Editor's Note: The challenges our cities face are growing, but so is the strength of this movement. Member Week reminds us that every story we share, every idea we spread, and every tool we build exists because people like you are committed to showing up. Your membership isn’t passive—it’s the momentum that makes change possible.
This year, I’ve had the chance to visit communities across the country. These were small towns and big cities. They were places struggling to find their footing and others that seem to have found a rhythm. Everywhere I go, I hear the same story: leaders are searching for the right plan, the right grant, or the right strategy to attract growth.
There’s no shortage of approaches to respond to this struggle. Some cities are in the process of writing new comprehensive plans. Other cities are developing incentive packages to lure new businesses. A few are reorganizing departments or creating new programs meant to spark development and attract investment. But when you strip all that away, the places that are truly thriving, the ones that feel alive and resilient, share one thing in common.
They are focused on building community.
You Can’t Write a Formula for Community
Building community isn’t something you can reduce to a checklist or that can be crafted into a boilerplate policy document. It happens when people share a vision, contribute their time, and care for a place together.
If you listen to the news and read the latest news reports on the housing crisis, you will quickly realize we talk about homes as numerical assets, not as community anchors. For example, housing is regularly described in numeric quantity in terms of units or through multiple letter acronyms and described in volume through square footage and number of bedrooms. Cars are also described as a numerical asset measured in character by the number of seats or doors and in volume with required parking and level of congestion. But describing our built environment in these terms strips away what matters most: how connected we feel to the people next door.
Through my travels, I’ve met many people who are looking for more than their dream job or their next home. They’re looking for community. They are seeking to find people who share their ideas and aspirations. That search is harder than it should be. We live in a world that’s digitally connected but physically disconnected. Our built environment and development patterns, our streets, buildings, and transportation systems, too often separates us in ways we don’t even notice.
Many communities that want to become stronger and more resilient feel trapped in a catch-22. They know their current development pattern isn’t sustainable, but they lack the systems or infrastructure to attract the kind of investment that would help them change course. It feels like an impossible problem: we need investment to shift the pattern, but we need a better pattern to attract investment.
Yet, despite these challenges, I’ve seen towns that are rebuilding that sense of belonging. The ones that are succeeding are those investing in people first. They are focusing on strengthening relationships, before they invest in infrastructure.
It reminds me of the Strong Towns Party analogy: when you throw a great party, it gets better as more people come and contribute. A strong community works the same way. When we each bring something, our time, our talents, our presence, the collective return is far greater than what any one of us could create alone.
The Strong Towns Community in Action
Every week, I get the chance to host Ask Strong Towns Anything, where members come together to share their struggles, ideas, and victories. It's an opportunity to tackle tough questions, trade stories, and learn from one another.
But what I’ve come to realize is that the most powerful part of these conversations isn't problem-solving. It’s the community. Every time someone shares a struggle about zoning reform or about street design, someone else speaks up: “We went through that too. Here’s what we tried.”
That’s what makes Strong Towns different. It’s not a distant organization with a fixed plan. Strong Towns is a member-supported network of people who care about their towns and are willing to help each other figure it out. It’s a community of communities.
Membership Is How We Build This Together
Being part of Strong Towns isn’t about subscribing to an idea. It’s about joining a community of practice. Every member adds to the conversation, the creativity, and the strength of the movement.
Your membership doesn’t just fund this work, it helps to create it. Members make it possible to share stories from cities and towns that are trying something new. Members connect with other passionate people who are walking the same road. Members turn frustration into shared learning, and that learning into tangible action.
Just like the party analogy, the more people who show up, the better it gets.
Keep Building
If you’ve ever felt like you’re alone trying to make change in your community, I want you to know that you’re not alone. There’s a whole network of people who’ve faced the same struggles and are eager to help.
Building a strong town starts with building community. And that begins with us by showing up, sharing what we know, and supporting each other.
So during Member Week, if you’ve been thinking about joining or renewing your membership, please accept this as your personal invitation to be part of something real.
Because when we build community, we build strength.
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