good traffic

About good traffic

A workshop for American urban design + urban planning. Join a prolific collective of neighborhood staples as we look to better brand American urbanism. New conversations, each week.

Publisher

Brad Biehl

Category

society & culture

Language

en

Explicit

No

First episode

15 Sept 2023

Latest episode

6 Oct 2026

Latest episodes

122 episodes in the feed.

1. 

   6 Oct 2026

   121 / Delaying housing, by design / with Jonathan Berk

   Jonathan Berk — founder of Re:Main — is in good traffic this week from Salem, Massachusetts for a survey of Delayed by Design, a new report published by Boston Indicators. The work looks at how discretionary permitting keeps stalling middle housing in Massachusetts, even on sites where zoning already allows it. Re:Main partners with municipalities, property owners, small developers, and aligned capital to get missing middle housing built in walkable neighborhoods, which matters because duplexes, triplexes, and small apartment buildings are the projects that carry the most uncertainty, the most politics, and the least room for delay. We also touch on: Going from a personal injury attorney to an urbanist. The housing system as an onion. Why most of New England couldn't be built today. Overeducated NIMBYism and loading every pet issue onto housing. Red-state housing reforms and the Massachusetts GOP. Financing in gateway cities. Historic preservationists who skipped the parking reform fight. Salem in October, and why parking for the peak would ruin the place. A ferry ride home with a cold beer. Timeline: 0:00 Jonathan Berk is in good traffic. 2:28 Law to urbanism by way of Jane Jacobs, Jeff Speck, Strong Towns. 9:47 Building Re:Main, and why our housing system is an onion. 12:43 Misinformation, MBTA Communities, and the school-enrollment numbers for new housing. 15:18 Salem turns 400, and why most of New England couldn't be built under today's zoning. 16:49 Highly educated NIMBYism and asking housing to solve every problem. 22:51 Delayed by Design: Newton case studies, where permitting took longer than construction. 30:34 Montana, Texas, and red-state reforms vs. the Massachusetts Republican Party. 40:11 The two-to-three-unit cliff in building codes and site plan review. 42:43 Financing small projects: gateway cities, HDIP, and the Memphis model. 48:52 Historic preservation, adaptive reuse, and the parking reform fight. 51:37 Salem in October: 1.4 million visitors and "do not drive to Salem." 57:20 Key takeaways: permitting certainty, and don't hate the player, hate the game. 59:38 Where to find Jonathan, and the best commute he's ever had. Further context: Delayed by Design (via Boston Indicators). (https://www.bostonindicators.org/reports/report-detail-pages/2026/september/delayed-by-design) Re:Main. (https://www.remainplaces.com) Jonathan on Instagram. (instagram.com/berkie382) Jonathan on X. (https://x.com/berkie1)

2. 

   10 Sept 2026

   120 / Making the American landscape as we know it / with John Dean Davis

   John Dean Davis — Associate Professor of Landscape Architecture at The Ohio State University's Knowlton School of Architecture — is in good traffic this week for a peek at how Reconstruction-era America and the landscapes it built. Prof. Davis' new book, Reconstructors: Land, Work, and Engineering After the Civil War (https://press.uchicago.edu/ucp/books/book/chicago/R/bo270351756.html), posits that Reconstruction wasn't a mere political realignment, but a massive physical rebuilding project whose infrastructure and ideology shape the contemporary American landscape as we know it. We also touch on: The origin story of Davis' book project, sparked by a solo drive from Boston to New Orleans and a stop at the Old River Control Structure five years after Katrina. Why the "New South" was more industrial than its cotton-field reputation suggests. The case that Reconstruction, in some form, never really stopped. Teaching field trips to Mexico City and the "road trip paper" assignment Davis gives his students. His mentor John Stilgoe's advice to go outside and look at things — ideally by bike. A debate over history's most important technological contributions. Rebecca Solnit's writing-as-carpentry metaphor, and why generalists need to read broadly to stay sharp. Timeline: 0:00 John Dean Davis is in good traffic . 7:10 Road trip to research: a drive from Boston to New Orleans. 10:15 Standing at Old River Control, feeling the Mississippi's power. 11:37 Reconstruction as the hinge of American history. 16:28 Becoming a landscape historian: carpentry, mud, and 1870s engineering in Muscle Shoals, Alabama. 19:38 The "New South" myth. 23:21 Did Reconstruction ever actually end? 25:23 Staying optimistic as a historian. 28:54 Mentor John Stilgoe's philosophy, and the case for touring a new place by bike. 34:29 Public lands politics: Gilded Age extraction vs. conservation, and today's rural land defenders. 39:08 The road trip paper assignment. 48:24 History's greatest technological contribution. 55:16 Most walkable college towns. 58:17 Commuting on the Metro-North as a teenager. Further context: The book — Reconstructors: Land, Work, and Engineering After the Civil War. (https://press.uchicago.edu/ucp/books/book/chicago/R/bo270351756.html) The mentioned Old River Control Structure (US Army Corps of Engineers). (https://www.mvd.usace.army.mil/About/Mississippi-River-Commission-MRC/Mississippi-River-Tributaries-Project-MR-T/Old-River-Control/)

