Our Strong Towns Journey

Presentation to City Council on April 8, 2024 on some example outcomes from the first year participating in the Strong Towns Community Action Lab 

Medicine Hat is competing with 15 other North American cities in the 9th Annual Strongest Town Contest. In this bracket-style voting tournament, Medicine Hat will compete for the “Strongest Town” title by shining a national spotlight on its progress toward safety, financial resiliency, housing and transportation.      Medicine Hat, AB and Edmonton, AB are the only Canadian cities in the contest. Medicine Hat joins Norman, Oklahoma as the only two cities in the contest who have participated in the Strong Towns Community Action Lab.

Want to help ensure Medicine Hat makes it to the next round? Vote now!

LOCATION: Medicine Hat Public Library  |   DATE: November 29, 2023  |  TIME: 1:00 p.m.

This is part of a workshop series for the Community Action Lab sponsored by the City of Medicine Hat. 

You want your community to change. You also want these changes to be received well by others. You’ve got a passion for building a strong place, but how do you rally your neighbors and start taking action?

In this presentation, Norm Van Eeden Petersman, member advocate for Strong Towns, outlines a path forward and draws upon his 10 years of congregational leadership and community outreach to provide tools that you can use to mobilize your community for change.

EVENT DETAILS HERE - No registration required

Facebook event

UPDATE:

If you were unable to attend the presentation, you can watch the whole here on the City of Medicine Hat YouTube channel.

An engaged group of Medicine Hat residents have come together to form a Strong Towns Local Conversation group. They meet regularly to address matters important to them, and discuss tangible means to make real change in our community. They will be hosting an informal meeting after the Strong Towns public presentation, and we're all invited! 

Tuesday, November 28th, 2023

McNally's Tap House, 9-10pm

UPDATE: After a bit of confusion, and a little mix up, the post event conversation at Local was a great success and allowed for continued conversations after the public presentation.

This is the third workshop event in a series of three for the Community Action Lab sponsored by the City of Medicine Hat. 

Esplanade Arts & Heritage Centre - main theatre

November 28, 2023, 7:00 PM MST

FREE REGISTRATION

Facebook event

Since January, the Local Action Team and other community members have been working diligently to develop solutions that address the needs of the community. Join us for this final public event where we discuss housing. Rent is skyrocketing. Buying a home is out of the question for people at many stages of life. To ensure a better future for Medicine Hat, we’ve got to make sure future residents can find a home here. The answer to the housing crisis won’t be found at the federal or provincial level. The answer to the housing crisis is right here in Medicine Hat. Let’s discover it together.

UPDATE:

If you were unable to attend the presentation, you can watch the whole here on the City of Medicine Hat YouTube channel.

In this workshop, City staff were given the opportunity to work through a challenge facing the city, using the "Strong Towns Approach". The focus was placed on identifying "small bets" that can be quickly and easily implemented. The goal is to empower staff to use this approach in their day-to-day work, rendering our City stronger and more resilient every day.

UPDATE: The event was a great success, well attended by many staff members and resulted in some great discussions and a kick-start to things than can be achieved through this approach! Topics discussed include water and energy consumption, active transportation, unsightly properties, downtown vibrancy, tourism and employee attraction, access to childcare, and others.

Join City staff in a public engagement event for multiple city-wide initiatives, including the Strong Towns Community Action Lab on November 1st, from 4-8pm in the main lobby of City Hall. More event details available here.

UPDATE: The City Wide Open House was a great success! Hundreds of engaged residents came to learn more on the multiple municipal projects in the works such as; the Transportation Master Plan, Community Well Being Plan, the Environmental framework, Facilities for the Future, the Land Use Bylaw, and of course the Strong Towns Community Action Lab! Thanks for the great turn out.

The Strong Towns Local Conversation group hosted their very first event on August 24th, 2023. This group is independent from the CMH, and is comprised of motivated residents who wish to work towards making the city an even greater place to live. 

The evening consisted of residents sitting at various tables that each address a different topic; Transit, Downtown, Getting kids to school safely, Neighbourhood associations, and Walkable/bikeable cities. Their goal was to identify potential solutions that can very quickly and easily be implemented with help from a micro-grant. Members of the Local Conversation group served as facilitators, and noted ideas that would arise during these brain storming sessions. A summery of these discussions can be found on their Facebook page here.

