New Strong Towns Groups Are Popping Up Everywhere
(Source: Centre for Ageing Better.)
Maybe you’ve heard us say it recently: “The Strong Towns movement is picking up steam.” Given that what the Strong Towns movement has set out to do—change the multitrillion-dollar North American development pattern—is so audacious, why do we believe Strong Towns advocates have the momentum?
There are quite a few reasons. Here are just some of them:
We see the tide turning on several key Strong Towns issues. Highway expansion projects are being canceled, costly parking minimum rules are being reduced or eliminated, and cities are freeing up their neighborhoods to incrementally adapt to changing needs.
Over the last couple years, we’ve heard from dozens of people who successfully ran as Strong Towns-minded candidates for mayor and city council. Many others have been appointed to key municipal positions: planning and zoning commissions, committees, etc.
Earlier this month, the new Strong Towns strategic plan was entered into the Congressional record at the request of Rep. Jake Auchincloss.
Every week on The Bottom-up Revolution podcast, my colleague Rachel Quednau highlights the stories of advocates from all walks of life who are putting the Strong Towns approach to work where they live.
Strong Towns content now reaches more than 2 million people annually.
We’ve never had more Strong Towns members than we do now (more than 3,000).
Friends and kindred spirits—like the Not Just Bikes channel on YouTube, and Nolan Gray, author of the new book Arbitrary Lines—are getting out the message to new audiences.
There’s another reason, too, and it’s one I see up close every day: our Local Conversations.
Local Conversations are groups of Strong Towns advocates in a particular place who come together to talk about the Strong Towns approach and how it can be implemented where they live. Since 2018, more than 100 of these local groups have formed around the U.S. and Canada. In many ways, they are the front lines of the Strong Towns movement. In communities large and small, they are helping to make their streets safer and more productive, doing the math on proposed infrastructure projects, using tactical urbanism to activate underutilized spaces, supporting entrepreneurs and incremental developers, and much, much more.
In addition to the 100+ existing Local Conversations, there are about 80 additional communities where leaders have started the process of forming neighborhood groups. Strong Towns staff come alongside and help where we can, providing a number of resources for groups just getting off the ground. And later this week, I’ll be inviting all our Local Conversation leaders to join a Discord server where organizers from new and experienced groups alike can learn from each other, support one another, and share stories.
Once a few advocates have started to meet together, we add the group to our Local Conversations map. (Finding allies isn’t as intimidating or complicated as it might sound, as we’ve written about before.) Then we send an email to everyone on our email list in that area to let them know a group has formed.
Last week, I added five new Local Conversations to our map. New groups have officially formed in Chicago; Baltimore; and Portland, Oregon; and two groups have formed in East Baton Rouge Parish, Louisiana. Those cities have a combined population of 4.4 million. All told, I emailed nearly 800 Strong Towns advocates to let them know a group had just started near them. That’s 800 advocates who know they’re not alone as they challenge the status quo, the Suburban Experiment that is making our cities financially weaker, less safe, less inviting, and less livable.
As I mentioned above, there are now about 110 Local Conversations around North America, with many others in the process of formation. Our goal is to help 1,000 such groups form, grow, and start taking action together in the next five years. We’re laying the groundwork for that now. It may seem like a lot, but consider that it’s only about 17 groups per state and province. We envision a constellation of villages, towns, and cities across the U.S. and Canada that are lighting the way for other communities who want to make a difference in their places.
Are you ready to find or create a group near you? Click here to get started.
John Pattison is the Community Builder for Strong Towns. In this role, he works with advocates in hundreds of communities as they start and lead local Strong Towns groups called Local Conversations. John is the author of two books, most recently Slow Church (IVP), which takes inspiration from Slow Food and the other Slow movements to help faith communities reimagine how they live life together in the neighborhood. He also co-hosts The Membership, a podcast inspired by the life and work of Wendell Berry, the Kentucky farmer, writer, and activist. John and his family live in Silverton, Oregon. You can connect with him on Twitter at @johnepattison.
Want to start a Local Conversation, or implement the Strong Towns approach in your community? Email John.