good traffic.

Rachel Cohen Booth — senior correspondent at Vox — is in good traffic this week for a grab-bag episode, starting with her forthcoming book titled You're Not Powerless: The Crisis of Agency and How We Reclaim It Together, and what changes when we stop waiting for the perfect policy to arrive. Rachel's reporting on family and social policy is where a lot of housing, child care, and health care debates first reach a wide audience.We also touch on: Why waiting on a government program can become a trap. Feeling powerless amid AI, nuclear, and climate headlines. Taking a book leave and why journalism and book writing are so different. The push to make it easier to rent out a spare bedroom. Single room occupancies, boarding houses, and the "Golden Girls" bill. How room rentals could keep people from sliding into homelessness. The Supreme Court passing on a key case, and what that means for the states. Medicaid cuts, universal child care, and the 2028 policy fight. A teaser for a November infrastructure story.Timeline:0:00 Rachel Cohen Booth is in good traffic.1:39 The new book, You're Not Powerless, and the state of the American dream.3:58 Why waiting on policy can be a trap.6:53 Feeling powerless in the age of AI, nuclear risk, and climate change.8:28 Book leave, journalism versus book writing, and the audiobook.13:03 Rachel's Vox story on making it easier to rent a spare bedroom.14:47 Single room occupancies, boarding houses, the Golden Girls bill, and the ROOM Act.18:44 Room rentals as a buffer against homelessness, and PadSplit.25:16 The Supreme Court passes, so the fight moves to the states.27:12 How the story came together, and being an accidental connector.31:06 Midterms, universal child care, Medicaid cuts, and health care.35:01 Favorite place to go with the new family.Further context:⁠The forthcoming book. ⁠Rachel's work at Vox. Rachel's Notebook (Substack). "Golden Girls" occupancy reform (via Metro Abundance). Follow + connect:

Jonathan Berk — founder of Re:Main — is in good traffic this week from Salem, Massachusetts for a survey of Delayed by Design, a new report published by Boston Indicators. The work looks at how discretionary permitting keeps stalling middle housing in Massachusetts, even on sites where zoning already allows it. Re:Main partners with municipalities, property owners, small developers, and aligned capital to get missing middle housing built in walkable neighborhoods, which matters because duplexes, triplexes, and small apartment buildings are the projects that carry the most uncertainty, the most politics, and the least room for delay.We also touch on: Going from a personal injury attorney to an urbanist. The housing system as an onion. Why most of New England couldn't be built today. Overeducated NIMBYism and loading every pet issue onto housing. Red-state housing reforms and the Massachusetts GOP. Financing in gateway cities. Historic preservationists who skipped the parking reform fight. Salem in October, and why parking for the peak would ruin the place. A ferry ride home with a cold beer.Timeline:0:00 Jonathan Berk is in good traffic.2:28 Law to urbanism by way of Jane Jacobs, Jeff Speck, Strong Towns.9:47 Building Re:Main, and why our housing system is an onion.12:43 Misinformation, MBTA Communities, and the school-enrollment numbers for new housing.15:18 Salem turns 400, and why most of New England couldn't be built under today's zoning.16:49 Highly educated NIMBYism and asking housing to solve every problem.22:51 Delayed by Design: Newton case studies, where permitting took longer than construction.30:34 Montana, Texas, and red-state reforms vs. the Massachusetts Republican Party.40:11 The two-to-three-unit cliff in building codes and site plan review.42:43 Financing small projects: gateway cities, HDIP, and the Memphis model.48:52 Historic preservation, adaptive reuse, and the parking reform fight.51:37 Salem in October: 1.4 million visitors and "do not drive to Salem."57:20 Key takeaways: permitting certainty, and don't hate the player, hate the game.59:38 Where to find Jonathan, and the best commute he's ever had.Further context:Delayed by Design (via Boston Indicators). Re:Main. Jonathan on Instagram.Jonathan on X.

