Planting the Seeds of a Stronger Artesia (and Watching Them Grow)
It’s Member Week, and that means we’re celebrating the amazing work of Strong Towns members like Lorelei Bailey. Support their efforts by becoming a member today!
Lorelei Bailey didn’t hear about Strong Towns in an urban planning course or in a city council meeting. She was trying to get better at a video game.
“I was playing Cities: Skylines, and I wasn’t very good at it,” said Lorelei, who got her undergraduate degree in digital media game design. “So I went to YouTube looking for tips, and that’s where I stumbled across Strong Towns.” What started as an attempt to improve her gameplay soon sparked a deeper understanding of city-building principles: return on investment, incremental growth, and the hidden costs of the Suburban Experiment.
“I started to learn the fundamentals of what makes a city function,” she said. “And I was able to translate that into the gameplay. But then I started noticing how those ideas applied to the real world, too.”
That shift—from simulation to reality—gained momentum when Lorelei and her wife moved from Florida to Southern California. In Artesia, a small city in the Los Angeles metro area, she noticed something: the remnants of a more walkable, streetcar-era past.
“I could see the surviving urban fabric,” she said. “I saw good bones. I saw potential.”
It was enough to make her want to stay—and get involved. “I think I can make an impact in my city,” she thought. And so she launched Strong Towns Artesia, part of a growing network of Local Conversations across North America.
“A lot of times there’s not even a dialogue,” she said. “So just starting the conversation, asking questions, can lead to real change.”
From the start, Lorelei has led with humility. “If we’re successful,” she said, “Strong Towns Artesia will no longer be needed.” Her goal isn’t to be in charge; it’s to create the conditions where others can step up. “It’s not important to me that I’m noticed or recognized so long as the work gets done—because the work is so important.”
In just over a year, that work has included monthly meetups, city clean-ups, public education events, and a high-impact city council candidate forum that Strong Towns Artesia was invited to organize. “It wasn’t something we had planned to take on,” Lorelei said, “but one of the candidates came to us and asked.”
The forum drew more than 100 attendees and gave voters a rare opportunity to hear candidates grapple with questions about infrastructure, placemaking, and fiscal sustainability. “Cities are more than just sticks and bricks,” Lorelei said. “They are people. We tried to create an event where candidates could be heard fairly and residents could be better informed.”
Lorelei isn’t just helping others step into civic roles. She’s stepping into them herself. Today, she serves as chair of Artesia’s Beautification and Maintenance Commission and chairwoman of a new Planning and Programming Subcommittee on the LA Metro Community Advisory Council.
Lorelei’s philosophy, guiding every part of her work, is to start small, build trust, and keep going.
In the years ahead, Lorelei hopes Artesia becomes a place other cities in the region look to as a model for growing stronger and more resilient. “I’d love for the rest of LA to say, ‘How did they do that?’”
She said, “I try to be someone people want to work with. And if I can do that, if I can help prepare the ground, then I think I’ve done something meaningful.”
Lorelei’s story is a powerful reminder that you don’t have to be a built environment expert to lead change—you just have to care enough to act. If that’s what brought you to Strong Towns, or what keeps you coming back, become a member today. Your support helps leaders like Lorelei—and thousands of others—take Strong Towns ideas off the page and into their communities.
Strong Towns is helping local leaders, technical professionals and involved residents across North America make their communities more prosperous and financially resilient.
This movement needs you. Become a member today.