Ashley Thornton is the founder of Waco Walks, an organization devoted to promoting walkability in Waco, Texas. She was inspired to start the organization after spending a year with walking as her primary form of transportation. Ashley and Tiffany discuss the design choices that make Waco difficult to walk in and how Waco Walks is working to change that. ADDITIONAL SHOW NOTES Local Recommendations: El Conquistador Mexican Restaurant Dubl-R Burgers Cameron Trading Company Helados La Aztecas on 25t...
Aug 14, 2025•59 min•Ep. 180
Mark Hoppen is a former city manager and Strong Towns member who’s been quietly strengthening communities in Washington state for decades. In this Bottom Up Short , Norm and Mark talk about why someone should pursue a career in city management, what real priorities look like in that role, and how to lead with both care and practicality. ADDITIONAL SHOW NOTES Gig Harbor Boatshop (site) Bring the conversation to your community by booking Norm as a speaker ! Norm Van Eeden Petersman (LinkedIn) Do y...
Aug 12, 2025•17 min•Ep. 179
Adult friendships are difficult. A big part of that is our built environment, which is often designed in a way that stifles social connection instead of supporting it. Kat Vellos is an author, facilitator, and connection coach who’s working to change that. She and Tiffany discuss the importance of community building, ways to redesign our built environment, and other steps residents and local leaders can take to help their community thrive. ADDITIONAL SHOW NOTES Local Recommendations: Jack London...
Aug 07, 2025•1 hr 3 min•Ep. 178
Ashley Salvador is a city councilor in Edmonton, Alberta. She’s a national leader in housing reform, zoning modernization, and urban revitalization. Ashley joins Norm on this Bottom-Up Short to discus one of her recent initiatives, which focuses on reducing the number of derelict and dangerous properties in the city. Ashley shares how she helped bring Canada’s first Derelict Tax Subclass into effect and how it’s driving revitalization. ADDITIONAL SHOW NOTES More from Ashley: “ Cleaning Up Our Co...
Aug 05, 2025•16 min•Ep. 177
Jeral Poskey is the founder and CEO of Swyft Cities, a California-based tech company that's spearheading a totally new transportation system. Jeral explains his unique approach to creating realistic transportation innovations. He describes the transportation system Swyft Cities has created and how it could address the issues that many cities face — like traffic, land wasted on parking, and difficulty with infill development. ADDITIONAL SHOW NOTES Local Recommendations: Gelato Classico on Castro ...
Jul 31, 2025•56 min•Ep. 176
Dr. Alicia Pederson is a writer and advocate who encourages cities to adopt courtyard urbanism , a style of development where mixed-use buildings surround a shared courtyard. Today, she joins Norm to explain the benefits of this development style and how to advocate for it. ADDITIONAL SHOW NOTES Drawing by Leon Krier 6 housing reforms that could help make courtyard blocks possible . Read more from Alicia: Urban Courtyard (X/Twitter) “Chicago’s affordable housing plan demands a courtyard block bl...
Jul 29, 2025•19 min•Ep. 175
Meet Burhan Azeem, a city councilor in Cambridge, Massachusetts. A graduate of MIT, he’s the youngest councilor in the city’s history and has a special focus on housing affordability and street safety. Burhan has successfully expanded zoning for affordable housing, removed parking minimums, and helped build bike lanes throughout the city. He also helped found a nonprofit that impacts housing policy on the state level. Today, he and Tiffany sit down to discuss how he got to this point and what he...
Jul 24, 2025•39 min•Ep. 174
What happens when a city’s design puts lives at risk—and someone decides to speak up? In this episode, you’ll meet Army Master Sgt. Ben Hultquist, one of the leaders of Strong Towns Fayetteville, a Local Conversation in North Carolina. After a string of preventable deaths, Ben testified in city hall. Now, that testimony is helping turn the conversation in Fayetteville toward people-first design and safer streets. ADDITIONAL SHOW NOTES Strong Towns Fayetteville (Facebook) Learn how to make your s...
Jul 22, 2025•16 min•Ep. 173
Linda Appel Lipsius is the executive director of Denver Urban Gardens, where she supports a network of over 200 gardens and food forests that produce 650,000 pounds of food annually. She also helps launch initiatives to help make Denver a greener, more food-resilient place. Linda and Tiffany discuss the importance of nature in urban resilience and the benefits of community gardening, from access to healthy food to community building and mental health improvement. Linda explains how a permacultur...
Jul 17, 2025•1 hr 1 min•Ep. 172
Wendy Nash is the founder of Get Around Caboolture, a grassroots transportation initiative in Caboolture, Australia. She and Norm discuss the group's efforts to promote more transportation options, including hosting the first Week Without Driving outside the U.S. Wendy emphasizes the importance of tailoring messages to different audiences and explains why she would like to see more comedy in advocacy. ADDITIONAL SHOW NOTES Get Around Caboolture Strong Towns Academy Norm Van Eeden Petersman (Link...
