Tiffany is joined by Montana Gau, a Local Conversation leader in Denver. They discuss how Gau built the group into a registered nonprofit with several hundred members and how his role shifted from advocating “on the ground” to creating a space where others can more effectively advocate. (Transcript included.)
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Travis Goedken is the city manager of Decorah, Iowa. He joins Norm to talk about the practices and reforms that are making Decorah strong, including making its budgeting easier to understand for residents and finding creative loopholes in restrictive state housing laws. (Transcript included.)
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Ryan Andrews is the CFO of a small-scale development company and capital fund in Bend, Oregon. In this episode, he discusses the importance of local investment and explains how to channel the profits from housing development back to locals. (Transcript included.)
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David Jenkins is a city councilor and Local Conversation leader in La Plata, Maryland. He joins Norm to discuss his work with the city’s budget, particularly his efforts to share financial information in a simple way that lets residents participate in the budgeting process. (Transcript included.)
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Josh Stewart is an advocate from Littleton, Colorado. A year ago, his 12-year-old son was struck and killed by a car while biking to school. Since then, Josh has been relentlessly pushing for safer streets in his community. He joins Norm today to share his story and what he’s learned over the last year of advocacy work. (Transcript included.)
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Dr. Jonathan Gingrich is a professor of engineering at Dordt College in Iowa. Unsatisfied with the standard materials for his transportation engineering class, he incorporated safe street design, including having his class conduct a Crash Analysis Studio. He joins today’s episode to talk about how he did this and the benefits it had for his students. (Transcript included.)
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Jesse Russell is the founder of Hiatus Homes, a development company specializing in small home design and cottage communities. He joins the podcast today to discuss how he became a small-scale developer and how to navigate the challenges of building small homes. (Transcript included.)
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In this Bottom-Up Short, Norm is joined by Christian Schick, a Local Conversation leader from Virginia. His group has built a lot of momentum in the past year, and Schick talks about how they did that in a productive and helpful way, particularly while juggling local elections. (Transcript included.)
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Mike Christensen is the executive director of the Utah Rail Passenger Association. Today, he joins Tiffany to discuss the benefits of passenger rail, including how it can lead to more productive land use. (Transcript included.)
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Varsha Gopal is an architect from Chennai, India. She joins Norm today to discuss discuss two research projects she recently conducted in her city and what they taught her about thriving cities, urban design and community engagement. (Transcript included.)
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Maricela Sanchez is a city council member and anesthesiologist from Prosser, Washington. She has lived in several major cities, including LA, San Francisco and NYC. She joins today’s episode to discuss how her travels and profession molded her perspective on what makes a town safe and resilient. (Transcript included.)
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Stanis Moody Roberts is a business owner from Portland, Maine, who has been organizing local opposition to a highway expansion for the past year. He joins today’s episode to discuss this journey and the progress his community has made.
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In this episode, Norm is joined by Andrew and Anna Carley, Local Conversation leaders from Michigan. They discuss how they became one of the go-to groups that city officials turn to when they’re considering policy changes.
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Emily Hutcheson is a bike advocate in San Antonio, Texas, and a mom of three. She joins Tiffany on this episode of The Bottom-Up Revolution to discuss some of the initiatives she’s spearheaded to improve bike infrastructure in her city, including a bike club and bike bus.
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Spencer Coyne is the mayor of Princeton, British Columbia. He joins this Bottom-Up Short to explain how he’s implementing the Strong Towns approach in his city, including how to incrementally reform a zoning code and how to do a lot with a small amount of funding.
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In this episode, host Tiffany Owens Reed is joined by Ellie Riggs and Ryan Carter from Catawba Riverkeeper, a water-preservation organization. They discuss stormwater’s effect on the environment, how it’s connected to parking reform, and Riggs and Carter’s experience with advocacy at the state level.
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In this episode, Local Conversation leader Michael Bassili explains how his group created a parking campaign that convinced their city council to eliminate parking mandates in their downtown.
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In this episode, host Tiffany Owens Reed is joined by Matt Harder, the founder of a participatory budgeting company, to discuss the importance of resident input on city budgets and the process of implementing a participatory method.
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In this special episode of Bottom-Up Shorts, host Norm Van Eeden Petersman is joined by Edward Erfurt, chief technical advisor for Strong Towns, to discuss real-world examples of a transformative 4-step approach to public investment.
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In this episode, host Norm Van Eeden Petersman is joined by Jake Loftis, a pastor and Local Conversation leader. They discuss the ways that North America’s built environment can lead to social isolation and how Loftis used his local paper to combat that isolation.
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