It's interesting that $100k is considered "big grant" for making a community better, when that's the approximate cost of installing a single intersection traffic light system for cars...
Yeah I thought that too. Studies alone cost like $75k to conduct it seems, and that;s JUST the study, nothing after that. But yeah they'll for sure find uses for that money, quick.
StrongTowns Albuquerque just kicked off. 70 people came to the first meeting including a city councilor. It can work! I’m feeling more hopeful and connected.
Finding neighbors that share your feelings is a HUGE first step. If you go to a city council meeting by yourself and ask for a pedestrian island, likely nothing will happen. But if you go with 4 neighbors and they all talk about their struggle crossing that street, you're much more likely to get it. And it's not too hard to find neighbors. Just hang out at a nasty intersection, and when someone is struggling to cross, tell them you're thinking about going to a council meeting and bringing up the problem. They will be thrilled that you feel what they feel. Do this 10 more times, and you'll get a big group of people really quickly. What's happening is these groups are filling in for a functional city government. The city government is focused on banning housing and widening streets, two things that destroy their own city, instead of using their power to make their city better.
I love how the foundational mantra of Strong Towns is essentially just being good to each other dudes; all the sweet urbanist design principles we geek out over just emerge naturally. I totally sympathize with people who choose to move to places with better urbanism. But to the people who choose to stay in less ideal places they nonetheless love to try and make them better - such profound respect and admiration.
Congratulations for 100K! Sometimes you have to apply the "easier to get forgiveness than permission" principle. An intersection needs a crosswalk? Go there at 1am on a Tuesday and paint that crosswalk. Odds are, nobody will realize it wasn't done by the city--not even the city.
I think even if the City removes the tactical urbanism features get removed they are still worthwhile - it shows the neighborhood that change is possible, and it shows the City that people are serious about needing safety improvements there.
I'm in a cookie cutter, all slammed together, suburb housing dev., surrounded by oil/gas tank fields and refineries, and there's NO community here. Local FB groups are just People hustling their asses off. No trees. All cars. I need to escape, but who will save me?
Putting in a tactical crosswalk in a city of 10000 people is a lot different than putting one in a city of a million. Big cities would rather spend the money to destroy your crosswalk/urban garden/etc then pay millions for a “traffic study.” I mean I’ve lobbied in my socal city for a single stop sign after someone was killed by a car and still nothing
Yep, isn’t it interesting that so many of these places are small to medium size towns (not suburbs or large cities or large cities) where it is generally easier to influence your city council or local city leadership? Ironic, especially when you consider that most people live in metro areas, whether its the city proper or one of the metro’s suburbs. When they were talking about the “guerrilla crosswalks,” I immediate thought of the group in LA who has been trying the exact same thing for years and LA still spends more money to erase it than building actual safe infrastructure (and wastes it on expensive and pointless bus “shelters” that are not actually shelters).
@@ScramJett this is absolutely true, but i feel like the video being focused on the smaller towns and cities is intentional. Making improvements with huge cities like LA is so so much easier when these ideas exist and have been proven in places of all different sizes and locations. These efforts in small towns are a boon to everyone, if not just as a positive, successful example
And even if this approach doesn’t work everywhere, the people of Sioux Falls still deserve a nice place to live and I’m glad that there are strategies that work for them
That's the power of bureaucracy. I work with our city planning bureau all the time for sustainable design projects and they try to hamper our progress at every single turn. They have rules upon rules upon rules that are highly stringent and if you can't check all their boxes, they will torpedo your project with Glee.
I picked up and moved to one of the few European-level urbanist walkable neighborhoods in the US, since they’re illegal to build anywhere these days. Progress moved too slow for me, but I’m grateful for everyone fighting the good fight.
Not only are there allies out there who’ve you’ve yet to meet, but there are people who don’t know they themselves are allies yet! Starting the conversation with people is a HUGE part of what needs to be done. Just mention to people how big the parking lot is, how it’s wasted space, or give them a vision of how it could be better. “That 4-way stop is so dangerous!”? Respond with, “We could daylight it, add some continuous sidewalks, and narrow the road a little.” Take the chance and mention the small things in your area that could change! Thanks for another great video!
@@pendlera2959 "Daylight" in this case refers to removing blindspots from intersections. This doesn't just mean removing obstacles, but also placing things in specific places where they'll be seen. A good example of this would be be moving crosswalks a little further from intersections so vehicles making a turn go through the crosswalk 90 degree angle - making pedestrians more visible.
I'd highly recommend reading about movements in the past. There are so many regular people like us who were strong leaders that inspired thousands. America is filled with people like you and I who decided enough was enough and made the country better. American activist history is inspiring! Especially the civil rights movement. So many names you've never heard of who had a big impact.
Got this video recommended by "Not Just Bikes". Boy was i surprised to see my hometown of Sioux Falls highlighted here. Love seeing all the familiar places and at the pace this city is growing, strong towns seems like a great initiative. I might have to get involved with Strong Towns Sioux Falls!
I think my group will be in the talking stage for a while, because we consistently have new people showing up, but we don't yet have a core group of regulars. But we're reaching a lot of people and spreading the message, and that's one of the main things I wanted to do with it.
This is really inspirational. I'm still glad I moved away from my small sidewalk-less town, but this really gives me hope that I can better my parent's neighborhood (and my own)
This is something I've come to realize too, after having lived in a depressed part of upstate NY that has, over the 12 years I've been here, fluctuated up and down but seems to be on a decline again, unfortunately. Sometimes you do have to move to find places with the right cultural momentum to make the changes you want to see. Here my opinion is drowned out because the dominant culture just doesn't want the same things I want. But somewhere where there's already a substantial inclination to improve? I could be the one extra person out of just a dozen or so needed to enact real change. And I'd rather take that than fighting a sysyphean battle with people who are happy with the way things are here.
Induced demand is not only for buses and subways, it's also for meetups. I started hosting a monthly meetup and after a year we've gone from 5 of us to 25 of us. People know our cadence of First Fridays and they show up. Online communities are cool, but people are truly craving IRL experiences and seeing people in the eye 😊
Not Just Bikes is what got me interested in the livability problems in most North American cities, but the overall sentiment expressed by the channel is that those cities are broken and aren't worth fixing so you should just move to the Netherlands. It's easy to point out bad things and good things, but it's hard to create concrete solutions. That's why this channel is worth watching. City Beautiful is another channel that points out positives and negatives but explains how things can be changed. But I find it hard to sit through a Not Just Bikes video anymore. The constant criticism of North American cities gets old fast.
It's not the best rebuttal in terms of timeline. 5 years to...pick up trash, paint some crosswalks, start some community spaces at the church, maybe some Habitat for Humanity involvement, and receive a grant for...continued engagement(?). Doesn't sound like they've gotten any zoning or street design rule changes passed. Admittedly, looks like they still might have a decent mainstreet/downtown to build from? Like, I get it. Starting from scratch and capacity-building takes time, unavoidably. But if I'm not already tethered to my town, my QoL and the bag-for-buck of my activism makes staying & fighting in my suburb a hard sell.
@@Exquisite_Poupon has he said they aren't worth fixing? All I ever heard him say was that they will take a long time to fix (which is true), and he has young kids to think about in the immediate term.
@@Exquisite_Poupon I've never got that from his videos. He does say it's not going to be fixed in his lifetime which is why he moved and good for him. And the constant criticism? He's literally the guy who started doing it, lol. You can't know what is wrong without identifying it first.
I think it depends on your circumstances. I "just left", and I thank my lucky stars every day that I did. That said, I admire Strong Towns, and am rooting for those who stay behind to achieve their goals. It's not either or. We are allies.