They are active on Facebook (External link)and Instagram(External link), and will be sharing information on Strong Towns, their work together, and any upcoming events. You can also email the group if you would like to participate in their work: MHconversations@gmail.com

Want to learn more about Strong Towns and discuss how we can begin to implement some of these lessons in Medicine Hat? Start a book club and have your members read Strong Towns: A Bottom-Up Revolution to Rebuild American Prosperity by Charles L. Marohn, Founder and President of Strong Towns.  A Free Book Club Kit is available to check out from the Medicine Hat Public Library right here.

A Strong Towns "Local Conversation" is a group of engaged residents who have come together to discuss how they can be involved in making their community a better place. This is an entirely grassroots driven movement, and there are examples of Local Conversations taking place all over the world. 

A group of engaged Medicine Hat residents have come together to create their own Local Conversation, and they held their first meeting on July 4th, 2023. Their next meeting is taking place on June 17th, 2023, from 3-4pm at Inspire Café (675 2nd St SE).

They are active on Facebook and Instagram, and will be sharing information on Strong Towns, their work together, and any upcoming events. You can also email the group if you would like to participate in their work: MHconversations@gmail.com

This Local Conversation has been formed completely independently from the City of Medicine Hat, but they are the embodiment of a grass roots movement that can spark change in our community. Please join their group if you wish to be part of their efforts.

You can also download the Strong Citizen Guide to learn the 5 steps to becoming a Strong Community Citizen, how to get inspired, how access City of Medicine Hat micro-grants, and more.

Workshop with the Downtown Collective

Strong Towns' Norm Van Eeden Petersman attended the meeting of the Downtown Collective to learn from local entrepreneurs who are crucial to the ongoing vitality and well-being of the downtown. These leaders are working together to put on great community building events like the chili cook-off and working to address the factors affecting public perceptions of the downtown. The planned introduction of a community safety patrol program was discussed and the impacts of municipal fees for patio permits and public spaces like the Towne Square were all covered. 

Workshop with Medicine Hat Chamber of Commerce 

The Medicine Hat Chamber of Commerce hosted an impromptu meeting of local business leaders who were interested in talking about the Strong Towns approach to building strong communities. The Chamber's Executive Director, Lisa Kowalchuk, initiated the meeting to offer an opportunity for a specific dialogue about the implications for small and mid-sized employers. Time was spent discussing the potential value to the city from the Community Action Lab over the longer term. Strong Towns' Norm Van Eeden Petersman fielded questions and participated in a roundtable discussion for 75 minutes. 

Local Conversation session

Members of a new local conversation group in Medicine Hat met with Strong Towns' Norm Van Eeden Petersman to lay out a vision for continuing the discussion of the Strong Towns movement for all the city's residents. If you're interested in participating in future meetings of this group, reach out to mhconversation@gmail.com and you'll be added to the mailing list and receive invitations to attend future meetups from the group's steering committee. If you'd like to be part of the steering committee, let them know!

What can we do to ensure that we build places where everyone has an opportunity to live a good life in a prosperous place? Join Norm Van Eeden Petersman of Strong Towns for a free public presentation and Q&A at the Medicine Hat Public Library Theatre, from 1-2:30pm. In plain language, this presentation will explain what it takes to build stronger, more resilient communities. RSVP here (appreciated but not required). You'll also hear about ways that you can be involved in changing your community for good. For more information, contact norm@strongtowns.org.  

UPDATE: The Curbside Chat was a great success! Alberta native, Norm Van Eeden Petersman of Strong Towns gave a presentation on some of the key elements of the Strong Towns Principles and the Strong Towns Approach to city building. You can watch the entire presentation here:

You can also read the story on CHAT News Today right here.

If you want to join further conversations, we implore you to join the Strong Towns Medicine Hat Local Conversations group, and watch these introductory member videos.

The Medicine Hat Strong Towns Action Team had the opportunity to hold their second in-person meeting with Strong Towns and first community walk through the Downtown to discuss the implications of Strong Towns principles on specific local projects.

All are welcome to drop in for a casual evening of discussion at The Yard in downtown Medicine Hat, 7-10pm. Join Norm from Strong Towns and the organizers of Medicine Hat's local conversation group for a time of talking about local issues like transportation, housing, community safety, downtown revitalization, and neighbourhood change. RSVP here (appreciated but not required). For more information, contact norm@strongtowns.org. 

Details
Address: The Yard - 619 3 Street SE 

RSVP Link: https://airtable.com/shrcrssGx89wiUXy

UPDATE: The event was a huge success! It was attended by over 100 residents throughout the evening, and several great conversations were has on Strong Towns, the Community Action Lab, and the great things we can aspire to achieve in Medicine Hat.

If you want to join further conversations, we implore you to join the Strong Towns Medicine Hat Local Conversations group, and watch these introductory member videos. 

