What is “here”? Because the majority of North America pretty much still believes that more policing == more safety.

Yep.

Cities build traffic-calming infrastructure, make streets non-contiguous to dis-incentivize thru-traffic,etc.

The strong towns effort has the same blinders as many other “well intentioned” groups - they see the world as intentionally designed rather than it’s organic reality.

Towns and cities change more like organic systems - an issue arises and today’s council/politicians/businesses/civil groups address it according to their goals and pressures.

Trying to plan beyond that assumes knowledge of tomorrow, which is naive at best, and flat-out hubris at the worst.