Throughout the next month, Strong Towns, a national nonprofit working to strengthen financial resilience in America’s cities, towns and neighborhoods, is hosting a competition to determine the strongest town in America. This is the second annual “Strongest Town Contest” and this year, Strong Towns is pleased to announce that it received applications from communities in three different countries.

Teams of applicants (including government staff, citizen activists and nonprofit leaders) were invited to apply to the contest by answering a series of questions about their community, and 16 towns have now been selected to compete in a bracket-based competition to determine whose is the strongest. Towns are judged based on criteria like financial solvency, citizen engagement, transportation options and ability to adapt to new challenges. Learn more about Strong Towns principles here: www.strongtowns.org/mission.

From February 27 – March 24, readers of the Strong Towns website will be invited to vote for the strongest town in daily bracket-based match ups, much like the NCAA’s March Madness tournament. First round voting will be based on answers to a short series of questions, and subsequent rounds will include photo essays, podcast recordings and a final webinar showdown for the championship. The 16 towns selected for the initial competition are: Traverse City, MI; York, PA; Wollongong, Australia; Ellsworth, ME; Bellingham, WA; San Francisco, CA; Greenfield, IN; Valparaiso, IN; Wausau, WI; Fitchburg, WI; Brampton, ON, Canada; Guelph, ON, Canada; Killeen, TX; Lafayette, LA; Lowell, MA; and Quincy, MA. Follow the competition at strongtowns.org/strongesttown.

About Strong Towns: Strong Towns is a national media organization whose mission is to advocate for a model of development that allows America’s cities, towns and neighborhoods to grow financially strong and resilient. Strong Towns reaches an audience of more than 80,000 readers and listeners per month, and has over 1,500 members. Learn more at http://www.strongtowns.org