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Strong Towns

The Bottom-Up Revolution features the stories of the Strong Towns movement in action. Hosted by Tiffany Owens Reed and Norm Van Eeden Petersman, 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. Each episode features a Strong Towns advocate who is making positive change in their community.

The Bottom-Up Revolution

Most neighborhoods have an invisible boundary where public space ends and private property begins. Rachel Harms Mahlandt started questioning that boundary after discovering tiny installations scattered around Portland: a rubber duck exchange, a toy car swap, miniature galleries, and other invitations to stop and interact. She eventually built her own, then began mapping hundreds of similar projects through Sidewalk Joy. What started with a dinosaur diorama in her front yard has become a way for strangers to linger, trade something small, meet a neighbor, and treat the edge of private property as a place for connection.

ADDITIONAL SHOW NOTES

Rachael Harms Mahlandt • (LinkedIn)

Sidewalk Joy • (Site)

 • Local Recommendations:
‍ • 

Zuckercreme Strawberry Museum
Mr. Plywood
Threshold Brewery
 • 

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. Thank you! Join fellow members discussing this episode in The Commons.

The Sidewalk Joy Changing Portland’s Sidewalks

Somerset, Kentucky, had historical markers scattered around downtown, but Jody McRoberts suspected many people barely noticed them. Through Strong Towns Pulaski, she turned those overlooked signs into a reason for people to slow down and look more closely at the place they lived. The group organized a walking tour, recruited five volunteer guides, and partnered with the local historical society to add research beyond what was written on each marker. One stop at the century-old Virginia Theater opened up a bigger question: What is an old building worth to a downtown when saving it costs money, but losing it would leave a hole behind?

ADDITIONAL SHOW NOTES

 • Strong Towns Pulaski (
Facebook Group • , 
YouTube • )

Somerset Kentucky Walking Tours • (YouTube Channel)

Norm Van Eeden Petersman • (LinkedIn)

 • 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. Thank you! Join fellow members discussing this episode in The Commons.

The Unexpected Value of a Walking Tour

Density is often pictured as a huge apartment building surrounded by pavement, while a yard is treated as something only suburbia can provide. Dr. Alicia Pederson, founder of Courtyard Urbanist, wants cities to look at the block differently. Courtyard blocks arrange many small multifamily buildings around shared green space, giving families larger homes, nearby neighbors, and somewhere for children to play. The form can provide more housing and more usable outdoor space at the same time, while creating enough density to support local shops and transit. American cities haven’t run out of ways to build good family housing; they’ve written many of those possibilities out of their zoning codes.

ADDITIONAL SHOW NOTES

Dr. Alicia Pederson • (LinkedIn)

Courtyard Urbanist • (Site)

 • Local Recommendations:
‍ • 

Merz Apothecary
Gene's Sausage Shop
 • 

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. Thank you! Join fellow members discussing this episode in The Commons.

These Backyards Don’t Need Suburbia

Most city-building games let players draw roads, place buildings, and watch a convincing skyline appear. Cristian Gonzalez kept noticing what was missing: homelessness, discrimination, parking, disconnected jobs, and the people who bear the cost when the economy turns. By leaving those things out, the games teach players to see cities as collections of buildings rather than places shaped by transportation, inequality, public services, and human behavior. His indie game Microlandia reverses the usual formula with cartoonish graphics and a demanding simulation that challenges the simplified logic of traditional city-builders, where growth often arrives without transportation constraints or social consequences. Microlandia gives players a place to test what happens when those tradeoffs enter the model and see how one decision reshapes the rest of the city.

ADDITIONAL SHOW NOTES

Microlandia • (Site)

Norm Van Eeden Petersman • (LinkedIn)

 • 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. Thank you! Join fellow members discussing this episode in The Commons.

The New Brutally Honest City Simulator

A wider highway promises faster trips, new investment, and billions of dollars flowing into Houston. Susan Graham and Ally Smither have spent years asking who receives those benefits and who is asked to move, breathe more pollution, or watch another neighborhood get divided. Recorded at the 2024 Strong Towns National Gathering, this session follows Stop TxDOT I-45 through lost votes, a federal pause, and the long work of keeping people involved after the project moves forward anyway. The same system now struggling to maintain what it already built is still asking communities to make room for more.

