Nathan Bird and Jacob Hyman answer your most pressing question: what are we to do? Drawing from their experiences in Chattanooga and Steubenville, they describe how small bets they made on city improvement have produced big results. Institutional barriers (bad city councils, HOA's, and local laws) can be an impediment to change, but there's still hope. Virtuous friends, with a passion for a better life, can revitalize even a decaying city. Welcome to the series finale of Good Cities!
Your City Was Badly Planned | Good Cities
Are we drowning in too much city plans? Or do we just have bad plans? Nathan Bird and Jacob Hyman argue that good city planning can solve many of our issues. Although developers and "experts" have caused weird and unsustainable developments, they discuss how local cities can retake planning their city. On the docket: imperial zoning laws, detached property owners, transient residencies, automobiles (again), minimum parking laws, and encouraging organic area planning.
Return to the Land or Revitalize the City? | Good Cities
Should we flee to the Land or revitalize the City? Jacob Hyman and Nathan Bird discuss how the battle between land and city is a false dichotomy. Each is dependent on the other and both are essential to renewal. They also discuss how the modern city has divorced these ways of life: making the land a commodity to extract resources and the modern city a scattered suburban sprawl. Also, the financial cost of these poorly planned cities has led to urban decay and flight to newer cities. But, there is a plan that the Church has for making cities beautiful and connecting with the land.
Driving Through The Ruins | Good Cities
In this episode of Good Cities, it's time to get mad at cars...again. Cars were promised to be freedom on wheels, but most people experience driving as forced upon them; monotonous, traffic-ridden, and expensive. Jacob Hyman and Nathan Bird discuss how cars have made us slow, anxious, and separated from each other. Our cities once were bustling downtowns, and now they're a series of parking lots and crisscrossed highways. Also in this episode: what to do to remedy the impact of the car on cities and how to oppose the car for a better city. Welcome to Car Wars 2.
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How Cars Became King | Good Cities
It's time to get mad about cars. In this episode of Good Cities, Nathan Bird and Jacob Hyman discuss how cars have reshaped the city. How did cars become necessary for life? How did the American government implement a car-centered society? How has the rise of suburbia impacted our cities? Welcome to Car Wars (...part 1)!
Is The City Worth Saving? | Good Cities w/ Nathan Bird & Jacob Hyman
Welcome to our new series Good Cities! In this episode, engineers Nathan Bird and Jacob Hyman describe the nature of the city. What is a city? Are cities places of sin? What is the purpose of the city? Is there a rivalry between farm and city? How have we built our cities in America? How can we make our cities better?






