Talking about Kansas City and fiscal productivity on the Strong Towns podcast

This week, I am delighted to be making another appearance on the Strong Towns podcast. The title is, “Live in Kansas City: We’re a suburban community learning to be urban” and it can be found here. I’ve previously been a guest talking about my book, Why I Walk, and in regards to Savannah.

Doing any kind of interview is always a funny thing. I never quite know what questions will be asked or how they will be asked, which of course is the point of it all and the fun part. But that inevitably leads me to think about my own answers long afterwards. Sometimes I am quite happy with the conversation and my own contributions, and sometimes I wish I’d said something else instead. 

I thought this particular conversation went quite well. But there’s always a few missed opportunities on my own part. 

View fullsize

Klaas Klinkenberg, who came to Kansas with his wife Klaasina in the early 1870’s, from the Friesland region of the Netherlands

I’ve got pretty deep roots in Kansas City, even though I only briefly lived in the metro area as a child. My father’s family goes back to the 1870’s in the KC region, and I have a large extended family here. Truth is, at nearly 50 years old, I’m only now becoming more aware and more appreciative of those roots. I’d always had an emotional connection to this region, but I feel I’m understanding it more now and embracing it in ways I’d previously ignored or resisted. 

That relationship, too, has always been a bit love-hate, admittedly. Perhaps everyone has that sort of feeling with their hometown. You love what it is, you love the people, and you also get frustrated by how it could be so much better in your own eyes. I’ve struggled with all that over the years. In particular, I’ve always been amazed at the incredible urban legacy this city has from what I called the “city-building era” on the podcast. The opportunities and potential for KC to be one of the great urban communities in the country has seemed obvious to me. But personally and professionally it’s frustrated me to be part of the slow pace of change, and how we (and I mean we), just can’t seem to get out of our own way at times.

And yet, I still love the place, am defensive of it to outsiders, and will always feel that way, even if life again takes me away in the future.

View fullsize

KC has oodles of this type of Missing Middle housing - much of it still in poor condition and needing some love

Chuck asked a question toward the end of the podcast on what the rest of the country can learn from KC. I don’t dislike my answer, which is understanding and appreciating the abundance of “missing middle” urbanism we have in our urban core. If we could simply learn to value those assets ourselves culturally, I sometimes feel everything else would fall into place.

But in retrospect, there’s something else I’d say about what others can learn from KC. I’d say what I find here often are people that are willing to dig in and solve tough civic problems by taking matters into their own hands in a civil manner. Of course we have issues; we have negativity, we have politics, we have all the human problems of everywhere. But I also see people willing to be entrepreneurial and not necessarily wait for permission from someone up above. Individuals and groups see a problem and try to create a solution. 

That civic entrepreneurship is indicative of the streetcar effort, of our very strong charter school system, of our growing small developer cohort, of our bike sharing service and many more examples. You may or may not like any or all of those particular solutions, and that’s fine. But that’s not the point, really. The point is there’s virtue at times in not assuming “the system” has all the answers or is the right place to solve problems. Instead, it’s often better for people working outside the system to create positive change and bring that change to our bigger systems. I find that to be a great quality, and one I personally admire. It’s not done in a “be a nasty person” way, but in a “I’m going to work with people I know to find a solution to this problem” way. The world could use a lot more of that sort of mindset.

Finally, I can’t write this without noting how deeply impressed I am by Chuck Marohn’s ability to create a meaningful conversation with short preparation. There’s clearly an art to podcasting, and Chuck has mastered it. We sprung this podcast idea on him in the midst of a book tour, and he was able to not just perform well, but very quickly create space for a thoughtful and deep conversation. Those qualities truly impress me. I’m a devoted listener to his podcast, which is clearly the best there is that touches on issues of urban planning and development. I hope this episode inspires more local listeners to subscribe as well.