Random comment tangent time... I don't disagree with what you're saying in principle, but I also think that moving away needs to be used more as a weapon against resistant N.American cities, and especially those with militant anti-urbanist movements and locked-in freeway expansion plans. In fact, I'd go as far as to say we should convince more people to move out of those especially bad places and go join those places where real progress is actually being made and accelerate that progress, because the sooner the bad places are surrounded by really good places, the sooner the people in those bad places start to yearn for the change they're seeing around them. The internet has really revealed that we urbanists (or urban revivalists) aren't just some fringe loners overreacting to a nothingburger, but we are in fact an army in diaspora. Separate and spread out the way we are, we make slow inefficient progress that is barely visible in the hundreds or thousands of places we're from. Often resulting in a large part of our group all doing repeated work, over and over again. For example, many people who could probably be doing more important actual of planning, inventing and building new models of urbanism, are instead stuck on square one, facing a car centric majority and bogged down by the hard work of just drumming up enough local interest to at least have a conversation about bike lanes, if they're lucky (and maybe still getting a bit of time to dream about the ideas they'll never see in their lifetime.). Thing is, I think that if we really wanted to make some waves and actually get North America to new era of real urbanism before our funerals, we'd strategically bring our urbanist army together in 5 to 10 North American city fronts and tactically tip the political scales necessary to pursue the kind of large scale urbanist projects that can be beacons of light to everyone else, especially back home. So where tens or even hundreds of thousands of people would have spent a decade making bike lanes happen if they're lucky - in cities no one's ever heard of - and maybe garnered all of a few seconds of local media attention, we will have instead been thousands of people working together to create something that would in turn create sustainable national and international media attention, which then in turn creates the kind of populist demand for urbanism we just can't create ourselves, as small disparate groups of people. With that said, I actually don't think we should flock to the big cities that already have decent-ish urbanism (Vancouver, Seattle, New York, etc.) either, but instead descend on 5 to 10 of the smaller and mid sized N.American cities that are particularly bad (but which are on a path to progress). Not only would it be easier to create the voting majority we would need, but the changes would be more city-wide in a smaller city. Plus, the canvas we would be working with, would be more blank, in the sense that there would be much less outdated urbanist infrastructure to compete with; meaning less compromise in being able to test out truly novel new ideas. For example, take a look at "Lloydminster" in Google Earth. Terrible place that has been so nearly impossible to drum up interest in. Sure, in a decade, I might make some headway, but I feel like my skills could be better utilized, if people were already interested. Now, that leaves two options based on what I said above: either I do move somewhere and join the urbanist fight where it's already strong and send postcards of the progress back as inspiration, or flip the script and make this is one of the cities Canadian urbanists could descend onto. It's small enough to gain quick political influence, just big enough to justify urbanist concepts and be a blank canvas, plus it's so bad right now that it's makeover story would have an absolutely brilliant before/after conclusion that could really capture imaginations. I dunno, just a thought. Either way, love your videos and the work you do!
This is what really puzzles me about Strong Towns. Every town they showcase are about the smaller and mid sized North American cities that already have some sort of mix-used zoning. In my opinion, these videos only promote moving as most North Americans don't live in these environments and would have to move to avoid the structural permanence of car-centric infrastructure or fight for an impossible win as redesigning those infrastructures would cost the city an amount no city would ever approve. For reference, I moved recently from the suburban car-centric outskirts of a large metropolitan and now live in a small walkable town of less than 20,000 people. Not only do I have a much larger voice when going to city commission meetings, but my town has many parts that are still unscathed to car-centric infrastructure that allows for things like urban placemaking to be successful. I really do love the work Strong Towns is doing too, but moving is the only answer for so many people.
This is a blind spot that Strong Towns has, I think. I don’t know if it’s that Chuck Marohn is from one of the types of towns that is so commonly featured in these videos, but it is a clear pattern. I do think so much of what they preach on is not easy, or even impossible, to translate into large cities and the suburban cities in large metro areas. It’s unfortunate, especially because this is where the majority of the population lives. Me, personally, I’m looking to move to a small town or village in Europe, but my backup plan will be a small/medium walkable town in North America if I can’t get a residency permit in Europe. Probably a college town since they are frequently superior to other cities.
I agree. Well said. Strong towns approach is not fast enough, and there are just too many pro-car people who haven’t yet seen what it can be like to live in a better city. We need examples to show.
@@josephcarreon2341 it's because, thanks to NotJustBikes, most people think moving is just moving to different countries like the Netherlands or Japan. They haven't considered the possibility that they could move to a smaller town that has a lot of the things they're looking for. I don't think StrongTowns is against that type of moving. They're against people leaving the country all together.
I appreciate the sentiment and I agree with the message of this but sometimes I do think that you need to move for a better life. For me, I moved from New Hampshire to Seattle and have found a welcoming community that is more in line with my values. I'm much happier here than I was back home.
Dude I live in Sioux Falls and had no idea it would be the main focus when I clicked on this video. I've only properly lived here for 4 months, but I've had heavy connections to the city over the last 3 years, I went to school in Brookings. Definitely gonna get involved with these people. Not sure how long I'll stay in Sioux Falls (probably between 5 and 10 years), but there is no reason not to help a community out if you're willing to put in the time.
My city is working on their 20 year plan, and has invited many community members (including myself) to come out and help with the plan. What surprised me the most is that the majority of us in that meeting all want the same thing for our city, and only a couple of people there were active followers of the Strong Town movement. I think as we go out and start to push for a strong town we'll find that the resistance isn't that people don't want it, but is actually just complacency. Strong Town in the USA is possible!
My city is working on their 2050 plan. It is less ambitious than their 2030 plan. Not only have we admitted that we won't meet our 2030 plan by 2030, but we are planning on not making it by 2050.
@@ModPinto yeah, and as depressing as it is, I'm so happy for the Wayback Machine, because if it weren't for that, the only way that anyone could get a copy of the 2030 plan is through a FOIA request. Our regional planning agency really wants people to forget that plan existed. I think that this is part of why Strong Towns resonates with so many people, we know it is the people at the top who broke our communities, we can't count on them to fix them.
This is an absolutely fantastic video. It is true that nothing exclusively online is going to truly impact your community, you need to go outside. You need to meet with people. You can't just trust that some city is the place you want to be because they are "moving in the right direction"
I get this. I totally do. And part of me wants to because there are things I love about where I am but like. I’m so tired of being in danger every time I leave my home. The path to get to the train where I live because of how the cross walks are set up has me either jaywalking or crossing 4 conflict points including a slip lane that people are always passing while looking in the opposite direction leading to me almost getting hit repeatedly. I pass through a school zone with no sidewalks on my commute to and from work and ride an E bike that goes the speed limit and and almost every day see what almost ends up being a collision because of people trying to pass, including one time a massive SUV almost got into a head on collision with a school bus. Just yesterday I had to swerve into the lane going the opposite direction because some dude in a massive SUV almost hit me when I had the right of way. And almost every time I cross this one intersection on my way home I almost get right hooked by a car not looking to their right for bikes. I’m so tired of it. I’m so tired of being almost 2 miles out from the nearest grocery store and having to ride there in mixed traffic on a busy stroad. I’m sick of having only 1 slow lightrail line and buses that come every 40 minutes as my only public transit options. I just came back from a trip to tokyo and yokohama and the safety and convenience was just. Unbelievable. I want to be somewhere like that so badly.
Feel like there has to be small cities or towns that have better infrastructure. Move there. Don't need to move continents in order to find good places to live
Such an important topic. As someone who did take the leap to move, I still think its important to highlight the good of where I came from. I hope to show people what makes communities worth celebrating, no matter in the US or abroad. Surprisingly (or not) we all have a lot more in common when it comes to place pride than we think. Keep up the work Mike and Strong Towns team! You’re message is SO important ❤
Sorry, but my pro/con list says it’s time to go. All I ask is to live in a place that has lots of trains, lots of good transit, and lots of places to ride a bike without dying. And that I can get to nature without a car. That is not ANYWHERE in America. At all. Period. Maybe you’re right and a top down “overnight Amsterdam” would be too much to ask for in most cities and would be furiously resisted, but I’m too old to wait for the literal decades (centuries?) for incrimentalism to fail repeatedly before actually succeeding. I’d probably get runover by a car long before it happens. Btw - my definition of nature is not a strip of grass with a couple trees or a field of weeds. It has to be fractally diverse and complex for it to qualify as nature.
@@lord6411 yes, I do recognize that I am in a “privileged” position to be able to immigrate to somewhere else. But I think it’s easy to forget, especially to a “putting down roots” culture like America, that human history is one of migration, not stagnation. It is in our nature to leave an area that feels hostile to us and relocate somewhere that feels less hostile.
I'm 1 minute into the video and as much as I can tell I'll agree with the message. Yes the grass most definitely is greener on the other side at the moment.
Super happy to see my hometown of Sioux Falls on your channel. Every time I’m back home, it seems like there are some of these improvements, but many more dumb road projects outside the city center. It will be great when the folks featured in this video start to have more say in new development projects to end the problem even before it starts.
I like the idea of physically doing something to meet an existing need that the city is not fulfilling. People want to feel empowered. Now they can see a physical manifestation of something they can participate in directly.
one thing I really value about this channel is the comment section it's really nice knowing that even if I don't agree with the video there will be at least something of value below
Simple question: Do the people in your city WANT your city to change? If not, consider moving to a place where they do, or better yet a city that's teetering on the edge and your vote might tip the balance. Consider places nearby! I've been utterly amazed by the changes going on in Toronto. We have a long way to go, but we might catch up to Amsterdam in 60 years if we keep going like this.