Jul 15, 2025•20 min•Ep. 171
Brandi Thompson is the “accidental” co-founder and leader of Strong Towns ABQ, a Local Conversation in Albuquerque, New Mexico. She’s lived in eight states and has worked as a rattlesnake wrangler, a grant writer, and a teacher. She currently works as a flight nurse, providing care to patients who need to be air-lifted to the hospital. Today, Brandi sits down with Tiffany to discuss the strategies that have helped Strong Towns ABQ successfully advocate for zoning reform and against highway expan...
Jul 10, 2025•56 min•Ep. 170
Alyssa Lee and Kay Crumb are leaders of Strong SacTown, one of the largest and most successful groups in the Strong Towns Local Conversations program. Based in Sacramento, California, the group has 140 engaged members, balances multiple ongoing initiatives, and successfully collaborates with city staff. In this Bottom-Up Short , Alyssa and Kay share their advice for building and sustaining a successful Local Conversation. ADDITIONAL SHOW NOTES Strong SacTown (site) Alyssa Lee discussed this topi...
Jul 08, 2025•18 min•Ep. 169
Craig Cassar is a first-term city councilor in Hamilton, Ontario. Prior to serving in public office, he acquired nearly 25 years of private sector leadership experience. Craig is a believer in the Strong Towns philosophy of city building, an advocate for active and public transportation, and a passionate environmentalist. Today, Craig and Tiffany discusses the challenges Hamilton faces and the progress the city has made. They also talk about the importance of a holistic approach to city building...
Jul 03, 2025•38 min•Ep. 168
Jesse Russell is a small-scale developer and Strong Towns member from Bend, Oregon. He joins Norm to discuss the ways he’s helping create more attainable homes in his hometown. He also explains how he works with the community and city officials to remove barriers to good development. ADDITIONAL SHOW NOTES Hiatus Homes (website) Bend made it to the Final 4 in this year’s Strongest Town Contest. There are many great lessons that cities of all sizes can learn from their hard work. Click here to rea...
Jul 01, 2025•13 min•Ep. 167
Eric Higbee is a landscape architect and writer who teaches university courses on community engagement at the University of Washington Department of Landscape Architecture. He works on community design and planning projects through his award-winning landscape architecture practice, Convene. Today, Eric joins Tiffany to discuss the importance of community engagement, why attempts at this kind of engagement often fail, and how to succeed at it. ADDITIONAL SHOW NOTES Read more from Eric in his Subs...
Jun 26, 2025•40 min•Ep. 166
In today’s Bottom-Up Short, Norm is joined by Kevin McDonnell, the mayor of Petaluma, California, and Dave Alden, co-leader of Petaluma Urban Chat. Kevin and Dave discuss their Know Before You Grow initiative, a community-driven effort focused on smart, financially strong development. They share how this initiative has helped direct attention toward building housing in Petaluma’s downtown, where services already exist and infrastructure is more financially viable. ADDITIONAL SHOW NOTES Petaluma ...
Jun 24, 2025•16 min•Ep. 165
Dr. Patricia Tice has been an transportation engineer, planner, researcher and self-proclaimed geek for nearly 30 years. She spent the first decade of her career doing hundreds of traffic impact studies. In 2011, she started her own consulting firm and, a few years later, completed a PhD in transportation engineering. In this episode of The Bottom-Up Revolution , Patricia talks about her research into human behavior, as well as the role of human interaction and LEGO in urban design. ADDITIONAL S...
Jun 19, 2025•1 hr 4 min•Ep. 164
Vignesh Swaminathan is an engineer, transportation planner, and content creator. Formerly the the CEO of a civil engineering firm, he now works as a project engineer and has over 1.7 million followers on TikTok, where he discusses urban infrastructure and transportation planning. Tiffany and Vignesh discuss how transportation planning affects other aspects of cities such as housing. Vignesh explains how he works with quick-build projects, intersection design, and social media to make cities stro...
Jun 05, 2025•1 hr 4 min•Ep. 163
Danny Wind is a Local Conversation leader and Regional Transportation Commission member from Lake County, California. In this Bottom-Up Short, Danny discusses their Open Street Map Project, which gives people a space to share photos and descriptions of the everyday challenges they face. Danny explains how this method of humbly observing where people struggle is a powerful force for change and how it intersects with their Regional Transportation Commission work. ADDITIONAL SHOW NOTES Read more ab...
Jun 03, 2025•13 min•Ep. 162
Noah Roth is the founder of Streetcraft, a platform that uses visual storytelling and urban design to explore and improve the built environment. He joins Tiffany to talk about what led him to this form of advocacy, how visualizations can bring people on board with a project, and what he’s learned since starting his platform. ADDITIONAL SHOW NOTES Want to hear more from Noah? Get your National Gathering tickets today! Streetcraft (YouTube) Local Recommendations: Sleeping Bear National Dunes The F...
