Charles Marohn | PlaceMakers

Sort by Tag
Charles Marohn

May 24, 2017 | 11:57 am

‘So all we have to do is…’ call bullshit

Chuck Marohn was in my town last week with his better-than-ever demonstration of the lies we tell ourselves about infrastructure finance.

Chuck’s message and that of Joe Minicozzi prod us to get our arms around the math. And that’s a crucial message. But, jeez, our problem is way bigger. Thanks to the never-ending hangover from the 2016 campaign, we’re picking our way through fake news and alternative facts, hoping to salvage a morsel of hope that not everybody everywhere is bullshitting us about just about everything just about all the time.

Category Community Development, Planning and Design, Public Engagement, Public PolicyLeave a CommentTags Ben Brown, bullshit, Charles Marohn, Dan Savage, Joe Minicozzi

January 12, 2015 | 6:29 am

Talkin’ Right, Leanin’ Left: The ‘New Consurbanism’?

Here’s a quiz for you: What’s the “it” in these two quotes? And who’s talking?

It “is a radical, government-led re-engineering of society, one that artificially inverted millennia of accumulated wisdom . .”

It “offers conservatism a new venue, one where we can couple our desire for traditional culture and morals with a physical environment that supports both.”

Category Demographics, Planning and Design, Public Policy, Theory and Practice7 CommentsTags Ben Brown, Charles Marohn, David Brooks, Joe Minicozzi

February 18, 2013 | 12:01 am

By-Passing Tomorrow for Easy Implementation Today

Chuck Marohn, and his Strong Towns message, is revolutionary in that he is a credible transportation professional who is single-handedly taking on the transportation profession. And winning.

Last year, Walt Chambers of Great Streets San Diego, and I brought Chuck to San Diego for one of his now ubiquitous Curbside Chats. In short, the Strong Town message is to be cognizant of the long-term ramifications of short-term infrastructure investments, especially ones that simply support auto-oriented lifestyles.

Category Planning and Design, Public Policy7 CommentsTags Cabrillo Bridge, Charles Marohn, Great Streets San Diego, Howard Blackson, Irwin Jacobs, John Nolen, Mike Stepner, Plan El Paso, Walt Chambers

January 3, 2013 | 12:01 am

Seven Placemaking Wishes for 2013

With the dawning of 2013, the interwebs are awash in lists detailing exactly what to watch out for in the coming year and, in a way, this is one more of those. But not exactly. Though firmly rooted in placemaking trends that have gained notable traction over the past year, this list contains not so much what we’re going to see as it does what we’re hoping to see.

As far as we’re concerned, the communities we love will be better served in 2013 with:

Category Back of the Envelope, Community Development, Development, Economic Development, Financing, Planning and Design, Public Policy7 CommentsTags Charles Marohn, complete streets, Euclidean zoning, form-based code, GDP, incremental growth, Joe Minicozzi, Peter Katz, smart growth, Tactical Urbanism

March 8, 2012 | 12:01 am

Urbanists Know TED

While TED launched its City 2.0 prize last week to crowd-source tools for the next version of the city, I’ve been enjoying TED talks of several fellow urbanists who have been putting forth tools and ideas for making better places. The City 2.0 wish is stated as:

THE WISH

I am the crucible of the future.
I am where humanity will either flourish or fade.
I am being built and rebuilt every day.
I am inevitable. But I am not yet determined.
I wish to be inclusive, innovative, healthy, soulful, thriving. But my potential can only be reached through you.

Category Theory and Practice3 CommentsTags Charles Marohn, Don Carter, Ellen Dunham-Jones, Hazel Borys, Howard Blackson, Jaime Lerner, James Howard Kunstler, Jason Roberts, TED

February 3, 2012 | 12:01 am

Punk Rock and the New Urbanism: Getting back to basics

By the early to mid 1970s, something was wrong with rock and roll.

It no longer fought the system. Worse than that, it had become the system. Bloated. Detached. Pretentious.

Performer and audience, once fused in a mutual quest to stick it to the man, now existed on separate planes — an increasingly complacent generation sucked into the service of pomp and circumstance. And the shared experience of joyful rebellion? Replaced by pompous, weed-soaked, middle-earth mysticism.

Rock and roll needed to get back to basics. What country pioneer Harlan Howard characterized as “three chords and the truth.” Enter punk rock.

Category Development, Planning and Design, Public Policy, Resilience27 CommentsTags affordable housing, aging in place, Bob Gibbs, Bruce Tolar, Charles Marohn, charrette, Chuck Marohn, cottage living, cottage square, cottages, Easton Town Center, greenfield TND, Ian Mackaye, incubator retail, Joe Strummer, Joey Ramone, katrina cottage, Led Zeppelin, Principles of Urban Retail, punk rock, retail consultant, roundabouts, Santana Row, Scott Doyon, Strong Towns, town center, workforce housing, Yes

May 13, 2011 | 1:21 pm

The Future of Planning: Going meta

“In a world where the peddlers of invention dominate progressive discourse, a willingness to acknowledge–let alone heed–the lessons of history and tradition is a truly radical act.” –Scott Doyon

Check the wiki-hip Urban Dictionary (or watch an episode of Community on NBC) and you’ll find the term meta’s common usage on the street is “to characterize something that is characteristically self-referential.” Consult a more conventional dictionary and you’ll see this derived from its earlier (as well as current) use as a prefix meaning “beyond, about.” That is, taking a subject to a higher level.

As a stand-alone term now, it’s typically applied to works of culture — television, music, film and art. But I suggest we expand that usage because, to me, it’s also the best means of expressing the challenge facing anyone concerned about our urban future.