Why the Strong Towns Movement Needs Ordinary People
This article can also be found, in slightly different form, on the Strong Towns Langley Substack. It is shared here with permission. All images were provided by the author.
Nine years ago, I observed a problem on my street.
The road was wide. There was a hill. Street parking was allowed, but only on one side. The result was that cars came hurtling down the road at excessive speeds.
A short distance away, in another city, I observed another street that was in a similar setting, but where steps had been taken to slow people down, using parked cars, cycle lanes and a wide red brick median.
I am not an engineer or urban planner, but I could see there was a problem on my street and another place had done something to fix it.
“Imposter syndrome” is a phrase that gets thrown around from time to time on social media. It’s often used as a way to describe when it feels like you have been placed in a position in which you are unqualified to be.
For many Strong Towns advocates it can feel this way — why should an ordinary unqualified person talk about how a street is designed or how a city is planned out? Shouldn’t we let trained and professional urban planners and engineers address these problems and trust they know what they are doing?
I ran into a transportation engineer at a city budget event. I gave him my proposal diagram for improvements to my street, he was interested and took the document away with him.
Unfortunately, I heard some criticism of the engineering department, how they were very pro-car, so I felt as if nothing would change.
Engineers and planners who are employed by the city are there to carry out the mandate of the local government.
It is different for those who operate as consultants. They can often be far more vocal, such as Strong Towns’ very own Chuck Marohn, who started his own consultancy firm, and others like Jeff Speck, author of "Walkable City." But making it as a successful urbanist entrepreneur is a lot more challenging than finding a stable job as a public servant.
So, the majority of people in this field are under the employ of a municipality, and usually, they simply have to do what is asked of them. They have to balance political expectations, developer interests, and of course, their careers and job security, which suppresses their ability to be advocates for change.
A few months ago I ran into the same transportation engineer at an open house. He told me he had agreed with my idea about the street diet and ran it up the flagpole, but nobody supported the idea.
Later, he told a group of people at the open house how “You can’t build your way out of congestion.”
This was huge — the engineer knew the importance of safer road design, but without political and institutional support, had been unable to implement it.
This is why it is so pivotal that ordinary people speak out and don’t feel afraid to support these issues, even though they can appear very technical and complex and the domain of experts.
The reason is that politics can impede knowledgeable people from implementing change. If a vocal group of people are complaining that a road is congested and they want it widened, it will be widened, even if it is ultimately bad for the community.
The open house was for a road diet project just a few blocks away from my street.
The new mayor was helping to implement the kinds of changes I and others had been fighting for on streets in my community. It turns out the mayor had wanted to fix this particular street for years.
The engineer finally had the support, not just from the mayor but also from a mandate from the public, to start implementing these positive changes.
We need to be a louder voice that supports a better approach.
Strong Towns is about building a movement from an advocacy, political and public education standpoint. And it needs you.
James Hansen is the leader of the Local Conversation group Strong Towns Langley. He works to foster relationships with likeminded members of the community, along with councilors, mayors and staff to advance the mission of Strong Towns. Using his background in software development, he has developed advocacy tools and an analytical approach to policy, while taking a creative approach when producing content and promoting the group on social media. He hopes to see Langley evolve into a more connected and resilient community through collaborative efforts and innovative solutions.
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