Strong Towns’ readers nominate their town or city for embodying the “Strong Towns approach” to building financially resilient communities.
The village is facing off against Salem, Mass., in Strong Towns’ “Sweet Sixteen” bracket, with voting for this round live until 1 p.m. Thursday. Two other Ohio towns — Chauncey near Ohio University and Norwood near Cincinnati — also are in the running.
Nominees answered questions on a range of topics including transportation, economic resilience, and housing choices. According to Yellow Springs’ profile on the site, the village’s strengths lie in that it has a focus on safe multi-modal transportation, incremental development, and opportunity for small-scale businesses and building projects to succeed.
The village also has a focus on municipal broadband, and has been “coalition building” and collaborating with nonprofits and local businesses, village council president Brian Housh said, adding that this contest is different from ones Yellow Springs has entered (and won) in the past.
It asks, ‘Are you as a community ready to deal with the rocky roads ahead?’ “ Housh said. “We have really tested the boundaries of our resilience with a lot of the stuff that’s going on lately. It really connects in terms of that we’re still innovating, and we’re still having good community conversations, despite people feeling like they’ve been burned.”
“We’re not necessarily looking for those communities that somehow already have it made; they probably don’t exist,” said Strong Towns content manager Jay Stange. “We’re more interested in highlighting towns and cities who are doing the hard work of becoming stronger, putting in place the processes, systems, and commitments that build enduring resilience and long-term prosperity.”
Yellow Springs just went through an intense community debate over a housing development in the city, featuring multiple public meetings and robust community reaction. Oberer Homes plans to start the development, although many in the village oppose the move.
Strong Towns’ contest began with Sweet Sixteen voting on Monday and will conclude with the announcement of the 2022 champion on April 8. Voting is open to anyone, but weighted so that Strong Towns member votes comprise 50% of the tally and non-member votes make up the other 50%.
“This should be Yellow Springs’ year, because the stuff we have put in place pre-COVID and has been strengthened during COVID has helped us to stay moving forward on a lot of projects, even though there are major challenges,” Housh said.
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