (July 2025).

• See Rachel’s work:

  • Studio Leonardo (YouTube)

  • Strong Towns (YouTube)

• Abby Newsham (X/Twitter).

• Theme Music by Kemet the Phantom.

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 power to sell or repair buildings taken from absentee or negligent landlords. Second, the Historic Preservation Fund is currently at risk.

Bernice and Abby discuss how these changes could affect small-scale developers and historic preservationists. Bernice also explores how these two fields are closely linked and should work together to save urban spaces.

ADDITIONAL SHOW NOTES

• “Proposed bill would give Buffalo housing court greater authority over derelict properties” by Nate Benson, WGRZ (May 2025).

• “Preservation Under Threat: A Critical Moment for the Historic Preservation Fund” by Preservation Buffalo Niagara, Buffalo Rising (June 2025).

• See more from Bernice:

  • Strong Towns

  • Neighborhood Evolution

  • Preservation Buffalo Niagara

• Abby Newsham (X/Twitter).

• Theme Music by Kemet the Phantom.

This podcast is made possible by Strong Towns members. Click here to learn more about membership, including member-exclusive perks.

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 concerns about the reemergence of company towns.

In this Upzoned episode, Abby is joined by our Chief Technical Advisor Edward Erfurt to discuss the Strong Towns perspective on this story.

ADDITIONAL SHOW NOTES

• “Elon Musk’s company town: SpaceX employees vote to create ‘Starbase’” by Nick Robins-Early, The Guardian (May 2025).

• Abby Newsham (X/Twitter).

• Theme Music by Kemet the Phantom.

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 mirrors the challenges cities are facing, and what it'll take to manage this decline.

ADDITIONAL SHOW NOTES

• “Inside a $17 billion maintenance backlog plaguing California’s universities” by Victoria Mejicanos, Matthew Reagan and Mercy Sosa, CalMatters (April 2025).

• Learn more about the Growth Ponzi Scheme and how to evaluate your own city’s financial position.

• Abby Newsham (X/Twitter).

• Chuck Marohn (Substack)

• Theme Music by Kemet the Phantom.

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 episode, Chuck and Abby discuss the proposal and how it would affect the housing market.

ADDITIONAL SHOW NOTES

• “How Trump plans to get government out of the mortgage business” by Paige Sutherland and Meghna Chakrabarti, WBUR On Point (March 2025).

• Abby Newsham (X/Twitter).

• Chuck Marohn (Substack)

• Theme Music by Kemet the Phantom.