That’s my problem… I could wait 60 years for my city to become passable, or I could just leave now and get it now. I got the sense living in SF that locals there didn’t want the city to change, and that going to city planning meetings helped but not at the speed for me to benefit from the fruits for it before turning 80 so… I just left. In my case I had the resources and flexibility to do it so I did it. I admire those who make it their lives work to move the needle wherever they’re from, but to me it’s much easier and honestly rational to just go somewhere that shares your values and already have done the work to be the place you want to be in, than to try to change the values of those you don’t agree with.
i think it depends. i'm currently in Calgary, Alberta, and i may end up just moving to Edmonton. because staying in Alberta would be easier than changing province for me. and, Edmonton is showing good promise to improve itself. they already removed mandatory parking minimums in 2020 and have long been more open to change than say Calgary is, despite being plagued by car-dependent culture for many decades. It is the most progressive city you can go to out west, besides Vancouver, which is simply too expensive for me. I feel like Edmonton is very well positioned to be a launch-pad for new urbanism in the following years. especially since the new Valley Line LRT opening up, the expansion of it to the west coming in the future. and the fact that Edmonton is the most affordable big city currently. I don't see any other city being better that is west of Toronto.
I'm quite ambivalent on this subject: On the one hand, I find this type of local organizing and direct action to be a good foundation for community building and for attempting to reverse SOME of the effects of neoliberal globalization, especially regarding the downstream impact that relocation for employment has. On the other hand...*sigh* this is just not what needs doing. We don't need more crosswalks or bike paths or stop signs; they won't keep you from losing your job. And yes, this type of organizing CAN find its way into more meaningful action, but that's not what typically happens. Absolutely, systemic problems won't change without this foundational level of organizing and community building, but they also won't change if people are focused on these types of issues. Indeed, focusing on these types of issues may actually feedback into gentrification, which stems from the need by transplants to "revitalize" areas hit hard by neoliberal globalization. So maybe instead of working on creating crosswalks and bike paths, people help build food production and distribution networks, local repair networks not tied to places like IFixIt, or even better yet, revitalize networks of support for people organizing unions and going on strike.
Thank you for sharing this - it's really inspiring :) - Update: I've just signed up to a volunteering list / for volunteering opportunities from my local council (Southampton, UK), they have numerous volunteering opportunities in the city, from volunteering at a local nature centre, to litter picking and conservation volunteers.
This video really spoke to me. Filled me with hope that I can make my community better and it is not beyond reach. Joined the local conversation discord and went to my friends of the park group meeting for my neighborhood. Strong towns videos make me feel motivated instead of angry and despondent about the problems in my city.
San Diego has a ton of work to do in order to be safer for pedestrians and build the housing that it's sorely needs. As a whole that region is spread out too far, and it dedicates way too much land to the automobile. I spent my almost my entire life in San Diego, I didn't leave by choice.
@@rws91942 It's a place were the wealthy live. The cost of living has skyrocketed every year since I moved here in 2004. Luckily my pay stays current and I have rental properties that also do well. We are not a city that is based on a city we spread from Mexico to Orange County building all along the ocean to the deserts.
@@jz4461I think OP is referring to how COL increases faster than a worker's pay, reducing the average buying power over time. Not the actual salary of workers
@@AssBlasster Perhaps, but there's still a troubling number out there who generally believe workers today are worse off their peers hundreds of years ago. Their standard of living really should put that lie to rest, but hey, you've got self-described academics out there teaching kids that medieval serfs only worked 10 hours a week. Should've made the Little House books required reading...
@@SoybeanAK Well if 20 somethings can't comfortably live on their own anymore and need to cram many people into a small apt, it's fair to say that our standard of living is getting worse (relative to our parents). Technology will always get better and get incorporated into our lives, like the advancements in AC, electrical and plumbing infrastructure that it make comfortable to live anywhere in the country.
@@AssBlasster Relative to our parents, sure. the Boomers enjoyed a level of widespread prosperity never before seen anywhere in human history, thanks to an unprecedented double dip following WWII in which the US was not only the largest manufacturing powerhouse ever, but also stood alone with all previous challengers bombed to dirt. That that changed isn't a sign of downturn, but of the U.S. returning to parity with more of the world. Besides, it's a false premise. Plenty of 20somethings still live comfortably on their own in this country (ask me how I know) by living where their parents did, and/or to the standard of living their parents did. Those 20s professionals who choose high-attraction cities and pay for luxuries, will largely make their money back long term- that's where the big money is, after all. But don't pretend they're all forced to live in dorms.
Love the content. Reminds me of my hometown of Newark, NY where I bought a house 2 years ago. My 4 month old son is the 6th generation of my family in this town. My cousins went to Brooklyn, LA, and I always love visiting them. But the lifestyle my wife and I are cultivating is very powerful and there is a ton of upward potential in this rusty town!
Has Strong Towns seen a difference in success between groups that are highly localized (like a neighborhood) compared to groups that are broader (metro area)? My ST group encompasses the entire metro area. It's cool to talk to people outside my neighborhood but I think it also makes it more difficult to do any hands-on projects. It also seems like there are a lot of people in my neighborhood that are interested in ST but they are not interested in issues outside of the neighborhood and are less likely to go to a meeting when it's further away.
As your group grows, you may be able to spin off sub-groups covering specific areas, while retaining the central group for organization, messaging, and support. Basically adapt to an organization based on subsidiarity.
Fixing where you live is great but i disagree that every community is worth saving. I love fixing up old houses and cars and I have been a community leader (and follower) in many roles. I love helping and saving things especially lost causes. However, if your town actually sucks, you have no ties to it, and you can move to somewhere where there is an actual movement going on, go there. You don't owe your life to some rust bucket of a town.
I hope these sort of ideas comes to memphis. I'd love to see my home town improve and thrive. It's worth saving, even if people don't think it can be saved.
A few years ago, I was looking for an intriguing place that was within a 3 hour drive of where I live. I came across Sioux Falls, it seemed like it was pretty neat and I went to the city without any plan. When I got there, I was absolutely blown away by the walkability of downtown, the amenities and parks, the high quality businesses and diverse array of things to do. I did not expect something like this at all to be in South Dakota. People were friendly, many seemed to know one another, there's a great night life and a beautiful art walk. I fell in love with Sioux Falls and have visited several times over the past few years. I highly recommend anybody to visit!
It’s inspiring what those groups featured have done, it’s my dream for our group to accomplish a fraction of what they have. Keep up the amazing work everyone!
If you are thinking of leaving the country, decide before you are 40. That is when your residency eligibility plummets for most people. Of course, they will expect you to have several hundred thousand dollars in assets beforehand.
Not necessarily, true, some people have moved near retirement age with not so many assets, and have moved to mountain towns in Mexico or towns in Costa Rica in South America, and are doing just fine. But I agree it’s good to try to change things in your own town for the better if you can
The big change in thinking at the local level has to be that cars do not have rights, people do. And just because cars carry people, does not afford them superior rights over anyone else.
Alaska has a strong anti-progressive contingent. I could try for years, but likely won’t happen in my lifetime. I’d much rather move somewhere with a walkable quality of life. Thanks for the video!
I considered moving to the US after graduating university. Ended up deciding on a different country and I feel like I dodged a bullet since. And that's not even just about the car-centric cities, there's just... so many other things.
We're a global superpower in decline. Things tend to get wild in such circumstances. Germany, Rome, etc... Man if you moved here after WW2 you would have had a great time though.
@@toonnaobi-okoye2949 I moved to Japan, tho that ended up having problems of its own, so looking somewhere else now. Every country has its own set of problems, but at least I don't need to drive everywhere here...
@@Marconius6 oh I see. I'm considering the Netherlands, Portugal or Malaysia so far. Been to Netherlands last year, looking to visit the other 2 this year before I really consider making a choice.
I love the unsanctioned crosswalks. You could wait years for a city government to get around to finding a bucket of paint. Or you could lay one down where it’s needed now.
I really hope ST continues to grow and more people choose to do the work. I jumped ship to Europe, but with family and friends in the States, I still hope things will improve.
12:40 I thought cataclysmic money was for huge redevelopment projects that cost millions of dollars. $100,000 is not even enough to build a house in most places...
