Booklet Series Introduction Small Cities Lab
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1 Booklet Series Introduction An introduction to Co-Lab workshops and activities. Linking stories, assets, and tools for small cities. Small Cities Lab
2 Introduction Distillation Guidebook Co-Lab • 9.18–9.19 2025
3 The core mission of the Small Cities Lab is to help close the knowledge and resource gaps faced by smaller places across the country. Since embarking on this work, we are often asked: “What is a small city, anyway?” While it’s tempting to start with a population range (100,000? 250,000?), we know that those numbers fail to capture the huge variety of smaller places where the majority of Americans live. These classifications also fail to reflect how these places actually operate. When that happens, the similarities and differences among small cities, their common challenges, pressures, and possibilities, get overlooked. That lack of recognition often translates into less support, less visibility, and fewer tools to tackle big issues. What is a Small City Anyway? Introduction
4 Distillation Guidebook Co-Lab • 9.18–9.19 2025 Book Structure This Small Cities Co-Lab booklet series distills key insights from the convening across four themes central to how small cities are organized and understand themselves. Each booklet features three contributors whose work explores these open questions, alongside additional collaborator responses that push toward collective research and action. These booklets are designed not as final reports but as working documents. They will be living resources that will evolve as our partnerships and projects grow. They reflect a core belief of the Small Cities Lab: that small cities deserve research methods, policy tools, and collaborative infrastructures equal to the scale of the challenges they face and the opportunities they hold. We invite you – whether you work in a city hall, a community organization, a university, a design studio, or just simply care about your neighborhood – to read, respond, question, and contribute. This is the beginning of something we are building together: a network that recognizes small cities not as afterthoughts, but as central to the future of urban research, innovation, and justice in the United States.
5 Introduction Housing What exists and what is missing in small city housing, and how to build more of the diverse housing types communities value. Waterfronts How rivers and coastlines have shaped small cities’ origins, growth, and identity, and how these relationships can be restored and reimagined. Social and Cultural Resources The recurring divide between residents “from here” and those who “came here,” and the role civic and cultural resources can play in bridging it. “Meds & Eds” Cities Small cities’ growing dependence on universities and hospitals as economic anchors, and the resulting housing pressures, town-gown divides, and questions of genuine partnership. Share findings from the Co-Lab through four reoccuring themes: Feature collaborators whose perspectives broaden and deepen the network – scholars, designers, policymakers, organizers, and students committed to advancing smallcity research and practice. Respond to an open Co-Lab question. Collaborators reflected on one of the questions featured at the end of each booklet, helping build the Small Cities Knowledge Network and advance project-based collaborations among small city actors. 1. 2. 3.
6 Distillation Guidebook Co-Lab • 9.18–9.19 2025 Every place has th some places are goo them, others have told for them.
7 Introduction –Co-Lab Participant heir story to tell, ood at telling their stories
8 Co-Lab Recap A purpose of the Co-Lab is to build networks of colleagues working across sectors, regions, and disciplines who live in or care deeply about small cities. The inaugural convening marked the beginning of this new network, expanding our collective understanding and jump-starting collaborative projects. Through group exercises and facilitated discussions, participants emphasized the need for more consistent, coordinated collaboration across small cities. There are countless people working and innovating in their respective cities and with increased coordination, people could share knowledge, supporitng places with similar conditions to their own, identify specific opportunities to partner, and ultimately, take action together. Distillation Guidebook Co-Lab • 9.18–9.19 2025
9 Participant Facts Introduction These 60 participants represented 23 communities across Pennsylvania and the broader Mid-Atlantic, Midwest, and Northeast.
10 Participant Facts Distillation Guidebook Co-Lab • 9.18–9.19 2025 Co- Lab Ac ademi c Gov er nment NonPr of i t I n d u s t r y The Co-Lab gathered 60 participants from local governments, universities, nonprofits, and community organizations.
