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Strong Towns

The Bottom-Up Revolution

In this episode of Bottom-Up Shorts, host Norm Van Eeden Petersman is joined by Sully Israel, leader of Strong Towns Santa Barbara, a Local Conversation group. During the COVID-19 pandemic, Santa Barbara’s main street was closed to car traffic, which revitalized the area. Now, Israel and his group are working to keep the street closed to cars and address the community’s other needs in the public realm.

ADDITIONAL SHOW NOTES

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See more from Sully on his YouTube channel Sullyville or connect with him on LinkedIn.
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Strong Towns Santa Barbara (site).
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Local coverage of efforts to keep State Street car free.
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Norm Van Eeden Petersman (LinkedIn).
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Do you know someone who would make for a great The Bottom-Up Revolution guest? Let us know here!
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Subscribe to The Bottom-Up Revolution on iTunes, Google Podcasts, Podbean or via RSS.
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Bottom-Up Shorts: How To Save Main Street

Sara Studdard is a community engagement and communications expert. She’s also a partner at City Thread, a nonprofit consulting firm that specializes in helping city governments design and implement active mobility plans.

Studdard joins this episode of The Bottom-Up Revolution to explore how having a variety of mobility options (walking, biking, public transit, etc.) benefits communities, as well as the importance of effective messaging and communication.

ADDITIONAL SHOW NOTES

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Local recommendations:
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Nowhere Coffee.
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Westwood Neighborhood.
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City Thread (site).
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“Communication Strategies That Work” (blog).
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“How to Activate Local Support Through Messaging” (blog).
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Case Study: Providence, Rhode Island.
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Tiffany Owens Reed (Instagram).
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Do you know someone who would make for a great The Bottom-Up Revolution guest? Let us know here!
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The Bottom-Up Revolution Is Offering People More Transportation Options

In this episode of Bottom-Up Shorts, host Norm Van Eeden Petersman is joined by Joshua Hopkins, the newly elected mayor of Chugwater, Wyoming. They discuss Hopkins’ path to becoming mayor and how he created a rodeo ring that provides a third place for his community and supports local businesses and walkability.

ADDITIONAL SHOW NOTES

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Tri-County Mercantile.
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Read more from Strong Towns about Chugwater.
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Norm Van Eeden Petersman (LinkedIn).
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Do you know someone who would make for a great The Bottom-Up Revolution guest? Let us know here!
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Bottom-Up Shorts: How a Rodeo Arena Can Strengthen a Rural Community

In this episode of The Bottom-Up Revolution, host Tiffany Owens Reed is joined by Chloe Groome and Aaron Feldman, co-leads of the Local Conversation group Strong Towns Chicago.

They discuss the initiatives that Strong Towns Chicago is working on, including legalizing fourplexes throughout the city and getting city officials involved in tactical urbanism. They also talk about the challenges the group faces and their strategies for overcoming those difficulties, including building a coalition with other advocacy groups.

ADDITIONAL SHOW NOTES

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Local recommendations:
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The winter Christkindlmarket
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Summer streetfests.
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Four Moon Tavern.
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Live music concerts.
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Lou Malnati’s Pizzeria.
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Strong Towns Chicago (Instagram).
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Tiffany Owens Reed (Instagram).
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Do you know someone who would make for a great The Bottom-Up Revolution guest? Let us know here!
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The Bottom-Up Revolution Is…Building a Coalition for Long-Term Change

In this episode of Bottom-Up Shorts, host Norm Van Eeden Petersman is joined by Jake Loftis, a pastor and leader of the Local Conversation group Strong Towns Blair. They discuss the ways that North America’s built environment can lead to social isolation and how Loftis used his local paper to combat that isolation and encourage engagement in his community.

ADDITIONAL SHOW NOTES

Transcript available on our site • .

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Read more about Loftis and Strong Towns Blair.
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Norm Van Eeden Petersman (LinkedIn).
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Do you know someone who would make for a great The Bottom-Up Revolution guest? Let us know here!
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Bottom-Up Shorts: How Local Papers Can Help Combat Social Isolation

In this special episode of Bottom-Up Shorts, host Norm Van Eeden Petersman is joined by Edward Erfurt, chief technical advisor for Strong Towns, to discuss a transformative 4-step approach to public investment.

They explore real-world examples of this approach in action, including the inspiring stories of Sheboygan, Wisconsin, and Chisholm, Minnesota. These stories illustrate the power of starting small, focusing on what's possible today, and engaging local energy to build something truly transformative over time.

