Strongest Town 2022, Round 1: Brighton, MI vs. Jasper, IN
Welcome to this first round match-up in the seventh annual Strongest Town Contest! In this round, 16 towns are facing off, and eight will advance to the next segment of the contest based on your votes. We invite you to read answers representatives from these two cities provided to our questions about economic resilience, citizen involvement, community response to the pandemic, and more. Then vote for the strongest at the bottom of this page.
Can’t decide? If you’re looking for inspiration, check out how we describe the Strong Towns approach.
You may vote once per match-up. Round 1 voting closes at noon CT on Thursday, March 3. For rules, and to follow along with the contest, visit the Strongest Town Contest page.
Note: All entries are lightly edited for clarity and readability.
BRIGHTON, MI
Entry submitted by: Denise J. Murray, Nate Geinzer, Henry Outlaw, Mike Caruso.
What is your favorite thing about your town?
What I love most about the City of Brighton is how the community comes together in times of challenge, in times of celebration, and in everyday moments.
What is the biggest challenge your town faces, and what are you doing to address it?
The gem of the city is its quaint downtown, which is in need of infrastructure updates and improvements in walkability and other alternative forms of transportation. Mostly, it struggles for parking.
What transportation options exist in your town for people of varying ages, abilities, and means? How easy is it to live in your town without regular access to a car? What transportation investments has your town recently made or is it in the process of making?
LETS exists to assist in getting people around. We are in hopes of getting a Streetscape plan approved that would help address many of these issues.
Tell us about your community's local economy. Who are the key players, big and small, and how do they help your town to be financially strong and resilient? What local businesses are you most proud of?
WorkSkills is an amazing organization that employs people with special needs, and currently keeps 550 people employed, supporting other area manufacturers and businesses. Corrigan Oil is an integral part of the community not just employing people but giving back with donations, investment, and participation in many areas of the community. We also love the small mom-and-pop shops that have stayed with the community for multiple generations, such as Cooper Binkley Jewelers or Beverly Rae's Boutique. All of these businesses make the City of Brighton unique and strong.
If we took a walking tour through your town, what would we see? How does your community use its land productively to promote long-term financial resilience?
The City of Brighton celebrates its community as it has a natural water feature by which the city surrounds. It is a natural focal point and draw, and the community's historic downtown flourishes in its deliberate preservation while striving to stay current in local grown retail and restaurants.
How easy is it to become an entrepreneur or a small-scale developer in your town? What kinds of support are available for a resident who wants to open a business or build on a small vacant lot?
The City of Brighton has partnered with Ann Arbor SPARK in order to provide ongoing business support, providing resources, access to grants and opportunities, and making connections, as appropriate, through entities including SBA, MEDC, MEDA, SCORE and more.
At Strong Towns we believe financial solvency is a prerequisite for long-term prosperity. What do you consider your most potent (existing) tax producing property? Where does your revenue come from? What do you spend it on?
Our number-one taxpayer is our local mall. There is sprawling retail that provides regional and national retailers that complements the downtown shops. Brighton becomes quite a destination to satisfy the shopper's needs. The community is further diversified in tax base with strong international manufacturers Eberspaecher and TG Fluids, along with Corrigan Oil.
At Strong Towns, we believe that local government is a platform for strong citizens to collaboratively build a prosperous place. How are residents in your town involved in shaping its future? How do residents’ experiences, struggles, and concerns directly inform the projects undertaken by local government? Provide one or more examples.
The best example I can give would be through WorkSkills. Nearly 10% of the community face some kind of challenge. WorkSkills enables people to overcome their challenges to become gainfully employed in a productive and creative environment. They employ nearly 550 employees currently, and continue to expand their facilities to keep up with the needs, challenges, and demand for their assistance.
JASPER, IN
Entry submitted by: Mark Nowotarski, Nancy Eckerle.
What is your favorite thing about your town?
Over the past few years, Jasper has invested in creating activities and places for all residents to enjoy. Examples include converting a defunct golf course to the Parklands park. We are adding activities every month for residents to enjoy, such as street fairs and food truck events, but my favorite thing is how the town has embraced the arts and culture with the new Cultural Art Center and the renovation of the Astra Theatre.
What is the biggest challenge your town faces, and what are you doing to address it?
