Would you nominate your town for a reality TV "takeover?"
I’ll be honest, I hadn’t heard of Erin and Ben Napier, or their HGTV home makeover show, Home Town, before someone posted about the Napiers’ new show, Home Town Takeover, in the Strong Towns Facebook Group.
I looked them up and saw that Home Town is set in Laurel, Mississippi, where the Napiers live (and where Erin Napier grew up). According to their HGTV bios, the Napiers “are involved in a local organization that strives to improve and grow the historic downtown district in which they reside. Ben has served as president of the group, and Erin uses her graphic design skills to create nostalgic branding and marketing to inspire the city’s rebirth.”
Through last week, Home Town Takeover was accepting applications from towns who want to be featured on Season One, which will premiere in 2021. Prospective towns must have a population of less than 40,000, must have homes “with great architecture longing to be revealed,” and a main street that needs a “facelift.” At least 1,600 communities submitted nominations.
Like several of the folks who commented on Adam Foreman’s post, I had (and still have) my concerns about the spinoff. The language of a “takeover” clashes with the Strong Towns vision of a “bottom-up revolution”—neighbors from all walks of life working together to incrementally build strong, better connected, and more financially resilient communities. Also, growing stronger communities is long, difficult work, the result of many decisions (large and small) over many years. I’m not going to say that work isn’t sexy, but, with Richard May, I’m also skeptical how well this work translates to the small screen.
And, like Garrett Martin, I’ve read stories of people whose homes were featured on home makeover shows, only to be hit later with massive increases in their property taxes and utility bills. (Our current tax structure disincentivizes building improvements, which is one reason we advocate so strongly at Strong Towns for a land value tax.)
Here’s the podcast Garret mentions:
When I think of a positive neighborhood makeover, I think of our friends at the Oswego Renaissance Association (ORA). They have had stunning success helping to renovate neighborhoods in Oswego, New York. We’ll have to wait and see what HGTV and the Napiers do with Home Town Takeover, but, in potential contrast, homeowners in Oswego work together to develop a shared vision and they invest (with their time, energy, creativity, and money) in their own future. Neighbors work together, often for the first time. This simple but powerful process unlocks neighbors’ confidence in their neighborhood. (If you haven’t listened to our podcasts with Paul Stewart, director of the ORA, these interviews from 2016 and 2019 are great.)
Still, there were a few comments in the Facebook thread that made me curious to know more about Home Town and Home Town Takeover.
So I decided to watch an episode of Home Town to get a sense of what the Napiers were all about. And then I watched another. And then I watched four more.
Coming clean, I was completely charmed by the Napiers.
Home Town is similar in some respects to other home makeover shows. A person or family chooses a house to buy from a couple options. The house needs a lot of love. The hosts renovate and decorate it. Then there is the powerful “reveal” and the impressive before-and-after shots.
But Home Town is different in other respects…and it’s these differences that give me a bit of hope for Home Town Takeover. Like how the homes are in Laurel’s downtown core, which means Erin and Ben Napier can walk (rather than drive) with the home buyers to the prospective houses. And how the Napiers are explicitly welcoming people not only to a new home but to a new home town. They are passionate advocates of Laurel, a rural community of about 18,500 people. I’m passionate about rural communities too, and so this is an aspect of the show I especially appreciate. I even got teary-eyed at the end of the pilot episode when the Napiers take the newest residents of Laurel onto the porch, which is filled with people, including the mayor.
Erin says, “These people are the ones who made your house happen.”
“They are also your neighbors,” says Ben.
Don’t get me wrong: I still have concerns about Home Town Takeover. The show was originally going to be called Home Town Rescue, and that alone gives me pause. But I’m more hopeful now too. I’m hopeful because the huge response to Home Town Takeover is a reminder that there are so many people out there who love their communities. (Look no further than the submission videos on YouTube.) And I’m cautiously optimistic that Home Town Takeover will demonstrate that giving our downtowns some love, improving existing housing, creating parks, and building community pride will show millions of viewers what is possible in their home towns—and that they shouldn’t wait for big investors or reality TV stars to get started.
Back in the Strong Towns Facebook Group, Aaron Elkins pointed out the worst that could happen, but also the best:
I’ll be watching too.
Top image via Unsplash.
In honor of the season, here’s a short adaptation of Edgar Allan Poe’s “The Tell-Tale Heart,” which illustrates the damage that zombie projects — large, ambitious projects that drag out for years or never get off the ground — can do to a place.