... walk me through that process and the way you'd explain it to someone like those in those local conversations that you wanna initiate and the people who care and but they're just getting started.

It's funny because that was not an early Strong Towns thing.

That, that came about...

I mean, I started writing the blog in 2008 after a decade and a half of professional work.

That probably didn't occur till 2015 or 2016, the four-step process, and it's so central to what we do.

I was getting all kinds of people who would say, "Chuck, we, we think you're doing a great diagnosis.

We think Strong Towns has really figured something out.

What are some of the next things in the process that you find? Is it just a lot of that rinse and repeat, or are there, there's more people who pay attention? How does it sort of unfold after that usually?

Okay.

And the, the, the one issue would be this term that we have coined called stroads, the idea of a street and a road being two separate things that serve two separate functions.

And I, I think we've talked about this on your show before, but it, it's worth going back to because I think so much of the safety issue is wrapped up in this.

A, a street really is a platform for building a place.

We call it a, a platform for building wealth in a community.

And you can think of a street network as being, in a sense, like the lattice where you would build a place on.

If you're going somewhere, you are going to a street.

What are you, what are they doing? What can you do to, uh, simplify, to take the speed out and leave it on the highway?

And we'll figure all that

out.

army was growing up to me i mean that was like i i i wanted to be a drummer in a rock band and i had this girl that i liked and i knew i needed to go to college because i was fairly you know smart and that was like what was being pushed i was being pushed in that direction and i knew i didn't have money to pay for it so like putting all those things together I joined the army to pay for school, basically.

And, you know, besides getting to see the armpit of New Jersey and, you know, Missouri, it wasn't really like a worldly undertaking.

The thing that did that to me, early on in my professional career, I was working for an engineering firm and they didn't know what to do with me because I was too young to be made an owner in the firm.

I was too young to be given responsibility, but I was too kind of aggressive to just ignore.

And there was a mentor that I had there that was in the rotary and he convinced my employers at the time to let me try out for this rotary exchange program.

Where did Strong Towns come from? What is it?

I do wanna share just some of your own tho- thoughts, especially about the idea that this tournament will be a wake-up call to really plan a livable city and improve the way we get around.

I read this article, and I, I was reminded of this thing that happened to me in 2000.

Way back at the, you know, turn of the millennia, I was part of a rotary exchange group.

So I was 25 years old, uh, went to Italy, southern Italy, and what they would do is they would embed you with families there.

There, being in rotary is like a high prestige thing, so these are the wealthier, more connected families.

And I'm, I'm there, like with a family, eating at their table, chatting with them, mom, dad, two kids, and they start describing to me that their English was okay, not great, so we're having this conversation.

The kids would interpret a lot of stuff.

All right, let's get back to the episode.

... like, what is the housing trap? Can you, can you give us just a, a summary of that? 'Cause I, I think it speaks to our moment in Vancouver in, in a really interesting way.

I actually do think that that's the big intersection.

That's where Vancouver, I, I think, does stand out, and not in a happy way.

So housing historically is, you know, the, the, the base rung on Maslow's hierarchy of needs, right? Like everyone needs food, water, shelter.

Shelter is like the base for human existence.

We, we are not meant to live exposed to the wilds.

Uh, people need a place to, to shelter in.

I'm curious what, what it was.

Visit strongtowns.org/accelerator to claim your spot.

[upbeat music] Hi, everybody.

This is Chuck Marohn.

Welcome back to the Strong Towns Podcast.

This week I'm gonna share a talk that I gave at a Catholic church here in Edina, Minnesota.

I was invited to go down to a, a little fair they were having on a Saturday.

Uh, it's about, uh, I don't know, two and a half hours away.

[laughs]

Well, tell me, tell my audience why.

Well, as you pointed out, uh, 34 and a half billion, or whatever the latest number is, uh, is a huge budget gap, and it's not like they can, uh, overcome that or fill it by raising fares or tweaking the projects a little bit here and there.

Uh, they're already gonna bump up against their debt limit.

So th- there really is no good answer, uh, that they have that preserves the system plan that, uh, they have sold to voters.

Uh, they need a major rethink.

A- and instead, what they've done is kind of mixing and matching the various w- light rail extensions, uh, in hopes that somehow they can come up with some political compromise.

Uh, but that really doesn't solve the problem, uh, that, uh, they're not gonna be able to deliver anything close to what they promised voters, and-

So they, they lied to the voters, and if they come back and say, "By the way, would you like half the project for the amount of money you've already paid?" Or, or do they go to the voters and say, "You're gonna have to give us another 34 or $35 billion, uh, or we won't be able to build it at all"? I mean, how do you frame that question?