This Is What It Takes To Be a Strong Town. Is Yours One? 

Is your town a Strong Town? Is it getting there? If not, what can you do about it?

A strong town is somewhere a 12 year old can safely walk to school and an adult can live without a car.

Isn't it wierd we are yearning for the type of lifestyle our grandparents had. Safe places where kids can walk to school safely and you can go to your work without a car.

the "town" I live in may not be a strong town, but I am in the process of making a Strong Home.

A strong town is a town where someone and their community can safely, happily, efficiently, and comfortably live without needing to own a car.

A strong town is a place where anyone can feel comfortable hanging out outside, people can gather, and the spirit of the town is alive rather than secluded in small car access islands of real-estate. Noone should have to feel paranoid about their neighbours, but for that to change, we need more action in the federal government to stop argueing and blowing money on nothing issues, needless allegations and glow-ops and actually put it towards improving the country.

I was doing dishes while watching this and started tearing up. I want these things for my kids, my family, my city.

Mine isn't because the past few years they expanded good roads to busy stroads, added a bunch of chain restaurants and built 1000+ new single-family homes. We also have no transit whatsoever. They also recently spent millions of dollars redoing a main arterial and added bike "lanes" aka a stripe of paint down the side, which doesn't get used. Very sad.

Strong Towns! This makes so much sense. I live in a small village in rural Scotland and we are beginning to reclaim our streets. We lost our pub, our bus, our post office. Now we're getting them back. Wish there was a Strong Town movement in the UK.

There are a lot of (very positive) symptoms of a Strong Town, but simply a Strong Town is a town that's fiscally sound. It can provide adequate, even great services, for its residents while not going into debt.

A strong town is a place that is inclusive to all people regardless of economic background or mobility requirements

Strongtowns to me is living without the fear of being mowed down by some deathmachine.

I used to live in a company town, where since preschool i walk everywhere, play outside without adult supervision, and have easy access to any facilities and amenenties. My parent walks to work, have so many free time to interact with us. Cars and motorbikes only used for long haul drives. People do enjoy somewhat slow life, they meet and chat at the grocery stores or at the park and fields. And the best part was, it's so close to nature: beaches, forest, lakes, river. My childhood "adventures" including playing with wild animals, swimming in the sea, and learn how to catch fish with my father. The only downside was it was segregated by ranks and no mixed use zones. So low level employees and their families rarely interact with top level ones unless in companywide function or public events, and facilities were clustered based on their functionality so people tend to flock on one place or another. But compare to where i live as an adult now, that town is the best place i've ever lived. Mind you i live in a city where you HAVE to use motored vehicle and go to big box stores just to do grocery shopping.

A strong town is a place that encourages strong community. The Strong community is the goal, the town is the means to achieve that goal.

strong town to me is to know I'm not alone in my pain, pain of being neglected and being forgotten, being a second class citizen just because I'm outside a car, the pain of being in a city that has been ruined by cars, the pain of being the only one person who cycle to work. strong town is not even a relief: it's a distant dream of a city that never exited and probably won't exist in future, but you know you're not alone in that dream.

A strong town provides freedom and opportunities to live in your neighbourhood in the way you want to live.

A strong town is a town built for people. People includes everyone. Children in particular, since they're out future, but also elderly, people with disabilities or other disadvantages, and people who need more support than others. It's for people to live in in its entirety, in and around your home, in commercial and public facilities, and out and about.

My town is getting better. I love my place, I love my state. A place is something to care about. A place is not something to use and dispose of.

I don't know...? What do you guys think....? I live in Amsterdam (NL), and wishing all of you good luck and stay strong.....!!!

100% agree, my main ones are constantly improving things and having a healthy and trusting community, which is like the opposite of my town right now, although it is really pretty

This video really hits home. Thank you for giving our cause an identity.

Charles and strong towns thank you for this. I was already on a path to be a civil engineer, but you inspired my change of focus: working for a municipality as an engineer to make sure developments are done the right way, the strong town way.

Our ancestors have weathered natural disasters, famines, wars, diseases, economic catastrophes, near bottomless poverty, and shed so much blood, sweat and tears. And for what? So we could spend hours every week trapped in cages with wheels on them?

Strong towns are also designed and configured such that people of all ages and abilities can feel welcomed, included, and like a genuinely valued member of their community.

A strong town is a town that is financially strong where it can exists without the infinite growth scheme.

To me a strong town is where many people can get around without a car, valuing different forms of transportation. And actually valuing community in all respects. Living in a place that's at a human scale, where I have actual neighbors, not people who live next to me.

Strong towns are ones where we don’t rely on government handouts for basic services. One where we can afford our own services without needing anyone else’s help. A strong town is where we can safely rely on the village to help raise a kid, just like our grandparent’s generation did. One where we can rest assured that our kids are safe and will get from point A to point B, safe & sound without any issues. One where we aren’t enslaved to chauffeuring our children around for almost 2 decades.

A town that's financially viable and safe and where people have a genuine choice as to how to get around, be it on foot, on bikes or e-bikes, car, within reason, or public transit systems.

You guys are great, I just convinced my local busline to swap out their bike rike that doubles capacity and accommodates fat tire bikes. It's a little change compared to passenger rail service being restored by the end of this year but it all adds up. Charles Marohn started this movement and I'm determined to bear the torch with you guys. Lets make all of our communities enjoyable to be in, lessen maintenance costs and create a sustainable future.