How can the city improve the traffic flow through the main road, US231, without building a massive highway around the town that will ultimately hurt the downtown vitalization? What is needed is smart planning with developing potential truck routes by improving existing roads that won't destroy our rural landscape, forest land, and unique natural resources. A large group of residents have been advocating against this proposed highway project and continue to push for a better, smarter option. Recently the Governor announced the commitment to make improvements along US 231 that could be the answer, but the residents are waiting to see what improvements are being recommended.
What transportation options exist in your town for people of varying ages, abilities, and means? How easy is it to live in your town without regular access to a car? What transportation investments has your town recently made or is it in the process of making?
For a town our size (over 14,500), it is fairly easy to get around town. There is currently a lot of investment happening in the immediate downtown area which makes it walkable. There are strategic housing opportunities designed to draw more people to the downtown area. The city also just approved a multimodal plan for improving the town's walking and cycling capabilities. Several organizations also offer bus transportation for elderly and for the senior living communities.
Tell us about your community's local economy. Who are the key players, big and small, and how do they help your town to be financially strong and resilient? What local businesses are you most proud of?
Jasper is very fortunate to have a very strong manufacturing base for our size. These companies are very active in the community and contribute to the investments made to continuing quality of life. Because of the strong manufacturing base, the local economy is in great shape with an unemployment rate under 1.5%. The city has a very active Mayor and City Council who is focused on the citizens first and has established a Youth Council for inputs and as the city becomes more diverse has made sure leadership involves all groups and develops programs for everyone.
If we took a walking tour through your town, what would we see? How does your community use its land productively to promote long-term financial resilience?
If you took a walking tour you would see how Jasper has been adding progressively to its downtown with the Cultural Center, the River Centre, the Riverwalk, and downtown façade revitalization, all while preserving and restoring various historical spots. Investments have been made in numerous parks that are easily accessible by walking or cycling. All this has been accomplished with the development of a comprehensive plan over the years to assure long term resilience.
How easy is it to become an entrepreneur or a small-scale developer in your town? What kinds of support are available for a resident who wants to open a business or build on a small vacant lot?
One of the strengths of Jasper and the business community is proactively working at attracting and encouraging entrepreneurs, With support from the Vincennes University (Jasper Campus) to being a part of Dubois Strong, the economic development group, as well as the local banks involvement for support financing and business assistance. The city is very active with grants and other financial assistance. Jasper has a very active Chamber that continues to help small businesses and start-up entrepreneurs.
At Strong Towns we believe financial solvency is a prerequisite for long-term prosperity. What do you consider your most potent (existing) tax producing property? Where does your revenue come from? What do you spend it on?
I cannot narrow the most potent (existing) tax producing property to just one. There are two properties to focus on. First, Jasper's growth and prosperity over the years was built on the furniture manufacturing base and as time went on there were a number of old vacant buildings and warehouses near the downtown area. The city used these buildings as a catalyst to revitalize the downtown starting with the renovations of buildings along the riverfront, now called the River Centre.
The River Centre has rental property and retail establishment and as a result Marriott built a new Fairfield Inn. A train depot was built along with an excursion train, the Spirit of Jasper. In addition, the old City Mill was reconstructed. All this allowed the city to grow it's tourism base as a vital part of revenue. Once that was established, the plans were put into place to combine the city library and arts center to build the Thyen-Clark Cultural Arts Center which has become a great resource for tourism as well as for the residents. From there, the city's comprehensive plan continues to focus on reinvesting revenues for projects like the Intermodal plan and a potential Aquatic and Sports facility.
At Strong Towns, we believe that local government is a platform for strong citizens to collaboratively build a prosperous place. How are residents in your town involved in shaping its future? How do residents’ experiences, struggles, and concerns directly inform the projects undertaken by local government? Provide one or more examples.
As previously referred to, Jasper's Mayor and the City Council continually hold town hall forums, breakfast with the Mayor, and have established community events to update the residents of potential opportunities and seek input. Again, a great example is the Mayor's Youth Council that includes high school seniors for inputs on what the city can do more to attract young people to live and work in Jasper. The youth group gets involved with city government, they meet with the manufacturers in town and other businesses and share ideas to consider. Every year the council also takes on a project that they decide on and have to do all the planning, find the funding and support. One example is a mural that was painted on the side of a downtown building welcoming people in fifteen different languages, which represent the diversity in the number of native languages of our high school students.