The Bottom-Up Revolution

In this episode, Jacob chats with three local leaders in open data—Kyle Taylor, Jesse Hamner, and Habib—share how open data works, including how you can use open data to act on your ideas, how you can encourage your elected officials to adopt open data policies, and how open data can make your city or town stronger.

Latoya Wilson — founder of the Rebuild Workforce Consultancy — shares how you can invest in the youth in your community, including how to understand the learning landscape for youth, how to create programs that are beneficial for students, and how to make your investments last throughout a student’s time in primary school and beyond.

Jenna Jarvis – environmental engineer out of St. Louis, Strong Towns member, and winner of our Why I Joined Strong Towns fall member drive contest – discusses how to navigate your neighborhood-boosting ideas and decide what to do first, including how to start small, how to get your peers involved, and how to keep the momentum going as you plan new actions.

Caroline Dobbins Hurteau—staff member at the Albion Reinvestment Corporation—shares how you can start a successful pop-up shop, including how to pitch the idea to your downtown organizations, how to find merchants, and, most important, how to make it an incremental yet lasting success for your city or town. 

Jordan Deffenbaugh — primary organizer of Local Conversation Strong Towns Sioux Falls — shares how you can spread the Strong Towns message locally, including how to spread the vision among your neighbors, how to give your neighbors a sense of ownership in the process, and, most important, how to get into the nitty-gritty of making your city or town stronger.

Strong Towns's own Chuck Marohn shares how you can get ideas to make your neighborhood stronger, including how both the concerned citizen and the public official can act on ideas, how to share them with your tribe, and how to take the next incremental step in making your neighborhood stronger.

Caitlin Bigelow – founder of Maxable Space – discusses how you can build an accessory dwelling unit, including how to check the required zoning, encourage your peers that ADUs are strong way to strengthen your neighborhood, and how to discover the benefits—beyond passive rental income.

Darren Smith - co-founder, President, and CEO of Traipse, a gamification platform for historic business districts - shares how you can boost your historic business district with gamification, including how to use gamification to boost tourism, get more traffic for merchants, and make your historic business district the destination it deserves to be. 

Aubrey Byron – Staff Writer at Strong Towns and President of the Monthly Cycle, a St.Louis-based bike advocacy group – shares how you can start your own bike advocacy group, including how to act on the idea, spread the message, and have an impact on bike policy in your town. 

Breanna Hawkins – Policy Director at the Los Angeles Food Policy Council – discusses how you can provide healthy food in our urban neighborhoods, including how to recognize food deserts, encourage existing establishments to carry produce, and grow your own food.