Free presentation by Chuck Marohn from Strong Towns! Thurs, March 30

[PonderInc]

This is an amazing opportunity for people in Tulsa to see a free presentation by Strong Towns founder Chuck Marohn.

If you've ever wondered why Tulsa struggles to generate tax dollars and fix our streets despite constant expansion and development, this presentation is for you.

Date: Thursday, March 30
Time: 7:00 PM
Location: OSU-Tulsa Auditorium
700 N Greenwood Ave, Tulsa, OK 74106

Strong Towns has done a lot of research that proves car-centric, single-use development doesn't generate enough tax dollars to pay for the long-term public infrastructure costs associated with it.  Instead, we should re-focus our investments on what does work: old-fashioned, incremental, walkable, mixed-use development.  This traditional development pattern not only improves quality of life and builds places people love, it's economically sustainable and resilient over the long run.  It generates more in taxes than it requires to maintain the associated public infrastructure. 

The Strong Towns message will resonate with anyone who's ever wondered why, even in boom years, we can't fix our streets, fund our parks, hire enough police, or maintain our water and sewer lines.  Even though we can't afford to maintain the public infrastructure we've already built, we continue to expand in a way that only adds to the problem.  Meanwhile, there's a huge market demand for walkable urbanism, which is not being met in our zeal for greenfield growth.

Understanding these concepts is critical for Tulsa's future.  It's an old-fashioned idea that seems radical: maximize what you have before you expand. Our leaders and citizens need to hear it.  Please help spread the word.

[dsjeffries]

What a great event! Wish I could go, but I'll be out of town. I hope some of our local elected leaders and board/commission appointees attend.

[PonderInc]

If anyone's interested in learning more about Strong Towns, here are some interesting links to get you started...

Here are a couple 4-minute videos that explain some of the major concepts of the Strong Towns philosophy: 

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=AGxni1c-klM

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=TcmzF8zn5FE

And here are a couple good places to start on the Strong Towns website:

http://www.strongtowns.org/mission/#missioncopy

http://www.strongtowns.org/the-growth-ponzi-scheme/

The "Growth Ponzi Scheme" concept is an eye-opener.  These are critical concepts that all Tulsans need to be thinking about, especially folks in leadership positions or people serving on development-related commissions.

[erfalf]

I love listening to Marohn.

However, the biggest road block will be to change the way city governments think. In Bartlesville, there is this perception we have to "play with the big boys" by offering all these incentives. How do we change the perception that we don't have to do that. The perception is that if we don't, we will wither and die on the vine.

So,

1. How do we change the perception?

2. Is the perception they do have actually wrong, ie how bad if at all will it hurt by turning off the free money spigot for luring businesses to town?

[PonderInc]

Hope everyone can make it to the Strong Towns "Curbside Chat" tomorrow (Thursday 3/30) at 7:00 PM at the OSU Tulsa auditorium.

If you're looking for more info about Strong Towns, Rich Fisher did a great interview with Chuck Marohn earlier this week.  You can listen on demand:

http://publicradiotulsa.org/post/nonprofit-strong-towns-will-soon-host-its-first-ever-national-summit-here-tulsa

[heironymouspasparagus]

m