@@Descriptor413 I agree that it is a big amount, especially for a small group, I just don't think it's the same as Jacob's notion of cataclysmic money. Cataclysmic money is bad for cities in part because it wipes out city diversity. For example, a redevelopment project wiping a variety of building sizes and ages and uses in a "slum" and replacing it with a "project" housing. This turns a flexible, organic environment into a static, artificial one, and destroys a community in the process, making it a sort of "cataclysm." I can't see $100,000 being used for anything big that the community wouldn't be able to quickly recover from. In fact, $100,000 seems like the perfect amount for the incremental, experimental development that Jacobs advocates for. Even if a $100,000 project fails it falls far short of a cataclysm. That's not to say I didn't enjoy the video or that I disagree with what it's saying. I'm just being nitpicky :P
We should consider looking at tactics like the Free State Project in NH where you get a large number of like minded individuals and pick a city to move to and and start the process of remaking it. Interesting thought 🤔
That would be a good experiment but ultimately things like that tend to fall apart because people don't get really invested and the people that would do such of thing aren't big on attachments in the first place.
I'm staying and fighting for a better community, but I'm doing it knowing that I'm going to fail. I have no hope of saving my community, I just hope I can delay the decline long enough that my children won't be the ones facing the cliff edge of the community's failure. Wanting a better community is a very vocal, but very tiny community. The vast majority of Americans like our failed system and don't care that it is failing, and unlike the trope of the silent majority, they make their views very well known. Truthfully, I think my ultimate goal is keeping things from going completely wrong for just long enough for my kids to find a way to leave. I want to be left behind, knowing that I paved the way for their escape. I love Strong Towns and everything they stand for, but we lost before we started. On the bright side, I now will find out just how romantic fighting a lost cause is.
Not an American here, but aside from giving us hope to improve our neighborhoods, I've noticed: All over the world there is quite a gap between the "government" with its different administrative levels (federal - state -municipality) and the citizens. I get the feeling that this gap of not being heard (or knowing how to participate at the local level) leads to frustration and ultimately voting for populists or representatives who just make you feel they hear you (but later are acting against your interests). Community organizations can fill this gap and the only thing which needs to be improved is having more of these.
Love this channel, but... Moving is... Beyond extremely easier than trying to fix a city that is... At least, 30-40 years behind the majority of other developed nations. Should I stay in this terrible system in the hopes that it will take the best case scenario that will last until I'm retired? No. In the video you can't even rely on your city to do the absolute basics of even providing paint for cross walks... No. Move people. Get out while you can.
You can't even define it in years behind, because the development in the US isn't even moving in the same direction. Western Europe basically stopped building/bulldozing cities for more cars after the oil crisis, which is now 50 years ago, while the US has and to some degree still does continue this path.
I unfortunately agree with this sentiment. I love my old hometown and I can see the possibilities it can hold. But the number of hoops we would have to jump through just to have a liveable/walkable neighborhood is too damn high.
I moved because I was fed up with cul-de-sacs, ultra-conservatives, and big box stores and stroads. In 20 years I knew it the area had changed so much for the worse it was essentially permanently ruined, now there's even abandoned big box centers and parking lots while new ones going in on the other side of town. But there's always people to move in and create more traffic, they can have it. I was done, bye bye.
@@oldunionI'm curious, where did you move to, if you don't mind sharing? I'm seriously thinking of moving from Canada but not sure yet where to go, main issue being most well designed cities seems to be in countries where I may have to learn a new language, and I'm not sure I can do that at my age.
There’s the Oh the Urbanity video about moving vs staying that I think is the most down to earth video about the topic, considering pros and cons of both staying and moving and using a North American perspective. I think it is called “you don’t need to move to Amsterdam to be happy”.
Guerrilla crosswalks are great, but what about sidewalks, bike paths, public gardens and public parks? How can we get people with the knowledge and equipment for construction and excavation to join strong towns? A business will never construct these things if the local government doesn't sanction it, its too risky for businesses. It needs to be rich people, who want to mqje the change, and are willing to risk it for the biscuit. How do we find or convince any of those people?
wow this feels like you're the only person saying something like this, but it makes so much sense. thanks for sharing your viewpoint. I feel like communities are undervalued.
The problem in my town seems so overwhelming and I don’t know how to bring the subject up without backlash. Our town is heavily dependent on our Brazilian and Mexican residents…and that is wonderful because they are what’s keeping our businesses going! The problem is…there is a constant language barrier and there is little to no employment in our town for English speaking residents and shopping in town is complicated by the language barrier as well. How can our town function better and provide employment opportunities for everyone in town? Teenagers (and adults) who don’t drive have nowhere to work.
A few ideas - start the first steps and learn the language of your community (take a class, do an app, etc just get at least to A1), find a bilingual friend to host some community language learning + cross culture events, maybe host a weekly bike ride with bilingual advertising + signage, petition your city council and local businesses to get bilingual signs up (maybe even offer to do the work), do the Chuck recommendation and recruit a barber to come and do haircuts once a week at the community center, host pot lucks, etc.
The juxtaposition between living in an actual town, with 5000 people and the sorts of problems that towns have, with cities that are the center of MSAs that have completely different problems is perhaps only matched with the goal of making small cities feel like Copenhagen. Does Strong Towns even care about towns? It seems like the answer to towns qua towns is consistently "be an idealized European metro instead".
what else can a local conversation do besides paint cross walks? We can’t be building new bike lanes and whatnot at the very beginning. So what are some cheap, easy, and small projects that you don’t need a permit for?
Good video, I would definitely like to see more content about cities with metro areas larger than 1 million people. What these smaller cities and towns are accomplishing is great but I feel like there much more hurdles in the way of bigger cities
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Is there a group near you? Are you going to give it a go? www.strongtowns.org/local
How does one actually join the group once they access that map?
@@xandradice Look them up
the pin should have info on who to reach out to!
Nothing outside of US/Canada?
I can't believe there's nothing in Montreal
It's interesting that $100k is considered "big grant" for making a community better, when that's the approximate cost of installing a single intersection traffic light system for cars...
Or a bus shelter
@@eliprotiva222 What’s bad about a bus shelter?
Yeah I thought that too. Studies alone cost like $75k to conduct it seems, and that;s JUST the study, nothing after that. But yeah they'll for sure find uses for that money, quick.
@@enjoystraveling I think spending 100k on a bus shelter is maybe the bad thing. We could have more if they were built cheaper.
I can do it for free with the stuff in my garage.
StrongTowns Albuquerque just kicked off. 70 people came to the first meeting including a city councilor. It can work! I’m feeling more hopeful and connected.
I'm trying to move there this year! I hope to join
Finding neighbors that share your feelings is a HUGE first step. If you go to a city council meeting by yourself and ask for a pedestrian island, likely nothing will happen. But if you go with 4 neighbors and they all talk about their struggle crossing that street, you're much more likely to get it. And it's not too hard to find neighbors. Just hang out at a nasty intersection, and when someone is struggling to cross, tell them you're thinking about going to a council meeting and bringing up the problem. They will be thrilled that you feel what they feel. Do this 10 more times, and you'll get a big group of people really quickly.
What's happening is these groups are filling in for a functional city government. The city government is focused on banning housing and widening streets, two things that destroy their own city, instead of using their power to make their city better.
Thanks for the platform, Mike! The Bloomington Revivalists are planning a BIG year for 2024!
I for sure need to come back. Thanks for having me!
Noah! It’s amazing to see you champion-ing this effort! Way to go man!
Way to go Noah! So proud of you 👍
I'm so glad! Love from Peoria!
I love how the foundational mantra of Strong Towns is essentially just being good to each other dudes; all the sweet urbanist design principles we geek out over just emerge naturally. I totally sympathize with people who choose to move to places with better urbanism. But to the people who choose to stay in less ideal places they nonetheless love to try and make them better - such profound respect and admiration.
Most people today expect change to come from the top. But in reality, it starts at the local level. That's the essence of democracy.
Congratulations for 100K!
Sometimes you have to apply the "easier to get forgiveness than permission" principle. An intersection needs a crosswalk? Go there at 1am on a Tuesday and paint that crosswalk. Odds are, nobody will realize it wasn't done by the city--not even the city.
Not in LA! They destroyed vigilante crosswalks that neighbors very much wanted
I think even if the City removes the tactical urbanism features get removed they are still worthwhile - it shows the neighborhood that change is possible, and it shows the City that people are serious about needing safety improvements there.
@@AssBlasster So? Most cities are not LA.
I'm in a cookie cutter, all slammed together, suburb housing dev., surrounded by oil/gas tank fields and refineries, and there's NO community here. Local FB groups are just People hustling their asses off. No trees. All cars.
I need to escape, but who will save me?
