In Praise of Strong Towns Readers

(Source: Unsplash/Windows.)

I came to Strong Towns after a career spent with major media brands The Washington Post and USA TODAY (they made us write that in all caps). In most ways, my job as a writer has remained the same—sorting through primary materials, analyzing stats and facts, interviewing knowledgeable sources—but I’ve encountered one major difference: Strong Towns readers.

The challenges of content moderation for media outlets are well-documented. It’s clearly beneficial for both publications and their audiences to have an active, transparent conversation about their articles and the issues they surface. But some outlets, dismayed by what’s often called the “race to the bottom,” have abandoned reader comments entirely. Others, such as The New York Times, devote substantial staff time to reviewing comments prior to publishing them to ensure they’re on point, use suitable language, and follow the site’s guidelines.

Strong Towns asks simply that commenters be “thoughtful, kind, and generous of spirit.” From spirited philosophical debate about urban design to technocratic discussions about road building, it’s clear you’ve taken that guidance to heart.

Each time I clicked into the comments left on an article on my previous publications, it was with some level of trepidation. Would there be ad hominem attacks on the author (or worse, on another reader)? Would completely unrelated political creeds surface on a story about airline schedules? What strange spam links would appear?

Thanks to you, these scenarios rarely happen at Strong Towns. Instead, I enter the comment stream to find intelligent, articulate commentary on the subject at hand, many from informed professionals and advocates with direct experience on the topic. See below for some examples from my recent articles, and you’ll see a similar phenomenon in all our columns and content.

In short, there’s something special happening in the Strong Towns movement, and we’d like you to be a part of it. Consider becoming a member, or renewing your existing membership, and you’ll be joining a community of like-minded advocates and activists. We believe that change happens from the bottom up, starting with mutual respect and, judging from your many contributions to our various channels, it’s clear that you do, too.

“This Florida Town Rode a Rail Trail to an Economic Revival'“

Commenter: Rebecca

Love the article, Ben. It perfectly highlighted the transformation that has occurred here and how it can be replicated across the country in small town America. Too many communities lack the basic infrastructure for getting outside to enjoy the great outdoors, whether for exercise or pleasure. These former railroad tracks provide the perfect setting for revitalizing main streets and creating a sense of community again in downtowns that have died. I can think of many, many small towns where I have lived or visited that would greatly benefit from something exactly like what was done in WG.

“Colorado Development Scheme Yields Billion-Dollar Debt”

Commenter: Manualman

A superb caution every potential home buyer should be aware of and conduct due diligence about. Here in suburban Chicagoland there was a similar fad some time before the Great Recession in which much of the new sprawl infrastructure was funded via "special service areas" that would jack the heck out of the buyers real estate taxes after the sale in order to reimburse the developer for the new infrastructure costs. It was a down and dirty way to conceal the real costs of new homes offered for sale. I'm glad I haven't seen that trick played in years. SSAs still get set up, but usually only as a backup if the HOA goes defunct and fails to upkeep its own obligations.
The grift that has replaced it nowadays is the TIF district (whole 'nother rant).

“Pedestrian Safety Gets Big Boost From New Cincinnati Initiative”

Commenter: Dustin Pieper

This looks super useful! I especially like the checklist there. Something that hopefully other places can adapt!

And yeah, it's crazy that large cities contract out for a lot of their road stuff. I feel like Cleveland is big enough to keep a permanent crew busy with associated equipment, so I don't really see why you wouldn't just have such a group as part of the city. Small towns maybe not so much, but big cities, surely!

“Atlanta Retrofitting Prominent Office Tower to Residential”

Commenter: Mr. Flute

If we (real estate market professionals) can convert old schools, industrial buildings and pre-modern office buildings to residential, I think we can do modern office buildings. Humans "lived" in these office buildings for 8-10 hours straight 5 days a week for decades, so why is it really different if you change the use designation from Office to Residential (this is a rhetorical question)?

The carbon footprint of saving the extant structures is a level of 'good' that is absolutely worth the ditching of 'perfect' thinking.

Maybe complete rethinking of how housing is supposed to be designed is needed here.

Commenter: Not an Alt Account 

The issue for floor planning office buildings for residential is the bedroom window requirement. Maybe the code could be changed to allow up to 50% of bedrooms (two bedrooms max) to be windowless. So you could get a 4 bed unit with 2 windowless rooms. Or a 2 bed with 1 windowless room.
That would allow the developer to take advantage of the deep floor plate more effectively. I've seen an affordable housing complex get an exception for one bedroom to be windowless in a 3 bed unit so it's not unheard of.

“Why Is It So Difficult To Build Walkable Places?”

Commenter: John Hawkins

Regarding prohibiting or regulating private parking, I'm pretty certain it won't work and will backfire badly. I base that on my experience with cities that regulated parking maximums. I related this a few years ago on STs, but I'm 50 now so I get to re-tell stories :)

I worked at an office in a city that regulated private parking. Private parking lots had to be "Parking by Permit Only" and the building owner was only allowed to issue a tenant three parking permits per 1000 sq ft of building space. Since the average sq ft per employee in most offices is 100 - 200 sq ft, that meant there were only 3 parking permits for every 5 to 10 employees.

The result was that companies with money rented more space than they needed - one game company we shared the office complex with rented an entire extra floor and put ping pong tables in it for the employees to use because that gave them enough parking passes for everyone, and their employees made it pretty clear they weren't going to put up with no parking. Our company didn't want to do that, so we rented parking spots from a lot in a nearby town without the ordinance and ran a shuttle between the lots until our lease was up and we moved.

The result of the Parking Maximum was a dramatic decrease in office density, though absolutely no improvement in any meaningful sense, and a further consolidation of employment to big companies that could pay or negotiate their way around the regulations.

On behalf of the entire team at Strong Towns, thanks for everything you do to make our content and, more importantly, your communities better and more productive.

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