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.
The Global Energy Crisis Is a Story of Fragility
A Downtown Baseball Stadium in KC: Who Pays?
CDOT‘s Proposal for Transit-Induced Pollution
Let‘s Talk Great Streets
American Cities, Through European Eyes (and Vice Versa)
We Cannot Rely on Large-Scale Development
You Need to Know About Walla Walla, Washington
The Reconnecting Communities Act: What Was Promised Vs. What's Being Delivered
Sustainable Source of Income Snatched Away from Seattle's Black Churches
Where Should We Be Focusing Climate Change Efforts?
COVID Reveals the Unsustainability of Monoculture Downtowns
Condos: American Local Governance in a Nutshell
Mayors Are Turning Talk into Action On Reparations
45,000 Bridges in the U.S. Are 50+ Years Old. And They Are Beginning to Fail.
What Comes Next, When the Freeways Are Gone?
Are Self-Driving Cars a Solution Looking for a Problem?
Strong Towns Filed a Lawsuit—and the Internet Has Been Talking About It
Parking Requirements: Cheaper Driving for Costlier Development
A New Direction for Car-Dependent Orlando?
Scaling Down America
Create your
podcast in
minutes
It is Free
The emPOWERed Half Hour
Social Dallas Podcast
Change Church Podcast
Six Degrees with Kevin Bacon
What the Fundraising
Delivering Solidarity