Sixteen Finalists Chosen for the 2020 Strongest Town Contest

VOTING IS NOW OPEN FOR THE #StrongestTown! We are matched up against Sylvania, Ohio. Make sure to vote and share the link with #StrongestTown as hashtag. One vote per person until March 12, 2020.

http://www.strongtowns.org/strongesttown

Sixteen Finalists Chosen for the 2020 Strongest Town Contest

On Monday, March 9, voting will commence in the fifth-annual Strongest Town Contest, a bracket-based competition designed to spotlight communities from around the world that are building enduring financial resilience at the local level and actively embodying the Strong Towns approach to economic growth and development.

Nominations were accepted in February and sixteen finalists were chosen. They include a mix of rural, suburban, and urban communities, as well as three different countries. The finalists are:

Abingdon, Virginia

Athens, Ohio

Beloit, Wisconsin

Chubbuck, Idaho

Haifa, Israel

Hamilton, Missouri

Highland Park, Illinois

Lander, Wyoming

Pittsburg, Kansas

Sharon, Pennsylvania

Streator, Illinois

Sylvania, Ohio

Victoria, British Columbia

Watertown, South Dakota

Winona, Minnesota

Wytheville, Virginia

In the spirit of Strong Towns' inclusive model of change, average citizens and civic leaders alike were invited to submit their community for consideration for the title; nominators did not need to be (but could have been) official government representatives. Nominees completed questionnaires, which will be published as part of the first round of voting. Nominators from the towns that advance to the subsequent rounds will be given a series of interactive challenges, ending with just one community claiming the title of 2020's Strongest Town.

Every year, the Strongest Town contest promotes high levels of local civic engagement in the nominated communities and prompts significant local and national media attention, as well as inspiring other cities and towns around the world to adopt the successful strategies from the best contenders. Past winners have included Muskegon, MI; Traverse City, MI; Carlisle, PA; and Pensacola, FL. This year's champion will be invited to join past winners at the National Strong Towns Conference and Celebration in Pensacola, Florida on April 30-May 1.

For more information, please visit strongtowns.org/strongesttown.