This California City is Doing the Math
Local Conversation, Strong Towns Artesia, during their community clean-ups.
“We’re solvent today—but resilience means building something that lasts.”
That statement from Strong Towns Artesia, a Local Conversation group in California, captures a critical truth about municipal finance: being in the black today doesn’t mean you’re set for tomorrow. Earlier this year, they ran Artesia’s financial data through the Strong Towns Finance Decoder, a tool that helps communities assess their fiscal health. The findings were revealing—and they’ve sparked important conversations about where the city stands and what it will take to build a stronger future.
The analysis revealed that while Artesia is doing better than many cities, there are serious areas for improvement. Key issues uncovered by the Finance Decoder include:
A heavy reliance on outside grants and transfers: While these external sources of funding are useful, they are not a stable or sustainable solution for long-term financial health.
Aging infrastructure with no clear path for maintenance: The city’s infrastructure is in need of significant upgrades, and without a plan for its maintenance, Artesia could face financial strain in the future.
These issues, while common across U.S. cities, pose a long-term risk. “We’re doing better than many,” Strong Towns Artesia shared on Instagram, “but we’ve still got serious work ahead.”
Strong Towns Artesia’s Finance Decoder results, as posted on Instagram.
The good news? Artesia isn’t standing still. Their Finance Manager is coordinating closely with other departments, fostering interdepartmental collaboration that shifts the focus from short-term fixes to long-term planning. The city council is making prudent choices, and staff are stepping up to support smarter systems. “The momentum is here,” the group concluded, “Artesia has the chance to grow stronger from the ground up—and we’re proud to support that effort every step of the way.”
I'm no finance guy, so it was incredibly helpful for @strongtowns.org to release their municipal finance decoder yesterday. In the last decade, Spokane has seen its financial position weaken considerably. See replies for a link to my spreadsheet and additional graphs. #financedecoder #dothemath
— Erik (@eriklowe.bsky.social) April 5, 2025 at 11:15 AM
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Across North America, communities are using the tool to spark essential conversations. In Layton, Utah, a resident used the Decoder to explore whether the city is in phase one of the “Growth Ponzi Scheme”—a term coined by Strong Towns to describe a development model that generates short-term gains while hiding long-term liabilities. In Spokane, advocates are using it to evaluate how city investments align with sustainable fiscal health. In Toronto, Henrik Bechmann has used the Decoder to track municipal indicators over time and bring structural budget issues into public view.
What ties these efforts together is a simple but powerful idea: understanding your city’s finances shouldn’t be exclusive to experts. The Decoder isn’t a crystal ball, and it doesn’t offer easy answers. What makes the Decoder so powerful isn’t just what it reveals—it’s what it starts.
