The Top 3 Strong Towns Articles from 2023: Shina's Picks
Howdy everyone, it’s your friendly neighborhood Strong Towns editor/content manager, Shina, and it’s my turn this week to highlight some of my favorite articles we’ve published this year. We hired two new staff writers for 2023, Asia Mieleszko and Ben Abramson, in addition to our writer Seairra Jones, and it has been an honor and a privilege to be able to work with such talented folks. It was no surprise to me when my top picks for this year happened to come from each of them. I hope you’ll find these pieces to be as powerful as I did! (And when you’re done, check out my colleague Rachel Quednau’s picks from yesterday.)
1. “Who Walks in the Unwalkable Places?” by Seairra Jones
When this piece first came across my desk, the thought “this is so quietly moving” kept emerging in my mind again and again as I read it. Even the title itself touches on a certain sadness inherent to the modern American landscape: the fact that people everywhere here are forced to walk in inhospitable places, because they have no other choice. Too often, though, these are the people whose voices aren’t heard, who struggle day to day in silence as the rest of us whizz past them in cars. In this piece, Seairra gives these individuals a voice—just through the simple act of walking on a bridge and talking to those who crossed it. It’s a reminder that the work Strong Towns advocates are doing to make their places safer and more human centered is important, and necessary.
2. “The Calculus of Crossing the Street,” by Asia Mieleszko
I hope that Asia will not mind me bragging a bit about the fact that she was just awarded “Urbanist Media Champion” of 2023 in her hometown of Philadelphia. It’s well earned, and I think this particular article from her demonstrates why. She opens by perfectly capturing what it feels like to make a mad, “illegal” dash across the street in an attempt to catch a bus—and then talks about a case where that calculated risk did not end well. Yet, every day, people walking on our streets have to make that gamble in order to get where they need to go, and are vilified for it when they’re hurt or killed in the process. As Asia puts it, “jaywalking signals an unmet need,” and once you start thinking of it in those terms, you can’t unsee it.
3. “Inside the On Ramp: This School May Have America’s Worst Location,” by Ben Abramson
Here’s another one that hit me pretty hard. I taught in my early twenties and loved my students, and will always cherish the fact that I learned as much from them as they did from me. So, to see this elementary school that’s encircled by a highway ramp… Well, I’m grateful that Ben covered this story, but it might be one of the rawest, most painful examples I’ve seen yet of how “North America’s voracious appetite for road building” hurts our communities. It’s wrong and shameful, and our children deserve better.
Shina Shayesteh serves as the Editor-in-Chief for Strong Towns. She self-identifies as a jack of all trades, with a master’s degree in history and a background in education, linguistics, research, and digital art. A native Houstonian, she loves to travel both in and outside of the United States. When not working, she enjoys needlework, picking up new crafts, playing tabletop RPGs, studying other languages, and coercing her friends into eating weird foods.