The Bottom-Up Revolution

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 Square

  • Oakland's Grand Lake Farmer's Market

• See more from Kat:

  • We Should Get Together (site)

  • “We Should Get Together: The Secret to Cultivating Better Friendships” (book)

  • 1-on-1 coaching

  • Platonic Action Lab (course)

  • Downloadable tools: Better than Small Talk and the Better Conversations Kit

• Tiffany Owens Reed (Instagram)

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

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 Communities: Canada’s First Derelict Tax Subclass a Success”

  • “Will Edmonton Be the First Major Canadian City to Eliminate Parking Minimums?”

  • “Want more local businesses in your neighborhood? Then legalize ‘Accessory Commercial Units.’”

  • “The Bottom-Up Revolution is... Building Gentle Density and a Grassroots Campaign for City Council”

• Norm Van Eeden Petersman (LinkedIn)

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

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!