Minnesota

In Which Chuck Marohn and I Talk to Exurban Minnesotans on the Radio

Charles Marohn -- our planner/engineer friend from Baxter, Minnesota and Strong Towns -- and I appeared on a Minnesota Public Radio show on Friday about "the death of the exurbs." The starting point of the conversation was the article I wrote last month about the new census numbers and what they tell us about the shifting patterns of housing development.

By Tanya Snyder

11:21 AM EDT on May 22, 2012

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Charles Marohn — our planner/engineer friend from Baxter, Minnesota and Strong Towns — and I appeared on a Minnesota Public Radio show on Friday about “the death of the exurbs.” The starting point of the conversation was the article I wrote last month about the new census numbers and what they tell us about the shifting patterns of housing development.

We entertained calls from people who feel the need for a two-acre buffer between them and their neighbors and from some whose own dalliance with exurban living ended in a bitter breakup. Later that day, I published the results of a Demand Institute study that found that the exurbs remain a “toxic” place that the housing recovery isn’t reaching.

Is the turn away from the exurbs really all about gas prices? And what is an exurb anyway? Are they getting too crowded? And what does it have to do with lobster?

Take a listen.

Tanya Snyder

Tanya became Streetsblog's Capitol Hill editor in September 2010 after covering Congress for Pacifica Radios Washington bureau and for public radio stations around the country. She lives car-free in a transit-oriented and bike-friendly neighborhood of Washington, DC.

Minnesota | Sprawl | Streetsblog | Suburbia

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