Skip to Content
Streetsblog USA home
Streetsblog USA home
Log In

Chuck Marohn is an engineer and planner who spent years dispensing the conventional wisdom to cities and towns before arriving at the conclusion that it was fundamentally, disastrously wrong.

Charles Marohn was a transportation engineer. Now he argues for a radically new approach to thinking about urban development. Image: Flickr
Chuck Marohn argues for upending the conventional approach to transportation and development. Photo: John Connelly Photography/Flickr
false

At his Strong Towns blog today, Marohn shares an excerpt from his new book that draws on Michael Lewis's Moneyball, the bestseller about how Oakland A's general manager Billy Beane upended the way baseball teams evaluate players and allocate resources. Marohn draws an analogy between the pre-Moneyball era in baseball and the age of sprawling development in America, with its financially ruinous consequences.

We need to overhaul the way we think about transportation and development the way the A's overhauled the way people think about baseball, Marohn writes. The stakes are very high:

Today’s local officials must contend with the enormous liabilities brought about by decades of horizontal expansion. They are asked to provide high levels of service to a widely dispersed population with a tax base that is in no way up to the task.

The federal and state assistance that helped induce this mess has now dwindled to a trickle. Transportation departments -- for decades the primary funders of quick and cheap local growth -- are vastly overcommitted financially. The mandates and limitations local governments assumed in exchange for their “investments” have yet to be unwound.

Cities, already encumbered with overwhelming debts, are pressured to take on more liabilities in order to avoid raising taxes, a move that only delays -- and worsens -- the ultimate financial reckoning. New growth, the magic solution for decades, is hard to come by without ruinous subsidy or expensive build-it-and-they-will-come efforts, approaches that amount to little more than gambling...

Conventional thinking is getting it wrong for cities. Using that conventional thinking in advising local governments, I got it wrong. That insight is my edge.

America’s local governments are being bankrupted by today’s conventional wisdom. Billions of taxpayer dollars are spent annually on roads, bridges, sewer and water systems, business subsidies, stadiums and other “investments” that have little or no payback.

Unlike baseball, municipal governance is not a game. When our cities lose, our people lose. Our nation is weakened. Many suffer in tragic and profound ways.

Bill James brought advanced statistical analysis to baseball and it changed the game. Our local governments need a similar revolution in how they understand and manage their finances.

Elsewhere on the Network today: BikeWalkLee explains why drastically reducing impact fees for new, sprawling growth will haunt the Fort Myers, Florida, region. WashCycle explains a bill in the Maryland House of Representatives that seeks to amend the law so cyclists can't be blamed for collisions in which they were following the rules of the road. And City Block uses Honolulu's transit expansion plans to discuss the benefits and drawbacks of building new elevated rail systems in cities.

Stay in touch

Sign up for our free newsletter

More from Streetsblog USA

Monday’s Headlines Are Dragging Their Feet

The Trump administration claims the Biden administration left them with a backlog — but they've actually been far slower at getting transportation money to states than their predecessors, a new analysis finds.

July 14, 2025

These U.S. Communities’ So-Called ‘Complete Streets’ Policies Don’t Even Deserve the Name

Any city can call itself a "Complete Streets" champion. But not all of them are walking the walk — and if they don't, a top organization says they'll no longer give them a platform on its esteemed "best of" ranking.

July 14, 2025

Communities Rally To Reclaim Streets From ICE Terror

"This is an attack on Los Angeles. This is an attack on California. On all of us."

July 11, 2025

Friday Video: The London Neighborhood Where Bikes Outnumber Cars

...and how they got to that impressive milestone.

July 11, 2025

Friday’s Headlines Battle Galactus

Like the Marvel supervillain, U.S. interstate highway system seems to eat up everything in his path. A new book explores how to stop it.

July 11, 2025

New Report Shows Pedestrian Fatalities Drop — But Experts Say Not Enough

The Governors Highway Safety Association report showed a 4 percent drop in the number of pedestrian deaths last year, putting a slow on a dangerous trend — but advocates say the drop isn't nearly big enough.

July 11, 2025
See all posts