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.

The view from Alexa’s workspace this week as she was joined by her sister’s dog, Pork.

This week, Strong Towns had the honor of being featured in a few different publications including an article in The Week entitled, “'Destroying the suburbs' should be a Republican idea.” Strong Towns President, Charles Marohn, was quoted multiple times in the piece and we’re glad to be part of an important conversation providing nuance on an issue that has been painted very black and white in the public discourse lately. Program Director, Rachel Quednau, was also featured in a recent interview on the Go Cultivate! podcast, discussing our free toolkit for local leaders navigating their ongoing response to the pandemic.

In less serious news, several folks on our team have also shamelessly been enjoying the new surprise Taylor Swift album that dropped late last week. We’ll take the small joys where we can find them.

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

Lauren: A recent article in Volume One Magazine shares the news that Hy-vee, an affectionately fabled grocery store, is eyeing an abandoned Kmart husk in my community. And the city is rolling out the red carpet. The City of Eau Claire, Wisconsin is applying for a half-million dollar grant to demolish the existing structure to make way for a replacement big box store with big box store parking. It’s been four years since I moved to this area, and I’ve seen Macy’s, Yonkers, and Sears abandon their mall anchor spaces, Hom Furniture move from their own property to one of those spaces, and a Shopko leave its own shell behind. Something might be better than nothing, but it looks like Eau Claire is ready to sink a lot of resources into a project that will likely have small returns—if they stick around.

John: The New York Times published a fascinating article this week about the subculture of “urban explorers” who document the fate of abandoned properties: old hotels and department stores, decaying psychiatric hospitals, long-shuttered factories, once-opulent theaters whose beauty even time and neglect haven’t been able to erase. The work of these urban explorers is “more than just a snapshot of a time gone by,” writes Christopher Mele; “it is also a commentary on the impact of humans on the environment and the kind of throwaway culture society has embraced.” 

I couldn’t help but put this article into conversation with one we published this week at Strong Towns. In “Not for Camera View,” Johnny Sanphillippo writes about the reactions he’s gotten from folks as he photographs what the urban landscape is really like—parking lots, neglected neighborhoods, stroads, and more. Unless we start building stronger and more financially resilient cities, the subjects of Johnny’s photographs today will be the subjects of the urban explorers’ photographs tomorrow.

Chuck: Sometimes I run across a video and I just play it over and over again, soaking up the insights and pondering them in different ways. Bret and Eric Weinstein having a discussion is tantalizing enough, but when the title is “Nassim Taleb is a pain in the ass,” all the elements are there for deep insight. I’m acclimated to the speech patterns of all three (both Weinsteins and Taleb), which can be random, but push through that and you’ll get half a dozen golden mental nuggets. For example, this exchange on the influence of doing good science at 3:50:

Eric: “Privilege may mean that you actually get a chance to do great science.”

Bret: “At some level, Darwin was a dilettante who got on a ship in order to be a high class companion…”

Eric: “What a pretty boy. The guy was born with a silver spoon…”

Bret: “He was, and he did absolutely stunningly good work.”

Rachel: Of the many impossible challenges that this pandemic has created, schooling for children this fall is an issue I’ve paid particular attention to, and I’ve felt a lot of sympathy and grief for my friends, family and colleagues who are figuring out how to navigate school decisions for their children.  Every day, it seems like a new perspective or objection appears in the public discourse, and no one seems to have any real solutions to the problem of educating millions of American children in a way that is constructive for their learning and social lives, as well as feasible for their parents and public health.

This article from Religion News Service, however, spotlights one idea that could help in some communities: opening up unused church space for children’s learning. At Strong Towns, we’ve long advocated for thinking creatively about how spaces function, and moving underused buildings or land toward more productive uses. Turning houses of worship into classrooms won’t solve the educational hurdles this nation is facing, but it might make a small dent and improve the situation for communities that can pull it off.

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Finally, from Alexa and all of us, a warm welcome to the newest members of the Strong Towns movement: Pam Ahern, Florence Barnhart, Thomas Blaine, Ben Ferris, Ross Frazier, Jocelyn Gibson, Teresa Gillroy, Emilie Jackson-Edney, Sophie Michals, Joella Mosley, Mick O'Hare, Spencer Powell, Eric Renz-Whitmore, Loretta Rietsema, Pedro Rocha, John Saunders, William Semple, Luke Stodola, Karen Stuppy, Barb Thoman, and Warren Williamson.

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What stories got you thinking this week? Please share them in the comments or continue the conversation in the Strong Towns Community.