Last chance to submit to our infrastructure contest

Here's a pop quiz:

Which project is more likely to have a higher return on investment and make your town stronger?

a. $2 million to expand a road from two lanes in each direction to three.

b. $2,000 to restripe a street to include bike lanes, build a community garden, or create DIY curb bump-outs to #SlowtheCars

If you answered A, maybe you should spend a little more time reading Strong Towns' work.

If you answered B, you should submit to our Strongest Infrastructure Project contest. We've received dozens of submissions so far, but we'd love more. We want a wide representation of the wonderful small-scale initiatives happening all over the country.  Submissions are due by Friday, September 30.

THE CONTEST

You’re invited to nominate a project from your town (or a town you’re familiar with) that exemplifies Strong Towns principles including:

  • local decision-making and public input
  • bottom-up rather than top-down action
  • project design that’s built to adapt or change incrementally
  • utilizing existing resources, land and infrastructure instead of building from scratch
  • true return on investment

We’re looking for homegrown, neighborhood-based small bets. For the purposes of this contest, we’re defining an "infrastructure project" as any community investment (public or private) that interacts with the public realm and improves the neighborhood in some way. This is part of our ongoing conversation on infrastructure and debt in America.

Once we receive these submissions, we’ll review them as a staff and select the best ones for publication on our website. Then you, our readers and listeners, will get a chance to vote for whichever one that you think most exemplifies Strong Towns principles.

Read contest rules and guidelines, and see project examples here.

(Top photo of Aki's Breadhaus kitchen, a cooperatively-funded neighborhood development)

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