17 / Noticing in your neighborhood / with The Happy Urbanist, Jon Jon Wesolowski

Jon Jon Wesolowski — The Happy Urbanist, content creator, and Chattanooga community leader — is in good traffic for a conversation about the conversation itself. Jon Jon is the most effective creator of entry-level, accessible urbanism content. He's bringing in new ears and minds at a rapid rate, and the collective is better because of it. We also talk the upward trajectory in Chattanooga, as well as recent worldwide travels. We discuss: 04:32 Urbanism in media. 08:13 Experiencing urban infrastructure firsthand, as a classroom. 09:09 Things cars broke. 13:26 Recent European family travels, car math, and derived insights for Tennessee. 17:20 The Happy Urbanist: Jon Jon’s bet on optimism. 18:07 Creating engaging urban planning content. 19:10 A video about guardrails, and other accessible entry points into the conversation. 28:39 The charm of Chattanooga, Tennessee: a burgeoning walkable city. 29:11 The potential of a city like Chattanooga. 32:22 Economic versus environmental benefits of urbanism. 37:54 The anarchist story of Athens, Greece. 48:00 Historical urban narratives: Athens and Ljubljana. 49:02 A commute in Athens. Further context: On guardrails. Things cars broke (on Instagram). The Chattanooga Urbanist Society. When anarchy intersects with urbanism, in Athens, Greece.⁠ Connecting with Jon Jon: ⁠On TikTok. ⁠On Instagram.⁠ Connecting with me, Brad: ⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠On Instagram.⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠ ⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠On TikTok⁠⁠.⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠ ⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠On LinkedIn⁠⁠.