Upzoned
 

Upzoned

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Sometimes, a hot new story will cross our desks that we need to talk about right away. That's where Upzoned comes in. Join Strong Towns President Chuck Marohn, Carlee Alm-LaBar, Norm Van Eeden Petersman, and other guests to talk in depth about one big story from the week in the Strong Towns conversation, right when you want it: now.

Episodes

When Boomers Don’t Downsize, What’s Left for Everyone Else?

16 minutes ago

16 minutes ago

40 min

What happens when one generation holds much of the country’s housing wealth and has little reason to give it up? Chuck Marohn talks with Strong Towns board chair Andrew Burleson and historic property renovator Richard Rumrill about boomers buying bigger homes, even as younger families wait for those houses to come back onto the market. The generational frustration is easy to understand, but the expected handoff assumes older homeowners will be ready to leave. What happens when the people expected to move have nowhere they want to go, and everyone behind them is still waiting?

ADDITIONAL SHOW NOTES

 

This podcast is made possible by Strong Towns members. Thank you! Join fellow members discussing this episode in The Commons.

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The Retirement Plan Trapped Inside the Housing Crisis

6 days ago

6 days ago

34 min

Americans have been told that buying a home is one of the safest ways to secure their future. But when retirement depends on home values continuing to climb, affordability begins to look like a threat. Carlee Alm-LaBar is joined by Daniel Herriges, co-author of Escaping the Housing Trap, and Alli Thurmond-Quinlan, executive director of the Incremental Development Alliance. Together, they push beyond the idea that housing is simply an investment problem. Limited supply, narrow housing choices, transportation, retirement, and municipal finance are all tied into the same system, leaving people with fewer ways to find security at every stage of life.

ADDITIONAL SHOW NOTES

 

This podcast is made possible by Strong Towns members. Join fellow members discussing this episode in The Commons.

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Chicago’s $1.2 Billion Parking Meter Problem

Jul 15, 2026

Jul 15, 2026

48 min

In 2009, Chicago traded 75 years of parking meter revenue for a $1.2 billion payment that helped fill an immediate budget hole. Norm Van Eeden Petersman is joined by Tony Jordan, executive director of the Parking Reform Network, and Edward Erfurt, chief technical advisor at Strong Towns, to look at what the city actually gave up and why its recent $3.3 billion bid never made it to the finish line. The lease still shapes decisions about removing parking for bus lanes, bike lanes and wider sidewalks, while the revenue keeps flowing to a private operator instead of back into the places generating it. That leaves Chicago with a much harder question than whether the original deal was bad: what would it take to manage the curb again, regain flexibility and use that money to improve the streets themselves?

ADDITIONAL SHOW NOTES

 

This podcast is made possible by Strong Towns members. Thank you! Join fellow members discussing this episode in The Commons.

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Can Rebuilding Make a Town Weaker?

Jul 8, 2026

Jul 8, 2026

49 min

Five years after wildfire destroyed most of Lytton, British Columbia, rebuilding remains slow despite more than $140 million in committed public funding. Norm Van Eeden Petersman talks with Michel Durand-Wood, author of You’ll Pay for This, and Graham Watt, who manages strategic initiatives and flood recovery for Grand Forks, British Columbia. They look at what happens when a small town is pushed to rebuild everything at once, while also dealing with hazardous conditions, limited local capacity, consulting costs, modern codes, and the long-term obligation to maintain whatever comes next. The money creates a promise of recovery, but Lytton shows how hard it is to turn that promise back into a town.

ADDITIONAL SHOW NOTES

 

This podcast is made possible by Strong Towns members. Thank you! Join fellow members discussing this episode in The Commons.

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The Housing Crisis Isn’t Moving in One Direction

Jul 1, 2026

Jul 1, 2026

35 min

Chuck Marohn has long been critical of housing research that treats affordability as a simple supply problem. This week, he brings Andrew Burleson, chair of the Strong Towns board, and Jeff Fong, a board member at YIMBY Action, a new paper on Australia’s housing crisis that starts somewhere else: with the way price increases move between detached houses and apartments, and from one city to another. The paper argues that detached homes help lead the market, while the discussion keeps returning to a harder question: how much of the crisis is about housing supply, and how much is about the financial incentives built into the market?

