January Update: 2026 Campaign Brainstorming

January Update: 2026 Campaign Brainstorming

Hello Worcester Strong Towners!

Next Meeting: Our next meeting is this Saturday, January 10th, from 4pm-5:30pm. This meeting will be held remotely via Discord. If you have not been to our Discord, you can find the link here.

At our December meeting, we began brainstorming priority campaigns for 2026. Our January meeting will be a continuation of that brainstorming—and even if you could not make it in December, we definitely want to hear everyone’s ideas, so please be sure to make it if you can. We’re also planning a video (15-30 minute) watch party on a Strong Towns topic of interest.

December Recap: Thank you to everyone for attending our December meeting. Some of the ideas brainstormed during the meeting included:

  • A bus bench building program

  • Group bike rides through Worcester

  • Writing a blog post explaining the Strong Towns financial decoder in everyday terms

  • A Strong Towns book club

  • A newcomer’s guide

  • Social events

  • More trash pickups!

If you have any ideas at all that you think Strong Towns would be perfect for, please come to the next meeting and let us know. Let’s make 2026 a great year for the organization!

Action Items

GIS Tutorial: In our November 2025 meeting, we learned about various data available from the City of Worcester, MassMapper, and more that can help us to visualize the world. Our conversation then generated a lot of discussion about GIS resources and capabilities. We’d love to continue those discussions. If there is any interest in a follow-up, in-depth, GIS tutorial meeting, let us know your thoughts via this short survey.

Vernon Connected: This is a planning effort regarding the future of the Vernon Street Bridge and the surrounding neighborhoods. These are neighborhoods that were separated by I-290 decades ago, and this is an opportunity to reconnect them.

  • You can learn more about Vernon Connected here.

  • Importantly, you can take a short survey at the top of the same page asking how YOU use the Vernon Street Bridge and what you envision for the area in the future.

  • If you’ve ever encountered an issue with the transportation network in this area, you can add a marker to this interactive map to bring the project team’s attention to it.

Updates

New Website: We are happy to announce that we are developing a new Strong Towns Worcester website! We are planning to launch this website soon.

Ongoing Efforts

  • We continue to advocate for the Now|Next Plan, the Vision Zero Safety Action Plan, the Mobility Action Plan, and the Housing Production Plan.

Social Media

We have an Instagram, a Discord, a Facebook group, a Facebook page, and a Bluesky. We’d love to see you there and hear your thoughts! If you have any pictures or other Worcester-specific content you’d like us to post, please share!

Thank you for your continued interest! We look forward to bringing you more in the future.