Join Chuck Marohn, Mike Lydon, and Anthony Garcia to discuss how we can make our streets and roads work for the people and generate wealth for a community.
For too long, our streets have been designed by engineers with their nose in the codebooks, rather than by the people who actually use these streets on a daily basis. The result? 40,000+ deaths in car crashes every year. Communities that have had their wealth and neighborhoods utterly depleted in pursuit of building ever wider roads. The list goes on... In this presentation, we share a simple, yet radical approach to street design: assembling a team of key people—engineers, elected officials, health professionals, and most importantly, neighbors who travel and live on these streets. The design of safe, productive streets should be in the hands of these people and we’ll show you how.
Charles Marohn - known as "Chuck" to friends and colleagues - is the Founder and President of Strong Towns and the author of Strong Towns: A Bottom-Up Revolution to Rebuild American Prosperity. He is a Professional Engineer (PE) licensed in the State of Minnesota and a land use planner with two decades of experience. He holds a bachelor's degree in Civil Engineering and a Master of Urban and Regional Planning, both from the University of Minnesota.
Marohn is also the lead author of Thoughts on Building Strong Towns — Volume 1, Volume 2 and Volume 3 — as well as the author of A World Class Transportation System. He hosts the Strong Towns Podcast and is a primary writer for Strong Towns’ web content. He has presented Strong Towns concepts in hundreds of cities and towns across North America. He is featured in the documentary film Owned: A Tale of Two Americans, and was named one of the 10 Most Influential Urbanists of all time by Planetizen.
Mike Lydon is a Principal at Street Plans, and leads the firm’s New York City office. Mike is an internationally recognized planner, writer, speaker, and advocate for livable cities. NPR, The New York Times, CNN Headline News, ABC News, City Lab, Salon, Next City, Wired, and Monocle have featured his work, among many other publications. Having delivered more than 250 keynotes, workshops, trainings, and lectures since 2009, Mike has exerted a global influence on how people think about city transformation. In 2018, Mike was named by Planetizen as one of the top 100 most influential urbanists of all-time.
Mike is the creator of The Open Streets Project and the globally acclaimed Tactical Urbanism: Short-Term Action, Long-Term Change Vol. 1 – 5. With Tony Garcia, Mike is the recipient of the 2017 Seaside Prize and co-author of Tactical Urbanism (Island Press, 2015), named by Planetizen as one of the top planning books of the past decade. Mike collaborated with Andres Duany and Jeff Speck in writing The Smart Growth Manual (McGraw-Hill, 2009).
A founding member of the New England Chapter of the Congress for the New Urbanism, a Board Member for CNU New York, and a steering committee member of the Next Generation of New Urbanists, he remains active in both local and national planning, design, and smart growth advocacy issues. He lectures frequently and leads workshops and trainings on the topics of smart growth, tactical urbanism, public space, and complete streets/active transportation. Before launching the firm in 2009, Mike worked for Smart Growth Vermont, the Massachusetts Bicycle Coalition, and Ann Arbor’s GetDowntown Program. From 2006–2009 Lydon worked for Duany Plater-Zyberk and Company (DPZ), an international leader in the practice of smart growth planning, design, and research techniques.
Mike currently serves on Transportation Alternative’s Executive Committee for the New York City Harbor Ring project, and is an advisor to the Bicycle Coalition of Maine. Mike received a B.A. in American Cultural Studies from Bates College and a Masters in Urban Planning from the University of Michigan. He encourages you to trade four wheels for two.
Anthony Garcia is a Principal at Street Plans Collaborative, and leads the firm’s Miami office. With over 15 years experience, Tony is a leader in the field of urban planning, and balances day-to-day management of the firm with writing, speaking, and advocating for great streets and public spaces.
Tony is coauthor of the globally acclaimed series Tactical Urbanism: Short-Term Action, Long-Term Change, co-author of Tactical Urbanism, published by Island Press in March 2015, and together with Mike Lydon is the recipient of the 2017 Seaside Prize. Tony was also awarded with the 2017-2018 CINTAS Foundation Fellowship for Architecture & Design.
He lectures and leads workshops on the topics of placemaking, tactical urbanism, and street design. He is a former part-time faculty member at the University of Miami School of Architecture, and is the past Chairman of the Green Mobility Network, the largest bicycle pedestrian advocacy organization in South Florida. He co-founded the Ludlam Trail project, which will result in the addition of over 50 acres of new park space in Miami-Dade County.
Prior to launching the firm’s Miami office, Tony was Project Director for six years at Chael Cooper & Associates, and from 2008 to 2012 was the managing editor of the transportation blog TransitMiami.com.
Tony holds a Bachelor of Arts in Architecture and Urban Design from New York University and a Masters in Architecture from the University of Miami.