Today on my morning drive, I was listening to O.A.R’s The Rockville LP album, coincidentally named after the Maryland town just south of where I grew up.
As a resident of the Nashville area now, it struck me as somewhat ironic that despite moving somewhere famous for its music scene, I was listening to a band that launched out of my home county in the suburbs of Washington, D.C.
O.A.R.’s third album hit #11 on the Billboard internet sales charts, before they ever signed with a label. “Black Rock” and “That Was a Crazy Game of Poker” were both recorded in a studio in Silver Spring, Maryland.
Not Nashville, not New York, and not L.A.
It’s a good reminder that anything can come from anywhere. The best art and ideas may often end up in Nashville or Silicon Valley, but the vast majority don’t start there. In that truth lies an opportunity for cities everywhere.
As we move into a time of decentralization, cities should be asking what they can do to nourish the great things taking place in their own backyards.
Rather than getting sucked into the subsidize-big-company race to the bottom, cities can create their own distinct wealth, culture, and local economies through leveraging municipal resources to support local entrepreneurs, artists, athletes, and more.
Whether that looks like creating a fund to investment in small businesses or hosting block parties featuring local bands and food trucks, how can you help your city start placing small bets?
Anything can come from anywhere.
One Thing to Get Excited About:
If you spend even a few minutes reading about great city planning, you’ll inevitably come across all kinds of content talking up how great Dutch cities are for cycling.
And they are.
But it’s worth pointing out this wasn’t always the case. The below side-by-side of an Amsterdam street captures just how recently things have changed in some areas:
That such a transformation happened in approximately 18 months is a reminder of what’s possible with a bit of public buy-in, political will, and momentum.
The same is true in your town. So start building the snowball that will ultimately become the avalanche of change.
One Action to Get You Started:
In The Meaning of Marriage, Kathy Keller said “when [people] are looking for a spouse, (they) are looking for a finished statue when they should be looking for a wonderful block of marble . . . . When looking for a marriage partner, each must be able to look inside the other and see what God is doing and be excited about being part of the process of liberating the emerging ‘new you.”
Falling in love with your city is obviously different from falling in love with a spouse, but there are some basic principles for loving imperfect things well.
One of these principles is being able to see someone or something for what they/it is becoming and has the potential to become. And we do that when we catch glimpses of it in the present.
No matter how messy or poorly-designed your city is, spend some time this week finding one thing you like about it: a well-designed street, a beautiful building, or a great local restaurant; something that hints at the potential of what your city could be like.
Next, think about the smallest opportunity to replicate a version of that somewhere else in town: another great restaurant, another useful sidewalk or bike lane, another former parking lot turned into a housing development.
Then, commit to figuring out how to play your part in making that happen.
Maybe that’s writing your local councilmember. Maybe that’s developing a piece of property yourself. Maybe it’s starting your own burger joint.
Whatever it is, commit. Start drawing out the potential in the city you love.
One Resource to Check Out:
If you’ve never heard of the term “stroad,” or have struggled to explain the concept to others, Strong Towns has a great three-minute video on their YouTube channel breaking down the concept and why it’s so important to distinguish streets from roads: