The Messy City Podcast

Latest Episodes:

Bringing the Strong Towns Message to Texas May 09, 2023

Show notes

It’s a tale of two Kevins, as we discuss cultivating local prosperity and the Strong Towns message with Kevin Shepherd of Verdunity. Kevin is an engineer by background, and started his own planning and engineering firm just over a decade ago in the Dallas area. He left the corporate world to follow his calling to help cities and towns make more fiscally-productive decisions with land use and infrastructure. He talks with us about why he made that leap, how it’s going working in cities and towns in Texas (and elsewhere), and how others can follow in his footsteps.

We also talk a little about the scourge of Kevinism.

Other links:

Go Cultivate! podcast

Messy City episode with Monte Anderson

Find more content on The Messy City on Kevin’s Substack page.

Music notes: all songs by low standards, ca. 2010. Videos here. If you’d like a CD for low standards, message me and you can have one for only $5.

Intro: “Why Be Friends”

Outro: “Fairweather Friend”

Get full access to The Messy City at kevinklinkenberg.substack.com/subscribe

Policy Wonk to Infill Developer May 02, 2023

Show notes

In just a few short years, Andrew Ganahl has already made a notable impact in the urban development world in Kansas City. He’s developed three new projects in the urban core, is working on more, and he’s shown how persistence and a positive attitude can get a whole lot done in short order. But, he’s not only not from Kansas City, he’s also only recently become a developer. The Stanford and Harvard-educated public policy wonk (I hope he doesn’t mind me calling him that), only came to the development world in his thirties. We explore this unusual journey, not only to KC and the middle of the map, but also to real estate development.

Is it possible to leave the world of public policy and find more fulfillment doing things you can see and touch? Listen and hear Andrew’s thoughts.

Links:

Andrew’s LinkedIn profile

AND Real Estate

Andrew’s projects:

1914 Main, now under new ownership

Terrace on Walnut, now under new ownership

Waldo Flats

In Milwaukee - the Quin and the Yards

Find more content on The Messy City on Kevin’s Substack page.

Music notes: all songs by low standards, ca. 2010. Videos here. If you’d like a CD for low standards, message me and you can have one for only $5.

Intro: “Why Be Friends”

Outro: “Fairweather Friend”

Get full access to The Messy City at kevinklinkenberg.substack.com/subscribe

To car-free or not to car-free? Apr 25, 2023

Show notes

The notorious and excellent blogger, Mr. Money Mustache, wrote a worlds-colliding piece a couple weeks ago called “Less Cars, More Money: My Visit to the City of the Future.” MMM writes at length about culdesac Tempe, which we discussed on a previous podcast with Dan Parolek of Opticos Design.

MMM is the GOAT in many respects for the Financial Independence movement. If you’ve touched that world at all, you’ve probably heard of him, read his posts, or seen him in movies or clips.

Funny thing is, he’s also very interested in urban planning and city design. In this post, he marries the two worlds, and suggests how it might impact other people and American cities in the future.

I have my take on it, as you might imagine.

Also, in Act 2, Everything is broken right now. What does it all mean?

Here’s a few other items referenced in the podcast:

Disney Springs

ChooseFI

Some background on the movement to pedestrianize American main streets in the 1960s and 70s in particular.

Get full access to The Messy City at kevinklinkenberg.substack.com/subscribe

Being the Change in Your Community Apr 18, 2023

Show notes

How do you find an outlet for your passion for your place, especially when you don’t feel you have the money necessary to get started? Is it possible to still see yourself as a developer?

Jason, Shomari and I have a LOT to discuss in this episode. In my longest interview to-date, we talk about a wide range of topics from getting started in development, to being the change in your own community, and what all is going on in Kansas City and the Vine District in particular. Jason and Shomari are two go-getters in KC, who both came to development from very different backgrounds and have learned a ton as they go. We talk about their entrepreneurial spirit, dealing with success and failure, and how rewarding and creative it can be to take on development projects yourself.

