Lessons from Canada on Transit-Oriented Communities

“The federal government has all the money. 

The states have all the power. 

Municipalities have all the problems. 

Communities have the solutions.” 

Mary Rowe, president and CEO of the Canadian Urban Institute, offered the quote above as her variation of a line attributed to Natwar Gandhi, the chief financial officer of Washington, D.C. 

You’ve probably heard that Ottawa and Washington are not playing well these days in the sandbox of trade and politics. Still, you would never know that if you attended the Mpact 2026 Conference held last week in Toronto. I was fortunate to join the Pottstown delegation as a recent grant recipient of the Pottstown Regional Community Foundation. 

“Canadian nice” is a real thing and extends to the country’s earnest desire to build housing that is affordable for all, operate transit systems that shuttle people where they need to go for a reasonable price, and build communities that are inclusive and welcoming. 

Below are a few of my takeaways and lessons from the 5-day conference: 

Community Building 

• Strong communities enable and encourage self-organization. Think of the mutual aid and solidarity that organically sprang up in the wake of Hurricane Katrina in New Orleans and 9/11 in New York City. This desire to serve and contribute is latent and ever-present; we need not wait for a disaster to activate it. 

• Town-building is messy. Embrace the “chaos” because it helps to build the dynamism that makes a place interesting and worth visiting. Oftentimes, the spaces and experiences that we relish the most when we travel to new places have a culture that is not encouraged in our own towns. For instance, we should embrace the buying and selling of goods and services in a way that encourages social mixing in our streets.  (Zahra Ebrahim, author of Messy Cities) 

Funding Priorities 

• Ballot initiatives are a sound way to fund community projects. Since 2010, an impressive 85 percent of initiatives have passed in over 3,000 local jurisdictions. “Basic stuff” is always popular, including sidewalks and local transit improvements. 

• Transit modes should not – and do not – compete with each other. A driver’s need for smooth pavement and safe highways should not come as a trade-off for reliable and regular service of buses, trolleys, and trains. 

• Transit mobility and infrastructure should not be thought of as the stuff of policy nerds because these public goods serve higher, basic goals, such as access to jobs and housing affordability. 

• Speed enables planners to push through complexity. There is always an opportunity to reevaluate and adjust. We should not be civically paralyzed and delayed while waiting for a “perfect data set of information.” 

Train Restoration 

• Displacement and transit go together, historically. For this reason, we should not tokenize or minimize the public input progress. It should be meaningful and earnest in actually seeking contributions from regular people. 

• When Amtrak service comes to Pottstown, we must capitalize on making the station on North Hanover a welcoming gateway to our Town. Wayfinding and interpretive signs provide opportunities to tell our story in all its context, history, and culture. Afterall, a station is a gateway to our community and the surrounding municipalities. Vibrant stations signal that a community is “open for business.” 

Canada shares America’s struggles with pairing transit with affordable, workforce housing. There is often a gap in non-market housing, according to Rowe (Canadian Urban Institute). 

Let’s not allow that to happen in Pottstown. We have the solutions at the local level, so let’s get to work!