Esplanade Studio Theatre - 3:00 pm

The City Leadership Team will meet in person with Strong Towns representatives for updates on the progress of the Medicine Hat Community Action Lab.

The Leadership Team is made up of over 60 prominent local people representing the various facets of our community. Members come from backgrounds in housing, tourism, education & health, economic development, environmentalism, social services, and many more.

Strong Towns has shared a wonderful article on their platform with an interview conducted with Ashley Howes, a Community Resource Worker for the City of Medicine Hat. Ashley is a member of the Action Team and shares how lessons throughout the Community Action Lab has changed her outlook on certain aspects of her work. 

The second of three Strong Towns Community Action Lab public events planned for 2023 happens this week and has been expanded to allow for more community involvement. Check out the story on Chat News Today here.

What does it mean for the city of Medicine Hat to be successful?

"We did X and that has made us successful." Or, "if we could just do Y, then we’d be really successful." This is a results-oriented.

"Medicine Hat is successful because it has a really nice park within walking distance of my house." This is an experiential way of measuring success.

"Medicine Hat is successful because it engaged the public in adoption of a plan incorporating residents' desires." This measures success based on process.

None of these are wrong. We all have our own priorities; that is one of the things that make cities into complex systems. To be successful, a city needs to harmonize many competing interests. 

Regardless of how you personally measure success, there is a fundamental principle of a Strong Town that we know to be true:

For local government, financial solvency is a prerequisite for long-term prosperity.

When we think about what it means for Medicine Hat to be really successful, every answer requires we have more long-term wealth than long-term liabilities. 

So then what is a good project for the City of Medicine Hat to participate in?

There are projects that are good for the City of Medicine Hat (the "municipal corporation"), others that are good for the private sector (like real estate developers, for example), and then those projects that are good for us all. The yellow is where low-risk, high-return investments can start to build up prosperity. 

So how do we go about measuring winning?

We can quantify that by the number of permits issued, the amount of new businesses, annual increase in tax revenue. In the private sector, these things are often called “top line” metrics. These are important, but ultimately not as important -- or as representative of success -- as the bottom line metrics. This is far more difficult to quantify.

If you want to dive deeper into this topic, you can enroll at the Medicine Hat - Strong Towns Academy to learn along with us throughout the Community Action Lab.

9:00 am MST (Date and time tentative)

The City Leadership Team will meet online with Strong Towns representatives for updates on the progress of the Medicine Hat Community Action Lab.

The Leadership Team is made up of over 60 prominent local people representing the various facets of our community. Members come from backgrounds in housing, tourism, education & health, economic development, environmentalism, social services, and many more.

Presentation to the Moving and Choosing Coalition on "The 6 elements of the Strong Towns Approach", which are:

1. "Make little bets"
2. "Value resiliency over efficiency"
3. "Adapt to feedback"
4. "Be chaotic (but smart), not orderly (but dumb)"
5. "Design life to the personal scale"
6. "Do the math"

And here is a great summary from Strong Towns on The Strong Towns Approach.

For a deeper dive in this topic and to learn along with us throughout the Community Action Lab, enroll at the Medicine Hat - Strong Towns Academy.

Complicated systems are knowable and predictable (at the very least by experts and technicians). But they are incapable of evolving. They are fragile.

Complex systems respond to feedback. They are adaptable. They evolve. They are anti-fragile. In a complex system, order isn’t imposed; it emerges.

These sound like positive traits, especially for a city. We want cities that evolve, adapt, and grow stronger over time. We want the places we live to respond to feedback, especially our desires (for example, I’d love a coffee shop in that vacant space up the street).

But, there is one aspect of complex systems that people often struggle to accept: 

We can’t make accurate long-term predictions of complex systems.

So much of city building involves gathering and assessing data and then using it to make projections about the future. We spend millions of dollars each year based on the confidence gained in making these projections. Yet, they are all wrong.

In this session, we study the limits of knowledge in a complex adaptive system and explore how we make decisions in a world where we can’t accurately predict the future.

This week, Action Team members read Chapter 3: An Infinite Game from Strong Towns: A Bottom-Up Revolution to Rebuild American Prosperity (available at the Medicine Hat Public Library here).  

If you don’t have a copy, here is an article from Strong Towns with similar themes called “Winning is the Absence of Losing.”

The development of a city is an infinite game. A successful city does not have an end date. There might be some scorekeeping along the way, but there is no path to ultimate victory. As uninspiring as it may be, the primary goal of a city must be to endure.

