Friday Faves - Your Weekly Strong Towns Roundup
Each week, the Strong Towns team shares their favorite links—the things that made us think in new ways, delve deeper into the Strong Towns mission, or even just smile.
Here’s (most of) the Strong Towns team, mid-conversation during our staff retreat this week.
This week, the Strong Towns team has been busy with a three-day staff “retreat.” Our staff works remotely all over the country but, during normal times, we try to get together in-person every quarter or so. It’s a chance to check-in, plan long-term strategy, brainstorm and hang out a bit. Sadly, this year we’re only able to meet over Zoom, but it’s still been a productive time, and we’re even finding a little space for fun with a “shark tank” style pitch session today.
In other news, in case you missed it, we’re hiring for a part-time, remote bookkeeper position (applications due August 9), we kicked off a survey of podcast listeners this month (please fill it out to help us build a better podcast), and we’re hosting a webcast about “missing middle” housing, featuring Dan Parolek next Tuesday (August 11).
Lots going on. Thanks for being part of it.
Here’s what Strong Towns staff were reading this week:
John: Sarah Cipkar was one of several panelists on our recent webcast about how communities are using incremental development to build long-term prosperity. In a blog post last week, Sarah describes beginning her personal journey as an incremental developer in Windsor, Ontario. She also talks about why incremental development is such a powerful approach to growing stronger and more financially resilient cities:
Think about it this way: having 10 people in a neighbourhood add 10 units to their separate properties would create 10 new income streams for each of these individual property owners. Contrast this to one developer, building one 10 unit building and likely concentrating all of that investment into one company or person (and taking it out of the neighbourhood).
Lauren: This teeny-tiny example of tactical urbanism made me smile. Someone set up a “Silly Walking Zone” across the street from their apartment window and recorded the people who participated. Children, parents, young adults, and seniors enjoyed a moment of creativity and humor. This is the kind of small bet that makes a place lovable.
Rachel: The impacts of the pandemic are going to be felt for decades in so many areas of our lives. The erosion of childcare options—and what that means for children’s learning and everyone’s economic outlook—is an important one to pay attention to. This Politico interview with a labor economist delves into the many implications of the current economic shutdown and how it may set back peoples’ careers and earnings—especially women—for years to come:
When the economist Betsey Stevenson looks at the pandemic-era economic crisis, she sees a long-simmering child care crisis that has suddenly surged to the foreground of people’s lives—and whose true scope we’ve barely begun to reckon with. Its potential to inflict lasting damage to the economy is enormous, and it’s getting short shrift in the recovery plans coming out of Washington.
Alexa: I read this short story a few years ago in an apocalypse themed anthology and it was by far my favorite piece. I’m sharing it, not because it has anything to do with Strong Towns, but because I love it and think about this story often. It is a fictional Wikipedia page of an author who experiences the end of the world as we know it.
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Finally, from Alexa and all of us, a warm welcome to the newest members of the Strong Towns movement:
Jonathan Cooper, Amanda Everitt, Krista Fancher, Aretha R Ferrell-Benavides, Thomas Gear, Robert Greene, Richard Gronqvist, Baxter Hankin, Mark Hiester, Francisca Llenas-Rossi, Andrew Mazer, Ross Muirhead, Ronnie Neill, Michael Prohaska, Aaron Rendahl, Nicole Sanderson, Susan Sandy, Mary Solberg, Galina Tachieva, Sharon Villines, Melissa Ward, and Jim Wilson.
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What stories got you thinking this week? Please share them in the comments or continue the conversation in the Strong Towns Community.