3. 

   21 Aug 2026

   119 / A walkable pocket in Tampa, Florida / with James Nozar

   James Nozar — President of Development at Kettler — is in good traffic this week from Tampa, Florida. We talk the development and design process behind a stretch of former industrial and surface parking lots becoming Water Street: a $4 billion waterfront neighborhood, and what that same playbook looks like applied to a second Tampa district: Gas Worx. We also touch on: Jeff Vinik and Bill Gates' Cascade Investment placing the original bet on Water Street back in 2015. Why treating the arena as an anchor, not the center, of the district changed everything downstream. The real math behind structured parking — roughly $75 a square foot versus $12 to $15 for the land underneath it. Assembling a dozen-plus architects and landscape architects instead of handing the whole project to one firm. Preserving mid-century Ybor City buildings at a premium just to protect a street's rhythm and grit. A 2018 transportation sales tax that voters approved and the Florida Supreme Court struck down. Why Tampa's office market has kept leasing up while other Sunbelt cities stall out. Managing NIMBYism and gentrification worries on a project that saw almost no displacement. Timeline: 0:00 James Nozar is in good traffic. 2:35 The 2015 phone call that became Water Street, backed by Jeff Vinik and Bill Gates' Cascade Investment. 4:29 Why treating the arena as an anchor — not the center — of the district changed the whole approach. 7:27 Turning 3,500 surface parking spaces into a walkable, event-driven neighborhood. 11:51 Assembling a dozen-plus architects and landscape architects instead of one master design firm. 14:56 Starting the entire plan with landscape and the public realm before a single building went up. 19:18 What's replicable elsewhere, and the pivot to Ybor City's Gas Worx. 21:58 Weaving new construction into a century-old street grid without it feeling "master-planned." 26:19 Tampa's streetcar, its funding fights, and a transportation sales tax overturned by the courts. 31:17 The real economics of a parking deck versus the cost of the land underneath it. 38:05 Expanding Water Street's next phases and Tampa's surprisingly resilient office market. 43:17 Handling NIMBYism, gentrification worries, and the near-total lack of displacement at Water Street. 48:26 What's next with land partner Darryl Shaw and Gas Worx's growing footprint. 52:48 Closing thought: trading a 45-minute DC commute for a 4-minute one in Tampa. Further context: Water Street Tampa.⁠ (https://www.waterstreettampa.com/) Gas Worx.⁠ (https://gasworx.com/) Kettler. (https://www.kettler.com) James on LinkedIn. (https://www.linkedin.com/in/james-nozar-30578224/)

Who has been a guest on good traffic

Names identified in recent episode analyses. Showing up to five guests.

• Eric Kronberg
• Tahra Hoops
• Clayton Sealey
• Dominic Leonardo

Reach and audience

Public platform figures. Ratings count people who left a rating, not total listeners.

YouTube views

5,748

Score snapshot 15 Sept 2025

Apple Podcasts (US)

5.0 / 5

20 ratings

Spotify

5.0 / 5

32 ratings

Podcast Authority Score: 84 / 100

A composite of feed quality, social presence, YouTube performance and engagement. Read the methodology.

Quality

91

Social presence

94

YouTube

68

Engagement

77

Contact good traffic

Guest appearances

Does not typically book guests

Based on episode analysis; this does not confirm that the show is currently accepting guests.

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