For a deeper dive in this topic, enroll at the Medicine Hat - Strong Towns Academy to learn along with us throughout the Community Action Lab. 

Although every municipality can intermittently run a deficit, ongoing budget deficits are an indication of a structural deficit. Something in the structure of the city budget is out of alignment. Revenues are not keeping up with expenses. Neither tax increases nor budget cuts solve the underlying problem. They merely buy time while making the structural problem worse.  

Here's a fantastic video on the topic:

Medicine Hat has a structural deficit. 

In these lessons, the Action Team explored the reasons for these underlying structural deficits and looked at the critical steps necessary to address these budget shortfalls.  

Action Team members were tasked with reading It's All Downhill from Here, by Winnipeg resident Michel Durand-Wood on the financial implications of the Waverley West development on the city of Winnipeg. This provided a real world example of the Growth Ponzi Scheme and the importance of doing the math, topics from previous Action Team Lessons.

As the Author states, "it would become painfully obvious that we had built more infrastructure than we could reasonably afford. And no amount of new Waverley Wests would help us. In fact, each additional one we built would actually be making things worse."

The lesson from Winnipeg is that healthy budgets come from healthy growth patterns. We need to stop growing in ways that make the city poorer.

Medicine Hat has more roads, sidewalks, pipes, pumps, and other infrastructure than the population can afford to sustain.

For the first 65 years of water and sewer service in Medicine Hat, there were less than 3.5 meters of water and sewer pipes for every resident in the city. Today, there is almost double per resident. This is a less productive, and more expensive system.

The first step to dealing with Medicine Hat’s structural deficit is to stop making it worse. Here is a lesson on what it means to stop.

Enroll at the Medicine Hat - Strong Towns Academy to learn along with us throughout the Community Action Lab.

Come by and learn about Strong Towns and the Community Action Lab at the display boards set up on the main floor of City Hall. These displays can also be viewed in the Photo Gallery. Copies of the 5 Steps to Becoming a Strong Community Citizen guide are also available at the display.

One of the tough conversations already occurring in Medicine Hat began with a question Chuck asked at the first event: should the government make a profit?

In this lesson, members of the Action Team dive deep into understanding the concept of the Growth Ponzi Scheme. Here is a great video providing a summary of the concept:.

Throughout the next year, the Action Team will be reading Strong Towns: A Bottom-Up Revolution to Rebuild American Prosperity (available at the Medicine Hat Public Library here). 

For this assignment, Action Team members read Chapter 5: "Growth or Stability".

In this chapter, Chuck asks a simple question; Does Growth Serve Us? This is a question that may begin to reveal what is really at the root of many of the fiscal struggles in Medicine Hat.

If you don't have a copy of A Bottom-Up Revolution handy, you should check out America's Growth Ponzi Scheme, an article by Chuck Marohn that covers similar content.

Enroll at the Medicine Hat - Strong Towns Academy to learn along with us throughout the Community Action Lab.

A presentation on the six elements of the Strong Towns Approach to city planning was given to the Medicine Hat Downtown Collective.

You can read the following article for a summary of The Strong Towns Approach on the Strong Towns website.

This video includes answers to some frequently asked questions we’ve received on the Community Action Lab the City of Medicine Hat is participating in with Strong Towns.

Members of the Action Team were tasked with reading the following publication: Breaking Out of the Resource Trap: An Economic Plan for Resource-Based Communities. This is the Strong Towns blueprint for economic development.

This is a particularly salient reading for Medicine Hat because of the city's relationship with natural resources. It seems resource-based development has played a pivotal role in how Medicine Hat has grown and changed over time; accounting for this reality is a crucial ingredient in thinking about the future.

Watch this free webcast on the topic to learn about five key strategies to help shore up a strong local economy that doesn’t depend on one mill or one plant—but an economy that is resilient for whatever lies ahead.

Here's an article that provides a good summary of the Strong Towns approach to economic development.

Enroll at the Medicine Hat - Strong Towns Academy to learn along with us throughout the Community Action Lab.

Medicine Hat Mayor Linnsie Clark and co-host Jay Hitchen sit down with City Senior Planner Shawn Champage for a frank and engaging discussion about Strong Towns, and the City's involvement in the Community Action Lab.

Listen to Podcast (36 minutes)

Medicine Hat Public Library Legion Room - 6:30-8:00 pm

Hatters were invited to contribute to an open discussion about Chuck Marohn's book "Strong Towns" and the Medicine Hat Community Action Lab. Free copies of the Strong Towns book were also made available.

