By Jessica Mathews / news@whmi.com


The City of Brighton is among the sweet sixteen in an annual March Madness-style tournament to determine the strongest town in North America.

The Strongest Town Contest is a celebration of communities that are putting their focus on townmaking practices that build resilience and prosperity. Voters from across the United States will have their say in whether Brighton, Michigan or Jasper, Indiana should proceed to the Elite Eight round of the contest.

Brighton boasts a robust downtown economy of mom-and-pop shops, and a vision for better infrastructure to support them. Jasper comes to the contest with a forward-focus on improving their existing main road, US-231, while including members of the community in the conversation and avoiding an expensive bypassing highway project. The first round of voting closes today at noon.

The 2022 champion will be announced on Friday, April 8th. The 2022 Strongest Town will be visited by nationally recognized author, engineer, and advocate for strong communities Chuck Marohn. The city will also be featured prominently on the Strong Towns website with a series of articles outlining their efforts to provide citizens with a good life in a prosperous place.

A link to the voting site is provided.