Neighborhood Evolution — 12 Steps to Town Making
What It Is
A workbook and community meeting framework developed by Neighborhood Evolution LLC (Jim Kumon, Mike Keen, Monte Anderson, Bernice Radle) in collaboration with Strong Towns. Designed to give small-scale developers and community champions the confidence, ecosystem, and education to complete local development projects.
Source: https://www.neighborhoodevolution.com/12-steps-to-town-making
Companion video series produced with The Happy Urbanist (Jon Jon Wesolowski) and Strong Towns.
The 12 Steps
- Find your Place — find your farm and find your way into the flywheel
- Get to Know Your Neighbors — meet people, make friends, shop local. It will come back to help you.
- Follow the Money — become attractive to local money by having your house in order
- Hire Pros for Your Organization — don’t hack the legal and accounting; set yourself up with solid professional counsel 5-12: Covers bank interviews, running project numbers, design, property management, and more (full workbook at $30)
The Monthly Meeting Model
The framework is designed to be run as a local monthly meetup — each month covers one step. After 12 months, participants have covered the full curriculum and built a local network of developers, lenders, and community champions. Groups are already meeting in Dallas, Kansas City, Lafayette, and South Bend.
Why This Matters
The 12 Steps framework is a community-building tool disguised as a development curriculum. The monthly meeting format builds the local ecosystem of trust, relationships, and shared knowledge that makes small-scale development possible. It’s the Incremental Development Alliance philosophy made practical and repeatable.
Relevance to the CLT Project
Two distinct applications:
As a development roadmap — Steps 1-4 are exactly where the CLT project is now. “Find your place” (land acquisition), “know your neighbors” (Durham community relationships), “follow the money” (capital stack, CDFI relationships), “hire pros” (legal structure, accounting). This is the near-term action framework.
As a community activation tool — Starting a 12 Steps meetup in Durham could serve double duty: building the local small developer ecosystem while also identifying potential residents, collaborators, and mission-aligned investors for the CLT project itself. The network built around the meetup is the same network the CLT needs.
The Flywheel Concept
Step 1’s language — “find your way into the flywheel” — mirrors the flywheel framing in the CLT’s community philosophy: each investment of trust and relationship makes the next one easier. The Relational Accountability and inverse broken windows concepts are the community expression of the same dynamic.
Resources
- Workbook: $30 at Lulu (paperback)
- Video series: Strong Towns Academy (collaboration with The Happy Urbanist)
- Free meetup guide: neighborhoodevolution.com/blog