Our Story
Strong Towns Blono is a 501(c)3 organization built upon Strong Town principles seeking to improve the built environment of our city, foster bonds between neighbors, and create useful discussions on public policy and urban planning.
Finding our footing in the Fall of 2022 as Bloomington Revivalists, we reached out to community members to explore the change we wanted to see in our city – how we could build a vibrant, resilient, and community oriented Bloomington. City council members, teachers, community organizers, county board members, contractors, realtors, workers, and small business owner all came together agreeing on these principles.
Bloomington is an old small Midwest city with strong bones who’s early development centered around walkable neighborhoods, mixed use developments, transportation, and industry. However, starting in the 1940s and into the post war years Bloomington, like almost all cities, adopted the suburban styled development centered around the car, pushing further east. This style of development ramped up in the 60s and 70s, all the way through today creating the suburban sprawl we see east of Veteran’s Parkway. This development is financially, environmentally, and socially unsustainable.
We at Strong Towns Blono see this website as a tool not only to inform, but a tool to transform. To demonstrate how we can revive Bloomington’s core, enable new, affordable, mixed use developments, create further financial resiliency, and create a welcome people centered downtown spreading out to all corners of the city.
How We Work
Strong Towns Blono is a membership organization that works through priority campaigns. These are developed and voted on by members to improve the built environment around us.
Strong Towns Blono 