The Top 3 Strong Towns Articles from 2023: Lauren's Picks

We’re ending the year by featuring some of our staff members’ favorite Strong Towns articles from 2023. Yesterday, Director of Membership and Development Norm Van Eeden Petersman shared his favorites, and we’ll also be hearing tomorrow from Ben Abramson. In the meantime, here are Director of Communications Lauren Ronnander’s picks!

1. “No City Should Rely Primarily on a Sales Tax for Funding,” by Charles Marohn

This is one of those classic Strong Towns essays—the kind that helps me think more deeply about how cities function and develop new understandings. Sales tax isn’t just a problematic funding mechanism for cities because it’s insufficient, or inefficient. Chuck reveals that it makes promoting the well-being of residents (or even the existence of residents) secondary to promoting sales, sales, sales; even ones that don’t improve people’s quality of life.

This is the kind of insight that kept me coming back to strongtowns.org every day before I joined the team, and the kind of insight that can help local advocates change the conversation about funding.

2. “Cutting Corners,” by Edward Erfurt

This quick, easy analysis of a problematic intersection is so, so powerful. Once Edward identifies how sweeping curbs make it difficult for people to safely travel, the solution practically suggests itself: use some paint, or a few cones, or whatever you have lying around to narrow the curb radius! This commentary is short, sweet, and shareable, just perfect for quickly changing the way people see their streets.

3. “If We Want a Shift to Walking, We Need To Prioritize Dignity,” by Sean Hayford Oleary

I’ve never really “got” what people mean when they use the word “dignity.” I thought it was one of those words that is used when people don’t quite know how to encapsulate a set of values. For one person, it could mean “respect” and for another it could mean “grace,” and so on. This essay by Sean Hayford Oleary brought the word into focus.

He cleverly posits that “dignity” can be measured by how others perceive you. If someone wonders what ill fate has befallen you when they see you walking somewhere, the transportation system doesn’t provide dignity for those who are walking. If someone sees you walking and thinks, “Oh, there’s so-and-so, out for a lovely walk on this lovely afternoon,” then your walk is dignified.

And further, Hayward Oleary details what factors go into making the walking experience a dignified one. It’s many of the little things that Strong Towns encourages transportation designers keep in mind when creating multimodal spaces.



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