The Strong Towns Podcast

Rethinking the Federal Role in Transportation

Beth Osborne has watched the same story play out five times: a new federal transportation bill arrives with big language about goals and accountability, states adopt the right words, and nothing changes. Osborne, who led Transportation for America and worked inside USDOT, has been through five federal transportation reauthorizations, watched reform language get adopted and neutralized every single time, and arrived at a conclusion that would have surprised her younger self. Recorded at the Strong Towns National Gathering in Fayetteville, Arkansas, this conversation with Chuck Marohn digs into the gap between what the federal transportation program claims to do and what it actually delivers — on safety, on repair, on congestion, on emissions — and whether there's any version of federal involvement worth keeping. Additional Show Notes * Beth Osborne [https://www.linkedin.com/in/beth-osborne-8658a3b/] (LinkedIn) * Transportation for America [https://t4america.org/] (Site) * Mission Accomplished Report [https://www.strongtowns.org/missionaccomplished] (Site) * The Highway Expansion Lightning Lane [https://clmarohn.substack.com/p/the-highway-expansion-lightning-lane] (Substack) * Chuck Marohn [https://clmarohn.substack.com/] (Substack)   This podcast is made possible by Strong Towns members [https://www.strongtowns.org/membership?utm_source=podcast&utm_medium=podcast&utm_campa%5B%E2%80%A6%5Dcontent=0_podcast_podcast_membership-link-podcast-shownotes]. Thank you! Join fellow members discussing this episode in The Commons [https://commons.strongtowns.org/users/sign_in?post_login_redirect=https%3A%2F%2Fcommons.strongtowns.org%2F#email].

Illinois Housing Reform Gets Practical

Illinois is short roughly 130,000 homes today and needs about 240,000 more by 2030. The state can’t change mortgage rates or material costs, so Governor JB Pritzker of Illinois is targeting something else: the rules that make homes hard to build. He walks through the Build Initiative, a set of bills to legalize more ADUs and small multifamily buildings, relax some parking and stairway requirements, standardize impact fees, and put limits on permit delays. He also talks about local pushback, bipartisan support, and why these modest changes could mean more housing choices without the sense that neighborhoods are being upended. Additional Show Notes * Governor JB Pritzker [https://www.linkedin.com/in/jbpritzker/] (LinkedIn) * Chuck Marohn [https://clmarohn.substack.com/] (Substack)   This podcast is made possible by Strong Towns members. Thank you! Join fellow members discussing this episode in The Commons [https://commons.strongtowns.org/users/sign_in?post_login_redirect=https%3A%2F%2Fcommons.strongtowns.org%2F#email].

The Neighborhood Outside the Church Doors

A trip to Italy left Chuck surprised by how ordinary Catholic life felt in a country filled with churches. A later visit to Hasidic Brooklyn stayed with him for a different reason: families living under intense physical constraints, yet ordering their lives around faith and community. Those memories frame this talk at a Catholic church in Minnesota, where Chuck turns from faraway examples to a more personal question: what would it mean for a parish to care not only for the sanctuary, but for the blocks around it? Additional Show Notes * Chuck Marohn [https://clmarohn.substack.com/] (Substack)   This podcast is made possible by Strong Towns members. Thank you! Join fellow members discussing this episode in The Commons [https://commons.strongtowns.org/users/sign_in?post_login_redirect=https%3A%2F%2Fcommons.strongtowns.org%2F#email].

A Congressman Makes the Case for Local Power

Congressman Jake Auchincloss joins the the Strong Towns podcast with a case for localism that takes it seriously without treating it as a cure-all. He explains why localism deserves a bigger role in national politics, not as a slogan, but as a way to rebuild trust and solve problems closer to the ground. That idea gets tested against some of the hardest problems facing cities today: transportation systems that reward expansion over maintenance, a housing market that has lost its entry-level rung, and federal policies that often struggle to match local realities. The conversation closes with a warning about digital life and a defense of face-to-face community. Additional Show Notes * Jake Auchincloss (LinkedIn [https://www.linkedin.com/in/auchincloss/], Substack [https://substack.com/@jakeauch], Site [https://auchincloss.house.gov/about]) * "Digital Dopamine is Consuming America. It's Time to Fight for IRL." [https://auchincloss.house.gov/media/in-the-news/digital-dopamine-is-consuming-america-its-time-to-fight-for-irl], (Article) * Chuck Marohn [https://clmarohn.substack.com/] (Substack)   This podcast is made possible by Strong Towns members. Thank you! Join fellow members discussing this episode in The Commons.

Why Manchester’s Boom Isn’t the Whole Story

Is a city “dynamic” just because its charts point up and to the right? Chuck uses a week in the UK to question that assumption. In Manchester, a swelling population of 20‑somethings looks like success, until you notice how many smaller places have been drained to supply that energy. In one of those towns, residents speak of decline, crime, and the loss of their pub, even as few can name a moment they truly felt unsafe. Across focus groups, government programs, and carefully planned districts, he traces the same pattern and asks: when growth is easy to measure, what deeper dynamism are we missing? Additional Show Notes * Chuck Marohn [https://clmarohn.substack.com/] (Substack)   This podcast is made possible by Strong Towns members. Thank you! Join fellow members discussing this episode in The Commons.