Friday Faves - Your Weekly Strong Towns Roundup
Strong Towns content manager John Pattison is sharing his office with his seventh-grade daughter, whose school is all online right now. John swears he doesn’t have a dress code.
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.
This week has been a chaotic rollercoaster at the national level—par for the course in 2020. But at home, in our neighborhoods, in our cities, life keeps moving. Parents are figuring out how to navigate school with their kids. Businesses are working on staying open and serving their neighbors. Local leaders are, as ever, on the frontlines trying to do their best to keep communities safe, functioning and even hopeful.
And we’re doing what we can to support them. We’re publishing hard-hitting analyses, speaking (virtually) in venues across the nation, and sharing powerful resources that will help you be a better advocate for financial resilience in your town. Most recently, we’ve been rolling out lessons in two Strong Towns Academy courses: “Creating Housing Opportunities in a Strong Town,” and “Aligning Transportation with a Strong Towns Approach.”
Here’s what Strong Towns staff were reading this week:
John: On Tuesday, the New York Times ran an article analyzing an unusual divergence in crime statistics. Most reported crimes have gone down during the pandemic, while shootings and homicides have spiked. Typically these trend together. As experts try to solve the puzzle, one factor getting attention is the way the pandemic has “frayed all kinds of institutions and infrastructure that hold communities together, that watch over streets, that mediate conflicts, that simply give young people something to do.” These are our churches, libraries, nonprofits, recreation leagues, mentoring programs, and more.
My take is that these institutions were under pressure long before coronavirus, but, as with so much else, the pandemic really turned the screws. Now that we see more clearly how valuable they are, will we strengthen and celebrate them going forward? Maybe not. From the article:
These may seem like line items a city can afford to trim with budget cuts looming. To save money, for example, Detroit has already planned to reduce how often it maintains vacant lots. […Caterina Roman, a professor of criminal justice at Temple University,] suspects that cities that will successfully weather this year’s rise in violence are the ones that invested in these resources for years before the pandemic. And cities that further cut them will increasingly rely on policing strategies alone to reduce violence.
Lauren: The stories on Scriberr News have a “bias meter” just under the headline, informed by a feedback opportunity at the bottom of the piece. This optimistic journalism startup is trying to take on media bias, in part by admitting that individual bias is unavoidable. Maybe this platform won’t turn out to be the new approach to journalism we need, but I’ll be watching with interest as it takes a stab at moving the industry into the next era.
Michelle: Last week, Chuck gave a talk called “Breaking Out of the Housing Trap” at the California Landlords’ Summit on Homelessness, and you can watch the whole presentation here. This annual event brings landlords and property owners into conversation with homelessness service providers to learn how they can help end homelessness in California. Topics discussed include housing vouchers, rent guarantees, tenant support and more. Housing and homelessness is a complex issue that is challenging to address. I always admire people who are passionate enough to dive into these challenges and plan these types of events.
Rachel: The urban/rural divide these days is often conflated with the right/left divide, but both understandings are far too simplistic and lacking in nuance to be true to the life experiences of the average American. This article in America Magazine invites you to reexamine your perceptions of rural communities (if you don’t live in one yourself) and to recognize the diversity of people, perspectives and challenges in smaller towns. We share many more values and goals than the current public rhetoric would lead us to believe. Here’s a favorite part of the essay:
Our political divisions can provide excuses for dismissing the concerns of people in “red” or “blue” states [...] Most people in the rural United States, whether they live in their hometowns or have moved from cities to start new lives, want to be able to take care of their families and loved ones. They want to be a part of a healthy community, and they want to share a good life together. That is not so different from what folks want in Boston, Houston or Chicago. We must challenge the divisions in our nation that the powerful exploit for their own gain and instead speak to one another across barriers, not only during an election season but throughout our lives.
Alexa: I read this New Yorker article last year and it has stuck with me ever since. The essay goes into the complicated history of the Crazy Horse monument located in the Black Hills of South Dakota. It reveals a conflict that stems from the creation of an audacious rendering of a man known for humility. I don’t think I have a specific takeaway from this article, but I do believe you can gain some insight from reading it.
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Finally, from all of us, a warm welcome to the newest members of the Strong Towns movement: David Bechtel, Xandra Coe, James Eckert, Mary Campbell Gallagher, Chad Grout, James Hochadel, Mary Ellen Knappmiller, Lisa Monahan, Charles Napoli, Thomas Mayan P.E., Jena Skinner, and Aaron Street.
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What stories got you thinking this week? Please share them in the comments.