Struggletown

On the latest pod, Chet and Jeff discuss how the real estate development process mirrors cooking without a meal in mind or playing the the world's worst game of Monopoly. The current setup of municipal building departments ensures everyone is miserable and encourages NIMBYsm.  There are solutions though and things can get better, but its important that we see the process for what it is today. 

As we always suspected, Ice-T was talking about housing. We can't build the type of housing we need, not because a lack of demand, but because the game is rigged. Hosts Chet and Jeff discuss a recent bill in the New Hampshire Statehouse that allows for a desperately needed housing option and how bad regulations keep delivering us a bad product. 

While vacancy may seem a mystery to most, there is a very real and rational reason behind an owners decision to leave a property empty. Understanding their position and the financials behind it is a city's key to addressing the problem. On this episode, Chet and Jeff discuss the reasons for vacancy and blight and how city leaders can begin to combat the issue using the tools they already have on hand. 

Do utility fees increase every year with no improvement of service? Does the city ignore your phone calls? Do you get treated like you are living in a municipal monopoly? Welcome to Comcast City! On this episode, hosts Chet Clem and Jeff Siegler discuss why operating a city like a cable monopoly might not be the best strategy and how prioritizing customer service could have far reaching benefits for local government. 

In this episode, hosts Chet and Jeff discuss why grant money rarely fixes what ails our cities and why monetary windfalls can often exacerbate civic self-confidence issues. Our cities and towns have to start thinking about short term progress and the every day maintenance and effort that ends up brining about real change. Cities need personal trainers and not lottery tickets. 

On this week's episode, Jeff is joined by Bernice Radle of Buffalove Development and the Mayor of Wheeling, West Virginia, Glenn Elliott. The three discuss the role love plays in creating healthy communities and why focusing more on the emotions of residents, can have such an outsized impact. As a developer, Bernice understands first hand how her buildings impact the people that inhabit them as well as other people on the block. Mayor Elliott left a successful law career in DC, because he wanted to make a real difference in his hometown. He  believes that for residents to get involved in their community, they must first love their community. 

On this episode of Pod Places, Jeff is joined by Aaron Domini, Principal at OHM Advisors, and Allen Penniman, Urban Planner and Designer for the City of Detroit. The three discuss issues plaguing the planning industry, including equity and inclusion, public engagement, a lack of implementation and plans that try and address everything. 

On this week's episode, we discuss First + Main Film's most recent installment of the Small Town Spirit Series. Filmmaker John Paget, joins Ryan and Jeff to discuss his experience visiting Monessen, Pennsylvania and how an optimistic young mayor is helping the community overcome its struggles. 

This week, hosts Chet and Jeff are joined by Phil Eich of Storyville Social.  As a social media consultant for municipalities, Phil explains how when cities don't develop a cohesive communication strategy, they end up looking like the loneliest guy at the club. 

On this episode, hosts Jeff and Chet talk about the invention of the Bullshit Machine. This nefarious piece of city equipment ensures that no matter the quality input it receives, only turds are produced. By adopting sprawl based codes and misunderstanding the roles of building departments and planning boards, cities have created a process that is incapable of  producing quality buildings and streets. 

This week on the pod, hosts Jeff and Chet discuss how cities are the like the worst guys on Tinder.  First off, they are all cheating on their partners, add in the use of outdated profile photos, descriptions that aren't true and a penchant for one night stands, cities make terrible dating partners. 

This week, hosts Chet and Jeff go deep on the decisions that led to the decline of American cities and how municipalities have turned their back on locals in favor of visitors and out-of- town corporate interests. Why have cities made good growth illegal? Why do communities put more stock in outsiders than locals? Why does your town keep swiping right on strangers when you are sitting home waiting for a little love? 