11 Non-Profit Bloomsburg Theater Ensemble, Bloomsburg PA The Center for Rural Pennsylvania Community Action Lehigh Valley Enterprise Community Partners Groundwork Bridgeport Lehigh Conference of Churches Lehigh Valley Center for Independent Living New Bethany Pew Charitable Trust, Housing Policy Initiative RiverWise Touchstone Theater, Bethlehem PA Government Commonwealth of Pennsylvania Business PA Office of the Governor Department of Community and Economic Development Government Connecticut Municipal Development Agency City of Bethlehem, Pennsylvania City of Allentown, Pennsylvania City of Lancaster, Pennsylvania City of Meadville, Pennsylvania Industry Artefact, Inc. Mark-n-Sparks Metris Arts Consulting Omnes Studio Academic Bard College Brown University Lehigh University Lehigh University Art Galleries (LUAG) Lehigh University, College of Education Lehigh University, College of Health, Department of Community and Global Health Lehigh University, South Side Initiative Moravian University Rhode Island School of Design Taubman College, University of Michigan University of Minnesota University of Michigan Wellesley College Wesleyan University Yale University Introduction
12 Collaborative Sessions Overview The Small Cities Co-Lab was structured around a series of collaborative sessions, workshops, and workshares designed to build a collective research and action agenda for small cities. These exercises doubled as datagathering mechanisms and visioning tools, supporting knowledge-building across diverse stakeholder groups. The flexible, participatory structure invited creativity and ownership over the activities, which appeared through the variety of responses and approaches people brought to each session. Distillation Guidebook Co-Lab • 9.18–9.19 2025 Co-Lab activities and workshops were designed to build momentum toward the development of future collaborative projects.
13 St or y Ci r cl es Four Cor ner s Smal l Ci t y St or i es Near Fut ur e Lab Experience Sharing & Reflecting Questions & Observation What Exists? Partnerships & Action Methods and Tools disagree a-ha! agree unique universal Ci t y Por t r ai t s Introduction
14 Distillation Guidebook Co-Lab • 9.18–9.19 2025 At cross-sector tables, participants shared stories about the small cities where they live or work, guided by prompts that asked them to reflect on their own life in their small-city or on how current social, economic, and political changes are shaping their communities. The exercise doubled as a distillation process: after listening to one another’s stories, participants individually identified common themes and noted which characteristics felt universal and which were unique. They then brought these reflections back to their tables, selecting two shared and two unique characteristics. Groups moved from personal narrative to individual analysis to collective consensus. Small Cities Stories
15 Introduction Small Cities Stories Table host notes for qualitative understanding. Ah-hahs! Surprises Similar Issues Table Number Best h lds here. Big di erences t en A ent n/Bethlehem/East NIMBY-ism/de l ment - gger say - Small Cities Stories Table host notes for qualitative understanding. Ah-hahs! Surprises Similar Issues Table Number Place to put d n r ts hist ic/ic ic built en r ment preser d - de l ment sl r (NYC changing c stantly) Di erent architecture in di erent cities - why? Di rsity h sing due to di rsity industry? L festi ls! Small Cities Stories Table host notes for qualitative understanding. Ah-hahs! Surprises Similar Issues Table Number A ey h se descripti change nership in h sing. Similar to sma cities in CT Progressi change in industry may why pe le return Small Cities Stories Table host notes for qualitative understanding. Ah-hahs! Surprises Similar Issues Sma cities: easier to feel like h e Shared experiences - seeing mem rs c munity at e nts e narrati s f us a e- ied indi duals C munity narrati - ing in as a transplant is m e di cult (geographic/limit pele) H change is dealt th tories nding. Table Number ture, built by: result industry s h sing dri n by empl ers seems less c m f pele to a cities. y h uni rsal & unique Small Cities Stories Table host notes for qualitative understanding. Ah-hahs! rises Table Number Mostly agree, see disa lity -the ancy menti ed is n dely accessi e L k f cmunity grps to join, meet pele, a end e nts (“fests”) stant cele ati s in Bethlehem - e ry ek markers time, “new traditi s” g sense place + identity - “steel lk is ng” sues - agree th lea ng + cing cities Surprises Similar Issues also a PA thing) Le l at which sma cities equated to change/dynamism - typical? (goes against idea) Sense c munity depends stage life/where y li Co-Lab participants reflected, responded, and identified common themes and unique characteristics relevent to small cities.
