Charles Marohn

Last updated
Charles Marohn
Chuck Marohn 4x6.jpg
Marohn in 2021
Born
Charles L. Marohn Jr.

c. 1973
Other namesChuck Marohn
EducationUrban planning at the University of Minnesota
Occupation(s)President of Strong Towns, author, civil engineer
Known for Strong Towns, stroads
Notable workStrong Towns: A Bottom-Up Revolution to Rebuild American Prosperity (2019), Confessions of a Recovering Engineer (2021)

Charles Marohn (born c. 1973) is an American author, land-use planner, municipal engineer, and the founder and president of Strong Towns, an organization which advocates for the development of dense towns and the restructuring of suburbia. [1] [2] [3] [4] [5]

Contents

Early life and education

Charles L. Marohn Jr grew up in Baxter, Minnesota on a small farm. [6] [7]

He graduated from Brainerd High School in 1991. Marohn received a Bachelor of Science in Civil Engineering and a Masters in Urban and Regional Planning from the University of Minnesota. [1] In 2000 he became a licensed professional engineer (PE) in the state of Minnesota.

In 2015, he faced scrutiny by the state licensing board after an engineer from South Dakota reported Marohn for failing to renew his license in the mandated time frame, yet still calling himself a PE. Marohn admits to missing the license renewal deadline but acted quickly upon being made aware of the situation and addressed the oversight. Marohn viewed this action as a limitation upon his first amendment rights because of his critical statements made about the practices of traffic engineering, as well as his disapproval of civil engineers who he views as doing little to protect human life on roads. [8] [ needs update ]

Strong Towns

Marohn giving a lecture about Strong Towns in Seattle in 2016

Marohn started Strong Towns as a blog in 2008. [6] He was frustrated with projects he was working on which he believed were actively harming the places they were supposed to help. [6] [2] As he gained many readers, he realized there was a need for an organization that advocated the principles he espoused. Strong Towns became a non-profit organization to "support a model of growth that allows America’s towns to become financially strong and resilient". [9]

Marohn believes that post World War II suburban development has been a failure, due to it being inherently economically unsustainable. [10] He posits that low-density communities do not produce the tax revenue necessary to cover either their current services or the long-term costs of maintaining and replacing their services, and that suburbs are very difficult to adapt to an efficient, dense model because they were built as fully developed places. [7] [10]

In 2011, he coined the word "stroad," a street/road hybrid, which has become popular among urbanists and planners. [11] [12] [13] According to Marohn, stroads are the "futon" of transportation alternatives. "Where a futon is an uncomfortable couch that also serves as an uncomfortable bed, a STROAD is an auto corridor that does not move cars efficiently while simultaneously providing little in the way of value capture." [7]

In late 2015, Marohn participated in a White House conference on rural placemaking. [7]

Personal life

Marohn lives with his wife and two daughters in Brainerd, Minnesota. [14]

Publications

Books

See also

Related Research Articles

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Suburb</span> Human settlement within a metropolitan area

A suburb is an area within a metropolitan area which is predominantly residential and within commuting distance of a large city. Suburbs can have their own political or legal jurisdiction, especially in the United States, but this is not always the case, especially in the United Kingdom, where most suburbs are located within the administrative boundaries of cities. In most English-speaking countries, suburban areas are defined in contrast to central city or inner city areas, but in Australian English and South African English, suburb has become largely synonymous with what is called a "neighborhood" in the U.S. Due in part to historical trends such as white flight, some suburbs in the United States have a higher population and higher incomes than their nearby inner cities.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Brainerd, Minnesota</span> City in Minnesota, United States

Brainerd is a city and the county seat of Crow Wing County, Minnesota, United States. Its population was 14,395 at the 2020 census. Brainerd straddles the Mississippi River several miles upstream from its confluence with the Crow Wing River, having been founded as a site for a railroad crossing above the confluence. Brainerd is the principal city of the Brainerd Micropolitan Area, a micropolitan area covering Cass and Crow Wing counties and with a combined population of 96,189 at the 2020 census. The city is well known for being the partial setting of the 1996 film Fargo.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Urban sprawl</span> Expansion of auto-oriented, low-density development in suburbs

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<span class="mw-page-title-main">Brainerd International Raceway</span> Road course, drag strip and kart track in Brainerd, Minnesota, USA

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References

  1. 1 2 "Crisis in the Suburbs: One Man's Fight to Fix the American Dream". Time. Retrieved 2021-01-16.
  2. 1 2 "Q&A: Focused on "strong and resilient" towns". Fauquier Now. Retrieved 2021-01-16.
  3. "A Stronger America Needs 'Strong Towns' First". The American Conservative. 27 September 2019. Retrieved 2021-01-16.
  4. "Strong Towns: A Bottom-Up Revolution to Rebuild American Prosperity". Manhattan Institute. 2019-10-10. Retrieved 2021-01-16.
  5. "'Jane Jacobs Goals Through Robert Moses Tactics'". Reason.com. 2020-01-19. Retrieved 2021-01-16.
  6. 1 2 3 Ross, Jenna (October 8, 2014). Written at Brainerd, MN. "Looking to the Past to Re-Engineer U.S. Towns". Star Tribune . Minneapolis, MN. pp.  A1, A6 . Retrieved June 21, 2023. Marohn is gaining attention for taking aim at national issues: car-focused development, federal transportation funding and "gluttonous" infrastructure growth.
  7. 1 2 3 4 Callaghan, Peter (2015-12-02). "Why a conservative Republican from northern Minnesota wants to kill the suburbs". MinnPost. Retrieved 2021-01-14.
  8. Britschgi, Christian (25 May 2021). "Minnesota Threatens To Fine This Engineer for Calling Himself an Engineer". Reason. Retrieved 13 May 2022.
  9. Communities, AARP Livable. "Strong Towns Website". AARP. Retrieved 2021-01-16.
  10. 1 2 Kotlowitz, Alex (January 24, 2024). "The Suburbs Have Become a Ponzi Scheme". The Atlantic . Retrieved January 31, 2024. Charles Marohn, whom Herold describes as "a moderate white conservative from Minnesota," is the one to lay out Ferguson's decline to him. According to Herold, Marohn had a hand in building suburbs, but he has since had an awakening. Marohn suggests that what's happened in places such as Ferguson and Penn Hills is the equivalent of a Ponzi scheme.
  11. Sarah Goodyear (January 7, 2014). "Defining the Worst Type of Street Design". Bloomberg.com. Marohn says he coined the term in 2011 to wake up the people who design America's roads. "I really was writing it as a way to push back at the engineering profession and get my fellow engineers to think about the bizarre things they're building," says Marohn. That was why he initially wrote the word in that annoying all-cap style, which he eventually dropped.
  12. Hagerty, James R. (May 15, 2024). "'Stroads' Aren't Streets. They Aren't Roads. And They Don't Work". The Wall Street Journal . Retrieved May 15, 2024. Urban planning critic Charles Marohn says the U.S. should build streets for people to live and shop, and roads to move traffic quickly between two places
  13. "What's a Stroad and Why Do Stroads Matter?". Planetizen - Urban Planning News, Jobs, and Education. Retrieved 2021-01-16.
  14. "Charles Marohn". Strong Towns. Retrieved 2021-01-16.