John Dean Davis — Associate Professor of Landscape Architecture at The Ohio State University's Knowlton School of Architecture — is in good traffic this week for a peek at Reconstruction-era America and the landscapes it built. Prof. Davis' new book, Reconstructors: Land, Work, and Engineering After the Civil War, posits that Reconstruction wasn't a mere political realignment, but a massive physical rebuilding project whose infrastructure and ideology shape the contemporary American landscape as we know it.We also touch on: The origin story of Davis' book project, sparked by a solo drive from Boston to New Orleans and a stop at the Old River Control Structure five years after Katrina. Why the "New South" was more industrial than its cotton-field reputation suggests. The case that Reconstruction, in some form, never really stopped. Teaching field trips to Mexico City and the "road trip paper" assignment Davis gives his students. His mentor John Stilgoe's advice to go outside and look at things — ideally by bike. A debate over history's most important technological contributions. Rebecca Solnit's writing-as-carpentry metaphor, and why generalists need to read broadly to stay sharp.Timeline:0:00 John Dean Davis is in good traffic .7:10 Road trip to research: a drive from Boston to New Orleans.10:15 Standing at Old River Control, feeling the Mississippi's power.11:37 Reconstruction as the hinge of American history.16:28 Becoming a landscape historian: carpentry, mud, and 1870s engineering in Muscle Shoals, Alabama.19:38 The "New South" myth.23:21 Did Reconstruction ever actually end?25:23 Staying optimistic as a historian.28:54 Mentor John Stilgoe's philosophy, and the case for touring a new place by bike.34:29 Public lands politics: Gilded Age extraction vs. conservation, and today's rural land defenders.39:08 The road trip paper assignment.48:24 History's greatest technological contribution.55:16 Most walkable college towns.58:17 Commuting on the Metro-North as a teenager.Further context:The book — Reconstructors: Land, Work, and Engineering After the Civil War.The mentioned Old River Control Structure (US Army Corps of Engineers).

James Nozar — President of Development at Kettler — is in good traffic this week from Tampa, Florida. We talk the development and design process behind a stretch of former industrial and surface parking lots becoming Water Street: a $4 billion waterfront neighborhood, and what that same playbook looks like applied to a second Tampa district: Gas Worx. We also touch on: Jeff Vinik and Bill Gates' Cascade Investment placing the original bet on Water Street back in 2015. Why treating the arena as an anchor, not the center, of the district changed everything downstream. The real math behind structured parking — roughly $75 a square foot versus $12 to $15 for the land underneath it. Assembling a dozen-plus architects and landscape architects instead of handing the whole project to one firm. Preserving mid-century Ybor City buildings at a premium just to protect a street's rhythm and grit. A 2018 transportation sales tax that voters approved and the Florida Supreme Court struck down. Why Tampa's office market has kept leasing up while other Sunbelt cities stall out. Managing NIMBYism and gentrification worries on a project that saw almost no displacement.Timeline:0:00 James Nozar is in good traffic.2:35 The 2015 phone call that became Water Street, backed by Jeff Vinik and Bill Gates' Cascade Investment.4:29 Why treating the arena as an anchor — not the center — of the district changed the whole approach.7:27 Turning 3,500 surface parking spaces into a walkable, event-driven neighborhood.11:51 Assembling a dozen-plus architects and landscape architects instead of one master design firm.14:56 Starting the entire plan with landscape and the public realm before a single building went up.19:18 What's replicable elsewhere, and the pivot to Ybor City's Gas Worx.21:58 Weaving new construction into a century-old street grid without it feeling "master-planned."26:19 Tampa's streetcar, its funding fights, and a transportation sales tax overturned by the courts.31:17 The real economics of a parking deck versus the cost of the land underneath it.38:05 Expanding Water Street's next phases and Tampa's surprisingly resilient office market.43:17 Handling NIMBYism, gentrification worries, and the near-total lack of displacement at Water Street.48:26 What's next with land partner Darryl Shaw and Gas Worx's growing footprint.52:48 Closing thought: trading a 45-minute DC commute for a 4-minute one in Tampa.Further context:Water Street Tampa.⁠Gas Worx.⁠Kettler. James on LinkedIn.

The monday commute — an early morning, sub-15-minute quick hit — made for your walk, bike, bus, or even drive into the office. Trialing this format fall '27.This week, some calibration. Why do we focus good traffic conversations on American precedents, cities, and progress, when there are typically stronger examples of the built environment found elsewhere around the globe?