16 Distillation Guidebook Co-Lab • 9.18–9.19 2025 Co-Lab participants draft their city portraits.
17 The Small City Portraits workshop was created for participants to identify what their cities have, what they wish they had more of, and what is, and isn’t, working. Participants selected prominent attributes and characteristics about the built environment, natural environment, economy and institutions, and social and cultural resources within the places they live and work. The exercise surfaced various types of responses. People included both tangible elements (e.g., festivals, local organizations) and intangible qualities (e.g., belonging, inclusion, identity). As patterns emerged across the different Small City Portraits, new trajectories for research, action, and potential partnerships became clearer, especially among participants who recognized similar attributes in their own communities. City Portraits Introduction
18 During the next round, when participants completed portraits in pairs, they noted the key concerns they shared in their cities. Interestingly, many of these were framed as questions – even without any prompting – underscoring a desire for further inquiry and collaboration that was evident throughout the convening. Distillation Guidebook Co-Lab • 9.18–9.19 2025 City Portraits
19 City Portrait boards detailing natural and built environment, social & cultural, and economy & institutions in Hudson, NY; New Haven, CT; Allentown, PA; and Providence, RI. Introduction
20 Distillation Guidebook Co-Lab • 9.18–9.19 2025 Relationships Interventions Partnerships na t ura l r e s our c e s hou s ing arts & c u l t ur e cross sector collaboration pr o j e c t development imag ining f u t ur e s ob s e r ving impa c t s o c i a l ne two rk s Co-Lab to activate the Near Future.
21 Insights from the convening sessions helped set the stage for the Near Future Lab, a space focused on developing collaborative projects. A key part of this process was the overnight distillation, where the team synthesized Day 1 discussions into five themes that guided Day 2 breakout sessions: 1. Housing 2. Social Networks 3. Arts and Culture 4. Natural Resources 5. Cross-Sector Collaboration These themes will continue to shape the policies, programs, and partnerships that strengthen small cities and support ongoing collaborative work. Near Future Lab Introduction
22 Distillation Guidebook Co-Lab • 9.18–9.19 2025 We should focus more o That helps with proble everyone thinks they’re to say, ‘Oh, we can’t fix problems are just differ
23 –Christina Smith on our similarities. em-solving. If e so unique… it’s easy x this here because our rent.’ Introduction
24 Four Thematic Booklets Distillation Guidebook Co-Lab • 9.18–9.19 2025 The books in this collection build on the Co-Lab’s research distillation and synthesize of findings from each workshop. The resulting series includes four books, each focused on a core theme from the convening: housing, waterfronts, social and cultural resources, and medical and educational institutions that shape small cities. Too often, small cities are understood almost entirely through the lens of population decline, as if industry shifts or economic trends alone determine their trajectory. These four overarching categories surface the experiences, conditions, and attributes of small cities that this narrative overlooks. More importantly, they show how the physical environment, social fabric, and economic landscape interact to shape each place differently, and how these elements continue to evolve, especially as other pressures and conditions change over time.
25 Introduction Booklet 1: This booklet looks at housing conditions across a range of small cities, examining what exists looks like, what is missing, and what's driving change. It explores recurring themes: regional affordability pressures, the limits of single-family zoning, aging and blighted housing stock, and the value of diverse "missing middle" housing types, including how these patterns tend to cluster based on shared regional and market conditions. It also traces the gap between policy reform and actual housing production, featuring a case study of one city's effort to rewrite its zoning code around real building types, an interview on the relational and institutional work needed to move from planning to implementation, and a set of outside contributions on faith-based housing partnerships. Housing How do we move from regulatory reform to actual implementation ?
