Where To Go for Great Content (When You’re Not Reading Strong Towns, of Course!)
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What do I read (and watch) when I’m not reading (and watching, and listening to) Strong Towns? I’ve been looking forward to compiling this little list for weeks!
There’s a sea of great content out there, but today I want to highlight four of my favorite urbanism-adjacent newsletters and YouTube channels. This is the stuff I often find myself sharing with others via email or social media, and catch myself still thinking about days later.
About Here (YouTube)
Uytae Lee is a Vancouver urban planner whose YouTube videos are so great, they netted him a show with CBC. About Here is “dedicated to helping people understand their cities and how they work.”
These videos are fascinating, well-researched, funny, with high production values—a joy to watch. Often using Vancouver as its subject, About Here is a terrific example of the power of local focus, taking abstract concepts and making them relatable.
Some of my favorite videos:
“This was supposed to fix the housing crisis...” asks why eliminating single-family zoning hasn’t actually resulted in much more missing-middle housing being built. Lee explores what’s happening in a succinct and entertaining way.
“How to bring back front yard businesses” gives a dreamy look at the infinite possibilities for in-neighborhood commerce…and a sobering reminder of all the obstacles getting in the way of thriving, mixed-use neighborhoods.
Bonus: If you’re in Canada, you can watch the Stories About Here series on CBC Gem (sign in with a free account to watch). All the episodes are great, but I particularly enjoyed “The Heritage Dilemma.” In it, Lee takes a nuanced look at how we readily preserve the buildings of wealthy homeowners, while asking whose heritage gets left behind. Fingers crossed for season 2!
Fix Your City (Substack)
Former Ottawa city councilor Catherine McKenney has teamed up with Neil Saravanamuttoo, an economist who specializes in active transportation and recreation, to bring us Fix Your City, an excellent Substack newsletter that focuses on “common sense solutions for better cities.”
Why I love it: these dispatches are short and sweet, but powerful and persuasive. McKenney and Saravanamuttoo have a knack for distilling complex topics into the simple essential truths, in areas such as housing, sustainable active transportation, climate, governance, and finance.
A few of my personal standouts:
I devoured this issue on fixing trust in city hall: Three Ways to End the Influence of Money in Municipal Politics.”
I was reminded of the vital work of preventing homelessness that’s taking place in my neighborhood as I read “Stop Homelessness from Growing With These 3 Actions.”
And I was stoked to see Strong Towns cited in this piece: “What’s the Higher Priority – Saving Lives or Driving Faster?”
These newsletters are quick to read, to the point, and full of action items. Highly recommend!
Read the archives and sign up at https://www.cityshapes.ca
Shifter (YouTube)
What you need to know about Tom Babin’s Shifter YouTube channel can be found in this “Welcome to Shifter” video. It’s all about bikes—but not in the way you might think. It’s not specifically about speed, athletics, lycra, or expensive equipment. It’s really about making the bike a more important part of your life as you get around. This channel is as much about cities as it is about biking.
Based in Calgary, Frostbike author Tom Babin creates videos that are engaging and entertaining and grounded in practical, real-world experiences.
Some of my favorite videos:
“There’s a proven way to stop bike theft. So why are so few cities doing it?“ I think back on this video all the time and if you haven’t seen it yet, I think it will resonate with you as a Strong Towns enthusiast, because this “proven way” is not a silver bullet; it’s a culmination of many small bets and actions. (Remind you of anything?)
My kids and I loved watching these urban cycling showdowns that compare different urban biking experiences through a fun game called Plus 1 Minus 2. Tom bikes in Calgary while counterparts in Oulu, Finland (with Pekka Tahkola), and Amsterdam, Netherlands (with Not Just Bikes’ Jason Slaughter), do comparable trips in their respective cities. Be forewarned: the heated sidewalks in Oulu will have you all but weeping.
“I finally found a true Dutch bike in North America. Here's what you need to know.” I’m biased, of course, because I have one of the Dutch bikes from the project featured in this video, and it changed my life! So it was very cool to see the Plain Bicycle Project featured on Shifter.
The Deleted Scenes (Substack)
I can’t remember how I first came across Addison Del Mastro (probably via Strong Towns), but I’m sure glad I did. The Deleted Scenes, his near-daily Substack newsletter, is a treasure trove of thought-provoking and delightful essays, photos, roundups and more. What I enjoy most is his essays, which I find myself thinking back on repeatedly.
Del Mastro’s got an uncanny way of identifying and exploring the little niggling questions and worries that keep cropping up in my mind. Things like:
Can you sell urbanism to people who already enjoy 15-minute (driving) proximity to everything?
And what if Walmart didn’t kill the small town, what if Walmart essentially *is* a small (and car-free) town?
Del Mastro has me constantly nodding my head with the thrill that someone has seen me (in this piece he admits that “it never really occurred to me that urbanites without cars are constrained in where they can go, and what this means for the sense of a place”).
How does he keep coming up with new stuff almost every day of the week? I don’t know, but I’m glad he does—and am considering a paid subscription.
There you have it: four of my favorite newsletters and YouTube channels. Enjoy this food for thought!
Emma Durand-Wood likes walkable cities, front porches, street trees, bumping into neighbors, riding her bike, downtowns, and any excuse to check out a new coffee shop, bakery, or shop. A Winnipegger by choice, she lives in Elmwood with her husband and three children. You can connect with her on Twitter @emmaewood.