Hosts Chet Clem and Jeff Siegler kick-off a new podcast series discussing why the world needs two more white guys with a podcast. Food has become a cultural obsession, fitness freaks are everywhere, we dump billions in to a broken healthcare system, yet no one discusses the outsized impact our places have on our lives. Fortunately for you, Chet and Jeff tackle the topic of why our places are so dysfunctional and why it matters more than we realize. Going beyond a typical parking bitch session, it's a show about what the average person can do, how residents can overcome apathy and what's possible if we stop accepting excuses and demand the change we deserve. 

Brennan Kane joined for the Planning Festivus episode, in which we aired all of our  grievances with the industry. Jeff and Ryan had a chance to discuss Brennan's thoughts on how Covid impacted city planning, how the industry needs to change and why cookie monster might be the hero we all need. 

Phil Eich returns this week to discuss his new business, Storyville Social and how through storytelling, we can help residents learn to love their community again. We talked about John Paget's recent article on why we get branding all wrong and how a brand doesn't mean much if you don't meet the promises it makes. And finally, we discussed Ryan's Proud Places advent calendar and why taking small simple actions are the key to making permanent and meaningful change in a community. 

This week, on a special Thanksgiving edition of Pod Places, we were joined by Chef, magazine editor and Dean of the Hospitality School for Universidad Internacional del Ecuador in Quito, Ana Carolina Maldonado. We discussed the role food plays in creating great places, why a meal is so much more than eating, and how etiquette affects us all. Ana Carolina MaldonadoChef, blogger for La Comilona blog, magazine editor for Muyuyo magazine and Dean of the Hospitality School for Universidad Internacional del Ecuador in Quito. Dedicated to education for the last 17 years she has specialized her craft through her MBA and experience in F&B management such as catering businesses and restaurants. She is now dedicated to culinary marketing and communication through food.

Are we dressing more casual because we have no place fancy to go anymore, or are we more casual these days and we build to reflect this shift in our culture? This week on the pod, we discuss the casualness of our society and whether or not it has an impact on our places. Rural communities have been devastated by the repeal of economic regulations meant to protect them. As local businesses struggle to compete with ever expanding national chains, small towns keep losing out the the Fortune 500 host cities. We talk about what rural communities can do to combat these effects and how in raising standards, it becomes possible to level the playing field. We were joined this week by Deb Brown of Save Your Town. Deb is a consultant, public speaker, traveler and rural advocate. She is based in Iowa, but works all over the United States and Canada helping rural communities restore their economic health and sense of self. 

Ann Sussman is a registered architect and cognitive researcher. She joined us this week, along with guest host, Jaime Izurieta, to discuss her book, Cognitive Architecture, and how the places we build, shape our brain. Ann has done extensive research on the impact of architecture on the mind and how our modern places are having an extremely negative impact on our mental health. Ann Sussman, RA, an architect, author and researcher is passionate about understanding how buildings influence people emotionally. Her book, Cognitive Architecture, Designing for How We respond to the Built Environment (2015), co-authored with Justin B. Hollander, won the 2016 Place Research Award from the Environmental Design Research Association (EDRA). A frequent speaker, she has given more than 80 lectures at regional conferences, colleges and universities, including keynoting architecture events in Houston, Cincinnati and Nashville in 2017, and presenting at Greenbuild/Berlin in 2018 and Greenbuild/Amsterdam in 2019

Matt Shorraw was elected the Mayor of Monessen, Pennsylvania in 2018, when he was just 28 years old. Monessen is the archetypical Rustbelt town in the Monongahela Valley in Western Pennsylvania. Like so many other former steel towns in the region, Monessen has suffered from huge employment and population losses and deals with generational apathy. Matt's optimism helped him get elected, but his policy knowledge and small project approach has allowed him to be successful. 

This week, hosts Ryan and Jeff were joined by First + Main Films Founder and Proud Places contributing member, John Paget. John is a co-founder of the Better Cities Film Festival, which just wrapped up its first year as a virtual event. The festival included 80 submissions on place, urbanism and cities. The three discussed the origins of the festival, some of the more memorable submissions and how the concept of place is starting to grow.