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.