I'm Ben Sawyer and this is the road to now.

We're back with a new episode this week, guys, and couldn't be more excited.

Our guest is Tom Hanchett, historian extraordinaire of Charlotte, urban historian.

You've heard him on the show before.

He's got a new book out called

Affordable Housing in Charlotte, what one city's history tells us about America's pressing problem.

There's so much great in here about ways we've tried to solve the obvious crisis. I don't

know where you guys live. If you live in the country, maybe you don't see it. But here in Nashville,

it's very hard for people who are not making really good incomes to afford a place.

And it's a problem we've got to solve because cities don't run without workers. And if workers

can't afford to be here, the city's not going to work the way it should. Besides,

income and contribution are not the same thing

that should be obvious there are plenty of people who make cities the place that you want to live

who cannot afford to live here and if you want them to stick around and you love your city and

you want it to thrive these are problems we all have to grapple with.

And I'm happy to say that, as with a lot of the great solutions to problems, these don't

fall along party lines.

There's a lot to learn here.

I hope you guys enjoy it.

And shout out to Tom Hanchett.

I love Charlotte.

Does you guys who listen to the show regularly? No, I grew up around there, lived in the city for years. I got a weird relationship with it because it's an odd city. But this book made me appreciate it more. And if you're thinking right now, I don't really know Charlotte. Maybe this episode isn't for me. Not true. Charlotte serves as a test case, as a story, really, for looking at how federal policy is played out at the ground level for people living in cities.

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