“In a world where so many people have access to education and cheap tools of innovation, innovation that happens from the bottom up tends to be chaotic but smart. Innovation that happens from the top down tends to be orderly but dumb. ”

- Curtis Carlson, CEO of SRI International

"Please use the purpose made paved path provided"We all want smart, but affluent societies have a strong aversion to chaos. In fact, we tolerate a lot of "dumb" so as to avoid even modest amounts of disorder. This is true throughout the private sector, but it is especially true when it comes to local government.

We want city officials to deliver innovation, but without the messiness required to achieve it. Yet, we gladly sign up for the beta version of Google's latest product knowing that we're part of a process of working out the bugs.

If we want smart innovation, the community must tolerate the bottom-up experimentation necessary to achieve it.

For some practical examples, consult this guide on "How To Fix a Dangerous Street in 24 Hours or Less".

And here's a great video on how our street could be better designed and some quick solutions:

Strong Towns: A Bottom-Up Revolution to Rebuild American Prosperity is available at the Medicine Hat Public Library. For this lesson, members of the Action Team read Chapter 6: "Rational Responses".

If you don’t have a copy of the book, here are two articles to read that capture the essence of the book chapter:

• Chaotic But Smart  by Charles Marohn (November 2013)
• The least dumb idea consensus provides by Charles Marohn (April 202, 2015)

Enroll at the Medicine Hat - Strong Towns Academy to learn along with us throughout the Community Action Lab.

Cypress Centre, Medicine Hat

Hundreds of locals dropped by our booth over the popular 3-day trade show to learn more about Strong Towns principles, and how the Community Action Lab is designed to help the City stay financially resilient. Various staff members from Planning & Development Services were available to talk to community members. 

• See trade show displays in the Photo Gallery

Strong Towns 101 is a four-part course providing an overview of the Strong Towns principles and ideas. The material in this course introduces principles that make a community more economically prosperous and resilient, no matter what lies ahead. 

6 Strong Towns Principles:

1. Financial solvency is a prerequisite for long-term prosperity.
2. Land is the base resource from which community prosperity is built and sustained. It must not be squandered.
3. A transportation system is a means of creating prosperity in a community, not an end in itself.
4. Job creation and economic growth are the results of a healthy local economy, not substitutes for one.
5. Strong cities, towns, and neighborhoods cannot happen without strong citizens (people who care).
6. Local government is a platform for Strong Citizens to collaboratively build a prosperous place.

Concepts Introduced:

• The insolvency crisis facing America's cities and towns
• How this happened (and why it's not your fault)
• How to approach these challenges with a Strong Towns framework

"What IS a Strong Town?". Here's a great summary: 

For this assignment, members of the Action Team completed the Strong Towns 101 course. This course is free and can be pursued by anyone interested in learning more. 

Enroll at the Medicine Hat - Strong Towns Academy to learn along with us throughout the Community Action Lab.

Online - 8:00am - 5:00pm

All day, Hatters were invited to submit their questions and comments about Strong Towns through the online discussion platform Reddit, and receive immediate feedback. Answering questions was Shawn Champage, Senior Planner with the City of Medicine Hat.

• See Reddit discussion

Esplanade Main Theatre - 7:00-9:00 pm

First free presentation event in a series of three for the Community Action Lab sponsored by the City of Medicine Hat.

Charles Marohn explained, in plain language, how so many communities in North America have found themselves in decline after decades of "growth". He introduced Strong Towns principles to strengthen cities and ensure their long-term economic success, followed by a question-and-answer session. It was extremely well-attended, as approximately 500 Hatters showed up to learn about Strong Towns, with local media also covering the event.

• See presentation video (1.5 hrs)

Photo courtesy of CHAT TV

Esplanade Studio Theatre - 3:00 pm

As a kickoff to Medicine Hat's involvement with the Strong Towns Community Action Lab, senior staff members met with Charles Marohn to become introduced to Strong Towns principles and the work that will be happening over the next two years.

The Leadership Team is made up of over 60 prominent local people representing the various facets of our community. Members come from backgrounds in housing, tourism, education & health, economic development, environmentalism, social services, and many more.

On CHAT News at Noon, anchor Dan Reynish interviewed Mayor Linnsie Clark and Shawn Champagne, Senior Planner with the City of Medicine Hat, about what Strong Towns means, and how Hatters can learn more and get involved.

• See video here (6 minutes)

Photo courtesy of CHAT TV

Chuck Marohn, founder and president of the non-profit organization - Strong Towns, gives some insight on the Community Action Lab and what residents and the City of Medicine Hat can look forward to regarding this association.

Strong Towns launches a webpage for the Medicine Hat Community Action Lab.