Escaping the Housing Trap

It’s not just SLO. Talk of a "housing crisis" pervades American cities—be it about off-the-charts prices in coastal communities or hyper-vacancy in the Rust Belt. The good news is that communities far and wide are sharing their approaches to a shared challenge. 

Strong Towns' Norm Van Eeden Petersman will join Building a Better SLO and Strong Towns SLO to discuss:

• A brief history of how we arrived at the current set of problems.
• How the incremental development of cities used to meet our housing needs, and why it no longer does.
• Why our cities have a "trickle or fire hose" problem, in which a small minority of neighborhoods undergo rapid, dramatic transformation while the majority see only a trickle of needed investment.
• How a growing number of places are adopting reforms that can break them out of the "trickle or fire hose" dynamic and make incremental housing development possible again.

Doors open at 5:45 p.m., tickets include beer, wine and apetizers.

About Strong Towns:
Strong Towns operates with the mission of replacing America’s post-war pattern of development, the Suburban Experiment, with a pattern of development that is financially strong and resilient. We advocate for cities of all sizes to be safe, livable, and inviting. We work to elevate local government to be the highest level of collaboration for people seeking to work together in a place, not merely the lowest level in a hierarchy of governments.

With a media presence reaching millions of people every year and a membership of nearly 3,000 people from all 50 states and several countries, the Strong Towns movement is reshaping the North American development pattern with a return to bottom-up, incremental growth. Strong Towns accomplishes this work by producing articles, podcasts, online and in-person events, trainings and more.

Scholarships are available. Please email [email protected] for more information.

Host or Publisher Building A Better SLO