How a Walk About Nothing Can Change Everything About Public Engagement
The top comment I receive everywhere I speak and from every Local Conversation I meet with is “I want to change my community but have no idea where to start.” This is generally followed up with a question: “How do I find other people who also want to make our community stronger?”
These questions are raised after someone observes a local struggle or is inspired by a fellow Strong Towns member taking an inspiring action in their community. Since our current development pattern is broken, there are a lot of struggles to address. Doing so can feel insurmountable and too complicated for an individual to tackle. Change is, without a doubt, overwhelming.
The most common approach to instigating change today is to rush to the keyboard and lean into keyboard courage on social media. Catchy taglines and brash statements tend to go viral, but they are also soon forgotten. The brashness of these kinds of posts has many short-lived outcomes because it is really easy to just get lost in the endless sea of complaints.
Another common approach is to get involved through public engagement. We are told to attend one of the dozen community meetings that are being held to share input on the latest application, the emerging master plan, or the working group developing the latest policy. Or we get the courage to attend a council meeting and use our two minutes of public comment to share our opinion. We might also be asked to join a board or advisory committee.
These are all the complicated systems we have adopted in each of our communities to provide order in the complexity of our human habitat. The result is an orderly system that requires an enormous amount of energy and resources to maintain but rarely produces action.
For example, we have to adjust our busy schedules to attend a meeting with hours of discussion relevant to our specific issue — and, more often than not, we end up attending the wrong meeting. Or we spend time providing comments on a new master plan that's full of aspirational goals that — if funded and if the stars align — will take 10-20 years to be completed.
My small West Virginia community of Charles Town is taking a much different approach to public engagement, one that starts with walking and is focused on nothing. Our community has started a regular gathering called Walks About Nothing. These one-hour walks have no agendas or defined leader, and they’re open to anyone who wants to show up.
During this hour-long walk, community members and civic leaders have the opportunity to experience the community on foot together. These Walks About Nothing start with introductions, but that's where titles and formal hierarchies are left behind.
These walks are about neighbors coming together in a shared activity. After introductions, an unofficial host who is willing to share something great about our community steps forward. Our walks have been led by business owners who are eager to show off new investments and their aspirations for the downtown, by elected leaders who share the application and struggles with city policies, and by municipal staff who share both plans and construction of new developments in the city. This loose framework and the movement of our feet become conversation starters, with new leaders emerging from the group during the course of the walk. These walks let us learn about existing businesses, hear about new projects, and talk about new city initiatives in the places they are or will be applied.
In other words, the Walks About Nothing become a mobile discussion. Struggles are pointed out and then responses are discussed. Moving at walking speed provides the opportunity to observe our community in great detail. We usually find a couple of places that need some attention and the group can then discuss what quick actions can be taken.
The most important part of these Walks About Nothing is the forging of community. This time provides the opportunity to meet neighbors and share why each of us loves our community. These monthly walks are the next smallest step towards strengthening a community. The city of Charles Town is pioneering an approach worth studying and adopting in your community.
The next time you are moved to seek change in your community, you might want to start with a walk about nothing. That walk may be the most impactful "nothing" to be introduced to your community.
Edward Erfurt is the Director of Community Action at Strong Towns. He is a trained architect and passionate urban designer with over 20 years of public- and private-sector experience focused on the management, design, and successful implementation of development and placemaking projects that enrich the tapestry of place. He believes in community-focused processes that are founded on diverse viewpoints, a concern for equity, and guided through time-tested, traditional town-planning principles and development patterns that result in sustainable growth with the community character embraced by the communities which he serves.