This Is What It Takes To Be a Strong Town. Is Yours One?
HTML-код
- Опубликовано: 28 сен 2024
- We spend a lot of time showcasing the successes and failures of North American places, but this time we turned the camera around for a short reflection: what is a Strong Town? What does it mean to be part of the Strong Towns movement?
Come to our National Gathering! www.strongtown...
Consider becoming part of this movement: www.strongtown...
Is your town a Strong Town? Is it getting there? If not, what can you do about it?
Although I live in a village, I still think it has the potential to be a strong one. It used to have two bakeries and two restaurants, all four of them closed over the last ten or so years. All that is left is a supermarket and an ice cream parlor, but I think it can still get its amenities back and create that sense of community. Sadly our politicians (and the people voting for them) lack the imagination and will to make this village a village again and not just an exurb of the closest city
What is the process like to pedestrianizing a street how difficult can that be ? Is that for property owners of that street to have output,the local government,or both ?
It is awesome to hear from all the staff there and supporters as well! Norm was super cool and passionate when he came to Utah for our workshops 😃
I am doing what I can for my town as a professional planner, but it comes with a lot of challenges and differences of opinions. We have had some successes though, and I hope to use those to build on and support more decisions aligned with the Strong Towns approach.
You guys rock, thanks for all you do!
@@schlaumayer3754 To politicians three types of places exist: static city cores, growing suburbs, exurbs coming from villages.
What you can do about it, is vote for local politicians who support good urban planning policies, who support a need for less car dependence, and who is against those awful oversized parking lots that only worsen the problem. US politicians are a disaster on these topics, and there are so many countries throughout the world with cities that are incredibly well designed from which they can learn a lot.
At this point it just looks like stubbornness, because cars. It's kind of like the discussion on gun control...
A strong town is somewhere a 12 year old can safely walk to school and an adult can live without a car.
12 year? 6 year should be able to walk alone to school.
That place definitely belongs on a Citynerd top 10 list
My 6-year-old rides her bike by herself to school and back every day. And now, the city has decided to improve the infrastructure for pedestrians, casual cyclists, and high-speed cyclists commuting from areas outside the city centre. The central building block: Routing car traffic outside the city centre, and making sure motorists really feel that they will be guests on the pedestrians' turf. The future is bright here.
@@Nhkg17 wow wow wow. Guy said a strong town not Tokyo.
Jk, I don't disagree
We have that in my city and we're still drowning in cars. Traffic is awful, air quality is terrible, sound pollution is inesacapable. Parents drive their kids to the local primary school which is adjacent to 8 bus routes via 4 stops *and* two specific school routes. Walk 5 minutes and there's an extremely busy railway station and ~10 more bus routes, but they still drive!
Perhaps we need to change the perception of cars, trying to price people out of the market obviously isn't working.
Isn't it wierd we are yearning for the type of lifestyle our grandparents had. Safe places where kids can walk to school safely and you can go to your work without a car.
All three schools (elementary, middle, and high) are located in the center of my small city. My home is on the edge of that city. Even if there weren't any roads with cars, etc., my daughter could never have walked the distance to the school as the edge of the city is too far from the center. We aren't a large enough city (33,000 population) to have more than one of each of those schools and there isn't enough flat land (we live where there are a lot of hills) to even build additional large buildings, such as schools. Also, how would I go to work without a car and without having to ride with other people? I refuse to ride with other people.
@@laurie7689 33,000 people is a large amount of people , that's roughly 64 highschools worth of people. Yet your city only has one of each type of schooling? Something isn't adding up, unless your town has a significantly small portion of school age children. Besides that how far is too far exactly? 30 minutes? And your final point ," I refuse to ride with other people." That is by and large the problem. Many Americans snub their noses at sharing transportation with other people, because they view it as "subpar" or "unideal". Which is mainly rooted in the negative stigma that public transit is for the "poors" refusing to ride with the poors. Yet claim to value "community".
@@laurie7689 So, maybe part of the solution would be to build more homes closer to those schools? Even just turning single family homes into duplexes would make twice the difference. Build up more, build out less, especially in a hilly area.
@@a-r We're going to cover all the land no matter what. People want to own their homes on their own land and not be at the mercy of other people who own the land. Ownership means everything. Owners get to lord it over anybody who doesn't. That has always been the way. That will always be the way. Sharing homes puts that home at more risk, such as fire. You don't have one family being displaced, but more than one being displaced.
