The Next Generation of Strong Towns Leaders

From left to right: MA State Representative Jeff Roy, MA Congressman Jake Auchincloss, Strong Towns President Charles Marohn, and MA State Representative Cobi Frongillo. (Source: Strong Towns.)

This past Monday, I took part in a town hall meeting in Franklin, Massachusetts, sharing the stage with local leaders. Franklin is part of Massachusetts’ 4th Congressional District, which is represented by Jake Auchincloss. It is also within the 10th Norfolk legislative district, which is represented by Jeff Roy. And it is the home of Cobi Frongillo, who was recently reelected to the town council. All three participated in the event.

As I told the crowd, I attended the meeting to invest my time in the relationship between these three leaders. It has the potential to be a model for transforming the role of government in serving citizens and building strong towns.

Over the last 70 years of the Suburban Experiment, local government has served as the implementation arm of federal and state policy. Cities were turned into growth machines, encouraged to take on enormous long-term liabilities in order to experience short term growth. This helped federal leaders meet next quarter’s GDP growth target, but it also made our cities, towns, and neighborhoods financially insolvent, weighing them down with unproductive infrastructure and a public whose nationalized expectations are wildly misaligned with localized reality.

At Strong Towns, we don’t look at local government as the implementation arm of state and federal policy. Instead, we see it as the highest level of organizing for people living together in a community.

As such, my base inclination has long been to protect local governments from exploitation, even the benevolent type. That has meant a rather reflexive opposition to things like state and federal mandates, which many in this audience (and even some of my colleagues) often support. It has also made me a vocal opponent of calls for more infrastructure spending. I’ve attended too many ribbon-cutting ceremonies where everyone knew it was a bad and harmful project but applauded the dignitaries that got up and spoke about its virtues anyway. We need to work together, after all.

How many of us live surrounded by roads, bridges, and other public works projects named after some politician who “brought home the bacon”? Too many of us. I want to stand up local government to be the best version of itself, not some infantilized ward of the state, the recipient of the occasional vanity project amid growing tension and decline.

I am fairly confident that Congressman Auchincloss will never have a highway or a bridge named after him, and not because I think he’s going to leave office anytime soon but because that’s not his vision of leadership. Jake is a former city council member from Newton, where he promoted a Strong Towns approach. He speaks of local economic ecosystems, neighborhoods that evolve, incremental housing, and safe streets.

(Source: Strong Towns.)

Most importantly, he recognizes that these are hyper-local undertakings, not something that can be imposed from the top down. I’m fascinated by his vision for changing the federal government from the overwhelming force that crowds out local innovation to a partner that helps local communities become their best selves. More than fascinated; I’m inspired.

Much of that inspiration comes from a recognition that Representative Auchincloss’s vision is being paired with local leadership ready to step up. Cobi Frongillo heard of Strong Towns from Jake’s twitter bio. He dove in and said it has transformed the way he thinks about his community. The most enjoyable thing I’ve done this week is walk around Franklin with Cobi and his father, listening to them chat about the city they share. Franklin is in good hands.

This is member week at Strong Towns, the time when we ask our audience to make a donation to support the Strong Towns movement. Today I want to emphasize that, when you support Strong Towns, you are supporting great local leaders like Jake and Cobi.

You are supporting the group of city council members I met last week in Bend, Oregon, who turned out in force for the book tour event we did there, full of enthusiasm and infectious smiles their masks could not hide.

You are supporting the team in Costa Mesa, California, where I’ll be tomorrow. When we did a summit three years ago in neighboring Santa Ana, the crew from Costa Mesa was there. What they’ve done since in building safer streets and a more prosperous community is incredibly inspiring. I can’t wait to go there to celebrate and honor their hard work and help them keep going.

Not everybody in the Strong Towns movement should run for office or even serve on a committee. For many of us, that’s not our calling, and that’s okay. But of the millions of people who will access Strong Towns content over the next year, a meaningful percentage of them are going to step up to be the local leaders we so desperately need right now.

Our members make it possible for us to reach them. Our members make it possible for us to support them. And our members make it possible for all of us to be inspired by them.

Take a moment to become a member and help us grow that next generation of Strong Towns leaders.