"Business as usual" is bankrupting our cities. Here's how to challenge the status quo.

Providence, Rhode Island City Council Chambers. Image Credit: Wikimedia Commons

We hear a lot from elected officials and other civic leaders who are members of the Strong Towns movement, and they often express a common set of frustrations. Many are people who were called to public service because they saw something severely wrong with their city’s development status quo—only to find themselves a voice in the wilderness amid other people in power who either have long been part of that status quo or who see no problem with it.

It’s easy to wonder if you’re crazy after finding yourself the sole “no” vote enough times—whether it’s with regard to calming traffic on a deadly stroad, removing barriers to building backyard accessory dwelling units, insisting on evaluating the public financial return on a new subdivision, or screaming into the wind that maybe your town shouldn’t demolish historic buildings for parking it doesn’t need.

So what do you do when you're the outlier? How do you shift the conversation and bring your colleagues around to your point of view?

Here's some of the best advice we've collected. Much of this is crowd-sourced from conversations in the platforms we've created for Strong Towns advocates to meet and help each other: the Strong Towns Community web forum, and the Strong Towns Facebook group. There's all sorts of active conversation going on every day about these issues, so if you're not already an active participant, head on over and join up!

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1. Recognize that inertia is powerful

Almost by definition, if you oppose the status quo, you are going to find yourself on the losing end of some battles. And if you’re here because you recognize that the status quo approach to both big-city and small town development since the mid-20th century—piling on long-term liabilities in pursuit of a short-term sugar high of growth—has been absolutely insane, you’ve probably experienced wondering if you’re the one who’s crazy and everybody else sees something you don’t see.

Even if you can get people on board with recognizing a systemic problem in theory, in practice you’ll often find that awareness goes out the window when it’s time to rule on a particular decision. In many people’s minds, there is a presumption in favor of approaches and projects that conform to plans approved decades ago, even when you know those plans make no sense today, and you know the project is going to create new financial liabilities for your city. The opposition isn't evil or stupid. Many of them are most likely defaulting to "what's always been done" because to do otherwise, you generally have to have not just an inkling but a very clear understanding of why “what’s always been done” is inadequate, and what should be done in its place. This applies to things like traffic calming, where much of the resistance is not so much firm opposition as it is skepticism or risk-aversion. You have to be willing to challenge the things “everyone knows.”

2. Do your homework

Bring data. Make sure you know the financials of a project you will be voting on, especially any costs such as construction of infrastructure that will be turned over to the local government for future maintenance. The observation that taxpayers will be on the hook for something eventually is one that makes most conscientious public servants sit up and at least listen.

3. Make others do theirs

Ask the developer to provide specific numbers, certainly including any costs or risks that the public will eventually incur—even if such disclosure is not required of them in their development application. Find out if the Public Works department is aware of or can speak to the impact of a project or proposal on its operations. The same goes for the local schools, or police and fire. Raise the right questions to prompt discussion.

4. Get staff to provide the right info

Strong Towns community member Nils writes:

When I served on the Planning & Zoning Commission at times I would alert staff by email about a question I planned to ask them in the meeting. My goal was to give a little time to crunch numbers. Some proposed questions could benefit from that, with hopes that the answers are better than off the cuff.

Planning commission in Campbell, California. Image Credit: Wikimedia Commons

5. Know your comprehensive plan

The comprehensive plan is where your city, supposedly, asserts its values and priorities based on heavy public engagement (in practice, the quality of this engagement can, well, vary). In theory, it should provide the guiding blueprint for all other, more specific plans and policies. Does your city's comprehensive plan have language that (if taken seriously) would require you to assess the financial impact of a project on public resources and facilities? Point it out. Does it call for protecting natural landscapes and resources? Does it stipulate that the safety of all street users including those walking and on two wheels be a priority in transportation projects? Quote it, and hold yourself and your colleagues to it.

These are often documents that, once completed, sit on a shelf barely touched for ten years, but they are not supposed to be. You can start a useful discussion by really digging into the consistency of the city’s actions with its own on-paper priorities or objectives. The plan is your armor when you say something otherwise unpopular.

6. Know the code, know the law

Developers who like to play hardball may threaten legal action if a project isn't approved—or those inside government might so fear legal action that they preemptively try to avoid that outcome. Ultimately, a city can't, by law, make decisions that are arbitrary or capricious—that is, you can’t treat one applicant wishing to do a given thing differently than you would treat a different applicant who wants to do the exact same thing. That said, a lot of threats of legal action are just bluster meant to intimidate.

The Planning Commission may have more latitude than you think. Ultimately, in most local government set-ups, elected officials' decisions are binding, but those of advisory boards such as a planning or zoning commission, park board, etc. are not binding on elected officials. They are merely recommendations that the elected body can adopt or discard, and they’re not subject to the same legal or constitutional scrutiny that final decisions might be.

7. Data isn't enough

You need to tell a good story. People, as a rule, are not persuaded by facts. They slot facts into a narrative in their heads, and they retain and find persuasive those facts that are highly salient and fit the narrative, while swiftly forgetting those that do not fit. Bring data and nuance, but anchor it in a compelling story—and a simple one!

8. Get on the record raising the right questions

Sometimes you will lose a battle against a truly bad project because that project is permitted by the code as written, and you have no real basis to prevent its completion. If this is the case and you know that project will have negative fallout, make your case anyway. Clearly point out the negatives and be on the record observing them.

9. Win small improvements

If you know you aren't going to prevent a bad project from going through, can you fight to make it less bad? Pick a battle you can win: something like better connectivity, parking in an unobtrusive form or less of it. 

Minneapolis City Council Organizational Meeting, January 2018. Image Credit: Flickr user Tony Webster.

10. Play strategically

Strong Towns member Anthony writes: 

It's more strategic to actually make a motion in favor of the project but add strings attached to it that would box the other commissioners into a corner. Such as:

“Motion to approve item x on condition that project applicants file a report with the city detailing that the project will be able to independently support its infrastructure liabilities through the second and third infrastructure cycle.”

What you're actually doing here is at least forcing them to grapple with the cognitive dissonance between an objective—like long-term fiscal resilience—that nobody is really against in theory, and the detrimental effects of their business-as-usual approach in practice. 

11. Take care of the relationships you need

Here's some valuable advice from Strong Towns founder and president Charles Marohn, who was on the Planning Commission in his hometown of Brainerd, Minnesota and has been on the losing side of many votes:

You might lose a lot of these, but explain clearly and calmly why you can't do it. Don't make it personal, and don't shame your colleagues who go along. Try to help this be a learning experience for them because you need them next time.

12. Play the long game

Remember that you're trying to change a culture. This means not picking the wrong hill to die on, but slowly, surely, and consistently making an impression on people with your integrity, thoughtfulness, and principled attention to things that really matter. You will win allies, and slowly but surely, you'll see your point of view becoming part of the dialogue where even those who disagree with you can't ignore you. 

That's what moving the needle looks like.

Cover image of the Colorado Springs City Hall via Wikimedia Commons.

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