What if the street itself did most of the work of slowing cars, instead of another sign or speed trap? Drawing on a new Bloomberg CityLab piece, Carlee Alm‑LaBar is joined by Edward Erfurt and Ann Arbor’s transportation manager, Malisa McCreedy, to talk about what these deaths say about speed, design, and the values baked into our networks. They explore why Vision Zero efforts struggle, how Ann Arbor is embedding safety into every project, and why planners and engineers often hesitate to talk openly about crashes, using Ann Arbor’s crash analysis studio, university partnerships, and quick‑build projects to show how a city can respond more directly to serious crashes.

• "Searching for the ‘Smoking Gun’ in US Pedestrian Deaths" by David Zipper, Bloomberg.com (April 2026)
• Downzone:
  • City of Ann Arbor Hosting Crash Analysis Studio (Site)
  • 2026 APA National Planning Conference (Site)
  • "Great Expectations" by Charles Dickens (Site)
  • Strong Towns National Gathering (Site)
• Carlee Alm-LaBar (LinkedIn)
• Edward Erfurt (LinkedIn)
• Malisa McCreedy (LinkedIn)
• Theme Music by Kemet the Phantom.

This podcast is made possible by Strong Towns members. Join fellow members discussing this episode in The Commons.

What happens when the American Dream stops meaning “doing better than your parents” and starts meaning “just not falling behind”? Norm Van Eeden Petersman sits down with Andrew Burleson and Ryan Puzycki to untangle why stability feels so fragile, even in “booming” cities. They trace how zoning turns housing into a rigged game of musical chairs, how some places face strangling exclusion while others slide into rolling blight, and how missing bottom rungs on the housing ladder and remote work push rising costs — and workers — farther out. They connect these pressures to a new American Dream: finding a stable home that won’t vanish with the next lease.

• "The American Dream Meant Upward Mobility. Now, it Means Stability." by Rachel Barber and Veronica Bravo, USAToday.com (March 2026)
• Norm Van Eeden Petersman (LinkedIn)
• Andrew Burleson (LinkedIn)
• Ryan Puzycki (LinkedIn)
• Articles Mentioned and Downzone:
  • Adaptive Code (Article)
  • Remote Isn't Working (Article)
  • The Hobbit, J. R. R. Tolkien (Audiobook)
  • The Social House Will Not Reopen (Article)
  • Sticky Notes: The Classical Music Podcast (Site)
• Theme Music by Kemet the Phantom.

This podcast is made possible by Strong Towns members. Thank you! Join fellow members discussing this episode in The Commons.

In New York City, a playful bracket about broken hoops and dumping sites turns routine maintenance into a citywide tournament. Carlee Alm-LaBar, Edward Erfurt, and Alexander Lazard explore what that reveals about complaint driven 311 systems, how priorities really get set, and which neighborhoods get left off the board entirely. Their conversation presses on whether mayors can turn one clever contest into lasting trust instead of a one week story.

• "Mayor Mamdani Launches March Madness-style Competition for City Fixes" by Spectrum News Staff, NY1.com (March 2026)
• "Municipal Madness: Mayor Mamdani Performs Winning City Fix, Cleans Up Illegal Dumping in Soundview on Day 100" (Article)
• "Mamdani, Leaning Into ‘Sewer Socialism,’ Gets His Hands Dirty" (Article)
• Downzone:
  • "Mary Colter: Builder Upon the Red Earth" by Virginia L. Grattan (Book)
  • "The Image of the City" by Kevin Lynch (Book)
  • "How Big Things Get Done" by Bent Flyvbjerg and Dan Gardner (Book)
  • Strong Towns National Gathering (Site)
• Carlee Alm-LaBar (LinkedIn)
• Edward Erfurt (LinkedIn)
• Alexander Lazard (LinkedIn)
• Theme Music by Kemet the Phantom.

This podcast is made possible by Strong Towns members. Click here to learn more about membership.