What does it mean to be part of a bottom-up revolution?

Last month, Strong Towns: A Bottom-Up Revolution to Rebuild American Prosperity was published. Since then, I’ve been touring North America to promote the Strong Towns movement and share our ideas with audiences big and bigger. It’s been an astounding six weeks.

And as the person who has been here from the start, the one who wrote the very first article on this site eleven years ago, the one who coined the term “Strong Towns” and first started talking of the work as a “movement for change” (when others scoffed at the notion), today I am very confident of two things:

First, what we’re doing – all of us, together – is working. We’re changing the entire conversation about growth, development, capital investment, cities, and infrastructure. There are few places in this country where these issues are being discussed where our ideas are not influencing the conversation. That’s not because of me, and it’s not because of any of us here working for the organization. It’s because of you; our members, our audience, and this entire movement of people that is out there sharing our message and pushing for change.

Second, this movement is about to break through into a higher level of the cultural discourse. This has happened before as our ideas have spread, and each time it’s an exponential ride up the influence curve. This time, the leap is going to be huge – we can see it starting to happen. The book release buzz has connected us with three cable news networks as well as multiple national media publications, all of which are enthusiastic about discussing our ideas. The platform for spreading our message is about to expand. This is exciting.

Every November, we pause for a week to ask the members of our audience to support the Strong Towns movement by becoming members. The $5, $10, $25 or more a month so many are giving us – or your one-time contribution of any amount – is the most important source of funding we have. Please take a moment right now and sign up to be a member of Strong Towns.

Strong Towns is a 501(c)(3) non-profit organization. Becoming a member is one important way of supporting our mission. It’s saying to us, and to others, “This is an important message and I want to see it spread to more places.” The 40% of our funding that comes from memberships, from thousands of people giving a little bit each month, is how we’ve gotten to this point. This is truly a bottom-up revolution.

And to make things a little bit more interesting, for this week only — and only for this one week of the member drive — any new members that sign up at $10 per month or higher is going to get an autographed copy of my recently released book, along with the lost chapter, companion reading list, and an invitation to the inaugural book club (to be launched in January 2020). We’re only doing that offer for one week, so don’t delay.

Here’s where our North American members are from. What a diverse group of people!

If you become a member, you’re going to be joining a movement like no other you’re going to encounter today.

Last week I spoke in Manhattan to packed house. The week prior, we packed another venue in Iowa City. There is no other urbanist conversation — no other relevant movement dealing with the way we build our cities — that appeals to such a wide swath of Americans.

In the last six weeks, we’ve shared our ideas in some very affluent places, including Washington D.C., New York, and Seattle. We’ve also been invited — and had large, enthusiastic turnouts — for places that are full of deep struggles. Places like East Orange, New Jersey, and York, Pennsylvania, and Salisbury, Maryland.

Our conversation has something important to offer all of these places. Sharing this message with authenticity and passion, we’re now reaching a broader swath of American than ever before, including people of all ages, genders, races, and social classes.

And as our national political conversation becomes even more dysfunctional, as we gear up to descend into an election year almost guaranteed to debase our cultural dialogue even further, Strong Towns is one of the few organizations reaching liberals and conservatives, red state and blue state voters, rural and urban alike. And we’re doing this, not by going soft or watering things down, but by presenting a revolutionary message for meaningful change.

We need you to join this revolution. Take a moment today to lend your support to something really important, something that is already affecting how we talk about our cities, towns, and neighborhoods. With your support — at any level you can afford — we’ll continue to aggressively grow this bottom-up revolution until it reaches every city, including yours.

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