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Our cities are struggling financially. But culturally, we lack a common understanding to explain why this is, let alone decide what to do about it.\nMany people want to believe we\u2019re simply not paying enough taxes. Others believe that our tax rates are too high. We might have too little regulation, or not enough. Some say we need an active government, and some,\xa0more of a free market.\u2026 But at Strong Towns, we don\u2019t see things in such binary ways.\nPlenty of Americans wish we would listen to the experts and hand things over to the people who claim they know what needs to be done. Others believe we have too many experts, and that they know a lot less than they think they do.\u2026\xa0\nWe\u2019re more nuanced here at Strong Towns; a little expertise combined with a lot of humility can be a powerful force for good.\n\n\nA Cultural Consensus That Lacks Real Understanding\n\n\n\n\n\n\nOne area where we have something approaching an American cultural consensus is our need to spend more money on infrastructure. Left, right, center... it seems most people can agree on this. But Strong Towns advocates think differently.\xa0\n\n\n\n\n\n\nWhat we at Strong Towns have seen so clearly is that our cities struggle not from the lack of a cultural consensus, but because of one. \nWe\u2019ve structured our economy around the principles of the Suburban Experiment, an approach to growth that provides lots of short-term rewards at the expense of our long-term strength and resiliency. Our cultural consensus on infrastructure spending is built on false statistics and short-term planning, but it lacks a common understanding about the root causes of financial failure and financial success.\nStrong Cities, Towns and Neighborhoods\nIf America is going to be a strong country, it must first have strong cities, towns and neighborhoods. \nWe can't manufacture prosperity with infrastructure spending or federal dollars; it has to be built from the bottom up.\nWe understand that cities become strong and resilient when they grow incrementally, when they shun the easy path of simplistic solutions and instead do the hard work of making modest investments over a broad area over a long period of time.\nWe know that local governments must focus on their financial productivity and that doing this math is not optional if we want to create prosperous places.\nAnd at Strong Towns, we know that the cities that obsess about the struggles of their own residents \u2014 cities that make a commitment to observe where people struggle day-to-day within the community, and then focus on continuously doing the next smallest thing to reduce that struggle \u2014 these cities are not only going to help people; they are going to be making the highest returning investments they can possibly make. They are going to become Strong Towns.\nThese are radical insights. They run counter to our current consensus about growth, development and infrastructure. Yet, when we share these radical notions with others \u2014 when we have a chance to expose people to the Strong Towns message and our vision of the future \u2014 something amazing happens.\n\n\nA Powerful, Radical Message That we can All Agree on\n\n\n\n\n\n\nPeople who don\u2019t agree \u2014\xa0who can\u2019t even productively talk to each other today \u2014\xa0find something they agree on in Strong Towns. Something challenging. Something radical. Something that, if spread to enough people, can form that basis of a new cultural consensus.\n\n\n\n\n\n\nA strong America made up of strong cities, towns and neighborhoods. That\u2019s the vision.\nWe have a powerful message and we have built our organization around a movement to spread it. We\u2019re attacking the complex problem of struggling cities by changing the current cultural consensus. We do this in three simple ways:\n\nWe create content.\n\n\nWe distribute that content as broadly as possible.\n\n\nWe nudge people to take action.\n\nAnd it\u2019s working. Don't miss out. Be part of what we're building together. Memberships start at just $5 per month. Join the movement.