May 29, 2025•38 min•Ep. 161
Danny Lapin is a revitalization specialist with the New York State Department of State. He and Norm discuss the ways that New York state is encouraging bottom-up community development, as well as Danny’s strategies for getting buy-in from communities that are wary of state programs or intervention. ADDITIONAL SHOW NOTES Danny Lapin (LinkedIn) Read more about Danny: “ A Strong Towns Voice in State Government ” Norm Van Eeden Petersman (LinkedIn). Do you know someone who would make for a great Bot...
May 27, 2025•16 min•Ep. 160
Rachel Leonardo is the video producer at Strong Towns. She has a bachelor’s degree in architecture and specializes in breaking down complex topics into clear, actionable ideas that inspire local change. Rachel and Tiffany discuss the importance of collaboration in building great places that foster community, culture, and connection. They explore how social media can encourage that collaboration and how it intersects with Strong Towns’ mission. ADDITIONAL SHOW NOTES Want to hear more from Rachel?...
May 22, 2025•1 hr 7 min•Ep. 159
Hazen Elwood is a student, a member of Strong Towns Calgary (in Alberta, Canada), and a community manager with the organization For the City. Today, Norm and Hazen discuss ways to build an advocacy network and the power of raising local awareness through storytelling. ADDITIONAL SHOW NOTES Unsprawling (site) Calgary made it to the Elite Eight in this year’s Strongest Town Contest. There are many great lessons that cities of all sizes can learn from their hard work. Click here to read more about ...
May 21, 2025•12 min•Ep. 158
Justine Underhill is an elected city council member in Falls Church, Virginia, and an award-winning video journalist and independent filmmaker. She’s worked for international and domestic news organizations, created an award-winning docuseries, and started an educational YouTube channel. Justine joins Tiffany to discuss how media can be used to connect with people and drive change. ADDITIONAL SHOW NOTES Want to hear more from Justine? Get your National Gathering tickets today! Learn more about J...
May 15, 2025•1 hr 12 min•Ep. 157
How do you turn three people with snow shovels into an initiative that gets covered on the news, triggers a city-funded pilot program, and inspires people to stay in the city long-term? That’s what Andrew Neidhardt and Dustin Moore of Walkable Albany, a Local Conversation in New York, are here to explain. ADDITIONAL SHOW NOTES Walkable Albany (site). Norm Van Eeden Petersman (LinkedIn). Do you know someone who would make for a great Bottom-Up Revolution guest? Let us know here!...
May 13, 2025•16 min•Ep. 156
Rosaline Hill is a registered professional planner and awards-winning architect from Ottawa, Canada. She’s consulted on zoning for the city of Ottawa and is the founder and principle architect of BuildingIn, a planning program that helps municipalities reach their housing goals through infill development. Today, Rosaline joins Tiffany to discuss the complexities of housing reform. She explains how she created a 3D modeling program that helps municipalities visualize and argue persuasively for de...
May 08, 2025•49 min•Ep. 155
In this episode of Bottom Up Shorts , Norm is joined by Saeed Vahid, a Local Conversation leader from Richmond Hill, Ontario. They talk about how he started the Local Conversation, how the group is collaborating with city officials, and how the expansion of the Greater Toronto Area has affected Richmond Hill. ADDITIONAL SHOW NOTES Strong Richmond Hill (site). Norm Van Eeden Petersman (LinkedIn). Do you know someone who would make for a great Bottom-Up Revolution guest? Let us know here!...
May 06, 2025•15 min•Ep. 154
Diane Alisa is an author and founder of the nonprofit End Car Dependency. Her nonprofit helps support families by making it easier to get around safely without a car, build strong support networks, and empower children to be part of their communities. Diane joins this episode of The Bottom-Up Revolution to discuss the impact of car-dependent design on families and the importance of building integrated communities (or "villages"). ADDITIONAL SHOW NOTES Support the work of advocates like Diane by ...
May 02, 2025•1 hr•Ep. 153
Daniel Bloemker is a Strong Towns member and Local Conversation leader from Bellingham, Washington. He’s been instrumental in advancing local efforts on parking reform, housing, and community spaces. He joins Norm in this Bottom-Up Short to discuss these efforts and the progress the city has made. ADDITIONAL SHOW NOTES Want to support advocates like Daniel? Become a Strong Towns member today . Bellingham won the “Most Progress in Building Better Budgets” award in the Strongest Town Contest. Ther...
Apr 29, 2025•14 min•Ep. 152
Elizabeth Turman-Bryant is a councilmember in Burlington, Washington. She's passionate about community building, revitalizing historical areas, and making Burlington more bicycle and pedestrian friendly. Turman-Bryant joins Tiffany to discuss her journey from nonprofit work to local government. She explains some of the projects she’s working on and the importance of striking a balance between the responsiveness of bottom-up activism and the influence of local government involvement. ADDITIONAL S...
Apr 24, 2025•44 min•Ep. 151
