Charles Marohn

Contributor

Charles Marohn is founder and president of Strong Towns, a movement working to build financially resilient communities across North America. A civil engineer and land-use planner by training, he spent decades watching infrastructure projects harm the places they were meant to serve—an experience that led him to start Strong Towns as a blog in 2008 and transform it into a membership-supported nonprofit. His central insight: post-WWII suburban development is economically unsustainable by design. Low-density sprawl cannot generate the tax revenue to maintain itself. He coined "stroad"—a street/road hybrid—to describe the failed corridors that define American suburbs, and his bestseller Escaping the Housing Trap has made these ideas accessible beyond planning circles.

What sets Marohn apart is his belief that systemic change comes not from grand plans but from ordinary people taking ownership where they stand. A bench, a painted curb, a mural aren't decoration—they're proof that agency still exists. Planetizen named him one of the 15 Most Influential Urbanists in 2017 and 2023.
Twitter: @clmarohn | Website: strongtowns.org | Substack: clmarohn.substack.com

Articles by Charles