Strong Towns Calgary

NEW: Join our Park(ing) Day Campaign!

We are Strong Towns Calgary, and we believe in a bottom-up approach to urbanism, promoting human dignity in our communities through achievable, citizen-led action.We serve as a pluralistic platform for civic communication, empowering advocacy and innovation toward stronger communities, challenging the problems and structures undermining them.We imagine Calgary as a compassionate, vibrant, interconnected urban landscape where every community flourishes—grounded in sustainable practices, fiscal responsibility, and a spirit of inclusive stewardship.

Come join the conversation!

Our Events

Thursday Throwdown

Gathering on the first Thursday every month!

September 5th @ 5 p.m.
Avenida Food Hall & Market
12445 Lake Fraser Dr SE, Calgary AB🡒 Help us pick next months' spots!

Virtual Throwdowns

Gathering weekly every Thursday!

Every Thursday @ 7 p.m.
From the comfort of your home
a.k.a. on our Discord server🡒 Join the conversation today!

Park(ing) Day 2024

Let's reclaim some urban space!

September 20th to 22nd
Parking stall TBD
within the Kensington area🡒 Help us create something special!

Got an event idea?

Let's collaborate to make it happen!

We're always looking for opportunities to bring Calgarians together for positive, inspired action.🡒 Let us know how we can help!

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About STC

Strong Towns Calgary began in February 2023 when our co-founders Rob and Shawn wanted to bring a Strong Towns Local Conversation to their hometown.Since then we've grown and maintained an active online community, meeting in-person regularly, and inspiring advocacy for local issues in the chambers of City Hall!Most of Calgary's built form was built post-war, during the population booms of the 60s and 70s — our city has problems, but even greater potential.That's why it's our mission to create space for Calgarians to connect, and create change within our communities. Will you lend us a hand?

Our Values

People-First Wealth Creation

People create wealth—transportation systems, infrastructure, growth, and job creation are merely augments or symptoms of wealth, not sustainable replacements. Calgary's job is to nurture talent by providing and enabling enriching services and productive places that serve to create a strong, interdependent, and independent citizenry.

Doing the Math

Strength means flexibility, resilience into an unpredictable future. Cities are playing infinite games, we can't just put ourselves up for sale in a downturn—what we build today must sustain prosperity for generations to come. Calgary should only support initiatives that provide a measurable long-term return on investment to the community.

Bottom-Up Governance

Local government is misunderstood as the lowest level of government in a hierarchy, it’s actually where your voice is loudest! Enabling citizen particiaption and engagement in local governance should be the top priority of a healthy democracy. We believe strong citizens make strong communities, and a strong Calgary—in that direction.

Meeting People Where They Are

We believe in an inclusive, dialectical approach to conflict resolution. Disagreement doesn't imply right or wrong, only a lack of understanding. Cities are necessarily filled with folks of all kinds, so success means listening attentively, and taking holistic action to address complex problems.

Acting Incrementally, Today

Good and great are not enemies, a small step today easily becomes a few more tomorrow, but the wait for perfection is unending. Legalizing small projects lowers the barrier of entry to wealth creation, allowing everyday folks to become active participants in their communities. A resilient, feedback-seeking city ensures that no community suffers radical, sudden change, but no community is exempt from change.

Being for Something

It's easy to find reasons to complain (and admittedly we do), but what's more difficult is to synthesize and advocate toward a constructive solution. When we focus on what we don't want, we fail to define what we do—and if what we want is unclear, we can never achieve it. Strong Towns Calgary is for the right to incremental progress, transparent municipal accounting, and the proliferation of productive, integrated places.

Honouring our Land and Heritage

The confluence of the Bow and Elbow Rivers, known to the Blackfoot people as Mohkinstsis (translating to Elbow), has long served as a sacred gathering place for sharing stories, resources, and collaborating towards a stronger community. Land is the base resource upon which all prosperity is built and sustained atop—as Calgary radiates across the foothills and prairies from this point, it must ultimately honour the tradition of sustainability, resilience, and cooperation that has always governed it.

Embracing Incompleteness

Strong Towns Calgary is forever a work in progress where all members are welcomed and encouraged to share their ideas and skills. There is no final state in mind; together, we can always achieve stronger.

Contact Us

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Let's Start a Conversation!

Feel free to reach out to us on our official social media accounts for general inquiries.If you have any immediate questions or would like to reach out to us directly, please fill out the contact box!

Park(ing) Day 2024

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Join our Thursday Throwdowns!

Help us build, furnish, and activate!

We've established a design concept for our Park(ing) Day installation! Now, we're looking for folks to help fund, decorate, and activate the space.Our community has called for a comfortable gathering space, decorated with greenery, interactive activities & politically satirical or informative elements to reinforce the theme of "benefits of reclaiming urban space from cars".Use the form below if you've got anything to contribute!
Chip in a few bucks to help with costs, let us borrow some assets or skills, or sign up to volunteer at the event!

Let's keep in touch on this!