Transforming your community for the better doesn’t mean big, expensive, top-down projects. It’s the small neighborhood investments that can make your town or city truly strong.

A Live Presentation by Charles Marohn
Strong Towns, Founder and President

April 21st, 12 p.m. CDT

Risky, low returning projects too often become expensive boondoggles that haunt a community for decades. Public officials and community advocates everywhere are desperately seeking an alternative.

In this free webinar, Strong Towns president Charles Marohn will introduce the "Neighborhoods First" approach to growing a stronger community by making small, incremental investments over time.

By observing how neighbors live their lives, by asking them where their daily struggles are, by getting out on the street and discovering what is actually going on, we can discern what a community’s pressing needs are. These projects are the truly high return investments…and they are all around us.

This presentation will:

• Demonstrate how to grow financially while taking less risk, all while directly serving the people already living and working in your city

• How to transition from riskier top-down projects to bottom-up, neighborhood-driven projects that will make your town or city more financially prosperous

• How to make low-risk investments that pay off higher

• And how to use these investments to improve the quality of life for all residents.

A portfolio of incremental projects, each building on observed needs and past successes, is the basis of a solid, longterm investment strategy for communities of any size. It is an approach that fits into every budget. It will empower local communities to take control of their own future.

And most importantly, you can get started right now.

AICP members can earn Certification Maintenance (CM) credits for this activity. More information about AICP’s CM program can be found here.

P.S. Are you a local government official, city staff, a member of your city’s planning or transportation committees, or a member of a local advocacy organization? We encourage you to invite members of your team to this webinar, then work together to take collective action toward building a safer, stronger, more financially resilient community.

How can towns and cities get the best return on their transportation investment?

A Live Presentation by Charles Marohn
Founder and President, Strong Towns

April 7th, 12 p.m. CDT

For more than six decades, the size of our transportation infrastructure has exploded. While liabilities have grown, transportation funding has not kept up. Now there is a desperate need for local governments to shift from building to maintaining, from an approach that emphasizes expansion to one where we mature our use of existing investments. In difficult economic times, this is a scary, but necessary, realignment.

In this free webinar, Strong Towns president Charles Marohn brings your local community into the national conversation about transportation spending. This presentation will help local decision-makers and concerned citizens alike determine how to spend precious transportation dollars to get the best return on your investment.

If you want to know—

• How centralization and an abundance of funding created short-term efficiencies but also stifled the development of alternative approaches

• Why local governments find themselves stuck in the current paradigm, as well the strategies for overcoming these obstacles

• How to productively respond to congestion and safety problems

• The important difference between a road and a street, and why knowing the difference could have a huge impact on your community’s strength and prosperity

• How to deal with resistance to change from public safety and maintenance staff, and

• The role of transit and bikes in creating a balanced portfolio of transportation options

—then this free presentation is for you.

AICP members can earn Certification Maintenance (CM) credits for this activity. More information about AICP’s CM program can be found here.

P.S. Are you a local government official, a member of your city’s planning or transportation committees, or a member of a local advocacy organization? Invite members of your team, then work together to take collective action toward building a safer, more resilient community.