Gracen Johnson

TracadieLaughing.jpg

Gracen creates educational tools and experiences that help regular people build places and livelihoods that fill them with pride. She is a co-founder and Director of Design with the Incremental Development Alliance, a non-profit that trains locals to construct or repair the essentials of a strong neighbourhood. Before that, Gracen designed and managed the Summer Institute, an entrepreneurship accelerator for place-based businesses. Gracen received her Master's in Planning, Growth, and Regeneration from the University of Cambridge in 2013. She has been writing for Strong Towns for many years.

Read Articles by Gracen
Public Art: Project vs. Process
Public Art: Project vs. Process

Just as we at Strong Towns do not have a formula or solution for productive growth, but rather an approach to development, I believe that effective art is more about process, than project.

Almost half of Americans have dogs. Do they also need cars?
Almost half of Americans have dogs. Do they also need cars?

In early January, I adopted a dog. As with many rescue stories, we ended up with more dog than we anticipated, which has put me and my new neighborhood through a rigorous test. My dog has given me a tough decision: get a car, or become the neighbor I want to be.

Best of 2016: Please, do not build that crosswalk
Best of 2016: Please, do not build that crosswalk

A signalized crossing is an unnecessary expense for what a few traffic cones could easily accomplish. Humanizing Brunswick Street, on the other hand, would be in the best interests of the province and city.

Book interview: Gracen Johnson
Book interview: Gracen Johnson

Rachel Quednau interviews Gracen Johnson about making the hard decision to move to a new town, plus her work with the Incremental Development Alliance and her philosophy that "love will save this place."

The Service of Burn
The Service of Burn

What if some of the stuff we think we can leave to history were core features, rather than unfortunate side effects of the traditional city? What if we can’t have the good without some of the bad?

Patterns of Home, Importance of Homeyness
Patterns of Home, Importance of Homeyness

You cannot build a place of enduring value that isn't homey, that isn't loved.

Places Where I Don't Want to Sit
Places Where I Don't Want to Sit

We live in cities starved for good public space. There are so few spots in North America where you can sit comfortably for free. And when we do try to create sittable public space, we often fail spectacularly.

New Life for an Old School: Part 2
New Life for an Old School: Part 2

A year ago, I wrote about an old school being converted into a community center. This photo collection shows what has happened since, the results of Strong Citizenship.

The butcher, the baker, and candlestick maker
The butcher, the baker, and candlestick maker

What would a contemporary neighborhood in which people work and proudly display their names and livelihoods on the door be like? It's not what I'd call revolutionary, but in 2016, it's a completely novel and magnetic idea to me.

Please, do not build that crosswalk.
Please, do not build that crosswalk.

Rather than allow for natural pedestrian movement and traffic calming, my city has recommended funnelling pedestrians into a signalized crosswalk so they can wait their turn to cross the street in an approved manner. I believe that is the wrong answer to the right question.

Today's SlackChat: Gracen Johnson
Today's SlackChat: Gracen Johnson

This week, we're inviting readers to join us for a series of conversations with our writers and staff on Slack. Today's SlackChat will be hosted by Gracen Johnson at 12pm CT.

Becoming Strong at Home
Becoming Strong at Home

If one were to follow Schumacher’s advice and put the inner house in order, testing out our biggest goals at the household level, what does that look like?

Pick a place. Stay there.
Pick a place. Stay there.

As I engage more in this work of neighbourhood-level doing, the role of local knowledge is becoming clearer to me. It seems almost cruel that at a certain scale, local knowledge is worth everything. 

Haiku for Homebuddies
Haiku for Homebuddies

What do homebuddies do? Homebudding: growing homeyness. (Or in Strong Towns terminology, they create productive places.) Here's a video with examples of homebudding.

10,000 year old traditional development
10,000 year old traditional development

Built and social environments are interdependent and right now, that relationship in the world around me is out of sync. Indigenous people who have lived on this land for thousands of years have a lot to teach us.

More “Landlords on the Street”
More “Landlords on the Street”

Small scale developers envision a world with a lot more landlords. Here's why we think that’s such a good thing.

On becoming a local go-to person
On becoming a local go-to person

What is the process involved in becoming locally influential on urban issues if you don't work for the government or a planning firm? Here are some tips I’ve pulled from my experience so far.

On Technical Debt in the City
On Technical Debt in the City

I recall listening to a conversation about technical debt a few short weeks ago and nodding my head at the metaphor. So I asked my partner Ryan, and our friend Brendan, both of whom work in software, to explain technical debt a little further.

How do you read a zoning code? Draw a site plan?
How do you read a zoning code? Draw a site plan?

Tips and tricks for understanding zoning codes and starting out as a small scale developer.

Making Places Where I Want to Sit
Making Places Where I Want to Sit

This summer, Gracen Johnson documented the absurd incidence of benches and other seating arrangements built where no one would ever want to use them, then she created a solution.

"Tradition is to the community what memory is to the individual"
"Tradition is to the community what memory is to the individual"

Tradition can help make strong citizenship habitual, but first we need to come to terms with how we got here, who we want to be, and what traditions support the society we want.

More than a movement: The work of turning a behemoth and self-regulating
More than a movement: The work of turning a behemoth and self-regulating

In order to solve the biggest problems of today's world (climate change, dysfunctional cities, global crises) we need to harness the strength of a movement. 

Rethinking Invasive Species
Rethinking Invasive Species

We've all heard reference to vehicles, business sectors, tourists, social groups, etc as though they are invasive species. There are also literal invasive species that thrive in urban environments. Are there any cases where "We're just very negative about them" when they are simply filling a void through "hardiness and lack of competition"? What are the "pristine ecosystems" that we try to conserve in the urban landscape?

Back to the cul-de-sac. A follow-up to "Dealing with Congestion"
Back to the cul-de-sac. A follow-up to "Dealing with Congestion"

For a few weeks, I’m visiting my family back in London, Ontario. This means, for a few weeks I am living on a cul-de-sac in a subdivision surrounded by other subdivisions, close to an arterial lined with shopping plazas, gas stations, drive-thrus, strip malls, an upscale enclosed shopping mall, and a big box centre.

Small town feedback loops, big city solidarity
Small town feedback loops, big city solidarity

On the surface, it might seem more difficult to deal with co-existence in a big city where you are constantly in close quarters with people you do not know and may not want to know. But not knowing is so easy. On the contrary, it’s community that’s hard. 

Strong Towns Film Premiere
Strong Towns Film Premiere

This Saturday, a short film I made is being screened at the New Urbanism Film Festival in LA. Sadly, I will not be in LA to see it live and talk to the audience and other film-makers. I'd like there to be a place to field any questions or discussion about the film though, so here is the Strong Towns premiere of Do Season.

For every thing there is a season
For every thing there is a season

A photographic follow up on some of my neighbourhood projects that are coming to a close.

The Service of Burn
The Service of Burn

Can we ever design a city devoid of the suffering and loss we've always experienced? I suppose the answer makes little difference in my resolve to minimize the hurt. But studying the forest does make me question the city - what is truly a problem and what is simply a feedback or system within a system.

When a chairbomb gets evicted
When a chairbomb gets evicted

Last week, Sarah Goodyear from CityLab interviewed me about the project. Her first question was this: When you did your chairbombing, were you worried at all about the police confronting you? The landowner? My answer: In this case, not really. AND THEN! Here was the scene this week at the market...

Entering the bike club
Entering the bike club

 What are people really trying to say when they divide cyclists into the good ones and the bad ones?

Strong TownsAdvisory Board