Ben Donsky — Principal at Agora Partners — is in good traffic this week from Staten Island, New York to discuss placemaking as a process, not a product. Agora Partners guides real estate developers, foundations, and government agencies through the planning, activation, and long-term operation of public space projects nationwide — including Klyde Warren Park in Dallas and Providence’s District Park.We also touch on: Why “authenticity” is a word Ben tries to avoid, and what building organic cultural connection looks like instead. How Cary, North Carolina rebranded its identity around a new downtown park. Providence’s 195 redevelopment district and the rise of District Park. Triangulation as both a transportation concept and a public-space design tool. Running a 14-mile pedestrian safety audit on a volunteer budget. Free, non-technical tools — QGIS, city open-data portals — for building a data-backed case to City Hall. Why the Staten Island Ferry might be the best commute in New York City.Timeline:00:00 Ben Donsky is in good traffic.06:03 Defining placemaking: a process, not a product.08:21 Why placemaking work lives inside a city’s economic development arm.15:33 Treating open space as a citywide system: lessons from Boston and Atlanta.18:18 Working with developers, and winning them over with data instead of promises.21:21 Building organic cultural authenticity, and why public officials resist community engagement too.25:40 Regional case studies: San Francisco, Chicago, Minneapolis, Cary NC, and Providence’s District Park.34:35 Triangulation as a placemaking design tool (callback to Ep. 116, “Summer of Triangulation”).38:48 Programming as economic development, and the line between organic and “astroturfed.”41:41 Local stakeholders and precedents, such as Klyde Warren Park.48:46 Grassroots data collection on a volunteer budget: Ben's Staten Island pedestrian audit.57:38 The favorite-commute question, and the case for the Staten Island Ferry.Further context:⁠Agora Partners.⁠ ⁠Ben Donsky’s bio at Agora Partners.⁠⁠Klyde Warren Park precedent.⁠

Back from a July break full of walking, observing, and listening in Portland, Oregon. Avid pedestrian, burgeoning transit user, performing arts educator, actor (and Brad's fiancé) Aly Marchant is back on the show, too, reflecting on the practice of triangulation — understanding movement as not just A to B or A to C, but also the relationships between points B and C — and how doing this in your city helps in identifying the strengths and shortcomings of an infrastructure system.We also touch on: Rediscovering childhood geography as an adult. Hub-and-spoke vs. grid transit systems. District identity. Portland's Tilikum Crossing bridge as a transit investment. Division Street and Southeast neighborhoods. Mount Tabor. Why stumbling into things is how American lifestyles are shifted. Swimming-accessible water. The value of navigating alone, together.Timeline:00:00 Back from summer break in Portland.04:35 Growing up somewhere but not knowing downtown well.05:24 The concept of triangulation through walking.08:47 Hub-and-spoke transit vs. grid connectivity.10:16 Columbus Arena District example.12:18 Portland's Tilikum Crossing bridge example.16:54 Why a dedicated transit bridge matters for city resilience.21:10 FX2 bus and Division Street route.25:31 Mount Tabor walk from 50th.27:08 Neighborhoods, stormwater management, water access.29:22 Brad's favorite commute: light rail plus exploration.30:33 Wrapping up and back next week with guests.

Amy Tomasso — Policy + Partnerships at Ivory Innovations — is in good traffic this week from Salt Lake City for a walkthrough of the Ivory Prize: a $1.5 million annual award celebrating housing innovation across policy, finance, construction, and design. Ivory Innovations operates as a nonprofit foundation connected to Utah's largest homebuilder, meaning that their awards fund housing solutions that scale tangibly.We also touch on: Amy's leadership in Vermont's Homes for All toolkit and pre-approved plan sets. Why off-site construction keeps failing (and how to fix it). The gap between policy wins and housing starts. Salt Lake City's missing middle zoning reforms. Philanthropic capital as an alternative to traditional grants. Why developer-public sector collaboration happens in some places and not others. The 2026 Ivory Prize Summit in Tempe, Arizona.Timeline:00:00 Intro.02:16 Amy Tomasso and the Ivory Prize.04:35 Founded 2018 by Clark Ivory and his daughter Abby.05:29 Nonprofit foundation rooted in a homebuilder's perspective.06:34 200+ innovators in the portfolio, $1.5 million dispersed.07:14 Early winners: Portland's Residential Infill Project, Villa Homes.08:47 Boston Acquisition Fund and Philadelphia housing programs.10:16 Why the East Coast and West Coast show different innovation patterns.11:33 Colorado's state-level support for off-site manufacturing.12:43 Amy's path from urbanism to housing work in Vermont.16:54 Homes for All toolkit: design guide, infill case studies.21:10 Pre-approved plan sets for statewide housing production.25:31 Vermont's collaborative approach with developers and regulators.28:27 Applying policy in Utah: Salt Lake City's missing middle districts.31:15 The gap between policy and actual housing starts.34:12 Philanthropic Capital Playbook launching in November.37:00 Operating foundation model as an alternative financing tool.40:15 Patient capital and subordinated debt approaches.43:03 2026 Ivory Prize Summit in Tempe, Arizona at ASU.46:33 Off-site construction manufacturers: why they fail and how to succeed.49:21 Production homebuilder convening around policy innovation.52:39 Why venture capital may not be the best source for housing.55:12 Liberty Wells: affordable housing infill in Salt Lake City.57:37 Proactive lot splitting for future homeownership conversion.59:35 The Philanthropic Capital Playbook goes public November.1:01:23 Salt Lake City's expansion housing options vote in October.1:03:02 Oversupply in multifamily rentals, still need for homeownership opportunities.1:05:26 The favorite commute: The Avenues to University of Utah.1:07:38 Wrapping up and part two teaser.Further context:Ivory Innovations.The 2026 Ivory Prize Summit in Tempe, Arizona.Follow Amy's work.

