The Strong Towns Podcast Do Highway Projects and Airbnb Rentals Help or Hurt Cities?
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Sep 29, 2025 Joe Minicozzi, founder of Urban3, discusses urban planning through the lens of highway projects and Airbnbs. He critiques the efficacy of costly highway designs and their negative impact on communities, highlighting noise-related property value losses. Joe also examines how short-term rentals distort local housing markets, advocating for different taxation treatments compared to owner-occupied homes. Their candid conversation reveals the complexities and consequences of urban development practices.
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Design‑Build Changes Can Undo EIS Decisions
- Design‑build changes revive options that were previously rejected and can bypass prior environmental decisions.
- Joe Minicozzi warns this undermines NEPA and admits noncompliance when agencies reopen closed records.
Bad Studies Produce Big Economic Errors
- DOT studies often use outdated data and miss affected properties, producing unreliable impact analyses.
- Joe Minicozzi used simple market loss assumptions to estimate millions in lost local tax revenue from highway noise.
Spending More To Serve Less Value
- Large interchange projects often spend far more to provide access than the accessed parcels are worth.
- Chuck Marohn found a $58M project serving about $40M of taxable property, a negative subsidy.