I feel like a strong town doesn't just stop at road infrastructure that prioritizes the people regardless of their age, financial status or ability over cars, but also includes locals getting involved and making sure that the town is alive with ideas on how to utilize the space in general, as in - healthy development that doesn't unnecessarily add construction where old abandoned buildings or dead space could be used instead, or coming up with plans to utilize the "dead" space in other ways, by adding community gardens or adding native plants to help the wildlife, or other greenery like parks or outdoor gym equipment etc. Its where the people in local government work with the citizens to nurture an environment to be a healthy, functional habitat for everyone. P.s my city in europe has the infrastructure, I can enjoy going to work by public transport or on foot if i wanted, or even bike (though not every street has a bike lane or a safe area for biking), but I still feel like that isn't enough as the city I live in has so much dead space and abandoned buildings that makes it not a pleasant environment to go outside if i don't live near the oldtown. Even the city center has some areas that are abandoned. Unfortunately the city would rather expand with housing built outside of it rather than push for abandoned or completely ruined architecture and even dead space being used for such projects. The affordability of most places is not so great at this point, giant companies have been buying out and sitting on property either to degrade it to build luxury spas etc or rent out for astronomical prices. I fully believe that laws regarding infrastructure alone can't save my city from dying, I feel more places on the planet should also advocate for usage of dead or abandoned space by local gov housing plans, public spaces etc, as in if a building has been left abandoned and in a state of ruin with no visible work being done to restore it etc the local government should be allowed to take hold of such property to utilize it for needed development and initiatives. Same as not allowing corporations and people to own unlimited amount of properties ensuring that real estate monopolies that do exist in many places are avoided as it is one of the reasons for high rent prices as well as people not being able to own a home to live in.

This is what advocation looks like

I live in a city with strong town elements. Vancouver Canada couldn't be a strong town because of it's stroads, expensive housing and huge apartment buildings but they are building a lot of multi-use ecodensity housing near transit lines, transit is really good, they have fairly good bike paths, the citu is "calming" neighborhoods and building nice outdoor community seating in urban hubs. I have contributed positive input when asked by mail and at community events.

Beautiful video. Thank you.

Strong Town is literally how people outside of North America/English speaking world lives

Cleveland OH needs to become a strong town again!

Lvoe you guys so much ❤❤❤❤

yea the house arrest was a good one, as I'm in 'house arrest right now in my suburban home, now when you leave it there's a stroad, and at the end a large 10 acre parking lot, which is not used all the way and 10 fast food restaurants. like bruh its so annoying

I don't care much about a strong "town". I care about my subdivision. Is it safe? Is it quiet? Is it beautiful, clean & green? Will the property values go up? Can I pass this property to my kids?

I really appreciate your content. I just would value more diversity in the staff...

OH WOW! So your dreams are the absolut basics of cities here in europe? That feels so weird. I never owned a car no matter how rural i lived. Now I live in what feels like a village in the middle of a big city. I have everything in walking distance, even an ikea. And all socio-economic classes live here. We are currently working on banning cars in more and more streets.

When people are CONSTANTLY complaining about parking scarcity, you've done something right.

A Strong Town is a town were facts are more important than diversity.

0:19 Salt Lake City!! I love this town, and I want it to get stronger. It’s got a whole lot of land with old one story bungalows. They’re charming, but also space inefficient, and the contrast between them and much taller buildings is really stark. We need the missing middle of housing! We need a less hostile 400 South, State “Street“, and Main ”Street“! If 700 East is going to be a road, let it be a road, and not a Stroad!

Why is community participation mandatory in this view of good citizenship. Everyone of those vignettes except one lady stressed joining something. The one lady stressed fiscally responsibility and safety. At some point everyone wants just to be left unbothered.

This is inspiring. How do we get our town involved in this movement?

I know this is petty, but I can’t take anyone wearing a mustache like Mike’s seriously.

Sidewalks and trees. Safe.

If you can, put in as much time, energy, and money as you might put in to vacationing and planning it. Don’t be a tourist in your own town - invest in making it better.

My town is the antipodes of a strong town............. everything is gated, there are no sidewalks, transit is an after thought, lack of affordable housing, police is totally focused on one side of town (the one where browns and blacks live of course), commutes are over an hour long on average, no sense of community at all, elected officials are still in the 80s or prioritizing projects just to get votes for example there is a shared use path running along a busy road (one of the 3 SUPs in town, all of them from nowhere to nowhere and not connected at all) there is multiple projects to build new ones (that reach centers of jobs and population or close gaps in the "network") what do these clowns did? they built a new SUP on the other side of the road (I swear I have seen 2 or 3 people there in about a year)

Sadly this doesn't say good things about the town, or township I live in. Can't say IO ever so much as seen any of our local leaders, least not often, and when people were advocating for a public transit millage in the county I live in they were met with a lot of heckling and derision.

It means you can’t live there without knowing you neighbors.

🙂

great

Every day more and more people awaken from the false suburban dream and realize that this isnt a sustainable future. The work you do as an organization and us members do as a community matters, dont ever forget that. We can and will build a better, stronger future forthe US, one town at a time

Where everyone knows your naame !!!!

"What is a strong town to you" Jeff Speck: I have no idea

: )

One without tents on downtown sidewalks, and druggies passed out in doorways.

You want to your kids be safe walking to school..... In Murica? 😂. How about make sure the kids that already in school safe😂

They want 15 min cities though under 24/7 survaellance and programmable private state money