Go Cultivate!

Across the country, cities big and small are facing a housing affordability crisis, yet many single-family houses sit vacant. Many of the same cities have serious infrastructure funding shortages. We examine the role of single-family zoning in shaping these issues and more—and we explore why there is momentum building to re-legalize other housing types, such as duplexes and fourplexes. "Are W...

Small developer Monte Anderson joins the show for a second time to go a bit more in depth about his Dallas-area projects that give small-time entrepreneurs a place to make a living and build wealth for the community. If you haven't yet, supplement this episode with parts 1 & 2 of our interview with Monte from Season 1. And if you're in local government, and you want to ask Monte any follow-up...

We’re starting a new series on the Go Cultivate! podcast called “Are We Doing This Right?” Once a month we’ll pick a topic – some element of the way we design or operate our cities – and honestly ask the question: Are we doing this right? We’ll explore common assumptions, bust (or uphold) a few myths, and try to get toward a sense of what we might be able to do differently (based on the experience...

Welcome back to Part 2 of our discussion about trust and distrust between the public and planners. If you haven't listened to Part 1, we'd recommend starting with that. :) Who you're hearing in this episode: Jordan Clark (your host), Daniel Herriges of Strong Towns , and Verdunity's Felix Landry . The Go Cultivate! podcast is a project of Verdunity . Find more about this and other episodes (and ou...

What happens when the public doesn't trust planners? What does that even mean? And how can we work to build trusting, responsive, two-way relationships between community members and the folks in local government? On today’s episode, we’re returning to two common themes from this show: "change" and "trust.” Changes to the failed status quo of city building and trust between the peopl...

Would you like to spend 10 minutes listening to us announcing what you can expect from the next season of the Go Cultivate! podcast? Then, boy, are you in luck! Later this week, we're releasing the first episode of the new season. Make sure you're subscribed! ALSO: If you are a city (or other municipal) employee of any sort, and you want to be a beta tester for our online community before we offic...

Hope y'all have been coping during our short hiatus. We'll be back with more episodes before you know it. Promise! We're checking back in to let you know about a couple pretty cool opportunities: 1. WORKSHOPS! If you've followed this podcast for a while and want to dig deeper into the complex challenges facing cities of all sizes—and the realistic actions you can take to make meaningfull progress...

We're back with the second part of our interview with Derek and Bianca Avery, incremental developers and community builders with COIR Holdings . In this episode we talk more about the history and very present effects of redlining in American cities and why Derek and Bianca first look for those neighborhoods to invest in. We then discuss some specific things cities can do to set the environment for...

On this episode, we talk with Bianca and Derek Avery of COIR Holdings about what it means to be a responsible developer – especially at a time when many people are skeptical of the profession. We talk the difference between a "spreadsheet developer" and a "community developer," and the possibility of "revitalizing" a neighborhood without generating displacement. Then...

Hey listeners! If you're a Strong Towns follower, don't forget that March 10 is the deadline to submit your city to the 2019 #StrongestTown contest. Verdunity is proud to be a sponsor of this year's contest. Even if you don't submit, it's a great way to learn how other cities are incrementally building financial strength and improving lives. Sign up here! ** [EDIT: The original release of this epi...

We're excited to bring you a conversation with Active Towns founder John Simmerman ( @JohnSimmerman ), who's been on a long journey to document what cities are doing to become safer and more comfortable places to walk, bike, and be active. John joins Jordan Clark on the podcast talk about his findings since beginning his Active Towns Tour in 2012, including: The best ways to encourage cycling amon...

Today we're talking about a push by state lawmakers in Texas to put a cap on how much cities can raise their property tax rates from one year to the next. This proposed legislation would have huge repercussions, severely undercutting cities' ability to collect enough revenue to pay for needed services. To help us dive deeper into what this means for city governments, we're joined by Mayor Connie S...

We're back with the B-Side to episode 25! That discussion ran too long for one episode, so we're back to talk about some specific ways cities could tie their zoning codes, subdivision ordinances, transportation plans, and economic development decisions to a rigorous fiscal analysis. Attention Podcast Land! Could you take a moment to help us make this podcast more relevant or interesting to you? We...

