The Bottom-Up Revolution

On this episode of The Bottom-Up Revolution, host Tiffany Owens Reed chats with Dustin LaFont. LaFont is the proud executive director of Front Yard Bikes, a youth workforce development program providing safe spaces for youth in Baton Rogue, Louisiana, to learn bike mechanics, welding, urban gardening, cooking, riding safety, and providing after-school jobs.

LaFont first began repairing bikes with a few kids on his front yard in the summer of 2010, but as demand grew, the community rallied behind the project. Through the years, Front Yard Bikes has included over 2,000 youth and more than 10,000 bikes. With two after-school sites and a full-service bike shop in Mid City, Front Yard Bikes has become the largest community bike shop in the state and hopes to do even more with the amazing youth that champion the good work.

ADDITIONAL SHOW NOTES

• Front Yard Bikes (website).

• Tiffany Owens Reed (Instagram).

• Check out Highland Coffees, City Roots, Chow Yum, and French Truck Coffee.

• Do you know someone who would make for a great Bottom-Up Revolution guest? Let us know here!

Alisha Loch is a Strong Towns member, a mother of three, and a founding board member of Norwood Together, a community development corporation in Norwood, Ohio—which was a finalist in the 2022 Strongest Town Competition. A lover of cities, Loch enjoys community events, parks, porches, and anything that increases the small-town feel of Norwood. She is passionate about working alongside other residents to keep her neighborhood vibrant for future generations. 

Strong Towns members like Alisha Loch are making a difference in their communities. Will you join them by becoming a member today?

On this episode of The Bottom-Up Revolution, host Tiffany Owens Reed talks with Scott Jones. Jones is a lifelong resident of Long Beach, California, where he is the co-founder and executive director of We Love Long Beach, a nonprofit that encourages and equips residents to build connections with their neighbors through acts of generosity and hospitality.

Their work shows how simple gestures of hospitality can be on-ramps to deeper connections with our neighbors, which can translate into friendships, meaningful political collaboration on the local level, and effective defense against loneliness.

ADDITIONAL SHOW NOTES

• We Love Long Beach (website / Instagram / Facebook / X).

• Tiffany Owens Reed (Instagram).

• Check out Domenico’s Restaurant, Nick’s on 2nd, and Alamitos Bay.

• Do you know someone who would make for a great Bottom-Up Revolution guest? Let us know here!

Aimee and Cody Frederick are the owners of Blockhouse Coffee, a specialty coffee house in a historic part of downtown Richmond, Texas, a small town in the Houston metro area.

Even though they aren’t from Richmond or even from Texas, their café is just one way they are demonstrating radical commitment to their city. They also lead a Strong Towns Local Conversation group called Fortify Richmond and cultivate real estate. Aimee co-hosts a podcast called Born in the Bend and, starting in 2020, she began serving on the city’s zoning and planning commission…all of that in addition to raising two kids!

Ultimately for the Fredericks, their efforts boil down to their love of hospitality and building community, and they’ve got a lot to share in this episode of The Bottom-Up Revolution!

ADDITIONAL SHOW NOTES

• Block House Coffee & Kitchen (website / Instagram).

• Born in the Bend podcast.

• Tiffany Owens Reed (Instagram).

• Check out the Fort Bend Museum, Harlem Road Texas BBQ, Trough Juice, Mercy Goods, and Shady Oak Primary School.

• Do you know someone who would make for a great Bottom-Up Revolution guest? Let us know here!

Shelby Wild is a mom, a lifelong gardener, and executive director of Route One Farmers Market in her hometown of Lompoc, California, which she started in 2018 after her neighborhood farmer’s market closed.

As both a traditional farmer’s market and a nonprofit, Wild’s goal for Route One Farmers Market is to increase access and break down barriers to local food in California’s Lompoc Valley. The market runs every Sunday and is currently the sole market for 50 miles of the central coast of California that offers customers both EBT and Market Match.

Wild and her team strive to make the market a place that brings together the diverse communities that call Lompoc home. At the beginning of the COVID-19 pandemic, Wild led her market to be the first in the area to offer a produce bag for curbside contactless pickup for all customers, distributing hundreds of bags of local food for those under shelter-in-place restrictions. Last year, they launched the first ever mobile farmer’s market in Santa Barbara County, and just recently, Wild was honored as Woman of the Year by her local Chamber of Commerce at their annual awards banquet.

ADDITIONAL SHOW NOTES

• Route One Farmers Market (website).

• Shelby Wild (LinkedIn).

• Tiffany Owens Reed (Instagram).

• Check out Cold Coast Brewing Co., Dare 2 Dream Farms Homestead, and South Side Coffee Co.

• Do you know someone who would make for a great Bottom-Up Revolution guest? Let us know here!

On this episode of The Bottom-Up Revolution, host Tiffany Owens Reed is joined by Marques King, a licensed architect, practicing urban designer, and small-scale developer operating out of Detroit, Michigan.