Can you plant some trees? A little tactical urbanism to get people thinking.
I’m a proud member of Sioux Falls strong towns, thank you for telling our story!
Putting in a tactical crosswalk in a city of 10000 people is a lot different than putting one in a city of a million. Big cities would rather spend the money to destroy your crosswalk/urban garden/etc then pay millions for a “traffic study.” I mean I’ve lobbied in my socal city for a single stop sign after someone was killed by a car and still nothing
Yep, isn’t it interesting that so many of these places are small to medium size towns (not suburbs or large cities or large cities) where it is generally easier to influence your city council or local city leadership? Ironic, especially when you consider that most people live in metro areas, whether its the city proper or one of the metro’s suburbs.
When they were talking about the “guerrilla crosswalks,” I immediate thought of the group in LA who has been trying the exact same thing for years and LA still spends more money to erase it than building actual safe infrastructure (and wastes it on expensive and pointless bus “shelters” that are not actually shelters).
@@ScramJett this is absolutely true, but i feel like the video being focused on the smaller towns and cities is intentional. Making improvements with huge cities like LA is so so much easier when these ideas exist and have been proven in places of all different sizes and locations. These efforts in small towns are a boon to everyone, if not just as a positive, successful example
And even if this approach doesn’t work everywhere, the people of Sioux Falls still deserve a nice place to live and I’m glad that there are strategies that work for them
Good point, but are you referring to Sioux Falls? That's a population of 200k, not 10k.
That's the power of bureaucracy. I work with our city planning bureau all the time for sustainable design projects and they try to hamper our progress at every single turn. They have rules upon rules upon rules that are highly stringent and if you can't check all their boxes, they will torpedo your project with Glee.
I picked up and moved to one of the few European-level urbanist walkable neighborhoods in the US, since they’re illegal to build anywhere these days. Progress moved too slow for me, but I’m grateful for everyone fighting the good fight.
@@iTzDritte how did you find that neighborhood?
@@carynw2625 in WalkScore’s city-level view, you can see neighborhoods ranked by WalkScore.
it must be quite expensive. I have heard that their demand is very high driving up the prices
Not only are there allies out there who’ve you’ve yet to meet, but there are people who don’t know they themselves are allies yet! Starting the conversation with people is a HUGE part of what needs to be done. Just mention to people how big the parking lot is, how it’s wasted space, or give them a vision of how it could be better.
“That 4-way stop is so dangerous!”?
Respond with, “We could daylight it, add some continuous sidewalks, and narrow the road a little.”
Take the chance and mention the small things in your area that could change!
Thanks for another great video!
True, unfortunately it's hard to do that when most people get annoyed by solutions, or are closed off to the idea that things could be better
@@minetech4898 Yes, it’s hard sometimes to improve things but baby step-by-step
@@minetech4898people are resistant to change, but if it’s small there’s less resistance
What does daylight it mean?
@@pendlera2959 "Daylight" in this case refers to removing blindspots from intersections. This doesn't just mean removing obstacles, but also placing things in specific places where they'll be seen. A good example of this would be be moving crosswalks a little further from intersections so vehicles making a turn go through the crosswalk 90 degree angle - making pedestrians more visible.
Strong Towns Lincoln kicked off as the second group in Nebraska! We had 32 people at our first meeting! Second meeting coming up in February!
I'm gonna MAKE MY PLACE BETTER
I'd highly recommend reading about movements in the past. There are so many regular people like us who were strong leaders that inspired thousands. America is filled with people like you and I who decided enough was enough and made the country better. American activist history is inspiring! Especially the civil rights movement. So many names you've never heard of who had a big impact.
Got this video recommended by "Not Just Bikes". Boy was i surprised to see my hometown of Sioux Falls highlighted here. Love seeing all the familiar places and at the pace this city is growing, strong towns seems like a great initiative. I might have to get involved with Strong Towns Sioux Falls!
I have just walked my nearby intersection under a full moon.
Painted lines look like a good start. 😊😊😊
I think my group will be in the talking stage for a while, because we consistently have new people showing up, but we don't yet have a core group of regulars. But we're reaching a lot of people and spreading the message, and that's one of the main things I wanted to do with it.
This is really inspirational. I'm still glad I moved away from my small sidewalk-less town, but this really gives me hope that I can better my parent's neighborhood (and my own)
This is something I've come to realize too, after having lived in a depressed part of upstate NY that has, over the 12 years I've been here, fluctuated up and down but seems to be on a decline again, unfortunately. Sometimes you do have to move to find places with the right cultural momentum to make the changes you want to see. Here my opinion is drowned out because the dominant culture just doesn't want the same things I want.
But somewhere where there's already a substantial inclination to improve? I could be the one extra person out of just a dozen or so needed to enact real change. And I'd rather take that than fighting a sysyphean battle with people who are happy with the way things are here.
Induced demand is not only for buses and subways, it's also for meetups. I started hosting a monthly meetup and after a year we've gone from 5 of us to 25 of us. People know our cadence of First Fridays and they show up. Online communities are cool, but people are truly craving IRL experiences and seeing people in the eye 😊
The best rebuttal to Not Just Bikes' "pack up and move to Amsterdam". Love it.
Not Just Bikes is what got me interested in the livability problems in most North American cities, but the overall sentiment expressed by the channel is that those cities are broken and aren't worth fixing so you should just move to the Netherlands. It's easy to point out bad things and good things, but it's hard to create concrete solutions. That's why this channel is worth watching. City Beautiful is another channel that points out positives and negatives but explains how things can be changed. But I find it hard to sit through a Not Just Bikes video anymore. The constant criticism of North American cities gets old fast.
It's not the best rebuttal in terms of timeline. 5 years to...pick up trash, paint some crosswalks, start some community spaces at the church, maybe some Habitat for Humanity involvement, and receive a grant for...continued engagement(?).
Doesn't sound like they've gotten any zoning or street design rule changes passed. Admittedly, looks like they still might have a decent mainstreet/downtown to build from?
Like, I get it. Starting from scratch and capacity-building takes time, unavoidably. But if I'm not already tethered to my town, my QoL and the bag-for-buck of my activism makes staying & fighting in my suburb a hard sell.
@@Exquisite_Poupon has he said they aren't worth fixing? All I ever heard him say was that they will take a long time to fix (which is true), and he has young kids to think about in the immediate term.
@@Exquisite_Poupon I've never got that from his videos. He does say it's not going to be fixed in his lifetime which is why he moved and good for him.
And the constant criticism? He's literally the guy who started doing it, lol. You can't know what is wrong without identifying it first.
I think it depends on your circumstances. I "just left", and I thank my lucky stars every day that I did. That said, I admire Strong Towns, and am rooting for those who stay behind to achieve their goals. It's not either or. We are allies.
This is an awesome highlight of the opportunity we all have within our communities! Awesome work, Sioux Falls and Strong Towns!!
Lancaster City, PA is on its way with a ST conversation! Thanks, folks, for all your passion, resources, and energy.
Random comment tangent time...
I don't disagree with what you're saying in principle, but I also think that moving away needs to be used more as a weapon against resistant N.American cities, and especially those with militant anti-urbanist movements and locked-in freeway expansion plans.
In fact, I'd go as far as to say we should convince more people to move out of those especially bad places and go join those places where real progress is actually being made and accelerate that progress, because the sooner the bad places are surrounded by really good places, the sooner the people in those bad places start to yearn for the change they're seeing around them.
The internet has really revealed that we urbanists (or urban revivalists) aren't just some fringe loners overreacting to a nothingburger, but we are in fact an army in diaspora. Separate and spread out the way we are, we make slow inefficient progress that is barely visible in the hundreds or thousands of places we're from. Often resulting in a large part of our group all doing repeated work, over and over again. For example, many people who could probably be doing more important actual of planning, inventing and building new models of urbanism, are instead stuck on square one, facing a car centric majority and bogged down by the hard work of just drumming up enough local interest to at least have a conversation about bike lanes, if they're lucky (and maybe still getting a bit of time to dream about the ideas they'll never see in their lifetime.).
Thing is, I think that if we really wanted to make some waves and actually get North America to new era of real urbanism before our funerals, we'd strategically bring our urbanist army together in 5 to 10 North American city fronts and tactically tip the political scales necessary to pursue the kind of large scale urbanist projects that can be beacons of light to everyone else, especially back home. So where tens or even hundreds of thousands of people would have spent a decade making bike lanes happen if they're lucky - in cities no one's ever heard of - and maybe garnered all of a few seconds of local media attention, we will have instead been thousands of people working together to create something that would in turn create sustainable national and international media attention, which then in turn creates the kind of populist demand for urbanism we just can't create ourselves, as small disparate groups of people.
