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A review by andjhostet
Strong Towns: A Bottom-Up Revolution to Rebuild American Prosperity by Charles L. Marohn Jr.
4.0
A really great book, that looks at city planning and urbanist ideas, but from a fiscally conservative point of view.
The basic premise, is that since WWII, cities have been continuously growing, and creating a negative feedback loop. The growth creates huge maintenance obligations, and the only way to create more cashflow to pay for the maintenance is create more growth, creating a downward spiral of bankruptcy and insolvency. Most of the towns in America are on the brink of bankruptcy, and will not be able to pay maintenance obligations, debt/interest payments, and pension payments for former and current employees.
The only solution, is to cut the dead weight. Focus on the neighborhoods that create revenue (dense neighborhoods, usually lots of older buildings, lots of small businesses), promote walkability and transit, and get away from car dependency.
This is a fascinating conclusion because it's the same conclusion that leftist urbanists and new urbanist urban planners tend to come to, but Charles coming from a fiscally and politically conservative perspective.
He generally made his point pretty well, but occasionally would stray off the path with some pop psychology tangents, or semi-relevant anecdotes. While this book was fairly short and effective, I think it definitely could have been trimmed a bit. The last chapter diverged into some weird spiritual, anecdotal, philosophical rant that went nowhere but tried to be profound. Just stay in your lane bro.
The basic premise, is that since WWII, cities have been continuously growing, and creating a negative feedback loop. The growth creates huge maintenance obligations, and the only way to create more cashflow to pay for the maintenance is create more growth, creating a downward spiral of bankruptcy and insolvency. Most of the towns in America are on the brink of bankruptcy, and will not be able to pay maintenance obligations, debt/interest payments, and pension payments for former and current employees.
The only solution, is to cut the dead weight. Focus on the neighborhoods that create revenue (dense neighborhoods, usually lots of older buildings, lots of small businesses), promote walkability and transit, and get away from car dependency.
This is a fascinating conclusion because it's the same conclusion that leftist urbanists and new urbanist urban planners tend to come to, but Charles coming from a fiscally and politically conservative perspective.
He generally made his point pretty well, but occasionally would stray off the path with some pop psychology tangents, or semi-relevant anecdotes. While this book was fairly short and effective, I think it definitely could have been trimmed a bit. The last chapter diverged into some weird spiritual, anecdotal, philosophical rant that went nowhere but tried to be profound. Just stay in your lane bro.