Links:

Shomari’s law firm. Benton, Lloyd and Chung

Jason Carter-Solomon on LinkedIn

2000 Vine

Wheatley Provident Hospita

Vine District

Find more content on The Messy City on Kevin’s Substack page.

Music notes: all songs by low standards, ca. 2010. Videos here. If you’d like a CD for low standards, message me and you can have one for only $5.

Intro: “Why Be Friends”

Outro: “Fairweather Friend”

Get full access to The Messy City at kevinklinkenberg.substack.com/subscribe

Bernice Radle & Monte Anderson: Getting Started in Small-Scale Development Apr 11, 2023

Show notes

Sometimes, you run across people that get you very inspired and fired up for action. They make you want to run through a wall to get started NOW. This episode features two such people. I challenge you not to be energized and excited to do something good for your own community.

Bernice Radle is the CEO and Founder of Buffalove Development. She started the company in 2012, and focuses exclusively on the west side of Buffalo.

Monte Anderson founded Options Real Estate in 1991 in south Dallas, Texas. He’s one of the founders of the Incremental Development Alliance, and has been an active community-oriented developer for over thirty years.

Bernice and Monte have started a consulting service for communities looking to ramp up their local developer ecosystem called Neighborhood Evolution.

In this episode we explore their own paths to becoming developers, their philosophy on doing locally-oriented development, some of the challenges and the opportunities for others, and how to get over yourself and get started today.

Find more content on The Messy City on Kevin’s Substack page.

Music notes: all songs by low standards, ca. 2010. Videos here. If you’d like a CD for low standards, message me and you can have one for only $5.

Intro: “Why Be Friends”

Outro: “Fairweather Friend”

Get full access to The Messy City at kevinklinkenberg.substack.com/subscribe

Dan Parolek: Finding the Missing Middle Apr 04, 2023

Show notes

Dan Parolek co-founded Opticos Design with his wife Karen about 25 years ago. Since then, Opticos has become a national leader in the field of urban planning and design. Dan has authored two seminal books, Form-Based Codes: A Guide for Planners, Urban Designers, Municipalities and Developers and Missing Middle Housing: Thinking Big and Building Small to Respond to Today’s Housing Crisis. Dan is a true thought leader in the field, and a great friend of the podcast. Dan and I first got to know each other and work together on a charrette in Truckee, CA in 1999, and we’ve had the pleasure to work together, collaborate, and brainstorm ideas all the years since.

In recent years, Dan has become known as the primary spokesperson for the concept of Missing Middle Housing. His firm has developed a website specific to that topic here. Some of the projects mentioned in the episode include the Daybreak Mews Homes, Bungalows on the Lake at Prairie Queen, and Culdesac in Tempe, AZ.

We talk about the current state of American cities, changes that have taken place over the last couple of decades, some current threats to the cities, and a lot about implementing Missing Middle Housing and Form-Based Codes.

Other mentions:

The Urban Guild

Congress for the New Urbanism

Thanks for listening! Please share, like, follow and review the podcast at your pleasure.

Find more content on The Messy City on Kevin’s Substack page.

Music notes: all songs by low standards, ca. 2010. Videos here. If you’d like a CD for low standards, message me and you can have one for only $5.

Intro: “Why Be Friends”

Outro: “Fairweather Friend”

Get full access to The Messy City at kevinklinkenberg.substack.com/subscribe

An Ode to Paul Harvey Mar 28, 2023

Show notes

For those of us who are a certain age, we remember Paul Harvey’s unique voice entertaining and enlightening us on the radio. His regular shows told us “The Rest of the Story.” For me, that was usually in the car, on long family road trips, trips to school, or trips across southern Minnesota to go to Rochester for the SE Minnesota Youth Orchestra every week (SEMYO, for those in the know). I cherish those moments now. It’s too long ago to remember exactly how I felt at the time - maybe I even made fun of it all. But now, it speaks to really great family time together, and the wonderful things my parents did for us as kids.

