Organization:Strong Towns

From HandWiki
Strong Towns
FormationNovember 2009; 16 years ago (2009-11)
Legal status501(c)3 nonprofit
HeadquartersBrainerd, Minnesota
Location
  • United States
Founder and President
Charles Marohn
Websitestrongtowns.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 ponzi scheme that will not be able to cover its maintenance costs in the long-run[3][4] and seeks to improve communities through urban planning concepts such as walkability, mixed-use zoning, and infill development.[5] 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.[6][non-primary source needed]

History

Charles Marohn, founder of Strong Towns

The organization was founded by Charles Marohn.[7][1] Marohn is a former professional engineer and city planner,[8] and the organization is headquartered in his hometown of Brainerd, Minnesota.[9]

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 started a "The Planner Blog" to bring attention to these concerns.[10][11]

The name Strong Towns was chosen by Jon Commers, an associate of Marohn's.[12][non-primary source needed] Marohn's blog was subsequently renamed 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.[13][non-primary source needed]

The Strong Towns 2024 annual report reported 5,700 members, primarily from the US and Canada.[14][non-primary source needed]

Strong Towns also supports Local Conversations, which are groups of people that work together to build community and improve their neighborhoods. Local Conversations hope to facilitate places that combat loneliness. As of September 2026, Strong Towns has 290 groups with local leadership across the country.[15][16]

See also

  • Incremental Development Alliance

References

  1. ↑ 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." 
  2. ↑ "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" 
  3. ↑ 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." 
  4. ↑ Gallagher, Leigh (2014-07-28). "Crisis in the Suburbs: One Man's Fight to Fix the American Dream" (in en). https://time.com/3031079/suburbs-will-die-sprawl/. "in Marohn’s estimation, property taxes at suburban densities bring in anywhere from 4 cents to 65 cents for every dollar of liability. Most suburban municipalities, he says, are therefore unable to pay the maintenance costs of their infrastructure, let alone replace things when they inevitably wear out after twenty to twenty-five years. The only way to survive is to keep growing or take on more debt, or both" 
  5. ↑ 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." 
  6. ↑ "About Strong Towns" (in en-US). https://www.strongtowns.org/about. 
  7. ↑ 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." 
  8. ↑ Strong Towns — Charles L. Marohn with Megan Thompson (Video). WNET. December 22, 2022. Retrieved September 27, 2023.
  9. ↑ 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." 
  10. ↑ "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. 
  11. ↑ Vinsel, Lee; Russell, Andrew L. (2020). The innovation delusion (First ed.). New York: Currency. pp. 74. ISBN 978-0-525-57568-9. 
  12. ↑ "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. 
  13. ↑ "Introducing Strong Towns" (in en). 2009-11-09. https://www.strongtowns.org/journal/2009/11/9/introducing-strong-towns.html. 
  14. ↑ "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. 
  15. ↑ "Local Conversations" (in en). 2026-01-12. https://www.strongtowns.org/local. 
  16. ↑ Nation, Juhie Bhatia, The (2026-09-02). "What’s fueling loneliness—and polarization—in America today?" (in en-US). The Washington Post. ISSN 0190-8286. https://www.washingtonpost.com/ripple/2026/08/31/third-places-loneliness/. 




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