Want To Make Your Town Stronger? Look for the Amateurs.
By John Pattison, Strong Towns
What we need—what our towns and cities need—are more people willing to say, “I don’t know,” and, “What do you think?” and, “Let’s figure that out together.”
Tag: Strong Towns
Building Your Engagement Ladder: Five Practices to Start Advocating for Resilience
By Tiffany Owens, Strong Towns
Starting with our own homes, then moving into our neighborhoods and cities, the challenge is to figure out what resilience looks like and to identify meaningful action in that direction.
“Greening” Our Commutes
By John Pattison, Strong Towns
The good news: We can get cleaner commutes right now by building cities that are walkable and bikeable. What if commuting by car or truck wasn’t an absolute necessity for so many people?
My Family’s Kansas City Story
By Sarah Davis, Strong Towns
And, maybe, the South Town Fork Creek neighborhood will eventually be seen as more of a destination, rather than somewhere you speed past on your way to and from downtown.
Walkability and the culture wars
By Daniel Herriges, Strong Towns
Even if you do take this study's results at face value, it's a stretch to interpret its major takeaway as, "Most Americans don't want walkable places."
Taking (democratic) control of one’s own traffic
By Russell Arben Fox, In media res
The fundamental focus in this book is traffic, meaning the movement of people and goods along streets and roads, which is literally the lifeblood, the circulatory system, of any urbanized space.
Why My Older, Smaller Library Was Better
By Arian Horbovetz, Strong Towns
Only by reaching out to the community at large can we fully understand how a neighborhood connects with the key resources in its midst.
We Don’t Live in a World of Cartoon Villains
By Daniel Herriges, Strong Towns
There are people at every part of that spectrum who care about building local resilience. The Strong Towns approach is radical, but not in a way that fits into ideologues' narrative boxes.
The Local Case for Reparations
By Charles Marohn, Strong Towns
What form should reparations take? How much should they be? Who should pay them? Who should receive them? How should that transfer be made? What will happen if this is done? Would it really help anyone?
The Growth Ponzi Scheme: A Crash Course
By John Pattison, Strong Towns
One of the early insights of the Strong Towns movement was that the way North American cities have been built since World War II resembles, more than anything, a massive Ponzi scheme.
Dangerous Nostalgia for the 1950s and 1960s
By Kevin Klinkenberg, Strong Towns
Well-done, compact cities and towns are incredibly livable and pleasurable, as well as more financially sustainable. Humans are very adaptable and resilient, and the transition to whatever is next should also give us more excitement than sorrow or remorse. The America of the 50s and 60s is over. The party has long since petered out. That's a good thing. Let’s clean up and move on to something better.
The Localist Theory of Charles Marohn’s Wonderfully Practical Strong Towns
By Russell Arben Fox, In media res
In fact, Strong Towns is one of those rare books (Wendell Berry's classic The Unsettling of America: Culture & Agriculture is another) whose argument itself exemplifies what it advocates for: it builds towards a challenge to the whole way we conceive of its chosen focus by beginning with the most local and particular relevant matters possible.
