The Bottom-Up Revolution

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

  • Season's Noodles and Dumplings Garden

  • Ox9 Lanzhou Handpulled Noodles

  • California Street Complete Street

  • Bay Trail

• Swyft Cities (site)

• Tiffany Owens Reed (Instagram)

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

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 blueprint” Chicago Tribune

  • “The courtyard block solution to Chicago’s family flight problem” Chicago Tribune

  • “A better way to approach the challenge of Lincoln Yards” Crain’s Chicago Business

• Norm Van Eeden Petersman (LinkedIn)

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

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’s working on next.

ADDITIONAL SHOW NOTES

• Local Recommendations:

  • Café 1369

  • Kendall Rooftop Garden

  • Greenline Bike Path

• Burhan Azeem (site)

• Tiffany Owens Reed (Instagram)

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

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 streets safer with the Crash Analysis Studio model.

• Norm Van Eeden Petersman (LinkedIn)

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

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 permaculture design philosophy can help cities become more resilient.

ADDITIONAL SHOW NOTES

• Denver Urban Gardens

• Local Recommendations:

  • Little Owl Coffee

  • The Kitchen

  • Museum of Contemporary Art

• Tiffany Owens Reed (Instagram)

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

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 (LinkedIn)

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

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 expansions.

ADDITIONAL SHOW NOTES

• Strong Towns ABQ (site)

• Local Recommendations:

  • Old Town Plaza

  • Bike In Coffee

  • High and Dry Brewing

• Tiffany Owens Reed (Instagram)

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

This podcast is made possible by Strong Towns members. Click here to learn more about membership, including member-exclusive perks.

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 topic in more depth at the 2025 Strong Towns National Gathering. You can check out her presentation slides here.

• Norm Van Eeden Petersman (LinkedIn)

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

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, including creating synergy between urbanism and environmentalism.

ADDITIONAL SHOW NOTES

• Craig Cassar (site)

• Local Recommendations:

  • Tiffany Falls

  • Dundas Valley Trail System

  • James Street North Art Crawl

• Tiffany Owens Reed (Instagram)

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

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 read more about their progress.

• Norm Van Eeden Petersman (LinkedIn).

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

This podcast is made possible by Strong Towns members. Click here to learn more about membership, including member-exclusive perks.