Madison is the Strongest Town
Why you should vote for my city in the annual Strongest Town contest
Strong Towns holds a contest each year to determine a town that best exemplifies the Strong Towns approach1 to city building. I think Madison should get your vote.
In the first round you can vote for a “top four”. Eight (of sixteen) cities and towns will move into the bracket format. There are great candidates. I’m not going to name them because you could really just put down one city and have made an excellent choice: this beauty on the shores of Lake Mendota and Monona.
But if you haven’t cast your ballot yet and you need convincing, here’s why I think you should vote for my beloved Madison, WI.
We are goofy
Our city bird is phoenicopterus plasticus—the Pink Plastic Flamingo. You’ll see it everywhere. We don’t have a flamingo flock2 that migrates north from Florida, instead we recognize the 1979 UW-Madison students who covered Bascom Hill with 1,008 flamingos. The bird has stuck around since. The same students also inspired Toga Party I and II, Boom Box Parade, Lady Liberty on Lake Mendota, and Dizzyland, all on the Pail & Shovel Party platform.
Madison artists are iconic. Here are 4* of them:
*Okay, Elvis isn’t actually from Madison but he did break up a fight “without throwing a punch” at age 42 on East Washington Avenue. Georgia O’Keeffe grew up just north of the city and attended high school in Madison. Nirvana recorded several songs that ended up on their breakout album Nevermind. That took place one hundred years after Frank Lloyd Wright dropped out of UW-Madison.
The writers of the best headlines in the world founded their publication in Madison. The fastest wiener in the Daytona 500 comes from a stalwart of industrial Madison.
Every city can make some claim to fame but it takes Isthmus magic to play host to so many iconic characters and moments.
We have the best University
America’s greatest college town. Traditions like Jump Around (or my favorite “Buttercup”) and a dancing badger. A top research institution that discovered vitamins and blood thinners. 20 Nobel Laureates and the only physics two-time winner. Home to Fighting Bob and Tunnel Bob, two former vice presidents, and the founder of Earth Day. Also the most Olympians on the legendary 2026 gold medal US Women’s Hockey team.
Despite all those accolades, what captured me eight years ago was the incredible integration between the UW-Madison campus and the City. Even though the alignment is not perfect, Bascom Hall is one State Street away from the beautiful Wisconsin State Capitol building pictured at the beginning. Lakeshore and Picnic Point is full of peace and nature while Mifflin hosts one of the largest block parties every year. There are plenty of reasons to want to be a badger3 and there are over 500,000 of us.
We live in the best* City
For those of us who grew up and stayed or moved and stayed, we are here because there’s so much to love about Madison. Parks are around each corner. Restaurant newcomers join a talented scene of eats (I don’t care how many of you caveat the statement with “it’s not New York or LA”, it’s the “but it’s better than I expected” that warms our ~300,000 hearts). The arts are alive, discovery is bountiful, and innovations are around every corner. There are seasons that allow you to explore the highest of highs (May) and the lowest of lows (February). We also have an awesome flag.
For my Madisonians: we are the best because we make this place our home and we invest in it.
For my non-Madisonians: come and join us, celebrate at one of our wonderful summer festivals, and experience why this place is so interesting.
For everyone: go vote for Madison as the Strongest Town.
That’s it! Thank you for reading! Thank you for voting! See you in two weeks when we vote in round 2!
For my Strong Towns Madison Crowd
This is a popularity contest. We’ve already done the hard work this past year that got us through the nomination process into a selected contestant. I will shamelessly pander to my alumni and Madison faithful to try and win this thing. We have to go up against that big city southeast of us; it’s going to take everything we have.
wait a moment… non-Strong Towns people I said you are free to go! Thanks for reading! No need to stay. If you want to learn more about Strong Towns Madison that is of your own volition. Okay?
Alright.
I’m very proud of the work we did last year and covered a lot of it on this blog.
We had our Willy Street Lane Closure:
Our push for a housing-ready city:
And we continue to learn from tragedy, including Sasha Rosen, who I hope inspires all of us to keep fighting for safer streets in Madison:
We hosted a Park(ing) Day, attended countless meetings, sent hundreds of emails, and met each month to keep progressing towards our goal of having a noteworthy submission for the Strongest Town competition. I think we did it. Strong Towns certainly thinks we did.
No matter how we fair in this contest, there are more humble observations and small improvements to be made. A freeway may expand in our backyard. Vacancy rates for home ownership remain at .6% and many renters are cost-burdened (Madison 2025 Housing Snapshot). Our financial position is stable, but we need to be building resilience.
These are large problems that can’t be fixed all at once. But if we continue to notice the neglected smaller projects where we can improve, and we make the changes to make them better, I have hope that we can always be a Strong Town, every single year.
Thank you and seriously cast your vote.
What is the Strong Towns approach? Don’t worry about it, if you really care you can read to the end
Unless you count The Flock at Breese Stevens supporting Forward Madison
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