Rachel and Chuck recap a week on the Iron Range.
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Leah Calgaro is a lifelong resident of the Iron Range. She chose a unique path for a young person and recently purchased a mixed-use building in downtown Virginia, MN. She is living in the upstairs while renovating the other floors. This is her story.
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Aaron J. Brown is a writer, radio producer and college instructor living and working on the Iron Range. In this interview between friends, Aaron discusses mining, education, and economics on the Iron Range.
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Plus a report from the road, from Chuck and Jason.
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Different approaches to building produce very different financial results that can be easily measured and contrasted.
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A basic look at financial productivity applied to the Iron Range community of Grand Rapids.
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From May 16-19, Chuck Marohn and Jason Schaefer, will travel the length of the Minnesota Iron Range to discuss why these communities are struggling financially and how to fix that.
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Two midwestern towns face off in our march madness competition.
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Rachel and Chuck recap #NoNewRoads Week and discuss Chuck's busy week of travel in January.
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Creating a diverse mix of options to reduce car dependence incrementally is a sensible short-term goal of a robust transportation policy. We can make better cities by increasing the size and number of neighborhoods in which it's possible for the average person to live partially—not completely—car free.
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Concluding remarks and steps forward after a week of #NoNewRoads.
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Minnesota leaders on both sides of the aisle need to examine the true costs of their transportation plans or they'll find themselves in serious debt for a system that hardly benefits the state.
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This story is not unique: a mid-sized Minnesota town is preparing to adopt a 50-year-old neighborhood. As the neighborhood struggles to pay for long-term maintenance on its roads and pipes, it seems like neither annexation nor autonomy will really solve the problem.
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Chuck and Rachel discuss this week's #NoNewRoads campaign.
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Thirty-seven years ago, some idiot decided to build a Kmart and accompanying monstrous parking lot right in the middle of a major street in the heart of the city, deadening any life on the street. Now it's finally going away.
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Regardless of what my city does -- hold taxes steady or increase them by 50% -- next year's budget will be a transaction of decline, an attempt to hold on, just a little while longer, to what we perceive that we have. We have to do better if we want a country full of Strong Towns.
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The structural problem in our road building system is that we’ve based these large financial decisions on faulty premises and inaccurate estimations. We’ve justified and enabled the subsidizing of less efficient forms of development through the aid of cost-benefit analysis. The 494 /169 interchange looks great on paper at first glance. It’s going to create jobs, handle more traffic, help the economy, and save time.
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Aaron Brown -- author, college instructor and radio producer from Minnesota's iron range -- joins the podcast to talk about the history of the Iron Range, economic development issues and cultural obstacles to change. You can get Aaron's book, Overburden: Modern Life on the Iron Range, and read his regular blog at his site, MinnesotaBrown.com.
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None of the incentives for a productive development pattern are there to make it happen. We're just throwing more money at failure. Why?
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The Move MN transportation financing proposal may be good politics, but it is bad policy. Enacting it will lead to a weaker Minnesota. Here are the reasons I oppose it.
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