What do you call a group of people from Des Moines? Des Moinesers? Des Moinesonittes? Des Moinians? Well, whatever you call ’em, in the summer of 2025 several of your fellow Des Moines citizens traveled 1,300 miles to attend the National Strong Towns Conference in Providence, RI.
Though they had never met before, a love for their common city and belief in the principles of Strong Towns led this group of strangers to revive the local chapter of Strong Towns with a renewed vigor and hope. With the help of people from the Strong Towns national organization, this group of people started the process of creating an official non-profit.
Though we must wait for our application for non-profit status to be approved, we will not wait to take steps to make Des Moines a city where every neighborhood is financially strong, walkable, and loved by the people who live there. We are meeting monthly to learn and enlist friends. We also have members focused on engaging people through book clubs, neighborhood walking tours, and service projects. We are also taking steps to implement many of the Strong Towns initiatives including the Housing-Ready Toolkits, Crash Analysis Studio, and Finance Decoder.
As we look to the future, we are excited to see who else joins. Do you feel like there’s something off in how we have designed our cities, but struggle to put you finger on what it is? Or, do you see things that need improvement, but struggle to know where to start? It doesn’t matter if you’re a city nerd or novice, we’re in this together and can’t wait for you to join the movement to make Des Moines a Strong Town!