ADDITIONAL SHOW NOTES

 

This podcast is made possible by Strong Towns members. Thank you! Join fellow members discussing this episode in The Commons.

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Charlotte Said No to a $4.3 Billion Highway. Now the State Wants $60 Million Back.

Jun 24, 2026

Jun 24, 2026

40 min

When Charlotte and its regional planning body withdrew support for a $4.3 billion widening of Interstate 77, North Carolina lawmakers responded by threatening a $60 million penalty and a funding cutoff. Host Carlee Alm-LaBar is joined by Patrick Kennedy, whose Atlas of Inner-City Highway Impacts documents highway damage across 142 cities, and John Reuter, the newly named Executive Director of Strong Towns, to break down the sunk cost trap, the real math behind highway "assets," and why the local officials who pushed back may have saved far more than they spent.

ADDITIONAL SHOW NOTES

 

This podcast is made possible by Strong Towns members. Join fellow members discussing this episode in The Commons.

 

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Why Do Vacant Storefronts Stay Vacant?

Jun 17, 2026

Jun 17, 2026

50 min

A decade ago, a row of North Park storefronts was cleared for a university housing project that never came. The businesses are gone, the buildings are mostly empty, and neighbors are still pushing Northeastern Illinois University to act. Norm Van Eeden Petersman is joined by Bernice Radle, an incremental developer in Buffalo, and Alex Montero of Strong Towns Chicago to ask why places like this get stuck. What begins as the story of one vacant block turns into a deeper question: once a place has been cleared for a future vision, what happens when that future never arrives? The conversation explores why smaller, incremental approaches can succeed where larger plans stall, and what gets lost when neighborhoods are left waiting.

ADDITIONAL SHOW NOTES

 

This podcast is made possible by Strong Towns members. Thank you! Join fellow members discussing this episode in The Commons.

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The World Cup and America’s Own Goal

Jun 10, 2026

Jun 10, 2026

1hr 45 sec

With the World Cup coming to North America, millions of visitors will encounter more than stadiums and soccer. They’ll also encounter the transportation systems, infrastructure gaps, and car-dependent development patterns that shape daily life in U.S. cities. Norm Van Eeden Petersman talks with Chuck Marohn and Rick Cole about “catastrophic money,” the danger of building for spectacle instead of long-term value, and what major events reveal about the places that host them. These visitors will move on when the games are over, but the systems they struggled with will still be ours to live with.

ADDITIONAL SHOW NOTES

 

This podcast is made possible by Strong Towns members. Thank you! Join fellow members discussing this episode in The Commons.

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The Tuba and What It Actually Takes to Build Community

May 27, 2026

May 27, 2026

1hr 3 min

Sam Quinones keynoted the Strong Towns National Gathering last week and closed with a story about a tuba. If that left you wanting more, this conversation with Chuck Marohn is the place to start. This rerun from the Strong Towns Podcast follows Sam’s obsession with the “perfect tubas,” the almost-mythic York horns that tuba players have chased for decades. From there, he opens up a wider world of band rooms on the Texas border, long days playing at Disney World, and crowded Tuba Christmas events. Together, he and Chuck connect tubas, band culture, and strict musical standards to addiction, purpose, and how shared work and craft help hold communities together.

ADDITIONAL SHOW NOTES

 

This podcast is made possible by Strong Towns members. Join fellow members discussing this episode in The Commons.

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Are We Trying to Build No Houses?

May 20, 2026

May 20, 2026

49 min

A viral town meeting clip from Marblehead, Massachusetts, raised a question that goes far beyond one zoning debate: What happens when a state says yes to more housing, but the local process still makes it hard to build? Or, as resident David Modica put it, “Are we trying to do nothing?” Carlee Alm-LaBar talks with Strong Towns Technical Advisor Edward Erfurt and Lafayette City Councilman Thomas Hooks about the messy handoff between policy and place. They look at why communities can comply on paper while resisting in practice, and why the next real step may be as small as one block, one lot, or one drawing that helps people see what is possible.

ADDITIONAL SHOW NOTES

 

This podcast is made possible by Strong Towns members. Join fellow members discussing this episode in The Commons.

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