After the Pandemic...What?
We have an opportunity.
On the other side of the coronavirus crisis—and there will be an “other side”—we will all be tasked with rebuilding our local economies and communities.
That leaves us a choice:
Will we rebuild according to the status quo approach that has, for decades, squandered resources, quietly undermined our lasting financial prosperity, and made our towns and cities increasingly fragile?
Or will we rebuild in a way that makes local communities stronger, more resilient, and more prosperous? One that puts us in a much better position to absorb the next shock—because there will be a next shock.
Over the next several weeks, we are offering several of our most popular presentations as free webinars. These are the presentations we normally make in-person in dozens of communities around North America each year. We started earlier today with a presentation called “Strong Towns: A Bottom-Up Revolution to Rebuild American Prosperity.” Nearly 900 people registered to attend, but, due to a technical error on our part, only 100 folks actually got in. We are very, very sorry. We’re fixing the problem in Zoom, and we’re making today’s presentation available to view on YouTube.
In the coming weeks, we will also be presenting the Curbside Chat, as well as webinars on transportation, housing, and how communities grow stronger by making small, incremental investments over time (we call it “Neighborhoods First”).
In addition to these presentations, we are holding weekly Ask Me Anything sessions with Strong Towns president Chuck Marohn, other staff, and special guests from the Strong Towns movement. This is your chance to get specific with questions about how the Strong Towns approach to building stronger, more resilient places applies to your own town or city. It’s also an opportunity for all of us to stay connected and in conversation as we consider all the changes happening around us.
Here’s where to register for tomorrow’s Ask Me Anything:
Ask Me Anything
A Weekly Conversation with Charles Marohn
Thursday, March 26
12 p.m. CDT
And here is where to ask your questions in advance:
On a personal note, there’s an image I can’t get out of my head. I imagine someone who walks to the edge of the world, drops a stone over the side, then returns to their old life completely unchanged. (This is from a song by Charlie Peacock, a Grammy Award-winning producer, songwriter, and jazz musician.)
Not by choice, we’re all being taken into territory largely unknown to people alive today. We’re peeking over the edge of the world. My hope is that we don’t return unchanged. This crisis has a lot to teach us about how we build communities that are great places to live—in the best of times as well as the worst. Everything about the way we’ve built cities has to be reexamined in a new light. As Peacock sings, it’s time to open up the windows and “let the wind blow through.”
There will be rebuilding to do once the crisis ebbs. Now is the time to be thinking about what and how we want to rebuild. We believe these free webinars and Ask Me Anything sessions can help.
Join the Ask Me Anything conversation below:
John Pattison is the Community Builder for Strong Towns. In this role, he works with advocates in hundreds of communities as they start and lead local Strong Towns groups called Local Conversations. John is the author of two books, most recently Slow Church (IVP), which takes inspiration from Slow Food and the other Slow movements to help faith communities reimagine how they live life together in the neighborhood. He also co-hosts The Membership, a podcast inspired by the life and work of Wendell Berry, the Kentucky farmer, writer, and activist. John and his family live in Silverton, Oregon. You can connect with him on Twitter at @johnepattison.
Want to start a Local Conversation, or implement the Strong Towns approach in your community? Email John.