Strong Towns A Bottomup Revolution To Rebuild American Prosperity

Una visión crítica del porqué se han construido y diseñado la mayoría de ciudades de USA, intereses escondidos de grandes empresas petroleras y de la automoción están detrás, un movimiento social cada vez con mayor fuerza en contra de de estos abusos. Muy recomendable su lectura.

Chuck if I may call him that, is firstly very easy to read, despite the serious amount of information he easily conveys making it easier for the reader to comprehend. Be prepared, it is well researched and you will have numbers thrown at you. I know many of you may have watched 'Not Just Bikes' series on Strong Towns, and undoubtedly came here as I have. This is so much more. Many other sources of information on these topics may provide a study, but Chuck really gives you how, why, quanitifies it, at the same time pointing out the misleading quanitfiable date people are actually making decisions on. If you want one book on fixing society, this is a great place to start. If you think cities should just have more bike paths, start here anyway. Thanks Chuck!

This book is an outstanding introduction to the Strong Towns philosophy of sustainable living in vital communities in which the built environment supports human thriving and true wealth creation. This philosophy is in turn developed in all directions and in much greater detail by the thriving Strong Towns organization and membership network, with its web-based content and its real-life presence all over the country. Chuck Marohn is an engineer who delivered planning projects for cities and towns all over the country and followed his professional training, but had a road-to-Damascus moment when he saw that the numbers didn't work: American cities were saddled with infrastructure they didn't need and couldn't afford, and with corresponding liabilities they would have no means to meet - all without the metrics that would tell them what was really going on. He outlines the financial instability and wealth-destroying pyramid scheme of post-WW II suburban development, and how the great wealth of the USA both allowed an unprecedented makeover of our built environment and hid its flaws and inherent contradictions. Now the bills are coming due. I am just a provincial lawyer who cares about his home town - not a development or urban planning specialist. But this book and the tools provided by the Strong Towns organization provide real tools and insights to support people seeking a bottom-up, incrementalist approach for real wealth creation and sustainable living in their own particular towns and cities to cure us of taking on unsustainable obligations that depend on infinite future growth. One last thing: it isn't a dry read at all. Chuck integrates the technical stuff and the details of his argument with the highlights of his own particular and humbling personal journey to his current outlook and some key insights from other contemporary social commentators. It is great to have a guide to these ideas who mixes expert knowledge and deep thinking with true humility. Go look at strongtowns.org, and then order the book!

The author writes clearly in a chatty and informal but informative style. He incrementally builds his arguments in a very persuasive manner that has obviously being polished by having been presented many times. He explains how we have strayed from the historic good practises that created our current towns and cities and what we need to do to correct this. His primary objective is the creation of sustainable communities that work for their inhabitants. I can't help but think of Professor Tainter's classic "The Collapse of Complex Societies". Tainter described the retrenchment of the Byzantine Empire as the only example of which he was aware, of successfully staving off a collapse. This "Strong Towns" book is likewise calling for a sustainable retrenchment before it is too late and I highly commend it.

To say that I was excited about the recent release of this book by Charles Marohn would be huge understatement. To be upfront, I am honored to call Chuck a friend and although we don’t have the opportunity to connect in-person nearly enough, I do thoroughly enjoy and cherish those times when they do happen to occur. I genuinely like the guy and adore his beautiful family. That said, this review contains and is presented in the context of this very natural human bias and I would not wish to say or infer otherwise. I’ve known him for nearly ten years now and over this time I have witnessed the maturation and transformation of the Strong Towns message and movement as well as Chuck as a person. I regularly listen to his podcast and have been fortunate enough to be interviewed on this very same platform several times. Perhaps because of these facts, when I read the book Strong Towns: A Bottom-Up Revolution to Rebuild American Prosperity it was so clearly his voice I heard in my head. Line after line, word after word. I heard his every intonation and profoundly felt his passion. Admittedly, I know the subjects he presents and Strong Towns content quite well, yet I was pleasantly surprised and delighted to experience a freshness on each page, featuring new insights and antidotes that made this an enjoyable and captivating read. So let this serve as a strong purchase endorsement to those of you out there, also very familiar with the message. It’s worth it, don’t hesitate, buy this book now. You won’t regret it. For those of you new or relatively new to Strong Towns and/or the topic of how our built environment (the places where we live) is holding us back as a society and how our current condition is in direct conflict with how humans have built cities and lived for thousands of years up until roughly 75 years ago, I predict that you will find this book to be simultaneously shocking, illuminating and inspirational. Fair warning, it will bum you out a bit in the early sections when it becomes clear how much we have lost. But fear not, there is hope and Chuck delivers these insights in the most humble and approachable ways imaginable. So I implore you to buy or borrow this book and be sure to stick with it until the very end. Speaking of the end, as someone who is a student of human behavior, I found the chapter, An Intentional Life, to be a natural and fitting “conclusion” to the book. This will not at all be a surprise to Chuck as we’ve had many discussions over the years on the themes covered in these penultimate pages. Especially those involving how our built environment and societal factors influence our sociability and physical activity, or more specifically, our ability and willingness to move naturally about within our habitats. In conclusion, my friend, Mr. Charles L. Marohn, Jr. (Chuck) has delivered a wonderful and masterful piece of work in this book and I sincerely believe that you, the potential reader, will learn a great deal, have your assumptions challenged and most importantly become inspired to do what you can to help transform your community into a Strong Town, one block at a time. John D Simmerman, MS President Advocates for Healthy Communities, Inc. Active Towns Initiative [email protected]