With that said, I actually don't think we should flock to the big cities that already have decent-ish urbanism (Vancouver, Seattle, New York, etc.) either, but instead descend on 5 to 10 of the smaller and mid sized N.American cities that are particularly bad (but which are on a path to progress). Not only would it be easier to create the voting majority we would need, but the changes would be more city-wide in a smaller city. Plus, the canvas we would be working with, would be more blank, in the sense that there would be much less outdated urbanist infrastructure to compete with; meaning less compromise in being able to test out truly novel new ideas.
For example, take a look at "Lloydminster" in Google Earth. Terrible place that has been so nearly impossible to drum up interest in. Sure, in a decade, I might make some headway, but I feel like my skills could be better utilized, if people were already interested. Now, that leaves two options based on what I said above: either I do move somewhere and join the urbanist fight where it's already strong and send postcards of the progress back as inspiration, or flip the script and make this is one of the cities Canadian urbanists could descend onto. It's small enough to gain quick political influence, just big enough to justify urbanist concepts and be a blank canvas, plus it's so bad right now that it's makeover story would have an absolutely brilliant before/after conclusion that could really capture imaginations.
I dunno, just a thought. Either way, love your videos and the work you do!
This is what really puzzles me about Strong Towns. Every town they showcase are about the smaller and mid sized North American cities that already have some sort of mix-used zoning. In my opinion, these videos only promote moving as most North Americans don't live in these environments and would have to move to avoid the structural permanence of car-centric infrastructure or fight for an impossible win as redesigning those infrastructures would cost the city an amount no city would ever approve. For reference, I moved recently from the suburban car-centric outskirts of a large metropolitan and now live in a small walkable town of less than 20,000 people. Not only do I have a much larger voice when going to city commission meetings, but my town has many parts that are still unscathed to car-centric infrastructure that allows for things like urban placemaking to be successful. I really do love the work Strong Towns is doing too, but moving is the only answer for so many people.
This is a blind spot that Strong Towns has, I think. I don’t know if it’s that Chuck Marohn is from one of the types of towns that is so commonly featured in these videos, but it is a clear pattern. I do think so much of what they preach on is not easy, or even impossible, to translate into large cities and the suburban cities in large metro areas. It’s unfortunate, especially because this is where the majority of the population lives.
Me, personally, I’m looking to move to a small town or village in Europe, but my backup plan will be a small/medium walkable town in North America if I can’t get a residency permit in Europe. Probably a college town since they are frequently superior to other cities.
Come to Milwaukee!
I agree. Well said. Strong towns approach is not fast enough, and there are just too many pro-car people who haven’t yet seen what it can be like to live in a better city. We need examples to show.
@@josephcarreon2341 it's because, thanks to NotJustBikes, most people think moving is just moving to different countries like the Netherlands or Japan.
They haven't considered the possibility that they could move to a smaller town that has a lot of the things they're looking for.
I don't think StrongTowns is against that type of moving. They're against people leaving the country all together.
I appreciate the sentiment and I agree with the message of this but sometimes I do think that you need to move for a better life. For me, I moved from New Hampshire to Seattle and have found a welcoming community that is more in line with my values. I'm much happier here than I was back home.
TURN. ME. UP.
Strong Towns is my first stop if I ever need to get hyped up. I'm so excited to make the places we live in better
I love the Local Conversations program and I'm so excited to see more groups taking action and becoming forces for good in their communities.
I'm trans and live in Rural Missouri. I'm definitely moving, but I'm hoping to help wherever I move to.
I've lived in other places but my roots are in Sioux Falls and I'm glad I moved back and found this group
Dude I live in Sioux Falls and had no idea it would be the main focus when I clicked on this video. I've only properly lived here for 4 months, but I've had heavy connections to the city over the last 3 years, I went to school in Brookings. Definitely gonna get involved with these people. Not sure how long I'll stay in Sioux Falls (probably between 5 and 10 years), but there is no reason not to help a community out if you're willing to put in the time.
My city is working on their 20 year plan, and has invited many community members (including myself) to come out and help with the plan. What surprised me the most is that the majority of us in that meeting all want the same thing for our city, and only a couple of people there were active followers of the Strong Town movement. I think as we go out and start to push for a strong town we'll find that the resistance isn't that people don't want it, but is actually just complacency. Strong Town in the USA is possible!
My city is working on their 2050 plan. It is less ambitious than their 2030 plan. Not only have we admitted that we won't meet our 2030 plan by 2030, but we are planning on not making it by 2050.
@@smileyeagle1021 well that's depressing, sorry to hear that 😩
@@ModPinto yeah, and as depressing as it is, I'm so happy for the Wayback Machine, because if it weren't for that, the only way that anyone could get a copy of the 2030 plan is through a FOIA request. Our regional planning agency really wants people to forget that plan existed.
I think that this is part of why Strong Towns resonates with so many people, we know it is the people at the top who broke our communities, we can't count on them to fix them.
This is an absolutely fantastic video. It is true that nothing exclusively online is going to truly impact your community, you need to go outside. You need to meet with people. You can't just trust that some city is the place you want to be because they are "moving in the right direction"
Kind of like a lot of online communities. They talk a lot, but don't accomplish much of anything other than internet traffic.
I get this. I totally do. And part of me wants to because there are things I love about where I am but like. I’m so tired of being in danger every time I leave my home. The path to get to the train where I live because of how the cross walks are set up has me either jaywalking or crossing 4 conflict points including a slip lane that people are always passing while looking in the opposite direction leading to me almost getting hit repeatedly. I pass through a school zone with no sidewalks on my commute to and from work and ride an E bike that goes the speed limit and and almost every day see what almost ends up being a collision because of people trying to pass, including one time a massive SUV almost got into a head on collision with a school bus. Just yesterday I had to swerve into the lane going the opposite direction because some dude in a massive SUV almost hit me when I had the right of way. And almost every time I cross this one intersection on my way home I almost get right hooked by a car not looking to their right for bikes. I’m so tired of it. I’m so tired of being almost 2 miles out from the nearest grocery store and having to ride there in mixed traffic on a busy stroad. I’m sick of having only 1 slow lightrail line and buses that come every 40 minutes as my only public transit options. I just came back from a trip to tokyo and yokohama and the safety and convenience was just. Unbelievable. I want to be somewhere like that so badly.
Feel like there has to be small cities or towns that have better infrastructure. Move there. Don't need to move continents in order to find good places to live
Such an important topic. As someone who did take the leap to move, I still think its important to highlight the good of where I came from. I hope to show people what makes communities worth celebrating, no matter in the US or abroad. Surprisingly (or not) we all have a lot more in common when it comes to place pride than we think. Keep up the work Mike and Strong Towns team! You’re message is SO important ❤
Sorry, but my pro/con list says it’s time to go. All I ask is to live in a place that has lots of trains, lots of good transit, and lots of places to ride a bike without dying. And that I can get to nature without a car. That is not ANYWHERE in America. At all. Period. Maybe you’re right and a top down “overnight Amsterdam” would be too much to ask for in most cities and would be furiously resisted, but I’m too old to wait for the literal decades (centuries?) for incrimentalism to fail repeatedly before actually succeeding. I’d probably get runover by a car long before it happens.
Btw - my definition of nature is not a strip of grass with a couple trees or a field of weeds. It has to be fractally diverse and complex for it to qualify as nature.
That’s alright. You’re one of the lucky few who has the privilege of making that choice. Embrace it, if it is what you want.
@@lord6411 yes, I do recognize that I am in a “privileged” position to be able to immigrate to somewhere else. But I think it’s easy to forget, especially to a “putting down roots” culture like America, that human history is one of migration, not stagnation. It is in our nature to leave an area that feels hostile to us and relocate somewhere that feels less hostile.
I'm 1 minute into the video and as much as I can tell I'll agree with the message. Yes the grass most definitely is greener on the other side at the moment.
Super happy to see my hometown of Sioux Falls on your channel. Every time I’m back home, it seems like there are some of these improvements, but many more dumb road projects outside the city center. It will be great when the folks featured in this video start to have more say in new development projects to end the problem even before it starts.
I appreciate the strong towns team so much.
Great vid. A reall fillip at the end of a tough week! Thanks for sharing this inspirational message.
I like the idea of physically doing something to meet an existing need that the city is not fulfilling. People want to feel empowered. Now they can see a physical manifestation of something they can participate in directly.
one thing I really value about this channel is the comment section
it's really nice knowing that even if I don't agree with the video there will be at least something of value below
Guerilla infrastructure becomes something greater. Love it.
