Cowboy Hotels for Housing Shortages

 

Like all major cities in America, Seattle is facing a housing shortage. And 100 years ago, Seattle faced a housing shortage bigger than the one it has now. The initial response to the historic shortage was to build small, boxy, apartment buildings holding four to six apartments (called Cowboy Hotels) that blended in with the houses already established in the neighborhood. In this Upzoned episode, host Abby Kinney and co-host Chuck Marohn talk about Cowboy Hotels and their financial possibilities.

 
 
 
 
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Abby Newsham
Abby Newsham

Abby Newsham is the cohost of the Upzoned podcast. Abby is an urban design and planning consultant at Multistudio in Kansas City, Missouri. In her own community, she works to advance bottom-up strategies that enhance both private development and the public realm, and facilitates the ad-hoc Kansas City chapter of the Incremental Development Alliance. When she’s not geeking out over cities, Abby is an avid urban mountain biker (because: potholes), audiobook and podcast junkie, amateur rock climber, and guitarist. You can connect with Abby on Twitter at @abbykatkc.

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Charles Marohn
Charles Marohn

Charles Marohn—known as “Chuck” to friends and colleagues—is the founder and president of Strong Towns. He is a land use planner and civil engineer with 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 the author of Strong Towns: A Bottom-Up Revolution to Rebuild American Prosperity (Wiley, 2019) and Confessions of a Recovering Engineer: Transportation for a Strong Town (Wiley 2021). 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.

 
Podcast, Top StoryStrong Townspodcast, housing, housing crisis, Incremental Housing, history, upzoned, washington