"Once you know what a 'stroad' is, you start to notice them everywhere in your community—and after that, you can never unsee them again."
I love these words come from Strong Towns member Alex Pline of Annapolis, MD. And it's not just because learning that one little word from a Strong Towns article launched Alex on a path to doing all kinds of cool things in his community.
Because honestly? I have a feeling Alex would have been a mover and a shaker regardless of whether he ever found Strong Towns at all.
Alex probably could have co-founded a meet-up group with his neighbors dedicated to making his place stronger in some way without our help.
He might have even given some cool presentations designed to inspire other super-citizens like him to take action, like he did at his town's Ignite Annapolis event.
I even think there's a decent chance he would have rolled up his sleeves and dug into his city's zoning codes and real estate data to figure out the real reason his seemingly thriving community still struggles financially. (Seriously: Alex is usually too humble to mention this, but he's had a long career at NASA. He's crazy smart.)
But as Alex lays out beautifully in a great essay on our site today, the Strong Towns message has shaped how he sees the world in the most fundamental way possible: when he's simply walking down the street.
And not only that: when Alex did take action, he didn't do any of those impressive things we wrote about up there alone. He had fellow Strong Citizens by his side every step of the way. People like Maca. Jeremy. Peter. McShane. So many more. He had a true movement behind him.
People willing to see the world differently. People willing to work together.
To me, there are no better signs than these that what we're trying to do is working.
And if you agree that the Strong Towns strategy is having an impact, let me ask you this: will you take a moment to join the movement today?
-John and the rest of the Strong Towns Team.