In this episode, we follow up on last week's chat on the crucial challenge facing city administrators across the country—their city's resource gap. We talk about how city leaders can understand whether their current processes and daily decisions are moving them toward or away from long-term fiscal health. We say often that in many cities, "business as usual is broken." But that doesn't m...

Running a city is hard work, and it’s even harder when there aren’t enough resources to cover basic service and infrastructure needs. More and more cities are finding themselves in this tricky spot, and it’s easy for city leaders to feel helpless. In this episode, we talk about the challenges facing city administrators (as well as their staff) who are increasingly stretched thin by their city's gr...

Attention Podcast Land! Could you take a moment to help us make this podcast more relevant or interesting to you? We're running a quick (nearly pain-free!) little questionnaire to learn more about what you'd like us to dive deeper into, and what things we could stand to work on. (Do we say "um" too much? Great, now you're listening for it...) Just go to this Google Form . It'll take you...

We design our homes to the scale of a human being. We used to design our neighborhoods that way. So what happened? And does it matter how we size our streets or our cities? In this episode, Jordan Clark and Felix Landry discuss the implications—economic, equity, human, and more—of designing cities to primarily accommodate moving objects that are ten times bigger than human beings. We wrap things u...

We hear this a lot: Apartments bring higher crime, which means more police, which means higher police costs. But is that really the case? Join Felix Landry and Jordan for a quick discussion about Felix's latest piece for the Verdunity blog . The Go Cultivate! podcast is a project of your friends at Verdunity . If you like this addition to the podcast feed, or if you hate it—or if you really want u...

It's a full house on the podcast today. Felix Landry, Tim Wright, and Kevin Shepherd join Jordan to talk about our favorite reads and listens from the year. Here are links to the stuff we talked about in the show: Tim's picks: There’s a missing middle for commercial spaces, too – Kevin Klinkenberg, The Messy City What’s Up with All Those Empty Commercial Storefronts in New Mixed-Use Developments?...

In this episode, Jordan speaks with Tim Wright, Levette Fuller, Luke Lee, and Chris Lyon of Re:Form Shreveport . We discuss how they are building a more trusting relationship between the people of Shreveport and City staff and officials, why and how to avoid a "criticize-first" mentality, lessons for city governments on embracing neighborhood-led change (or co-creation) instead of top-do...

Here's what we discuss in part 2 of our interview with Monte Anderson: Three things a small developer (or a small entrepreneur) needs [2:00] Why Monte says low-interest loans are more effective than “giveaways” [4:00] Why too much business and not enough space is better than the opposite [7:15] Assessing the fiscal productivity of small developments as opposed to large-scale developments [9:05] &q...

We’ve talked about the value of small investments on this podcast before, and in this episode we sit down with someone whose name is synonymous with small, incremental development—Monte Anderson, CEO of Options Real Estate . Monte is a developer, small-business booster, and co-founder of the Incremental Development Alliance. In part one of this discussion, we talk about the ways Monte is trying to...

In this episode we speak with Kevin Klinkenberg, an urban designer, planner, architect, and writer on all things cities. We discuss what city leaders can learn from the messiness of cities past, why small scale development is better for our communities (and why these days it's so hard to actually do), how to balance top-down and bottom-up action, zoning recommendations for cities that want to beco...

We're following up on the economic development discussions of the last two weeks. Where is the status quo approach to economic development leaving our cities and our citizens? How do recent changes in economic trends affect the ways cities attempt to do business? What does a more localized, sustainable, and people-focused version economic development actually look like? Links to things discussed i...

[Some of you may have had a sound issue at the beginning of this podcast. We've fixed it but it still might show up for some listeners. Sorry about that!] This is the second of a short series on city growth. Are there good ways or bad ways to grow? In this episode, we're asking: What should a city's relationship with debt look like? Are there bad debts? Are there good debts for a city to take on?...