Category: Iowa (Page 2 of 13)

I was sitting down a few weeks ago, greatly enjoying the most recent issue of Current Affairs, when I came across an article on the Charles Marohn blog and book Strong Towns.

Here’s the basic idea: Strong Towns pitches itself as a forward thinking, progressive movement. But, in reality, it’s just a warmed over version of a set of libertarian ideas. It advances the view that market incentives and ‘nudges’ should replace the state.

What kinds of market incentives and policies? In short, Strong Towns advocates for things like housing upzoning and bus services targeted at economic development rather than need. We thereby avoid ideas like public housing and working class centered public transit and utilities services.

Thinking about all this reminds me of something…

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For those of you Iowans (or Midwesterners) out there, how are you doing this winter?

It started easily enough. We had a milder than usual November and December. Even into the first week of January, things moved along without much trouble.

But man have we been hit hard since then! More than 2 feet of snow (cumulatively). Downed trees and power lines. Occasional freezing rain, even after all that stuff cleared out.

When you average it out, it’s probably just a normal winter overall. A milder season gave way to the big pile of ‘yuck’ we’ve had in the last 3 weeks. But it still hits pretty hard.

Let me know how you’ve handled it!

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