The real foundation of strong towns isn’t policy — it’s people

In Summary:

Through travels across the country, the author observes that communities seeking growth often chase plans, incentives, and development strategies, yet the places truly thriving share a simpler foundation: a strong community. Rather than focusing solely on housing units, parking counts, or grant formulas, successful towns prioritize human connection and relationships that strengthen resilience from the inside out. The Strong Towns movement embodies this principle by fostering a nationwide network of individuals who support one another in navigating challenges, sharing ideas, and building healthier, more connected communities. Membership, the author emphasizes, is not about subscribing to policies, but rather about participating in a community of practice where individuals contribute to and learn from one another. Ultimately, the path to a stronger town begins with people showing up, supporting one another, and working together to create meaningful, lasting change.

This year, I’ve had the chance to visit communities across the country. These were small towns and big cities. There were places struggling to find their footing and others that seemed to have found a rhythm. Everywhere I go, I hear the same story: leaders are searching for the right plan, the right grant, or the right strategy to attract growth.

There’s no shortage of approaches to respond to this struggle. Some cities are in the process of writing new comprehensive plans. Other cities are developing incentive packages to lure new businesses. A few are reorganizing departments or creating new programs aimed at sparking development and attracting investment. But when you strip all that away, the places that are truly thriving, the ones that feel alive and resilient, share one thing in common.

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They are focused on building community.

You Can’t Write a Formula for Community

Building community isn’t something that can be reduced to a checklist or crafted into a boilerplate policy document. It happens when people share a vision, contribute their time, and care for a place together.

If you listen to the news and read the latest reports on the housing crisis, you will quickly realize that we often discuss homes as numerical assets, rather than as community anchors. For example, housing is regularly described in numeric quantities, such as units or through multiple-letter acronyms, and is also described in terms of volume, including square footage and the number of bedrooms. Cars are also described as a numerical asset, measured in terms of character by the number of seats or doors, and in volume by the required parking space and level of congestion. But describing our built environment in these terms strips away what matters most: how connected we feel to the people next door.

Through my travels, I’ve met many people who are seeking more than just their dream job or their next home. They’re looking for community. They are seeking individuals who share their ideas and aspirations. That search is harder than it should be. We live in a world that’s digitally connected but physically disconnected. Our built environment and development patterns, our streets, buildings, and transportation systems, too often separate us in ways we don’t even notice.

Many communities that want to become stronger and more resilient feel trapped in a catch-22. They know their current development pattern isn’t sustainable, but they lack the systems or infrastructure to attract the kind of investment that would help them change course. It feels like an impossible problem: we need investment to shift the pattern, but we need a better pattern to attract investment.

Yet, despite these challenges, I’ve seen towns that are rebuilding that sense of belonging. The ones that are succeeding are those investing in people first. They are focusing on strengthening relationships, before they invest in infrastructure.

It reminds me of the Strong Towns Party analogy: when you throw a great party, it gets better as more people come and contribute. A strong community works the same way. When we each bring something, our time, our talents, our presence, the collective return is far greater than what any one of us could create alone.

‍The Strong Towns Community in Action

Every week, I have the opportunity to host 'Ask Strong Towns Anything,' where members come together to share their struggles, ideas, and victories. It's an opportunity to tackle tough questions, trade stories, and learn from one another.

But what I’ve come to realize is that the most powerful part of these conversations isn't problem-solving. It’s the community. Every time someone shares a struggle about zoning reform or about street design, someone else speaks up: “We went through that too. Here’s what we tried.”

That’s what makes Strong Towns different. It’s not a distant organization with a fixed plan. Strong Towns is a member-supported network of individuals who care about their towns and are willing to help one another figure it out. It’s a community of communities.

Key Points:

• The author visited communities across the U.S. and found that places with the strongest sense of resilience and momentum all share one trait: they prioritize community above strategy or incentives.

• Efforts such as housing plans, business incentives, and government restructuring can help, but they cannot replace the role of a shared vision, local involvement, and human connection.

• Modern development patterns often separate people in subtle ways, leaving many Americans searching for a sense of belonging, even in physically crowded environments.

• The Strong Towns movement operates as a “community of communities,” where members support one another, share experiences, and offer guidance on issues such as zoning, street design, and local reform.

• Membership in Strong Towns is framed as participation in a collaborative network—one where each person’s presence strengthens the movement and helps communities build strength through relationships, not just infrastructure.