Originally from Detroit, King returned home after spending a decade in Washington, DC, and now runs a design firm that specializes in incremental development projects. His work is driven by a desire to see a more sustainable future for his city by providing human-scale neighborhoods that are accessible to a wider variety of people across the social-economic spectrum.

King also serves as a faculty member of the Incremental Development Alliance and is an adjunct faculty member at the University of Maryland’s School of Architecture, Preservation & Planning.

ADDITIONAL SHOW NOTES

• Marques King (Twitter/X).

• Fabrick (website).

• Tiffany Owens Reed (Instagram).

• Check out the Detroit Institute of Arts (DIA), Islandview Villages, The Red Hook, Marrow, Yum Village, and the Detroit Riverfront.

• Do you know someone who would make for a great Bottom-Up Revolution guest? Let us know here!

On today’s episode of The Bottom-Up Revolution, host Tiffany Owens Reed is joined by Gary Oddi, a longtime resident of Temecula, California, who served in public education as a teacher and administrator before retiring in 2016. A lifelong biker, he founded Bike Temecula Valley in 2020, a nonprofit that advocates for more active transit in his city.

Along with his duties as president of Bike Temecula Valley, Oddi is also a substitute administrator for the Temecula Valley Unified School District and the director of the Murrieta Creek Regional Trail Four Cities Planning Team. He also sits on the city of Temecula Services Commission and continues to lead drives and educate the community about active transportation.

ADDITIONAL SHOW NOTES

• Gary Oddi (Twitter/X).

• Tiffany Owens Reed (Instagram).

• Bike Temecula Valley (website).

• Check out Le Coffee, La Bottega, and Temecula Valley Wineries.

• Do you know someone who would make for a great Bottom-Up Revolution guest? Let us know here!

This week on The Bottom-Up Revolution, host Tiffany Owens Reed talks with Barry Greene Jr., an urban journalist and local advocate from the Southside neighborhood of Richmond, Virginia. After spending time in Brooklyn and Charlotte, Greene returned to Richmond earlier this year and launched his Substack, Density Dad.

On Greene’s blog, he draws on his experience as a husband and father to write about city and urban design issues in an accessible manner, and also advocates for urban design that’s friendly to families, children, and seniors. In addition to working full-time as a fundraising and grants manager for an environmental nonprofit, he also serves on the board of Virginia Rapid Transit and the Partnership for Smarter Growth.

Today, Greene talks with us about his work with advocacy and his success as a small business owner.

ADDITIONAL SHOW NOTES

• Tiffany Owens Reed (Instagram).

• Barry Greene Jr. (Twitter).

• Density Dad (Website).

• Check out Urban Hang Suite, the Virginia Museum of Fine Arts, T. Tyler Potterfield Memorial Bridge, and Shades of Moss (Greene’s own local business!). 

• Do you know someone who would make for a great Bottom-Up Revolution guest? Let us know here!

Noah Tang, high school history teacher in Bloomington, Illinois, discovered the power of small steps when he invited a few friends over to discuss the city's housing issues. From that initial gathering, a Local Conversation movement was sparked that led to the city unanimously changing its zoning code. This change allows residents more flexibility to adapt to housing needs and build additional housing units (ADUs) on their property.

In this episode of the Bottom-Up Revolution podcast, host Tiffany Owens Reed catches up with Tang. They talk about why he chose to get involved in local government, his recent trip to the Netherlands, and how things are progressing in Bloomington. This episode follows Strong Towns' coverage of the Local Conversation Bloomington Revivalists' journey for change earlier this year.

ADDITIONAL SHOW NOTES

• Tiffany Owens Reed (Instagram).

• Noah Tang (Twitter).

• “History Teacher Steps Up and Starts the Conversation for Change in Bloomington, Illinois,” by Seairra Sheppard, Strong Towns (February 2023).

• Learn more about starting your own Local Conversation.

• Check out Bloomington's Farmers Market, McLean County’s History Museum, Epiphany Farms Restaurant, and Coffee Hound Cafe. 

• Do you know someone who would make for a great Bottom-Up Revolution guest? Let us know here!

Who are the people working to make their places stronger? 

On this episode of The Bottom-Up Revolution, host Tiffany Owens Reed interviews LeVette Fuller. Fuller was born and raised in Shreveport, Louisiana, and has served for four years on the city council, ran for mayor, and is now working in real estate. She’s taken part in many projects pointed toward creating a stronger, more adaptable city, including Reform Shreveport, which hosts a Fiscal Impact Analysis conducted by Urban3 on their site, as well as a portal for citizens to inform the city of local needs. 

Tune in to this episode and hear Fuller talk about Shreveport, its unique history, and how she’s bringing new ideas to the city.

ADDITIONAL SHOW NOTES

• LeVette Fuller (Twitter).

• Reform Shreveport (Website).

• Tiffany Owens Reed (Instagram).

• Check out Vinyl Coffee, Herby K’s, Southern Maid Donuts, the R.W. Norton Art Gallery Botanical Gardens, and Sweetport Ice Cream!

• Do you know someone who would make for a great Bottom-Up Revolution guest? Let us know here!

• Support this podcast by becoming a Strong Towns member today.