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. The advocacy group points to American post-World War II Suburbanization as a failure and seeks to improve communities through urban planning concepts such as walkability, mixed-use zoning, and infill development. 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.
Proponents of Strong Towns describe its philosophy as "a conservative vision for community."Hendrix, Michael: "A Stronger America Needs ‘Strong Towns’ First," September 27, 2019, The American Conservative, retrieved January 29, 2025; also reprinted by the Manhattan Institute at:[2] Critics describe it as anti-government, business-libertarian economics and politics cloaked in "progressive" clothing.
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.
The name Strong Towns was chosen by Jon Commers, an associate of Marohn's. 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.
The Strong Towns 2024 annual report revealed that the organization had 5,700 members at the end of 2024.
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