ADDITIONAL SHOW NOTES

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Read more about the incremental approach to public investment:
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“The Strong Towns Approach to Public Investment” (article).
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“Starting a Local Business Can Be As Easy as Setting Up a Chair” (article).
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“Learn the 4-Step Process for Public Investment” (Academy course).
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Norm Van Eeden Petersman (LinkedIn).
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Do you know someone who would make for a great The Bottom-Up Revolution guest? Let us know here!
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Bottom-Up Shorts: How This 4-Step Approach Can Transform Your Community

Matt Harder is the founder of Civic Trust, a participatory budgeting company that provides technology infrastructure, communications and process methodology to help citizens participate in their governments’ budgeting process.

In this episode of The Bottom-Up Revolution, Harder joins host Tiffany Owens Reed to discuss participatory budgeting, a method of getting resident input on how a city’s budget is spent. They talk about the three phases of participatory budgeting, the benefits and challenges to implementing this method, and real-world examples of where it’s been implemented.

ADDITIONAL SHOW NOTES

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Transcript available on our site.
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Local Recommendations:
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Pearl Street Mall.
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Verde Burritos.
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Chautauqua Park.
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Civic Trust (website).
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Tiffany Owens Reed (Instagram).
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Do you know someone who would make for a great The Bottom-Up Revolution guest? Let us know here!
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Matt Harder: Making City Budgeting More Participatory

In this episode of Bottom-Up Shorts, host Norm Van Eeden Petersman is joined by Michael Bassili, one of the leaders of Strong Towns Nanaimo, a Local Conversation group based in British Columbia, Canada. Bassili explains how his Local Conversation created a parking campaign that convinced their city council to vote 8-1 to eliminate parking mandates in their downtown.

ADDITIONAL SHOW NOTES

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Connect with Strong Towns Nanaimo:
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Website.
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Instagram.
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LinkedIn.
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Try Strong Towns Nanaimo’s letter of support generator.
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Norm Van Eeden Petersman (LinkedIn).
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Do you know someone who would make for a great The Bottom-Up Revolution guest? Let us know here!
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Bottom-Up Shorts: How To Remove Parking Mandates in Your Downtown

In this episode of The Bottom-Up Revolution, host Tiffany Owens Reed is joined by Ellie Riggs and Ryan Carter from Catawba Riverkeeper, a grassroots organization that preserves the waters of the Catawba-Wateree River basin in North Carolina.

They discuss stormwater’s effect on the environment, how it’s connected to parking reform and developers, and a new stormwater management bill that Riggs and Carter are introducing to the North Carolina state legislature in a few weeks. They also discuss Riggs and Carter’s experience with advocacy at the state level.

ADDITIONAL SHOW NOTES

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Local Recommendations:
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Legion Brewing.
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Birdsong Brewing.
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The Diamond Restaurant.
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McGill Rose Garden.
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Catawba Riverkeeper Website.
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2025-2026 Catawba Riverkeeper Legislative Agenda.
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Tiffany Owens Reed (Instagram).
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Do you know someone who would make for a great The Bottom-Up Revolution guest? Let us know here!
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Ellie Riggs and Ryan Carter: Advocating for Clean Water and Flood Prevention at the State Level

Spencer Coyne is the mayor of Princeton, British Columbia. As a proud Strong Towns member, he works to bring incremental development and community resilience to his city. Coyne joins this Bottom-Up Short to explain how he’s implementing the Strong Towns approach in Princeton, including how to incrementally reform a zoning code and how to do a lot with a small amount of funding.

ADDITIONAL SHOW NOTES

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Connect with Spencer Coyne:
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Facebook.
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LinkedIn.
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Norm Van Eeden Petersman (LinkedIn).
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Do you know someone who would make for a great The Bottom-Up Revolution guest? Let us know here!
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Bottom-Up Shorts: How To Incrementally Improve Your City's Zoning Laws

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

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Strong SacTown (site)
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Alyssa Lee discussed this topic in more depth at the 2025 Strong Towns National Gathering. You can check out her presentation slides here.
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Norm Van Eeden Petersman (LinkedIn)
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Do you know someone who would make for a great The Bottom-Up Revolution guest? Let us know here!
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This podcast is made possible by Strong Towns members. Click here to learn more about membership, including member-exclusive perks.

Alyssa Lee & Kay Crumb: How To Build a Thriving Advocacy Group

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