Two Texas cities face off in first round of national Strongest Town Contest
Voters from across the United States will get to decide which Texas city will advance to round two of the Strongest Town Contest when voting opens Monday, Feb. 28. Taylor and Navasota face off in the first round of the March Madness-style tournament hosted by the national movement for resilient communities, Strong Towns.
Highlights:
• The Strongest Town Contest is a celebration of communities that are putting their focus on townmaking practices that build resilience and prosperity.
• Contest begins with Sweet Sixteen voting on Monday, Feb. 28, and concludes with the announcement of the 2022 champion on Friday, April 8.
• The 2022 Strongest Town will be visited by nationally recognized author, engineer, and advocate for strong communities Chuck Marohn. This city will also be featured prominently on the Strong Towns website with a series of articles outlining their efforts to provide citizens with a good life in a prosperous place.
• Voting is open to anyone.
• Full Contest Details / Press+Partner Kit
• Contest begins with Sweet Sixteen voting on Monday, Feb. 28, and concludes with the announcement of the 2022 champion on Friday, April 8.
• The 2022 Strongest Town will be visited by nationally recognized author, engineer, and advocate for strong communities Chuck Marohn. This city will also be featured prominently on the Strong Towns website with a series of articles outlining their efforts to provide citizens with a good life in a prosperous place.
• Voting is open to anyone.
• Full Contest Details / Press+Partner Kit
If your small town has a compact, time-tested design and a dedication to incremental growth, it doesn’t matter to us if it only has one diner and one gas station—it can be stronger than a city of three-quarters of a million people.
Jay Stange, Strong Towns Content Manager and Contest Organizer
Taylor, Texas
A contest for progress
Cities across North America are using more and more resources while providing less for residents—less safety in transportation, less of a robust local economy, less commitment to sound public finance.
The Strongest Town Contest launched in 2016 to spotlight communities that are leading the way to a better future. No place is perfect, and most of them are fighting against inertia from risky finance and wasteful development practices adopted after WWII. But the 16 communities selected to compete in the contest are pushing forward with a tried-and-true approach toward restoration, one that:
- Relies on incremental investments (little bets) instead of large, transformative projects.
- Favors resiliency of result over efficiency of execution.
- Is designed to adapt to feedback, to evolve over time to meet the changing needs of the community.
- Is inspired by bottom-up action and not top-down systems.
- Seeks to conduct as much of life as possible at a human scale.
- Is obsessive about accounting for its revenues, expenses, assets and long-term liabilities.
Each round, a different aspect of participating communities will be featured on the contest website, and the public will vote on which towns are best applying the Strong Towns approach to create a thriving place.
Media Contacts:
Strong Towns - Lauren Fisher, Communications
lauren@strongtowns.org / 844-218-1681
Navasota - Bobbie Ullrich, Marketing & Communications Director for Navasota
bullrich@navasotatx.gov / 936-825-6475
Strong Towns - Lauren Fisher, Communications
lauren@strongtowns.org / 844-218-1681
Navasota - Bobbie Ullrich, Marketing & Communications Director for Navasota
bullrich@navasotatx.gov / 936-825-6475
Find logos and promotional images here.
Use #StrongestTown, #TaylorStrong2022, #NavasotaStrong2022 on social
Twitter: @strongtowns
Facebook: @strongtowns
Instagram: @strongtownspics
Past Winners:
2021 - Lockport, Illinois
2020 - Watertown, South Dakota
2019 - Pensacola, Florida
2018 - Muskegon, Michigan
2017 - Traverse City, Michigan
2016 - Carlisle, Pennsylvania
Strong Towns helps local leaders identify the cause of decline in our cities and take action to build a stronger, financially resilient future. The Strong Towns movement is reshaping the North American development pattern with a return to bottom-up, incremental growth.