@@laurie7689 Not entirely. There are people who like to live in condos. But even with home ownership, you can still be more efficient with the space you take up. Usually, places that are designed to allow for more people on a smaller footprint have more demand, which is why housing is so expensive in cities like SF and NYC.
If they have so much demand, why don't we build more of it for those who do want that? You could live in a single family home, while the people in between you and school live in denser buildings. That would still work better.
I was doing dishes while watching this and started tearing up. I want these things for my kids, my family, my city.
A strong town is a place that is inclusive to all people regardless of economic background or mobility requirements
I used to live in a company town, where since preschool i walk everywhere, play outside without adult supervision, and have easy access to any facilities and amenenties.
My parent walks to work, have so many free time to interact with us. Cars and motorbikes only used for long haul drives.
People do enjoy somewhat slow life, they meet and chat at the grocery stores or at the park and fields.
And the best part was, it's so close to nature: beaches, forest, lakes, river. My childhood "adventures" including playing with wild animals, swimming in the sea, and learn how to catch fish with my father.
The only downside was it was segregated by ranks and no mixed use zones. So low level employees and their families rarely interact with top level ones unless in companywide function or public events, and facilities were clustered based on their functionality so people tend to flock on one place or another.
But compare to where i live as an adult now, that town is the best place i've ever lived. Mind you i live in a city where you HAVE to use motored vehicle and go to big box stores just to do grocery shopping.
what kinda wild animals did you play with?
I never realized it's as bad in the US now! I knew "surburbs" and huge malls outside exists. But i didnt know that this is the standard. I grew up in a rural german town with 6.000 people that was founded in the middle ages and i longed for a bigger city, but i was pretty mobile. I could or bicycle everywhere and there was a train station to drive to other towns.
@@taleseylad1249 hi, sorry for the late reply, notification error i guess? Well, our nearby forest mainly habitat for monitor lizards and snakes to mention a few wild animals. I've encounter but not interacted with crocodiles, shile at sea we often saw dolphins and sometimes sharks.
@@toshihikotanaka1672 you saw wild predators in person? That's super cool. It's also really cool how you interacted with snakes. . . I say this because if I saw a snake my first instinct would be to get a hoe or any sort of stick and beat it to death
@@taleseylad1249 ah, thank you. It's long2 time ago in my childhood. I guess because we saw them very often, we got used to their presence, so no need to inflict harm to each other. Pretty valuable lesson early on to respect wildlife and life in general. Cheers!
Strong Towns! This makes so much sense. I live in a small village in rural Scotland and we are beginning to reclaim our streets. We lost our pub, our bus, our post office. Now we're getting them back. Wish there was a Strong Town movement in the UK.
There are a lot of (very positive) symptoms of a Strong Town, but simply a Strong Town is a town that's fiscally sound. It can provide adequate, even great services, for its residents while not going into debt.
strong town to me is to know I'm not alone in my pain, pain of being neglected and being forgotten, being a second class citizen just because I'm outside a car, the pain of being in a city that has been ruined by cars, the pain of being the only one person who cycle to work. strong town is not even a relief: it's a distant dream of a city that never exited and probably won't exist in future, but you know you're not alone in that dream.
100% agree, my main ones are constantly improving things and having a healthy and trusting community, which is like the opposite of my town right now, although it is really pretty
This video really hits home. Thank you for giving our cause an identity.
Charles and strong towns thank you for this. I was already on a path to be a civil engineer, but you inspired my change of focus: working for a municipality as an engineer to make sure developments are done the right way, the strong town way.
A strong town provides freedom and opportunities to live in your neighbourhood in the way you want to live.
I don't know...? What do you guys think....? I live in Amsterdam (NL), and wishing all of you good luck and stay strong.....!!!
A strong town is a place where anyone can feel comfortable hanging out outside, people can gather, and the spirit of the town is alive rather than secluded in small car access islands of real-estate. Noone should have to feel paranoid about their neighbours, but for that to change, we need more action in the federal government to stop argueing and blowing money on nothing issues, needless allegations and glow-ops and actually put it towards improving the country.
Mine isn't because the past few years they expanded good roads to busy stroads, added a bunch of chain restaurants and built 1000+ new single-family homes. We also have no transit whatsoever.
They also recently spent millions of dollars redoing a main arterial and added bike "lanes" aka a stripe of paint down the side, which doesn't get used. Very sad.
You guys are great, I just convinced my local busline to swap out their bike rike that doubles capacity and accommodates fat tire bikes. It's a little change compared to passenger rail service being restored by the end of this year but it all adds up.