Simple question: Do the people in your city WANT your city to change?
If not, consider moving to a place where they do, or better yet a city that's teetering on the edge and your vote might tip the balance. Consider places nearby!
I've been utterly amazed by the changes going on in Toronto. We have a long way to go, but we might catch up to Amsterdam in 60 years if we keep going like this.
That’s my problem… I could wait 60 years for my city to become passable, or I could just leave now and get it now. I got the sense living in SF that locals there didn’t want the city to change, and that going to city planning meetings helped but not at the speed for me to benefit from the fruits for it before turning 80 so… I just left.
In my case I had the resources and flexibility to do it so I did it. I admire those who make it their lives work to move the needle wherever they’re from, but to me it’s much easier and honestly rational to just go somewhere that shares your values and already have done the work to be the place you want to be in, than to try to change the values of those you don’t agree with.
i think it depends. i'm currently in Calgary, Alberta, and i may end up just moving to Edmonton. because staying in Alberta would be easier than changing province for me. and, Edmonton is showing good promise to improve itself. they already removed mandatory parking minimums in 2020 and have long been more open to change than say Calgary is, despite being plagued by car-dependent culture for many decades. It is the most progressive city you can go to out west, besides Vancouver, which is simply too expensive for me. I feel like Edmonton is very well positioned to be a launch-pad for new urbanism in the following years. especially since the new Valley Line LRT opening up, the expansion of it to the west coming in the future. and the fact that Edmonton is the most affordable big city currently. I don't see any other city being better that is west of Toronto.
I'm quite ambivalent on this subject: On the one hand, I find this type of local organizing and direct action to be a good foundation for community building and for attempting to reverse SOME of the effects of neoliberal globalization, especially regarding the downstream impact that relocation for employment has. On the other hand...*sigh* this is just not what needs doing. We don't need more crosswalks or bike paths or stop signs; they won't keep you from losing your job. And yes, this type of organizing CAN find its way into more meaningful action, but that's not what typically happens. Absolutely, systemic problems won't change without this foundational level of organizing and community building, but they also won't change if people are focused on these types of issues. Indeed, focusing on these types of issues may actually feedback into gentrification, which stems from the need by transplants to "revitalize" areas hit hard by neoliberal globalization.
So maybe instead of working on creating crosswalks and bike paths, people help build food production and distribution networks, local repair networks not tied to places like IFixIt, or even better yet, revitalize networks of support for people organizing unions and going on strike.
This is a fantastic video! Just the right kind of realistic meaningful local praxis we can all engage in! Keep up the good work.
I live in the inland empire.
There's no fixing this.
Thank you for sharing this - it's really inspiring :) - Update: I've just signed up to a volunteering list / for volunteering opportunities from my local council (Southampton, UK), they have numerous volunteering opportunities in the city, from volunteering at a local nature centre, to litter picking and conservation volunteers.
This video really spoke to me. Filled me with hope that I can make my community better and it is not beyond reach. Joined the local conversation discord and went to my friends of the park group meeting for my neighborhood.
Strong towns videos make me feel motivated instead of angry and despondent about the problems in my city.
great vid- thanks for putting the spotlight on some smaller projects
I moved out of buffalo ny to San Diego. Worth it.
San Diego has a ton of work to do in order to be safer for pedestrians and build the housing that it's sorely needs. As a whole that region is spread out too far, and it dedicates way too much land to the automobile.
I spent my almost my entire life in San Diego, I didn't leave by choice.
@@rws91942 It's a place were the wealthy live. The cost of living has skyrocketed every year since I moved here in 2004. Luckily my pay stays current and I have rental properties that also do well. We are not a city that is based on a city we spread from Mexico to Orange County building all along the ocean to the deserts.
Thanks for the program, this can make a big change.
Gotta say, Houston makes it real hard.
People are moving less because moving is expensive and people are poorer than ever before.
"People are poorer than ever before."
I'm REALLY going to need a source for that claim.
@@jz4461I think OP is referring to how COL increases faster than a worker's pay, reducing the average buying power over time. Not the actual salary of workers
@@AssBlasster Perhaps, but there's still a troubling number out there who generally believe workers today are worse off their peers hundreds of years ago. Their standard of living really should put that lie to rest, but hey, you've got self-described academics out there teaching kids that medieval serfs only worked 10 hours a week. Should've made the Little House books required reading...
@@SoybeanAK Well if 20 somethings can't comfortably live on their own anymore and need to cram many people into a small apt, it's fair to say that our standard of living is getting worse (relative to our parents). Technology will always get better and get incorporated into our lives, like the advancements in AC, electrical and plumbing infrastructure that it make comfortable to live anywhere in the country.
@@AssBlasster Relative to our parents, sure. the Boomers enjoyed a level of widespread prosperity never before seen anywhere in human history, thanks to an unprecedented double dip following WWII in which the US was not only the largest manufacturing powerhouse ever, but also stood alone with all previous challengers bombed to dirt. That that changed isn't a sign of downturn, but of the U.S. returning to parity with more of the world.
Besides, it's a false premise. Plenty of 20somethings still live comfortably on their own in this country (ask me how I know) by living where their parents did, and/or to the standard of living their parents did. Those 20s professionals who choose high-attraction cities and pay for luxuries, will largely make their money back long term- that's where the big money is, after all. But don't pretend they're all forced to live in dorms.
Love the content. Reminds me of my hometown of Newark, NY where I bought a house 2 years ago. My 4 month old son is the 6th generation of my family in this town.
My cousins went to Brooklyn, LA, and I always love visiting them. But the lifestyle my wife and I are cultivating is very powerful and there is a ton of upward potential in this rusty town!
I stayed in Newark recently and thought the people there are great! You're so right that it's place with a lot of potential
Cool to see my home town on here. It was a great place to work, learn, and raise kids, and I'm glad people there still think so.
Thank you for this video! I cannot tell you how timely and important this message is to our movement in Manchester, NH
Has Strong Towns seen a difference in success between groups that are highly localized (like a neighborhood) compared to groups that are broader (metro area)?
My ST group encompasses the entire metro area. It's cool to talk to people outside my neighborhood but I think it also makes it more difficult to do any hands-on projects. It also seems like there are a lot of people in my neighborhood that are interested in ST but they are not interested in issues outside of the neighborhood and are less likely to go to a meeting when it's further away.
As your group grows, you may be able to spin off sub-groups covering specific areas, while retaining the central group for organization, messaging, and support. Basically adapt to an organization based on subsidiarity.
Guy showing off his(?) old Soviet motorcycle in the first 2 minutes, that thing is badass. Great video!
Yeah, I have no hope in the political will and American selfishness to fix things. So I’m in the process of moving to Germany
Thank you for pointing this out bro.
Thank you for the inspiration! I am currently looking at my local Strong Towns, Grand Rapids site.
Thank you strong towns for always focusing on optimism on how we can make what we already have better.
Fixing where you live is great but i disagree that every community is worth saving. I love fixing up old houses and cars and I have been a community leader (and follower) in many roles. I love helping and saving things especially lost causes. However, if your town actually sucks, you have no ties to it, and you can move to somewhere where there is an actual movement going on, go there. You don't owe your life to some rust bucket of a town.
I visited Sioux Falls when I was moving out west and was incredibly surprised and impressed by six falls as a city
People are not moving because borrowing cost is much higher.
The interest rate is starting to go down. Really
I hope these sort of ideas comes to memphis. I'd love to see my home town improve and thrive. It's worth saving, even if people don't think it can be saved.
you cant fix where you live if the problem is to many people moving there. fuck salt lake, this place used to be rad
A few years ago, I was looking for an intriguing place that was within a 3 hour drive of where I live. I came across Sioux Falls, it seemed like it was pretty neat and I went to the city without any plan. When I got there, I was absolutely blown away by the walkability of downtown, the amenities and parks, the high quality businesses and diverse array of things to do. I did not expect something like this at all to be in South Dakota. People were friendly, many seemed to know one another, there's a great night life and a beautiful art walk. I fell in love with Sioux Falls and have visited several times over the past few years. I highly recommend anybody to visit!
It’s inspiring what those groups featured have done, it’s my dream for our group to accomplish a fraction of what they have. Keep up the amazing work everyone!
If you are thinking of leaving the country, decide before you are 40. That is when your residency eligibility plummets for most people. Of course, they will expect you to have several hundred thousand dollars in assets beforehand.
