Your Voice at Strong Towns: A Weekly Roundup
Each week, the Strong Towns team puts together some highlights of the great community you have built alongside us. You are doing amazing work, and it really shows in the discussions you’re having on our social media platforms, Community Site, and in your own place. Check out what others like you are doing to make their cities resilient, and join in on the conversation.
This week, 9 people became sustaining members of the Strong Towns Movement!
A warm, thankful welcome to Lila Frisher, W P Pyree, Joseph Huether, Adam Lynch, Monte Olsen, Brigid Peterson, Alex Alsup, Kyle Lawrence, and Stephanie Razzeto. The work you’re doing to make your community a better place is so meaningful.
Alex Benzie led some stellar conversations in the Strong Towns Canadagroup on the Community Site.
Alex inspired some discussion about the cancelled Sidewalk Labs development in Toronto, Canada. After years of research, planning, and community discussions (not to mention incentives), the Google company’s decision to call it quits took some by surprise. You can follow the chatter on our Community Site.
Read the full conversation on the Strong Towns Community Site
She also posed a great question about how the Strong Towns discussion is framed differently—or not—in Canada vs. the United States. We loved the great feedback she got, from discussion about how politics can hang up honest efforts to change our places for the better, to sharing resources for how to calculate fiscal productivity in Canadian communities. You can read the full discussion here.
Jenny Nazak, our Strong Towns Member of the Week, told us about Daytona Beach
Jenny Nazak is an urban eco activist who has lived in Washington DC, Austin, Santa Fe, and Tokyo, working a variety of jobs from pedicabber to Japanese-English translator. She spends her days promoting a "grassroots green mobilization" via her book “DEEP GREEN” and her blog www.jennynazak.com. She also recently started a native and edible landscaping business in her neighborhood.
Jenny adopted Daytona Beach as her hometown in 2010, and is obsessed with revitalizing its lovely old neighborhoods, including her own. She lives five minutes' walk from the beach, and one block from a historic Main Street.
Jenny Nazak
Q. How have you applied ST principles in your place?
A. By speaking to my City Commission about the importance of infill development; small local businesses; easing restrictions on Accessory Dwelling Units and cottage businesses. By having a Little Free Library and a free seed station in front of my house. By being a nosy neighborhood Auntie who keeps an eye on things.
Q. If you could snap your fingers and change one thing about your place to make it better, what would it be?
A. Ease zoning restrictions that make it needlessly cumbersome (or impossible) to set up small shops and other cottage businesses in residential neighborhoods.
Q. What is one thing someone could do RIGHT NOW to make your community a better place?
A. Buy an empty downtown commercial building and live in the apartment above it; live here and do business here year-round.
Q. What makes your place truly special?
A. The beach. And, the incredibly rich history, especially African-American history. Mary McLeod Bethune, Jackie Robinson, and many other Black heroes and luminaries have played a major role in the history of Daytona Beach and surrounding area.
Join Jenny by becoming part of the Strong Towns Movement as a Sustaining Member today!