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.

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Alexa took this lovely shot of the James River in her city of Richmond, VA this week

The biggest news this week is that we just premiered a new podcast, The Bottom-Up Revolution, which features the stories of the Strong Towns movement in action.  It's all about how regular people have stepped up to make their communities more economically resilient, and how you can implement these ideas in your own place. Our long-running Strong Towns Podcast is also back in action after a four-month hiatus. So you can enjoy a couple hours of fresh listening this weekend, and look forward to weekly releases of both podcasts from here on out.

One more quick note before we get to the links: Make sure to mark your calendar for an important upcoming presentation, “The Economic Impact of Redlining” which will take place October 29 at 1pm EST. In this free webcast, Chuck Marohn will discuss his recent article, “The Local Case for Reparations” in a conversation hosted by Urban3’s Joe Minicozzi, alongside Director of Economic Development for Kansas City and Wyandotte County, Katherine Carttar. Sign up here.

Here’s what Strong Towns staff were reading this week:

John: I’ve been doing some research for an article I’d like to write about how the Suburban Experiment—our fragile-making, land-hungry, auto-oriented development pattern—is driving up the price of farmland. Among other effects, higher land prices make it hard for existing or would-be farmers to rent, buy, or expand. This is one reason the average age of an American farmer is 58, and it makes our food systems less resilient. 

One aspect I hadn’t considered before reading this recent article in The Other Oregon was how sand and gravel operations also put pressure on the limited supply of good farmland. Where I live in Oregon’s Willamette Valley, there is, apparently, an “uneasy truce” between farmers and the aggregate industry. But will that truce hold as Portland, the Eugene-Springfield metro, and other towns and cities grow? According to the article, about 85,000 tons of aggregate are required to build one mile of a four-lane highway; a typical six-room house requires about 90 tons. Farmers and quarry miners are navigating the daily challenges to their tenuous truce: a land purchase here, a permit hearing there. In the meantime, one question too few people are asking: Why not grow our towns and cities in a way that doesn’t require so many resources—land, rock, soil, etc.—in the first place?

Lauren: Fair warning: this essay by Mark Manson has an F-bomb or three in it. There’s lots to agree and disagree with in this piece, which discusses the deluge of news we passively consume on a daily basis, and how becoming more intentional about the process can help us be better informed and happier. By disconnecting from a stream of information tube-fed to us through social media, we are better able to buff up on topics that we deem important. And the remainder of our bandwidth can go to those issues that affect us, now, in our community.

Chuck: Chris Arnade’s book Dignity and JD Vance’s book Hillbilly Elegy have both been on my annual most recommended lists in recent years. I sense that they are both getting at a critical disconnect between our political/economic systems, the people who envision and manage them, and the people they are supposed to serve. It’s a disconnect that we talk about a lot here at Strong Towns, urging cities to orient horizontally in service of their people instead of vertically in service of top-down systems and capital flows. In this recent American Compass Podcast episode, Arnade is most on point when he says: “My biggest criticism of both the Left and Right, and the essays got at this in some sense, is I just don’t think the political donor base of either party knows the people they’re advocating for.”

I don’t think they do either, which Arnade summarizes with the statement, “The Left talks down to people, and the Right just tells them to do better.” When I talk to my neighbors here in small town America, that’s exactly what I hear from them.

Alexa: This is a short, but sweet article about a man named Tom Pritchard, or Moose Mazarkda, depending on who you speak to. I’ve never heard of this man, but after reading this article I feel like I got a sense of who he was. He was larger than life and, as the article says, a real Forrest Gump type. Read this if you’re looking for something a little bittersweet.

Michelle: My spouse and I are both new urbanist snobs who give constant commentary as we travel around…with a 4- and 7-year old. It’s good for all of us to learn why it is important to put people first when shaping our communities and how thoughtful design plays a part in that. The Planning & Urban Design Department at the City of Dallas is doing the same with their recently released activity book: Paul the Planning Alpaca Teaches Us About Urban Planning in Dallas. It educates folks on the role of an Urban Planner and planning concepts…something that we can all learn about.

Finally, from all of us, a warm welcome to the newest members of the Strong Towns movement: Sharonlee Cummins, David Jenkins, Mark Minton, Alfred Parsons, Miah Shull Olmsted, Jason Slaughter, Michelle Stancil, Rachel Wick, and Hoffman Wolff..

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What stories got you thinking this week? Please share them in the comments.