This op-ed by Chuck Marohn first appeared on StrongTowns.org on April 17, 2025.
Last weekend, I had the privilege of speaking at the New Jersey Bike & Walk Summit — a packed room filled with passionate local leaders, planners, engineers, and advocates working to make their places safer and more human.
Before I started, I entirely scrapped the talk I had prepared. The moment demanded something different.
There’s a lot of fear right now. I could read it clearly in the room. People are worried about what’s coming next, especially what political changes in Washington D.C. might mean for our cities. I hear this everywhere I go. And I want you to know: I feel it too.
But I also believe this is our moment.
I told the group in New Jersey that we are living through a turning point. Systems that have failed us for decades are cracking. And while that’s unsettling, it also means we have an opportunity — an opening — to build something better from the bottom up.
The message I delivered is the same one I’ve been sharing across the country:
- The most cost-effective transportation investments cities can make today are in biking, walking, and building places for people.
- Federal support isn’t the lifeline we’ve long believed it to be. In fact, it generally brings more harm than good.
- Real change happens locally, with people working together to solve real problems in their own neighborhoods.
We don’t need to wait for permission from Washington to do this work. And we certainly can’t wait for someone else to come save us.
Let me reassure you that, while I understand the impulse to take a chainsaw to these broken systems, I don’t think that’s the right approach, either. Yes, there are some dead limbs that need pruning and even some trees that need to come down, but chainsaw hacking is going to hit some live trees and even some power poles. Reckless destruction won’t build the kinds of places we need.
Thoughtful, deliberate action will.
What we need to do now is keep showing up. Keep leading in our own communities. Keep helping people see that there’s a better way. That’s what I told the room in New Jersey. That’s what I’ll keep saying everywhere I go.
Thank you for making that possible.
The conversations are changing. The culture is shifting. And we’re just getting started.