Charles Marohn started this movement and I'm determined to bear the torch with you guys. Lets make all of our communities enjoyable to be in, lessen maintenance costs and create a sustainable future.
A town that's financially viable and safe and where people have a genuine choice as to how to get around, be it on foot, on bikes or e-bikes, car, within reason, or public transit systems.
Our ancestors have weathered natural disasters, famines, wars, diseases, economic catastrophes, near bottomless poverty, and shed so much blood, sweat and tears.
And for what? So we could spend hours every week trapped in cages with wheels on them?
A strong town is a town that is financially strong where it can exists without the infinite growth scheme.
Strong towns are ones where we don’t rely on government handouts for basic services. One where we can afford our own services without needing anyone else’s help. A strong town is where we can safely rely on the village to help raise a kid, just like our grandparent’s generation did. One where we can rest assured that our kids are safe and will get from point A to point B, safe & sound without any issues. One where we aren’t enslaved to chauffeuring our children around for almost 2 decades.
yea the house arrest was a good one, as I'm in 'house arrest right now in my suburban home, now when you leave it there's a stroad, and at the end a large 10 acre parking lot, which is not used all the way and 10 fast food restaurants. like bruh its so annoying
I really appreciate your content. I just would value more diversity in the staff...
This is inspiring. How do we get our town involved in this movement?
OH WOW! So your dreams are the absolut basics of cities here in europe? That feels so weird. I never owned a car no matter how rural i lived. Now I live in what feels like a village in the middle of a big city. I have everything in walking distance, even an ikea. And all socio-economic classes live here. We are currently working on banning cars in more and more streets.
My town is the antipodes of a strong town............. everything is gated, there are no sidewalks, transit is an after thought, lack of affordable housing, police is totally focused on one side of town (the one where browns and blacks live of course), commutes are over an hour long on average, no sense of community at all, elected officials are still in the 80s or prioritizing projects just to get votes for example there is a shared use path running along a busy road (one of the 3 SUPs in town, all of them from nowhere to nowhere and not connected at all) there is multiple projects to build new ones (that reach centers of jobs and population or close gaps in the "network") what do these clowns did? they built a new SUP on the other side of the road (I swear I have seen 2 or 3 people there in about a year)
0:19 Salt Lake City!! I love this town, and I want it to get stronger. It’s got a whole lot of land with old one story bungalows. They’re charming, but also space inefficient, and the contrast between them and much taller buildings is really stark. We need the missing middle of housing! We need a less hostile 400 South, State “Street“, and Main ”Street“! If 700 East is going to be a road, let it be a road, and not a Stroad!
great
A Strong Town is a town were facts are more important than diversity.
If you can, put in as much time, energy, and money as you might put in to vacationing and planning it. Don’t be a tourist in your own town - invest in making it better.
Why is community participation mandatory in this view of good citizenship. Everyone of those vignettes except one lady stressed joining something. The one lady stressed fiscally responsibility and safety. At some point everyone wants just to be left unbothered.
It means you can’t live there without knowing you neighbors.
Every day more and more people awaken from the false suburban dream and realize that this isnt a sustainable future. The work you do as an organization and us members do as a community matters, dont ever forget that. We can and will build a better, stronger future forthe US, one town at a time
Where everyone knows your naame !!!!
: )
the "town" I live in may not be a strong town, but I am in the process of making a Strong Home.
Strongtowns to me is living without the fear of being mowed down by some deathmachine.
A strong town is a town where someone and their community can safely, happily, efficiently, and comfortably live without needing to own a car.
A strong town is a town built for people. People includes everyone. Children in particular, since they're out future, but also elderly, people with disabilities or other disadvantages, and people who need more support than others. It's for people to live in in its entirety, in and around your home, in commercial and public facilities, and out and about.
My town is getting better. I love my place, I love my state. A place is something to care about. A place is not something to use and dispose of.
I love the passion. Keep it up ❤ you don’t have to move to live in a better neighborhood.
It took me awhile to get the point you’re at, for a long time I felt like packing my bags and moving to a more people-centered place. But this is my home country - so if it’s anyone’s responsibility to make it better, it’s mine.
Same. My township is getting its first public bus stop hopefully in the next year.
This is what advocation looks like
Strong towns are also designed and configured such that people of all ages and abilities can feel welcomed, included, and like a genuinely valued member of their community.
Strong Town is literally how people outside of North America/English speaking world lives
To me a strong town is where many people can get around without a car, valuing different forms of transportation. And actually valuing community in all respects. Living in a place that's at a human scale, where I have actual neighbors, not people who live next to me.