Bobby Fijan — founder of The American Housing Corporation — is in good traffic this week for a conversation on rowhomes as the ideal American family housing typology, why density and family-friendliness aren't contradictory, and how to communicate housing solutions to folks in the States.We also touch on: Philadelphia's multi-generational neighborhoods. Brooklyn Heights, Highland Park, and Brookline as proof points. Rowhomes in local varieties across Charleston, San Francisco, Boston. Saint Albans Street's shared garden model. Communicating density through examples people already love. Finding political consensus before naming solutions. Cottage courts and shared courtyards. Philadelphia's Rittenhouse Square neighborhood as template. Timeline:00:00 Intro.02:16 Bobby Fijan and why rowhomes matter.04:35 Living in Philadelphia and falling in love with the typology.05:29 South Philly as multi-generational, working class.06:34 Rowhomes in different local varieties.07:14 Saint Albans Street and shared gardens.08:47 Rowhomes as recognizably American.10:16 Using real examples of places people know and like.11:03 Brooklyn Heights and neighborhoods everyone admires.12:12 Highland Park Dallas and Brookline Boston.13:39 Dense housing designed for families, done well.16:54 Rowhomes aren't cheap—they're designed for families.21:10 The American Housing Corporation mission.25:31 Meeting people where they are politically.28:27 Finding shared goals before naming solutions.31:15 The favorite commute: 17th and Walnut downtown.35:54 Block and a half to preschool, four blocks to church.40:15 Knowing individual coffee shops and their specialties.43:03 The squash club in Horace Trumbauer building.46:33 Indoor pool, martinis, and discovering new interests.49:21 Airport access as part of the equation.52:39 10th and Lombard cottage court model.54:16 Wrapping up.Further context:The American Housing Corporation.Follow Bobby, on X.

In Portland for the summer and reflecting once more on the most underrated piece of bike infrastructure: parking. While we rightfully obsess over bike lanes and protected paths, we ignore the fact that transportation sits parked 95% of the time. This quick-hit episode breaks down what makes a good rack, why installation matters, and why bike parking is actually a gateway to widening bike culture. We also touch on: The Portland standard for staple racks. Spacing and positioning failures. U-lock strategies against tire theft. Testing neighborhood bikeability through their racks. Why Shabazz Stuart and others center parking in the conversation. The difference between leisure cycling and transportation cycling. Friction points that keep people in cars. Timeline:00:00 Intro.02:16 In Portland for the summer, thinking about design details.02:45 Mid-block crosswalks as a litmus test for pedestrian priority.04:48 99% of bike infrastructure talk focuses on movement between A and B.05:40 The problem: bikes are parked 95% of the time.07:24 We spend almost no time talking about bike parking.08:47 Every friction point is someone choosing to drive instead.10:26 Bike racks in Portland, Columbus, Dallas, Phoenix.12:08 Staple racks as the gold standard.12:28 U-lock technique: through frame, tire, and rack.13:15 Installation guides aren't being followed.13:49 Real example: moving truck blocking the rack access.14:54 Bike parking as a public realm and urban design question.16:29 Wrapping up.Links:On Portland's bike staple racks.