Changing the Dialogue: 8 Words and Terms That Drive Strong Towns Crazy
Words matter. As an organization striving to convince North America to shed the destructive suburban development pattern, Strong Towns is all in on the power of persuasion, but people’s conversations about development, housing and transportation are too often clouded by the words they use.
Take "accident" versus "crash," for example. Safety advocates have made substantial progress in getting more writers and outlets to use the word crash, which connotes a violent collision between two or more objects or bodies. Compare this to the word accident, which connotes, “whoopsie.” A simple one-word change reframes the debate from randomness that can’t be fixed to a systemic problem that must be.
This isn’t a matter of being persnickety or scoring points, and you may even see some of this phrasing turn up in our own writing, despite our emphasis on changing the dialogue. But much of the terminology around development is so loaded with presuppositions that these discussions don’t start on neutral ground. Additionally, advocates who push popular positions often do a poor job of describing them. Here are some other commonly used words and terms that don’t help address the underlying problems and how Strong Towns would like to recast them:
Accessory Dwelling Unit (ADU)
We don’t call cars human mobility modules, so why did the time-tested practice of people adding living space to their properties get such a wonky name? ADU sounds too much like STD — something you really don’t want a case of. Strong Towns calls them backyard cottages or homes and urges everyone to stop using planner-speak to describe something so common throughout human history.
Whatever words you use, they’re an accessible, affordable way to add housing to a neighborhood and allow owners to utilize their property for their lifestyle needs. There's also great momentum for changing rules to allow them in more places. Relatedly, a "tiny house" is a fetish object. An inexpensive, 400-square-foot dwelling is a starter home.
Pedestrian
If you’re trying to describe people walking, shopping, running errands, etc., use those exact words. The problem with this seemingly harmless technical word is that “pedestrian fatalities” sounds like an innocuous transportation statistic. Contrast that with “children killed walking to school,” which tells the story of a dangerous place that needs attention. There are cities that have zero traffic deaths a year because they put a human face on the people walking (and biking, and skating, and driving) that they’re striving to protect.
Affordable Housing
As it’s often used, affordable housing is a policy grab bag based on the assumption that the only way to provide access to the lower rungs of the housing ladder is an elaborate system of price subsidies and development perks. In reality, that just reinforces the system’s flaws and provides alternative revenue streams for the housing industry.
Daniel Herriges, co-author of the Strong Towns book "Escaping the Housing Trap," provocatively says that there is “no such thing as affordable housing.” He argues that “[d]evelopers don’t build affordable apartments or unaffordable apartments. They build apartments.” Strong Towns is striving to end restrictive zoning and enable the construction of new houses and apartments by a wider range of developers. An end goal of more homes at more price points helps every shopper seeking “affordable housing.”
Roadway Improvement Project
There are countless examples of Department of Transportation projects where months of work and millions of dollars yielded a roadway that was shinier yet in no way better. But by magically declaring it an “improvement project,” these departments insulate themselves from needed feedback about the overall design and its impact. Ask your elected officials and planners to identify and focus on the area roads and bridges that really are in dire need of repair and improvement. North America has plenty of them.
Road Diet
Nobody wants to go on a diet, but almost everybody wants safer streets in their community. Reconfiguring dangerous intersections, adding infrastructure to accommodate multiple modes of transportation and lowering speeds where people are present are largely popular changes. So stop selling them like they’re kale.
Single-Family Housing
Why family? Why single? Why do so many zoning laws use such loaded language? There’s a sordid history behind this becoming the favored housing type in so many places, and it’s beyond time to pivot to names that describe the buildings and not the occupants. People need housing, period. Occupancy limits and fire codes can address public safety, but zoning language shouldn’t be in the business of defining who individuals call family.
Vibrant/Livable
Does your town have places where people gather? Are there locally owned businesses that bring unique commerce and civic spirit? Do you have safe transportation and good public schools? Say those things instead of using buzzwords that do nothing to describe your successes or why your place is any different from its neighbors.
What are the words and phrases that stick in your craw? Sound off in the comments below or via our social channels.
Ben Abramson is a Staff Writer at Strong Towns. In his career as a travel journalist with The Washington Post and USA TODAY, Ben has visited many destinations that show how Americans were once world-class at building appealing, prosperous places at a human scale. He has also seen the worst of the suburban development pattern, and joined Strong Towns because of its unique way of framing the problems we can all see and intuit, and focusing on local, achievable solutions. A native of Washington, DC, Ben lives in Venice, Florida; summers in Atlantic Canada; and loves hiking, biking, kayaking, and beachcombing.