26 Distillation Guidebook Co-Lab • 9.18–9.19 2025 Booklet 2: This booklet looks at how small cities relate to their natural environments, with a particular focus on rivers, coastlines, and waterfronts. It examines why waterfronts are so central to small-city identity and history, while also tracing the tensions that shape them today, including lingering industrial pollution, competing pressures between conservation and new development, infrastructure that has cut neighborhoods off from the water, and the growing threat of climate change. It traces common trajectories across cities, from industrial decline and reclamation to mismatches between built infrastructure and the natural landscape, and considers how small cities might learn from and collaborate with one another given their shared waterfront histories. The booklet closes by reflecting on what it would take to reconnect residents socially and culturally to these landscapes, including approaches like interim activation, and features additional voices and projects working on these questions. Waterfronts
27 Introduction Booklet 3: This booklet examines the social fabric of small cities, focusing on the long-standing divide between residents who are considered "from here" and those who "came here." It traces how this insider-outsider dynamic has been shaped historically through waves of immigration, the rise and decline of industrial economies, and racial exclusion, and how it persists today amid new patterns of immigration and in-migration, often reinforced through zoning, housing policy, and resistance to development. It also looks at the role social and cultural resources play in helping cities navigate these divides, including community organizations formed in response to economic upheaval, festivals and traditions that foster belonging while risking commercialization, and cultural institutions like libraries, universities, and museums that can serve as low-barrier entry points for civic and social life. The booklet raises questions about how these resources can reshape who gets to participate in and shape the future of their communities. Social and Cultural Resources
28 Distillation Guidebook Co-Lab • 9.18–9.19 2025 Booklet 4: This booklet examines the role that "meds and eds," universities and medical institutions, play as economic anchors in small cities. It traces how these institutions grew to prominence in the mid-to-late 20th century and became primary employers and stabilizing forces in many small cities, while also considering the risks of over-reliance on them, particularly when they falter or close. It looks at how these institutions' large, tax-exempt landholdings strain municipal budgets and intensify housing pressures as enrollment and workforces continue to grow. The booklet also explores the frequently strained "town-gown" relationship between these institutions and surrounding neighborhoods, shaped by class and cultural divides, transient populations, and institutional footprints that can feel disconnected from community priorities. It follows questions raised in the convening about governance and partnership: how universities and hospitals might engage more genuinely with local decision-making and better balance their national/global missions with responsibilities to the small cities that host them. "Meds & Eds"
29 Introduction ARCADE Bard College Brown Univeristy City of Allentown City of Bethlehem Cornell University CT Municipal Development Authority Hazleton Integration Project Kent State University Lehigh Conference of Churches Lehigh University, College of Health Mark-n-Sparks Mass Design Group Metris Arts Consulting Omnes RiverWise Syracuse University Touchstone Theatre University of Michigan University of Virginia Yale Univeristy Booklet Participants
30 Having the capac necessary to rethin assets into strategy success. Distillation Guidebook Co-Lab • 9.18–9.19 2025
31 –Co-Lab Participant city and resources nk and mobilize y will lead to Introduction
32 Distillation Guidebook Co-Lab • 9.18–9.19 2025 Contributors Isabelle O’Toole Wes Hiatt Kevin Lahoda Dr. Karen Beck-Pooley Lauren Scott Wes Hiatt Dr. Karen Beck-Pooley Kevin Lahoda Laura Reigle Wes Hiatt Dr. Karen Beck-Pooley Isabelle O’Toole Kevin Lahoda Lehigh University College of Arts and Sciences Lauren Scott Heidi Kline Allison Bronson Mark-n-Sparks Dean Robert Flowers Natasha De Luna Lehigh University OVRP Report Author Editors Small Cities Research Leads Graphic Design Co-Lab Organizers and Research Team Thank You
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Small Cities Lab
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