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Strong Towns: A Bottom-Up Revolution to Rebuild American Prosperity by Charles L. Marohn Jr.
rizbiz's review
informative
slow-paced
2.5
I was excited to read/listen to this, but LORD it was a struggle to get through. The writing is very dry and the author didn’t add anything additional to the information I already had about the ways we could/should change the structure of American towns/cities. I would have liked it if the author cited more sources, but rather he pulled a lot of anecdotes, which I wouldn’t mind normally, but they were very dull.
The audiobook narrator was also AWFUL and so one note that it was hard to follow what he was saying at times. I typically listen at x1.15 at minimum and the way that the narrator spoke made it impossible to listen at anything other than x1 and even that was a struggle at times.
The audiobook narrator was also AWFUL and so one note that it was hard to follow what he was saying at times. I typically listen at x1.15 at minimum and the way that the narrator spoke made it impossible to listen at anything other than x1 and even that was a struggle at times.
rossbm's review
informative
slow-paced
4.0
Interesting book. Main thesis is that the pattern of suburban development by American towns is not sustainable due to cost of maintaining infrastructure not being supported by the local properties. As a result, calls for more "concentrated" (says not prop density?) and walkeable cities. Almost/pretty much advocating for degrowth.
Book kind of meanders a bit. Would have preferred more case studies and hard numbers. Insipred me to go check assessed property values and property taxes for the different Ottawa wards. My ward (somerset) has the most amount of dollar value per km2.
Book kind of meanders a bit. Would have preferred more case studies and hard numbers. Insipred me to go check assessed property values and property taxes for the different Ottawa wards. My ward (somerset) has the most amount of dollar value per km2.
duparker's review
3.0
3.5 Stars. This is a manifesto in some ways. There are elements which feel right at home as a planner, and elements which feel could use a bit more fleshing out. I like the idea that we should view development and city management through the frame of ROI and not from go go go.
The writing is accessible and the footnotes do a good job of providing an opportunity to learn more. I feel like I have a good enough baseline, that I needed the next version of the book, the intermediate level, but appreciated the intro nature of it.
The writing is accessible and the footnotes do a good job of providing an opportunity to learn more. I feel like I have a good enough baseline, that I needed the next version of the book, the intermediate level, but appreciated the intro nature of it.
kimball_hansen's review
4.0
Great book! Wished I had read this in college during my planning classes. This book should have been twice as long. the author could have really gone into overkill with this topic and bring more examples to the table. I wanted to see actually Strong Towns that have withstood the test of time.
His favorite word is denude, but isn't the "de" redundant? Like the word loosen and unloosen. They mean the same thing.
Here are my notes on each chapter:
Chapter 1: When will these modern towns experience the test if time or become anti fragile?
Humans love edges.
Chapter 2: Many cities in the olden days began with Tiny Homes now they (the tiny homes) are mostly illegal. That's neat how most the homes in a neighborhood decline around the same time because they were constructed about the same time.
Chapter 3: Cities shouldn't go for the low hanging fruit or the Lure of the Animal when it comes to development. Polynesians were fat before the western diet.
The inside of the Detroit opera house looks neat but the outside is crappy.
Chapter 4: "The ultimate Victory of any ideology is to no longer be considered an ideology."
I liked how he talked about repairing infrastructure saves time for the commuters. And that saving time saves dollars (how the dollars saved by people affects the strong town is beyond me).
Chapter 5:
I don't like how he said we don't know what caused the great depression. How do we still not know? That's like saying we don't know what caused the housing market crash or COVID.
Why don't banks raise interest rates so they can get more people to save their money?
What is good for a national economy isn't always good for a local economy.
Chapter 6:
How do we just give up existing infrastructure?
Chapter 7:
Density is a by product of success not s cause. I was surprised he wasn't a fan of it. I like how he talks about the dollar per acre (value per acre) to see the value of it.
Chapter 8:
Cities must create $20-40 of private wealth for every one dollar of infrastructure in order to create a profit.
Chapter 9:
Just because something good is happening in another city doesn't mean your city can adopt it and have it succeed as well.
