There is always a moment standing off stage, before the lights come up and the show begins, when the calmness of anticipation sets in. All the work to prepare has been done—the stage is set, the lines are rehearsed, the props in place—and now it’s time.
There’s stillness in that moment, but it’s not the kind that you’d associate with peacefulness. It’s more the calm before the storm. The acceptance that, ready or not, things are about to get real.
I’ve been in that place hundreds of times and I must admit to you all: I love that moment. It’s hard to describe, but it’s a sense that, whatever the people in the audience out there think they are about to experience, what’s coming is orders of magnitude beyond. Minds are about to be blown. A whole lot of people are going to be walking out of there different than they walked in.
We’ve been living in that calm moment here at Strong Towns for a few weeks, and I’ve been loving it. The decade-plus that we’ve been at this project has been building towards an unveiling of our ideas on a big stage. We’ve done the work, put in the time, subjected ourselves to the harsh introspection. There is a hush of anticipation around us. I can feel it. Things are about to get real.
This week is our Spring Member Drive, the last one we will do before the October 1 release of Strong Towns: A Bottom-Up Revolution to Rebuild American Prosperity (more on that below). It’s the last one before we launch the Strong America Tour. The last one before we kick off a major media campaign that we’ve been putting together for months.
In other words, it’s your last chance to be one of the early supporters of the Strong Towns movement. And we could really use your support.
The Strong Towns Strategy
Water System Crises and Solutions
The Highway Boondoggles Report
What Customer Service Should Mean for a City
Hawaii’s Suburban Experiment
The Jackson Water Crisis Is Not a Fluke—Your City Could Be Next
Not Just Bikes and Strong Towns Discuss Public Transit in North America
“Bias Writ Large” in the Property Tax Assessment System
One of the Most Dangerous Assumptions We Have Made
The Drip, Drip, Drip of Traffic Deaths
An Update on Strong Towns’ Lawsuit Against the Minnesota Board of Engineering Licensure
Majora Carter: Reclaiming Your Community
Nolan Gray: Exposing the Arbitrariness of Zoning Codes
End the Parking Mandates and Subsidies That Are Hurting Our Cities
Legalizing Incremental Change—Everywhere—To Meet America’s Housing Needs
Your City’s Accounting Is Unnecessarily Obscure. It’s Time To Pull Back the Veil.
America *Must* End Highway Expansions, Before It’s Too Late
Safe and Productive Streets
Mike McGinn: Making America More Walkable
This Vancouver-Based Artist Is Writing Music…About Building Strong Towns!
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