Not necessarily, true, some people have moved near retirement age with not so many assets, and have moved to mountain towns in Mexico or towns in Costa Rica in South America, and are doing just fine.
But I agree it’s good to try to change things in your own town for the better if you can
The big change in thinking at the local level has to be that cars do not have rights, people do. And just because cars carry people, does not afford them superior rights over anyone else.
Thank you for organizing people.
Alaska has a strong anti-progressive contingent. I could try for years, but likely won’t happen in my lifetime. I’d much rather move somewhere with a walkable quality of life. Thanks for the video!
Think of it not as running away from something but as running towards something else.
I considered moving to the US after graduating university. Ended up deciding on a different country and I feel like I dodged a bullet since.
And that's not even just about the car-centric cities, there's just... so many other things.
We're a global superpower in decline. Things tend to get wild in such circumstances. Germany, Rome, etc... Man if you moved here after WW2 you would have had a great time though.
@@chazdomingo475 Only because I'm a white guy! Then again, I might have gotten locked up as a commie spy or something.
Can you share where you moved to? I'm considering moving as well and I am curious where people choose over the US
@@toonnaobi-okoye2949 I moved to Japan, tho that ended up having problems of its own, so looking somewhere else now. Every country has its own set of problems, but at least I don't need to drive everywhere here...
@@Marconius6 oh I see. I'm considering the Netherlands, Portugal or Malaysia so far. Been to Netherlands last year, looking to visit the other 2 this year before I really consider making a choice.
I love the unsanctioned crosswalks. You could wait years for a city government to get around to finding a bucket of paint. Or you could lay one down where it’s needed now.
I really hope ST continues to grow and more people choose to do the work. I jumped ship to Europe, but with family and friends in the States, I still hope things will improve.
12:40 I thought cataclysmic money was for huge redevelopment projects that cost millions of dollars. $100,000 is not even enough to build a house in most places...
It depends on scale. For a neighborhood, $100k isn't a lot, but for a small group of volunteers, it's a lot to manage.
@@Descriptor413 I agree that it is a big amount, especially for a small group, I just don't think it's the same as Jacob's notion of cataclysmic money. Cataclysmic money is bad for cities in part because it wipes out city diversity. For example, a redevelopment project wiping a variety of building sizes and ages and uses in a "slum" and replacing it with a "project" housing. This turns a flexible, organic environment into a static, artificial one, and destroys a community in the process, making it a sort of "cataclysm." I can't see $100,000 being used for anything big that the community wouldn't be able to quickly recover from. In fact, $100,000 seems like the perfect amount for the incremental, experimental development that Jacobs advocates for. Even if a $100,000 project fails it falls far short of a cataclysm.
That's not to say I didn't enjoy the video or that I disagree with what it's saying. I'm just being nitpicky :P
I feel like this is yet another example of small towns and cities leading the way in good urbanism.
We should consider looking at tactics like the Free State Project in NH where you get a large number of like minded individuals and pick a city to move to and and start the process of remaking it. Interesting thought 🤔
Hopefully we don't get attacked by bears
That would be a good experiment but ultimately things like that tend to fall apart because people don't get really invested and the people that would do such of thing aren't big on attachments in the first place.
@@chazdomingo475it's been going on for quite some time now.
In some places, painting the cross walk without a permit will get you a fine or arrested. It would be considered vandalizing city property.
I'm staying and fighting for a better community, but I'm doing it knowing that I'm going to fail. I have no hope of saving my community, I just hope I can delay the decline long enough that my children won't be the ones facing the cliff edge of the community's failure.
Wanting a better community is a very vocal, but very tiny community. The vast majority of Americans like our failed system and don't care that it is failing, and unlike the trope of the silent majority, they make their views very well known.
Truthfully, I think my ultimate goal is keeping things from going completely wrong for just long enough for my kids to find a way to leave. I want to be left behind, knowing that I paved the way for their escape.
I love Strong Towns and everything they stand for, but we lost before we started. On the bright side, I now will find out just how romantic fighting a lost cause is.
I'm not waiting around for 50 years to live in a walkable neighborhood. I'm leaving the US this year. Good luck everyone else, I am tired of this.
Just make sure to keep making positive change where you end up, don't just rest in your new community, it needs you there too to get better
Not an American here, but aside from giving us hope to improve our neighborhoods, I've noticed: All over the world there is quite a gap between the "government" with its different administrative levels (federal - state -municipality) and the citizens. I get the feeling that this gap of not being heard (or knowing how to participate at the local level) leads to frustration and ultimately voting for populists or representatives who just make you feel they hear you (but later are acting against your interests). Community organizations can fill this gap and the only thing which needs to be improved is having more of these.
Love this channel, but... Moving is... Beyond extremely easier than trying to fix a city that is... At least, 30-40 years behind the majority of other developed nations. Should I stay in this terrible system in the hopes that it will take the best case scenario that will last until I'm retired? No. In the video you can't even rely on your city to do the absolute basics of even providing paint for cross walks... No. Move people. Get out while you can.
You can't even define it in years behind, because the development in the US isn't even moving in the same direction. Western Europe basically stopped building/bulldozing cities for more cars after the oil crisis, which is now 50 years ago, while the US has and to some degree still does continue this path.
I unfortunately agree with this sentiment. I love my old hometown and I can see the possibilities it can hold. But the number of hoops we would have to jump through just to have a liveable/walkable neighborhood is too damn high.
I moved because I was fed up with cul-de-sacs, ultra-conservatives, and big box stores and stroads. In 20 years I knew it the area had changed so much for the worse it was essentially permanently ruined, now there's even abandoned big box centers and parking lots while new ones going in on the other side of town. But there's always people to move in and create more traffic, they can have it. I was done, bye bye.
@@oldunionI'm curious, where did you move to, if you don't mind sharing? I'm seriously thinking of moving from Canada but not sure yet where to go, main issue being most well designed cities seems to be in countries where I may have to learn a new language, and I'm not sure I can do that at my age.
There’s the Oh the Urbanity video about moving vs staying that I think is the most down to earth video about the topic, considering pros and cons of both staying and moving and using a North American perspective. I think it is called “you don’t need to move to Amsterdam to be happy”.
Change from the bottom = decades dealing with American bureaucracy to achieve small results. The key is to love the process.
Amazing video. Just clicked the link and I'm shocked to find not a single group in Los Angeles. We might have to do something about that 😏
Guerrilla crosswalks are great, but what about sidewalks, bike paths, public gardens and public parks? How can we get people with the knowledge and equipment for construction and excavation to join strong towns? A business will never construct these things if the local government doesn't sanction it, its too risky for businesses. It needs to be rich people, who want to mqje the change, and are willing to risk it for the biscuit. How do we find or convince any of those people?
Many hands make light work!
I've seen enough cars and semi's driving over our bump-outs to really like the look of those bollards.
This feels like it's aimed at extroverts and leader types.
100k subs now. Well done.
wow this feels like you're the only person saying something like this, but it makes so much sense. thanks for sharing your viewpoint.
I feel like communities are undervalued.
Make Moves Baby!!...
The problem in my town seems so overwhelming and I don’t know how to bring the subject up without backlash. Our town is heavily dependent on our Brazilian and Mexican residents…and that is wonderful because they are what’s keeping our businesses going! The problem is…there is a constant language barrier and there is little to no employment in our town for English speaking residents and shopping in town is complicated by the language barrier as well. How can our town function better and provide employment opportunities for everyone in town? Teenagers (and adults) who don’t drive have nowhere to work.
A few ideas - start the first steps and learn the language of your community (take a class, do an app, etc just get at least to A1), find a bilingual friend to host some community language learning + cross culture events, maybe host a weekly bike ride with bilingual advertising + signage, petition your city council and local businesses to get bilingual signs up (maybe even offer to do the work), do the Chuck recommendation and recruit a barber to come and do haircuts once a week at the community center, host pot lucks, etc.
Babe wake up, another Strong Towns video just dropped
The juxtaposition between living in an actual town, with 5000 people and the sorts of problems that towns have, with cities that are the center of MSAs that have completely different problems is perhaps only matched with the goal of making small cities feel like Copenhagen.
Does Strong Towns even care about towns? It seems like the answer to towns qua towns is consistently "be an idealized European metro instead".
what else can a local conversation do besides paint cross walks? We can’t be building new bike lanes and whatnot at the very beginning. So what are some cheap, easy, and small projects that you don’t need a permit for?
Good video, I would definitely like to see more content about cities with metro areas larger than 1 million people. What these smaller cities and towns are accomplishing is great but I feel like there much more hurdles in the way of bigger cities