In the United States today, who makes decisions is more impactful than what decision is actually made.
Chapter 10:
According to another author, Yunger, "people need to feel competent, authentic, and connected to others."
His favorite word is denude, but isn't the "de" redundant? Like the word loosen and unloosen. They mean the same thing.
Here are my notes on each chapter:
Chapter 1: When will these modern towns experience the test if time or become anti fragile?
Humans love edges.
Chapter 2: Many cities in the olden days began with Tiny Homes now they (the tiny homes) are mostly illegal. That's neat how most the homes in a neighborhood decline around the same time because they were constructed about the same time.
Chapter 3: Cities shouldn't go for the low hanging fruit or the Lure of the Animal when it comes to development. Polynesians were fat before the western diet.
The inside of the Detroit opera house looks neat but the outside is crappy.
Chapter 4: "The ultimate Victory of any ideology is to no longer be considered an ideology."
I liked how he talked about repairing infrastructure saves time for the commuters. And that saving time saves dollars (how the dollars saved by people affects the strong town is beyond me).
Chapter 5:
I don't like how he said we don't know what caused the great depression. How do we still not know? That's like saying we don't know what caused the housing market crash or COVID.
Why don't banks raise interest rates so they can get more people to save their money?
What is good for a national economy isn't always good for a local economy.
Chapter 6:
How do we just give up existing infrastructure?
Chapter 7:
Density is a by product of success not s cause. I was surprised he wasn't a fan of it. I like how he talks about the dollar per acre (value per acre) to see the value of it.
Chapter 8:
Cities must create $20-40 of private wealth for every one dollar of infrastructure in order to create a profit.
Chapter 9:
Just because something good is happening in another city doesn't mean your city can adopt it and have it succeed as well.
In the United States today, who makes decisions is more impactful than what decision is actually made.
Chapter 10:
According to another author, Yunger, "people need to feel competent, authentic, and connected to others."
zombiegomoan's review
4.0
[3.8] I recently visited my Mom who lives in a region of California that’s functionally nothing more than pockets of suburbs. There’s sprawling roads seemingly to nowhere, but sprinkled throughout this vast network are standard North American cookie cutter suburban neighborhoods. On my previous visits I had a tough time articulating why exactly I dislike the area so much. After all, cost of living is so much lower in her area, and there’s still plenty of familiar retail and restaurant chains; why should I dislike it still so much? It all became clear to me when I discovered the YouTube channel “Not Just Bikes,” a channel about urban planning and design. NJB points out how much of North American cities are designed exclusively with the privately owned car in mind, and how costly that can be. He did a series based on the commentary in this book, so I figured I ought to give it a read myself.
In Strong Towns, Marohn discusses how older cities were built specifically for humans (rather than cars) and how they were built gradually as people gained access to resources. Comparatively, modern neighborhoods are, as Marohn was oft to repeat a little too frequently, “built to a finished state.” Once built the developers leave and so begins the slow decline of the area, and now the local government is saddled with the maintenance costs for decades to come with no true means of paying for it. He describes how the need for cities to constantly grow to receive loans/grants from the state and federal government to pay for the maintenance of old infrastructure is similar to a ponzi scheme. A constant cycle of pushing massive debts further and further down the line. It was an alarming and poignant perspective on the state of our cities, and left me with little hope for what needs to change to make things better.
In Strong Towns, Marohn discusses how older cities were built specifically for humans (rather than cars) and how they were built gradually as people gained access to resources. Comparatively, modern neighborhoods are, as Marohn was oft to repeat a little too frequently, “built to a finished state.” Once built the developers leave and so begins the slow decline of the area, and now the local government is saddled with the maintenance costs for decades to come with no true means of paying for it. He describes how the need for cities to constantly grow to receive loans/grants from the state and federal government to pay for the maintenance of old infrastructure is similar to a ponzi scheme. A constant cycle of pushing massive debts further and further down the line. It was an alarming and poignant perspective on the state of our cities, and left me with little hope for what needs to change to make things better.