Friday Faves - Confessions of the Strong Towns Staff
What does a Strong Towns advocate look like? How do they live? Maybe not the way you think.
If you’ve been around the movement for a while, you’ve seen the touchstones we use to communicate the essence of the Strong Towns approach. You know the postcard-worthy, historic, walkable, charming streets and neighborhoods that exemplify the virtues of the traditional development pattern. We know that pattern is resilient, extremely financially productive, and tested by thousands of years of human experience in building great places. We also know very few of our lives actually look like that perfect postcard. We’re not walking or riding a bike uphill both ways while hauling kids, carrying groceries, and maybe a piece of furniture for that cozy apartment above a small local storefront.
Maybe you’d love to live in one of those places but can’t, or maybe it doesn't quite work for your own circumstances, or it’s just not who you are—and that's entirely okay. The point of being a Strong Towns advocate isn’t to be ideologically pure or to all be committed to the same lifestyle checkboxes. So even if you don't walk the talk in some sort of Instagram-able Strong Towns paradise, you are every bit as much a Strong Towns advocate, and we hope there's a lot of value for you in what we talk about in this movement.
Don’t believe me? For this week’s Friday Faves, here are a few of our staff members’ “confessions” of where we fall short (which isn’t really falling short at all) of what you might imagine a dyed-in-the-wool Strong Towns advocate to be.
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Here’s what the Strong Towns staff had to say:
Some of Lauren’s sheep.
Lauren: I confess: I lived in the downtown of a city for several years, but it’s just not for me. There were many wonderful things about apartment life just a quick walk away from my office job, museums, parks, food co-ops. And now I get to enjoy my own home on a few acres with sheep, rabbits, chickens, and a fenced yard for my dog to romp around in. Some folks wouldn’t call the place I live “rural,” but it’s certainly not a suburban lifestyle, either. The people out here have wells and private septic systems. I’ll admit having township-owned streets doesn’t exactly scream “Strong Towns.” You know what? Neither do the stroads in the nearest cities to me. We’ve said it before: Strong Towns is a process, not an end state. It’s about looking at the place where you live—whether that’s an urban apartment, a suburban neighborhood, or rural community—and finding ways to make that place more resilient.
(Source: Unsplash.)
Daniel: Part of my job at Strong Towns is to champion the importance of being civically engaged in the very specific place you live—your block, your neighborhood, your city. There's a certain gospel of the "Strong Citizen" that we spread here: effective change comes from the bottom up, when the people who live in a place connect with their neighbors to get stuff done.
Most days, I don't feel like I walk any of this talk. It's not that I don't care about my neighborhood, or take an interest in decisions made by my local government. I do. But I'm not out on the front lines here. You usually won't see me giving testimony at a city commission hearing. I'm not active in the neighborhood association. I don't lead a Local Conversation group and have never been the one organizing my fellow citizens to advocate around a specific local issue, even when I have strong feelings about the outcome.
Why? A few reasons, I suppose. Having young kids at home makes it hard to be the guy attending public meetings, going and having coffee with local leaders, etc. But I’ve also learned I don't have the constitution for much of how local governance is done. It's very transactional, personality and relationship driven. Who likes whom often has more bearing on how a council member ultimately votes than any attempt to rationally convince them of the best policy course. That world isn't for me. And that's okay. We need organizers, rabble-rousers, gung-ho doers to make our communities stronger... but I've also accepted that that doesn't have to be my role. And I’ve found that my work here influences the "doers" in my city in some quieter ways, and that they now even seek me out for insight, and I’m proud of that, even if it’s behind the scenes.
(Source: Flickr.)
Rachel: My confession is that, after several years of not having one, I do appreciate owning a car now, and know that my life is easier with a car—mainly because it makes errands (especially groceries) so much less of a hassle. I realize that if I lived a couple blocks from a grocery store, then this would not be a big deal, but that's a big if (and I never have lived that close to a grocery store, besides small corner stores). Also, with being pregnant this year, it's definitely nice to have a car. I think about how much more challenging the last few months would have been if I still lived in Boston and was biking, walking, or taking public transit everywhere. I would've figured it out, but it would've been a lot more exhausting, potentially dangerous (especially with biking), and I probably would've just had to stay home from some activities or paid for a lot more Lyfts/taxis. That said, if my city was oriented around safe options for walking and biking, with robust public transit (thinking about this recent Not Just Bikes video), then the need for a car would be much less serious. If only…
Denmark's public transit agency has made the greatest transit advertisement of all time. No notes. (Din Offentlige Transport) pic.twitter.com/quedLFjm5K
— Hayden Clarkin (@the_transit_guy) September 29, 2022
Tayana: I understand why many people don’t like taking public transport in the U.S. and I also find myself more hesitant to do so after moving here. When I compare it to public transport in Europe (the only kind of transportation I happily used for years), it is notably less reliable, dirtier, and feels less secure. But the fact that this contrast exists shows that it doesn’t have to be this way: These deficiencies are not inherent to public transport itself, but rather to how it is maintained and promoted. Public transport can be amazing, comfortable, convenient, and reliable, and it should be. Other countries have shown it can be done and we can learn much from their best practices. I dream of a public transport system where those using it are as content as the people in the above video from the Danish public transit agency.
(Source: Unsplash.)
Norm: I would be happy if we never built another eight-plus-story building anywhere in North America so long as we dismantled our current restrictions on 3–7 story buildings. We need to change the rules pronto within existing neighborhoods to allow denser mixed-use buildings to be interspersed throughout. This approach would mean the end of the Grand Bargain, which Gordon Price described as “high-rise density, low-scale suburbia, little in between. Massive change for one, almost none for the other, and spot rezonings thereafter.”
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Finally, from all of us, a warm welcome to the newest members of the Strong Towns movement: Erick Aune, David Fiore, Greg Follet, Austin Hammerli, Beth Klawun, MK Lindsey, Alec Lisy, Kimberley Naqvi, Tuan Ngo, Karen Roertgen, Carlos Velez, Gordon Weston, Lucas Winsemann, and Jeff Yockey.