431.8K
Downloads
195
Episodes
This podcast features stories of the Strong Towns movement in action. Hosted by Tiffany Owens Reed, it’s all about how regular people have stepped up to make their communities more economically resilient, and how others can implement these ideas in their own places. We’ll talk about taking concrete action steps, connecting with fellow advocates to build power, and surviving the bumps along the way—all in the pursuit of creating stronger towns.
Episodes
Thursday Feb 08, 2024
Adam Greenfield and Miriam Schoenfield: Fighting Freeway Widening in Austin
Thursday Feb 08, 2024
Thursday Feb 08, 2024
On this week’s episode, we’ve got a special double interview with Adam Greenfield and Miriam Schoenfield, who are both freeway fighters based in Austin, Texas. Greenfield is a transportation and land-use advocate and co-founder of Rethink35. Schoenfield, who is a board member at Rethink35, is a professor at The University of Texas at Austin. Challenging the expansion of a massive highway is one of the biggest missions one can take on in any city, so we’re excited to have Greenfield and Schoenfield on the show to talk about this important work that they’re doing.
ADDITIONAL SHOW NOTES
-
Do you know someone who would make for a great Bottom-Up Revolution guest? Let us know here!
Thursday Jan 25, 2024
Jessica Peacock: Fighting for a Family-Owned Grocery Store
Thursday Jan 25, 2024
Thursday Jan 25, 2024
Jessica Peacock is a native of Raleigh, North Carolina, and for the past four years, she’s been fighting to reopen her great-grandparents’ neighborhood grocery store in the Walnut Terrace neighborhood. The endeavor has required her to go through an extensive rezoning process, and on this week’s episode, she’s going to share what that journey has been like for her.
ADDITIONAL SHOW NOTES
-
Peacox Market (website).
-
“Raleigh Woman Battles City Hall to Reopen Her Great-Grandparents' Neighborhood Store,” by Asia Mieleszko, Strong Towns (May 2023).
-
Do you know someone who would make for a great Bottom-Up Revolution guest? Let us know here!
Thursday Jan 11, 2024
Jon Jon Wesolowski: Chattanooga Urbanist Society
Thursday Jan 11, 2024
Thursday Jan 11, 2024
Today’s Bottom-Up Revolution guest is Jon Jon Wesolowski, who is an old friend of host Tiffany Owens Reed. Wesolowski lives in Chattanooga, Tennessee, with his wife and two kids and works full time in social media. Outside of work, he makes content for various social media platforms—mostly TikTok and Instagram—related to urbanist issues. He was a founding member of the Chattanooga Urbanist Society, a bottom-up group of residents who are making their city better through tactical action, and is also a member of the Chattanooga Local Conversation group.
Thursday Dec 14, 2023
Jennifer Gaughran: Running the Strong Towns Toastmasters Group
Thursday Dec 14, 2023
Thursday Dec 14, 2023
On this episode, host Tiffany Owens Reed chats with Jennifer Gaughran. Gaughran is a resident of San Diego, California, and outside of her full-time job in marketing, she runs the Strong Towns Toastmasters group, where folks interested in cities and public speaking gather every week online to refine their speaking skills, while talking about various urban issues and Strong Towns concepts.
ADDITIONAL SHOW NOTES
-
Learn more about Strong Towns Toastmasters.
-
Check out Gaughran’s adventure story podcast for children, The Adventures of Red Knight.
-
Check out the Gaslamp Quarter, Balboa Park, and Old Town.
-
Do you know someone who would make for a great Bottom-Up Revolution guest? Let us know here!
Thursday Nov 30, 2023
Dustin LaFont: The Largest Community Bike Shop in Louisiana
Thursday Nov 30, 2023
Thursday Nov 30, 2023
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
-
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!
Thursday Nov 16, 2023
Alisha Loch: Keeping Norwood, OH, Vibrant for Future Generations
Thursday Nov 16, 2023
Thursday Nov 16, 2023
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?
Thursday Nov 09, 2023
Scott Jones: Building Neighborhood Connections With Acts of Hospitality
Thursday Nov 09, 2023
Thursday Nov 09, 2023
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
-
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!
Thursday Oct 26, 2023
Aimee and Cody Frederick: Café Owners and Conversation Leaders
Thursday Oct 26, 2023
Thursday Oct 26, 2023
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
-
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!
Thursday Oct 12, 2023
Shelby Wild: Breaking Down Barriers to Local Food
Thursday Oct 12, 2023
Thursday Oct 12, 2023
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
-
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!
Thursday Sep 28, 2023
Marques King: Doing Incremental Development in Detroit
Thursday Sep 28, 2023
Thursday Sep 28, 2023
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
-
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!