If you’ve read our past coverage on how to solve a housing shortage, you know that Strong Towns is committed to promoting incremental solutions to get it done—but that doesn’t mean we don’t have our detractors. We get it; it’s not easy to imagine what an incremental approach to creating affordable apartments for schoolteachers in San Francisco might look like, or how building granny flats might make it possible for a grocery store clerk to survive in Manhattan. Especially if you’re new to Strong Towns, the word “incremental” itself might evoke words like “slow,” or “small,” or “timid”—while, in our humble opinion, real incrementalism is anything but.
That’s why, in this episode of Upzoned, we’re talking big housing increments in big cities—the good, the bad, and the well-intentioned but misguided.
Taking two recent articles for inspiration, Chuck and Kea talk Seattle and California’s recent newsworthy attempts to make a big leap in their housing market, and why one of them is doing something really right (and the other…maybe not so much.) First, we explore Microsoft’s recent headline-grabbing pledge (as told by the Seattle Times) to fill out their missing middle housing landscape by leveraging $500 million in financing and grants to homeless services programs to strategically target a few of the most intractable challenges their local developers face. And then we take on a California opinion blogger’s proposal in the Bay City Beacon to increase the state’s housing stock by 25% in just five years—without the aid of Bill Gates and his ilk. And the secret to accomplishing this gargantuan task might ruffle some feathers.
Then in the downzone, Chuck and Kea chat about their recent watches—including the OG television Sherlock and If Beale Street Could Talk—and the simple pleasure of going to the movies alone.
Are Cars Here to Stay?
Process Versus Visible Outcomes
Can We Build Strong Towns from Scratch in the 21st Century?
Who Should Be Able to Veto New Housing Production?
Our Fragile System Runs on Cheap Oil
Can a Houstonian Approach to Homelessness Work in L.A.?
Blaming Drivers for the Mistakes of Traffic Engineers
Free (Rural) Land: Any Takers?
Where Does Cohousing Fit in the Housing Ecosystem?
Can Corporate Campuses Urbanize the Suburban Experience?
No Insurance for Wildfire-Prone California
Weaponizing Historic Preservation
Population Growth and the Housing Crisis
Disaster Relief for America‘s Housing Crisis
The Infrastructure Bill, Racial Equity, and Local Government: How Should the Money Be Spent?
The ”Bikelash” Phenomenon (and Why It Shouldn‘t Scare Local Leaders)
”Zillow Offers”...Homes to Investors, Not Homeowners
The Gathering ”Swarm” of Small-Scale Developers
Regulating by Use
The ”Great Supply Chain Disruption”
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