This is an episode of stories in three acts.

Act 1 - Humility

Act 2 - Tradition

Act 3 - Tragedy

And, here is some additional information:

Fiddler on the roof - “Tradition!”

Video of Ed Bacon - “Form, Design and The City.”

99% PI on “The City of the Future” - a 2 part series

Ann Sussman - “Cognitive Architecture”

Below is the intersection I reference in Vail, Colorado:

A story from 1996 on the initial Vail roundabout.

And, the intersection I reference in Savannah, GA:

Get full access to The Messy City at kevinklinkenberg.substack.com/subscribe

Tim Busse: A New Town, 20 Years Old Mar 20, 2023

Show notes

New Town St. Charles is one of the most ambitious developments in the history of not only St. Louis, but also the New Urbanism movement. New Town was conceived, planned and built by Whitaker Builders. Tim Busse is the long-time Town Architect for Whitaker Builders and the town.

In this episode we explore lessons learned from trying to create a walkable place from scratch, and doing so within the world of a large production home builder. We talk about challenges the project had to navigate with the Great Recession, and also the differences between this effort and other efforts the company undertook in conventional suburban development, as well as TNDs in other markets.

Tim’s firm, Studio Archaeos on Facebook

Tim’s LinkedIn profile

Dean Klinkenberg, the Mississippi Valley Traveler, for travel books, non-fiction and fictional stories of the Mississippi.

Find more content on The Messy City on Kevin’s Substack page.

Music notes: all songs by low standards, ca. 2010. Videos here. If you’d like a CD for low standards, message me and you can have one for only $5.

Intro: “Why Be Friends”

Outro: “Fairweather Friend”

Get full access to The Messy City at kevinklinkenberg.substack.com/subscribe

Johnny Sanphillippo: Are you granola or shotgun? Mar 13, 2023

Show notes

Are you a pessimist or an optimist in regards to America’s built landscape, and its future? How can we all find a way to navigate changes that are coming?

Johnny Sanphillippo writes the Granola Shotgun blog, where he frequently challenges narratives about cities, suburbs, and what individuals can do. If you’re a lover of walkable places, is it possible to turn the battleship of the last 70+ years and get more of them built? Or, will circumstances change of their own accord, whether we like it or not? What can an individual do in the late years of The Suburban Experiment, in order to still live a good life?

We also discuss Peak Silicon Valley and Peak Bay Area, and some possible futures for that region, California, and other parts of America. Johnny joins us from Mexico City, where he is scouting out a Plan B for his life and pseudo-retirement.

Granola Shotgun blog here.

Find more content on The Messy City on Kevin’s Substack page.

Music notes: all songs by low standards, ca. 2010. Videos here.

Intro: “Why Be Friends”

Outro: “Fairweather Friend”

Get full access to The Messy City at kevinklinkenberg.substack.com/subscribe

Making Incremental Change in Kansas City Mar 06, 2023

Show notes

Incremental change in cities, the kind that used to be by-right, has become progressively more difficult since the creation of zoning and the reforms of the 20th century. How do people who value messy cities and incremental change begin to make change in this environment? How is the context for cities in the middle of the country unique?

Dennis Strait and Abby Kinney join the podcast to discuss their work with incremental change, small-scale development and facilitating civic conversations in Kansas City and elsewhere.

Dennis an Abby work in the Planning Studio for multistudio. He has presented extensively in KC on “We’ve Built a City We can’t Afford.” That recording is available on the KC Library website here.

Abby hosts the Upzoned podcast on the Strong Towns network. Sign up and listen!

Find more content on The Messy City on Kevin’s Substack page.

Music notes: all songs by low standards, ca. 2010. Videos here.

Intro: “Why Be Friends”

Outro: “Fairweather Friend”

Get full access to The Messy City at kevinklinkenberg.substack.com/subscribe