Strong Towns
A Bottom-Up Revolution to Rebuild American Prosperity

Did not finish. I wanted to like this book. I even agree with most of it! To be fair, the central insight - that planned neighbourhoods aren't able to pay for themselves, with disastrous consequences - is very good. It seems unintuitive to think that affluent-seeming suburbs are really a pyramid sche......more

My husband Will surprised me with a new urban planning book for Christmas, and I enjoyed reading this over our holiday break. The author, a Minnesotan who's been an urban planner for several decades, argues that our cities are on the verge of a long, slow decline, and that any solution needs to begi......more

Edited to add: I listened to the audio book. Ok, so I've been on my city's planning commission for a few years. I've been introduced to many of the Strong Town tenets through my trainings, so I decided to read the book. I agree wholeheartedly with Marohn's call for cities to be self-sufficient and t......more

I recently started reading posts on Charles Marohn's website, strongtowns.org, and so I decided to read the book behind the website. I think more urbanists and city planners should read this, as it makes some essential points about the fallacy of seeking growth to pay for infrastructure, the need to......more

I've been a fascinated follower of the Strong Towns blog for years, and count Chuck Marohn as one of my favorite contemporary thinkers. Not only are his insights novel and prescient, but he comes from a place of down-to-earth morality and honesty that couches his arguments in a place of authentic in......more