“For the village, what’s appealing is that a lot of the themes in the Strong Towns speak to us as a community,” said village manager Josué Salmerón. “This is who we are.”
Fisher said the organization accepted nominations for the contest in February and March. This year they got several dozen, she said, and the team chose 16 candidates, including Yellow Springs, to compete in the contest.
Salmerón said the village has long used the Strong Towns model for Yellow Springs, especially in that the town has a desire to build community and build a beloved community.
“We think of ourselves as living in a bubble, but you know, we’re influential outside of this and our ideas resonate well outside of the three square miles that we are,” Salmerón said.
In the first round, Yellow Springs is competing against Osakis, Minnesota. Some of the topics that both Osakis and Yellow Springs were asked about include transportation, housing affordability, financial practices of the town, how the town is responding to the pandemic and small business support.
Salmerón said this was an opportunity for Yellow Springs to not only boost their name recognition, but also helps get the work of the city out.
“For us as the administration, we get to learn about what are these other folks doing and how are they addressing the challenges,” he said.
Small towns are the backbone of the United States, he said. But they generally are not as recognizable as the big cities, like Los Angeles or Washington, D.C.
“There’s an incentive here for all these towns to get some recognition and share what they’re doing, and we all benefit,” Salmerón said.
Voting happens weekly. To learn more about the contest, go to https://www.strongtowns.org/journal/2021/3/14/welcome-to-the-strongest-town-contest
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