When tension builds between grassroots action and bureaucratic boundaries, cities must choose: partnership or pushback.
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If urban planning is playing SimCity in real life, then the Strong Towns movement isn’t made up of distant players — it's made up of the Sims who live and work in the city every day. And they're taking over the game.
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Student journalist William Donofrio is part of a growing group of changemakers who are noticing, documenting, and sharing the struggles their places face.
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It’s easy to get angry or check out when faced with your place’s continued decline. That doesn’t mean you should stop fighting for it.
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An advocate group in Milwaukee, Wisconsin, started with an email. Now, it’s expanded to cover the metro area and even beyond. Here’s how it happened.
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During a recent Planning Commission meeting in Windsor, California, Vice Chair Tim Zahner advocated for using the Strong Towns approach to make the city's streets safer.
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Drawn-out approval processes attract resistance, allowing opponents to derail individual projects. Cities need a proactive approach that streamlines housing production while maintaining high standards. Memphis and Shelby County, Tennessee, is showing how to do that.
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Marion, Ohio’s story is one of resilience and community. Devastated by economic disinvestment and the opioid epidemic, residents realized it was up to them to turn things around. Here's how they're doing it.
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The ripple effects of outdated parking mandates are felt everywhere, making it harder to build the kind of communities people want and need. North Carolina might be about to change that.
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Tiffany is joined by Montana Gau, a Local Conversation leader in Denver. They discuss how Gau built the group into a registered nonprofit with several hundred members and how his role shifted from advocating “on the ground” to creating a space where others can more effectively advocate. (Transcript included.)
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This special episode explores the Strongest Town Contest, including what cities can learn from previous winners and a preview of this year's Contest. Joining the discussion are Strong Towns staffers Lauren Ronnander and John Pattison, as well as Stephen Gawron, the former mayor of the 2018 Strongest Town, Muskegon, Michigan. (Transcript included.)
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In Blair, Nebraska, Jake Loftis and his Local Conversation are turning the idea of New Year’s resolutions into a powerful tool for community transformation.
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In this episode, host Tiffany Owens Reed is joined by Chloe Groome and Aaron Feldman, co-leads of the Local Conversation group Strong Towns Chicago, to discuss the initiatives their group is working on and their coalition strategy for driving change.
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Sometimes, small advocacy efforts seem like they’re not worth the time or effort. But every small action plants seeds for future change, both in your city and in yourself.
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Each Black Friday, we invite people to participate in the Strong Towns movement by sharing pictures of parking in their communities that is excessive or underused — even on the busiest shopping day of the year. But with parking reform gaining momentum across North America, what comes after #BlackFridayParking?
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In this episode, host Norm Van Eeden Petersman is joined by Julie Emery, a Local Conversation leader, to discuss how her group started their bus bench building program and how it’s evolving.
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In the battle for street safety, crossing guards are on the front lines. Their verdict: The streets outside of schools are extremely unsafe. One crossing guard in Denver decided to do something about it.
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Katy Clagett is a commercial real estate appraiser and activist. She joins the podcast today to talk about the ways that bottom-up projects can build community, as well as her experiences with spearheading this kind of project.
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You decided to put your passion into action by running for office. Your message resonated with local voters and propelled you to victory. Congratulations! Now what? Here’s some advice from elected officials, as well as Strong Towns members and staff.
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As a Strong Towns advocate, you likely face a lot of opposition from rigid systems and even other advocates. This opposition claims that you’re not qualified enough to have an opinion or that you’re trying to change things in the wrong way. It’s easy to get discouraged by this barrage, but remember: there’s always something you can do to make a difference.
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