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Granted I only clicked through to three links, but I can’t find what this person actually stands for or what their opponents object to. It’s just conflict witho

Granted I only clicked through to three links, but I can’t find what this person actually stands for or what their opponents object to. It’s just conflict without content as far as I can find. Why should I care about this? There’s a cause but I don’t understand what it is.

klodolph 4y ago
The author's engineering license lapsed in 2018, in 2020 he realized it had lapsed, so he renewed it and paid a late fee. He's being asked to pay a fine, take an ethics course, and admit to dishonesty--because during the period when the license was lapsed, he still put "professional engineer" after his name. It sounds like this is happening because some people are mad at him, and not because this is a serious violation that a licensing board would ordinarily punish.
- tbrownaw 4y ago
  We are hearing only one side of things here. I could just as easily read that as someone who no longer practices using their license to give weight to their activism, and then it turns out they didn't even bother to actually keep up that license that they were using to get people to listen to them. If guess it probably mostly depends on if your think the lapsed license is a legitimate accident or a sign of indifference. Assuming the board is in fact usually forgiving on lapses as is suggested here.
  - trgn 4y ago
    It's because he is critical of the work of his peers. Forcing someone to admit to dishonesty is a petty abuse of power. The board is effectively compelling him to grovel. "It's easy to find a stick to beat a dog" "Show me the man, I'll show you the crime"
tbrownaw 4y ago
Well there is an "about" page, linked from the header in desktop or hidden in the "+" menu on mobile. Their articles have shown up here a fair few times, which I assume is part of what makes it interesting.
stephen_g 4y ago
They have a good YouTube channel but you’d have to watch a bit to get an idea. Basically they’re advocating for building towns and cities that aren’t car-centric. Talking about overhauling planning standards to stop single-dwelling only suburbs that are only accessible by car, proper transit planning, not just enlarging freeways and then finding induced demand makes them even slower over time, etc.
- forum_ghost 4y ago
  - wolverine876 4y ago
    > why do they want this particular lifestyle to be forced on everyone? I don't know of any sign that anything is being forced. If you aren't convinced by it, don't vote for it.
  - Gigachad 4y ago
    By "this particular lifestyle" he largely means not designing residential streets like highways where thousands are killed and the response is simply "Oh well, accidents happen"
    - deleted 4y ago
      [deleted]
    - forum_ghost 4y ago
      More people are killed in dense cities.
      - Gigachad 4y ago
        Not sure how this relates at all to the context. The author of Strong Towns is against engineering design which enables drivers to drive faster at the cost of everyone else's safety. By making roads wider, clearing trees from the edges, rounding out turns, etc, it naturally pushes drivers to drive faster regardless of what the listed speed limit is. So while speeding drivers and drink drivers are at fault, the engineers who designed a world where they can go as fast as possible are at an even greater fault. Placing highway style roads in residential areas is killing people.
wolverine876 4y ago
It appears they claim there was aggressive suppression of free speech, on important policy matters, by a professional licensing board?
halffaday 4y ago
Chuck Marohn is an ideas-guy that pivoted his career from engineer to paid speaker. It’s a lot of TED-talks kind of stuff that resonates with certain donors, and it includes a lot of “guys, you’re doing it wrong!” statements and trashing trade organizations. Those trade organizations have pushed the licensure board to strip Marohn’s license for years, and I think he’s finally had enough of the legal trouble.
zucker42 4y ago
Strong Towns criticizes U.S. street design and development practices. Mainly they argue that many of the design practices pushed in manuals and by the engineering profession are dangerous and lead to worse cities (especially because they give too much deference to cars). They'd want things like ending minimum parking requirements, redesigning intersections and roads to make them more safe for pedestrians and cyclists, bringing back older style main streets, etc. Because Mr. Marohn criticizes standard road engineering practices he has evidently developed enemies within the engineering profession. Some of these enemies are retaliating by initiating lawsuits for calling himself an engineer during a period where he had inadvertantly let his license lapse.

klodolph 4y ago

The author's engineering license lapsed in 2018, in 2020 he realized it had lapsed, so he renewed it and paid a late fee. He's being asked to pay a fine, take an ethics course, and admit to dishonesty--because during the period when the license was lapsed, he still put "professional engineer" after his name. It sounds like this is happening because some people are mad at him, and not because this is a serious violation that a licensing board would ordinarily punish.

tbrownaw 4y ago
We are hearing only one side of things here. I could just as easily read that as someone who no longer practices using their license to give weight to their activism, and then it turns out they didn't even bother to actually keep up that license that they were using to get people to listen to them. If guess it probably mostly depends on if your think the lapsed license is a legitimate accident or a sign of indifference. Assuming the board is in fact usually forgiving on lapses as is suggested here.
- trgn 4y ago
  It's because he is critical of the work of his peers. Forcing someone to admit to dishonesty is a petty abuse of power. The board is effectively compelling him to grovel. "It's easy to find a stick to beat a dog" "Show me the man, I'll show you the crime"

tbrownaw 4y ago

Well there is an "about" page, linked from the header in desktop or hidden in the "+" menu on mobile. Their articles have shown up here a fair few times, which I assume is part of what makes it interesting.

stephen_g 4y ago

They have a good YouTube channel but you’d have to watch a bit to get an idea. Basically they’re advocating for building towns and cities that aren’t car-centric. Talking about overhauling planning standards to stop single-dwelling only suburbs that are only accessible by car, proper transit planning, not just enlarging freeways and then finding induced demand makes them even slower over time, etc.

forum_ghost 4y ago
- wolverine876 4y ago
  > why do they want this particular lifestyle to be forced on everyone? I don't know of any sign that anything is being forced. If you aren't convinced by it, don't vote for it.
- Gigachad 4y ago
  By "this particular lifestyle" he largely means not designing residential streets like highways where thousands are killed and the response is simply "Oh well, accidents happen"
  - deleted 4y ago
    [deleted]
  - forum_ghost 4y ago
    More people are killed in dense cities.
    - Gigachad 4y ago
      Not sure how this relates at all to the context. The author of Strong Towns is against engineering design which enables drivers to drive faster at the cost of everyone else's safety. By making roads wider, clearing trees from the edges, rounding out turns, etc, it naturally pushes drivers to drive faster regardless of what the listed speed limit is. So while speeding drivers and drink drivers are at fault, the engineers who designed a world where they can go as fast as possible are at an even greater fault. Placing highway style roads in residential areas is killing people.

wolverine876 4y ago

It appears they claim there was aggressive suppression of free speech, on important policy matters, by a professional licensing board?

halffaday 4y ago

Chuck Marohn is an ideas-guy that pivoted his career from engineer to paid speaker. It’s a lot of TED-talks kind of stuff that resonates with certain donors, and it includes a lot of “guys, you’re doing it wrong!” statements and trashing trade organizations. Those trade organizations have pushed the licensure board to strip Marohn’s license for years, and I think he’s finally had enough of the legal trouble.

zucker42 4y ago

Strong Towns criticizes U.S. street design and development practices. Mainly they argue that many of the design practices pushed in manuals and by the engineering profession are dangerous and lead to worse cities (especially because they give too much deference to cars). They'd want things like ending minimum parking requirements, redesigning intersections and roads to make them more safe for pedestrians and cyclists, bringing back older style main streets, etc. Because Mr. Marohn criticizes standard road engineering practices he has evidently developed enemies within the engineering profession. Some of these enemies are retaliating by initiating lawsuits for calling himself an engineer during a period where he had inadvertantly let his license lapse.