Sadly this doesn't say good things about the town, or township I live in. Can't say IO ever so much as seen any of our local leaders, least not often, and when people were advocating for a public transit millage in the county I live in they were met with a lot of heckling and derision.
You want to your kids be safe walking to school..... In Murica? 😂. How about make sure the kids that already in school safe😂
I don't care much about a strong "town". I care about my subdivision. Is it safe? Is it quiet? Is it beautiful, clean & green? Will the property values go up? Can I pass this property to my kids?
I live in a city with strong town elements. Vancouver Canada couldn't be a strong town because of it's stroads, expensive housing and huge apartment buildings but they are building a lot of multi-use ecodensity housing near transit lines, transit is really good, they have fairly good bike paths, the citu is "calming" neighborhoods and building nice outdoor community seating in urban hubs. I have contributed positive input when asked by mail and at community events.
I feel like a strong town doesn't just stop at road infrastructure that prioritizes the people regardless of their age, financial status or ability over cars, but also includes locals getting involved and making sure that the town is alive with ideas on how to utilize the space in general, as in - healthy development that doesn't unnecessarily add construction where old abandoned buildings or dead space could be used instead, or coming up with plans to utilize the "dead" space in other ways, by adding community gardens or adding native plants to help the wildlife, or other greenery like parks or outdoor gym equipment etc. Its where the people in local government work with the citizens to nurture an environment to be a healthy, functional habitat for everyone.
P.s my city in europe has the infrastructure, I can enjoy going to work by public transport or on foot if i wanted, or even bike (though not every street has a bike lane or a safe area for biking), but I still feel like that isn't enough as the city I live in has so much dead space and abandoned buildings that makes it not a pleasant environment to go outside if i don't live near the oldtown. Even the city center has some areas that are abandoned.
Unfortunately the city would rather expand with housing built outside of it rather than push for abandoned or completely ruined architecture and even dead space being used for such projects. The affordability of most places is not so great at this point, giant companies have been buying out and sitting on property either to degrade it to build luxury spas etc or rent out for astronomical prices.
I fully believe that laws regarding infrastructure alone can't save my city from dying, I feel more places on the planet should also advocate for usage of dead or abandoned space by local gov housing plans, public spaces etc, as in if a building has been left abandoned and in a state of ruin with no visible work being done to restore it etc the local government should be allowed to take hold of such property to utilize it for needed development and initiatives.
Same as not allowing corporations and people to own unlimited amount of properties ensuring that real estate monopolies that do exist in many places are avoided as it is one of the reasons for high rent prices as well as people not being able to own a home to live in.
A strong town is a place that encourages strong community. The Strong community is the goal, the town is the means to achieve that goal.
Cleveland OH needs to become a strong town again!
When people are CONSTANTLY complaining about parking scarcity, you've done something right.
I know this is petty, but I can’t take anyone wearing a mustache like Mike’s seriously.
Lvoe you guys so much ❤❤❤❤
Beautiful video. Thank you.
Sidewalks and trees. Safe.
🙂
One without tents on downtown sidewalks, and druggies passed out in doorways.
In Spokane Washington, they just let them all "hang out" in the transit depot. Hardly any tents at least
"What is a strong town to you"
Jeff Speck: I have no idea
They want 15 min cities though under 24/7 survaellance and programmable private state money
Who is “They”? Car companies & oil companies?
The dystopian nightmare places some billionaires are building have taken the 15 minute city idea and added it to theirs.
The 15 minute city is a bigger and older idea than just those places. Don't let yourself get distracted or confused by them.
To put it in the simplest bluntest terms, dictators also tend to give their people food and water. Eh?
Anyone can be surveilled already, cell phone, car, computer, internet, debit cards, credit cards, passports, cameras/microphones literally everywhere, DNA, fingerprints, etc. All sorts of data is collected both by governments and private companies. To a certain extent there are laws in place that are supposed to protect our privacy, but they are sometimes violated. Any particular person is just a dot in a wash of data until they are perceived as a threat, and perceptions change depending upon who is in power.
The US military literally kills people halfway around the word in the middle of nowhere with drones. One U.S. President approved the killing of a teenager they perceived as a “future threat” - and it was done!
More walkable cities does not change anything in that respect, but has many other positive benefits.
Thanks for boosting the vid for the algorithm with your CTs 😊
@@safe-keeper1042 Happy to do it. 😊