Organization:Strong Towns
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| Formation | November 2009 |
|---|---|
| Legal status | 501(c)3 nonprofit |
| Headquarters | Brainerd, Minnesota |
| Location |
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Founder and President | Charles Marohn |
| Website | strongtowns.org |
Strong Towns is an American nonprofit organization dedicated to helping cities and towns in the United States and Canada achieve financial resiliency through civic engagement.[1][2] The advocacy group points to American post-World War II suburban development as a failure[3] and seeks to improve communities through urban planning concepts such as walkability, mixed-use zoning, and infill development.[4] According to Strong Towns, the group seeks to end highway expansion; encourages localities to use transparent accounting practices in showing the financial impacts of infrastructure, especially suburban infrastructure; build incremental housing; build safe, productive, and human-oriented streets; and end parking mandates and subsidies.[5]
History
The organization was founded by Charles Marohn.[6][1] Marohn is a former professional engineer and city planner,[7] and the organization is headquartered in his home town of Brainerd, Minnesota.[8]
Prior to Strong Towns, Marohn started the Community Growth Institute, his own planning firm, in the early 2000s. Marohn often felt that the cities his firm was collaborating with were becoming overbuilt and could be heading towards financial problems in the long run. Frustrated at officials in these cities resisting change, and due to the 2008 financial crisis, Marohn was spurred into starting a blog to bring attention to these concerns.[9]
The name Strong Towns was chosen by Jon Commers, an associate of Marohn's.[10] Marohn's blog was subsequently renamed from theplannerblog.com to the Strong Towns blog, and in November 2009 the Strong Towns organization was officially launched by Marohn, Commers and Ben Oleson, a former business partner of Marohn's from the Community Growth Institute.[11]
Members
Strong Towns members are primarily from the US and Canada as historically both nations adopted shared approaches to transportation engineering, city planning and zoning during the 20th century. Membership requires a yearly or monthly fee with membership dues being used to fund the operation of the Strong Towns organization.
The Strong Towns 2024 annual report revealed that the organization had 5,700 members at the end of 2024.[12]
Local Conversations
Strong Towns also supports local conversations, which are groups of people that work together to improve their local communities. Local conversations are based on the ideas that residents experience their city every day, see the challenges their community faces, and knows what their community needs to thrive. Types of activities local conversations participate in include working with local governments to implement Strong Towns principles, advance place-based projects,and build a shared identity rooted in place. As of January 2026, Strong Towns has 290+ local conversations. [13]
References
- ↑ 1.0 1.1 Ross, Jenna (October 8, 2014). written at Brainerd, MN. "Looking to the Past to Re-Engineer U.S. Towns". Star Tribune (Minneapolis, MN): pp. A1, A6. https://www.newspapers.com/article/star-tribune-looking-to-the-past-to-re-e/126871263/. "Marohn is gaining attention for taking aim at national issues: car-focused development, federal transportation funding and "gluttonous" infrastructure growth."
- ↑ "Strong Towns touts 'tactical urbanism'". The Commercial Appeal (Memphis, Tennessee). April 20, 2014. https://www.newspapers.com/article/the-commercial-appeal-strong-towns-touts/126874920/. "The Minnesota-based nonprofit organization Strong Towns, whose mission is to help cities in the United States achieve financial strength and resiliency"
- ↑ Kotlowitz, Alex (January 24, 2024). "The Suburbs Have Become a Ponzi Scheme". The Atlantic. https://www.theatlantic.com/books/archive/2024/01/benjamin-herold-disillusioned-suburbs/677229/. "Charles Marohn, whom Herold describes as “a moderate white conservative from Minnesota,” is the one to lay out Ferguson’s decline to him. According to Herold, Marohn had a hand in building suburbs, but he has since had an awakening. Marohn suggests that what’s happened in places such as Ferguson and Penn Hills is the equivalent of a Ponzi scheme."
- ↑ Wade, Jared (April 2, 2017). "Is Tulsa mortgaging its future with efforts to expand, grow?". Tulsa World (Tulsa, Oklahoma). https://www.newspapers.com/image/911153055/?terms=%22strong%20towns%22%20-marohn&match=1. "American cities that have fueled their growth by chasing it through expansion and more infrastructure, according to the national nonprofit blog and think tank."
- ↑ "About Strong Towns" (in en-US). https://www.strongtowns.org/about.
- ↑ Allison Lirish Dean (September 17, 2023). "The Strong Towns Movement is Simply Right-Libertarianism Dressed in Progressive Garb". Current Affairs. https://www.currentaffairs.org/news/2023/09/the-strong-towns-movement-is-simply-right-libertarianism-dressed-in-progressive-garb. "Strong Towns’ critique of America’s car-centric sprawl sounds appealing. But its proposed solutions rely on a conservative politics that prioritizes ‘wealth creation’ over just and equitable urban planning."
- ↑ Strong Towns — Charles L. Marohn with Megan Thompson (Video). WNET. December 22, 2022. Retrieved September 27, 2023.
- ↑ Moore, Janet (December 8, 2023). "Hashtag crusade finds lots of lots". Star Tribune (Minneapolis, Minnesota). https://www.newspapers.com/article/star-tribune-hashtag-crusade-finds-lots/126890594/. "But judging from a social media campaign by the Brainerd nonprofit Strong Towns, there is plenty of parking for shoppers all over North America—even on Black Friday, one of the busiest retail days of the year."
- ↑ "A Decade of Strong Towns - Year 1" (in en). 2018-01-26. https://www.strongtowns.org/journal/2018/1/24/a-decade-of-strong-towns-year-1.
- ↑ "A Decade of Strong Towns - Year 2" (in en). 2018-01-26. https://www.strongtowns.org/journal/2018/4/16/a-decade-of-strong-towns-year-2.
- ↑ "Introducing Strong Towns" (in en). 2009-11-09. https://www.strongtowns.org/journal/2009/11/9/introducing-strong-towns.html.
- ↑ "Strong Towns 2024 Annual Report" (in en). 2024-12-12. https://static1.squarespace.com/static/53dd6676e4b0fedfbc26ea91/t/67913e1835cd7538f74b47af/1737571875623/2024+Strong+Towns+Annual+Report.pdf.
- ↑ "Local Conversations" (in en). 2026-01-12. https://www.strongtowns.org/local.
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