Across The Aisle
West Bend, WI
Strong Towns writ large discourages the inevitable shouting matches that follow some discussions about urbanism. There is something to the observation that liberals tend to locate themselves where there are sidewalks and conservatives tend toward cul-de-sacs and countryside.
It’s also a little strange to meet the urban advocate who handles automobile collision repairs for a living, but here we are. Yet this brief story is a success story from someone who didn’t shy away from what started as a contentious conversation.
Jimmy has occasion to meet people who drive a lot, as it stands to reason that the more miles one drives, the greater the odds are that that driver will one day need the services of a body shop or insurance adjuster. He knows where his clients are from and he knows they sometimes won’t see eye to eye with him politically. How they got on the subject doesn’t come into this story, but the guy in the red hat was not at all excited to talk about the problem of sprawl and our dependence on car infrastructure.
The guy was from West Bend, in very conservative Washington County, WI. The conversation turned to his concerns about housing affordability there (something that resonates everywhere in the US) and, of course, taxes.
One reason Strong Towns caught on as it has is that there is reasoning supporting ST’s main goals that work across the political spectrum. Jimmy saw an opening.
“West Bend cannot expand forever, using new tax base to pay off the debts of the last expansion, especially as that last expansion spread out in such a way that it simply doesn’t generate much tax revenue. One day the bill comes due. You have to pay the debt. These small towns, really, towns of all sizes, simply compound the problem with their growth as opposed to fixing it. Your taxes will go up. It’s easy to pick on rust-belt Detroit for its urban decay, but sun belt, red state Houston is a study in exactly this problem. Detroit was among the first cities to expand outward because of the automobile - of course it was, it’s Detroit - but towns of all sizes and political bents have followed suit.”
The guy mulled this over. “I could move,” he said.
“This isn’t a problem you can outrun. The next town over will have the same problem, OR you’ll get so far away from the places you need to be (job, school, extended family) that the trip itself will drive you nuts, not to mention the expense of gas and wear and tear. At a certain point you’re going to have an hour and a half commute. If we learned anything during COVID it was that people who had a morning commute by car did not miss it. At. All.
The guy conceded the point. He got it.
Now, is he coming to our next meeting? Jimmy’s not holding his breath. But if there’s one less person trolling social media the next time a municipality points out the need for housing density, better transit options, and complete streets, we’re all better off for it.
Story by Jimmy Lemke with Kate Pociask and Joe Wiesner