Hello John,

 

 

These are difficult and scary times. As we all shelter in place, we share your anxiety over the present conditions. Yet, we’re also inspired by everything we’ve witnessed this week, all the outpouring of kindness, generosity, and heroism. Adversity brings out our best, and we’re seeing that clearly.

Our team is focusing on what comes next for our local communities. We want to help you use this time wisely, to prepare our local leaders for the transition they will face once the immediate crisis has abated.

On Tuesdays over at least the next five weeks, Strong Towns is going to offer our most popular presentations as a web broadcast free for everyone.

If you’ve ever wanted to attend a Strong Towns event, or wanted to share the message with someone else, this is a perfect opportunity. We will start with the Strong America Tour presentation this Tuesday, March 24.  You can register here.

On Thursdays, we are going to offer an ongoing Ask Me Anything with myself and key members of the Strong Towns movement. If you have something you are struggling with during this time of transition, we want to help you think it through. Again, this is totally free. You don’t have to be a sustaining member of Strong Towns to participate in this event.

In addition, we’re putting more time and energy into the Strong Towns Community, our online network of people and resources. This community never sleeps, so if you have a question or item you need to discuss, tap into the wealth of expertise available at no charge within this amazing network of people.

Our local communities are going to be tasked with the hard work of rebuilding our economy. They are going to have to do it with limited resources, yet overwhelming demand. The Strong Towns approach of getting more out of less is going to be essential to success in this effort.

We want you to know that we are working to expand our capacity to mobilize and support leaders within our cities, towns, and neighborhoods. Expect more from us in the coming days and weeks.

 

And I want to give extra special thanks to the people who took the extra step to become supporting members of the movement this week. Barb Brinkman, Liam Culhane, Melvin Hardy, Bill Phelan, Paula McCormick, Trey Warren, and Courtney Saylor. You all are incredible. Thank you for all you do.

Now is the time to be safe, look after yourself and those nearest you, and support the collective efforts at controlling this outbreak. Let us also prepare for the day we emerge back into the sunshine and begin working together to build an America full of strong and prosperous places.

 

 

 

In the mean time, here's some food for thought (maybe even comfort food) from the last week.

 

 

• One of our favorite posts from this week was about Cristin Lind's Care Maps, which can be as simple as a pencil drawing on printer paper outlining the connections between yourself and all the people and systems that support you. We're seeing these webs weave themselves even stronger as the coronavirus challenges communities to support one another without getting too close – you can share your own stories about the heroes who are filling gaps in care on our Community Site.

 

• In tough times, our community becomes our safety net. Here you'll find a handy list of ways that you can contribute to the physical and emotional well-being of your neighborhood, and beyond, in the coming weeks.

 

• The disadvantages of proximity are revealed as Covid-19 cases spring up in urban centers, but so too are the advantages of a neighborhood you can depend on. This week my colleague Daniel Herriges discussed the careful dance between closeness and contagions, and how dense communities such as Singapore and South Korea have kept their outbreaks in check while Italy and the United States have less control. Our friend Quint Studer followed up with some thoughts on how to build cities that can close down quickly when necessary without posing a threat to vulnerable communities. We're learning a lot from current events, and when this emergency passes, we will need to apply those lessons to make our towns truly resilient.

 

Peace to you.
-Chuck