ADDITIONAL SHOW NOTES

Ally Smither • (LinkedIn), '
How an Opera Singer Joined the Fight Against Freeways • ' (Article)

Susan Graham • (LinkedIn), '
75-Year-Old Houston Advocate Refuses To Surrender to Highway Expansion Project • ' (Article)

Stop TxDOT I-45 • (Site)

We Built the Best Interstate System. Now It’s Falling Apart. • (Video)

Mission Accomplished Report • (Site)

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. Thank you! Join fellow members discussing this episode in The Commons.

Who Pays When the Highway Gets Bigger?

Residents are often told to get involved at City Hall, but first they have to figure out where to go, who has authority, and which committee will actually hear them. Jacob Hyman learned that firsthand when his attempt to advocate for multimodal transportation turned into a frustrating tour of local government. As a civil engineer and leader of Strong Towns Steubenville, he helped build a power map showing the officials, boards, departments, and relationships behind city decisions, giving residents a clearer route into a system that had been difficult even to describe. Hyman will also be a speaker at the Civic Leader Summit in Pensacola, Florida, from October 6–8, where he’ll lead a session on building power maps for local communities, and early-bird tickets are available now.

ADDITIONAL SHOW NOTES

Jacob Hyman • (LinkedIn)

Strong Towns Steubenville • (Site)

Norm Van Eeden Petersman • (LinkedIn)

 • 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. Thank you! Join fellow members discussing this episode in The Commons.

Why City Hall Is So Hard to Navigate

In most suburban neighborhoods, a corner store or small commercial space can feel years away, even when residents want places to gather and local businesses need somewhere to begin. Rather than wait for a zoning change, Lauren Penn worked with a neighbor to turn their front yards into a tiny market with a baker, a coffee roaster, artists, children selling handmade goods, and people who might not otherwise have met. The project grew out of her interest in the “missing middle” of local economies: the space between an idea at home and a full commercial lease. For parents, especially mothers, markets like this can offer a realistic way to test a business idea and earn income during a season of life that does not fit neatly into a standard work schedule.

ADDITIONAL SHOW NOTES

 • Lauren Penn (
Site • , 
LinkedIn • )

Stronger Denton • (Site)

Stronger Neighborhoods • (Site)

Pop-Up Market Makers • (Site)

How One Front Yard Became a Neighborhood Pop Up • (Bottom-Up Short)

 • Local Recommendations:
‍ • 

Thai Ocha
L’Amitié Bistro
Two Gentleman of Verona Gelato
North Lakes Park
 • 

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. Thank you! Join fellow members discussing this episode in The Commons.

Can a Front Yard Bring the Village Back?

Andrew Price spent nine years living without a car in Hoboken, New Jersey, where most daily trips could be handled on foot or by transit. Once he bought a car, even routine outings came with a new calculation: where he would park, how much it would cost, and whether driving was actually the easier option. An early Strong Towns member, Price examined places, non-places, and the difference between fine-grained and coarse-grained urbanism in articles. He reflects on how owning a car made him a stronger urbanist, a realization that connects back to his first years in Arkansas, where lawns, roads, and parking lots filled the landscape, but finding a place to sit outside with lunch still meant getting back in the car.

ADDITIONAL SHOW NOTES

 • Andrew Price (
Blog • , 
LinkedIn • , 
X [Twitter] • )

Places and Non-Places • and 
Fine-Grained vs. Coarse-Grained Urbanism • by Andrew Price (Articles)

Norm Van Eeden Petersman • (LinkedIn)

 • 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. Thank you! Join fellow members discussing this episode in The Commons.

Car Ownership Versus the Promise of Convenience

Modern family life offers mothers an endless supply of services meant to make isolation more manageable, but Lauren Penn began wondering why so much support had to be purchased in the first place. After a violent crash near the crosswalk her children use to get to school pushed her into local activism, she began connecting unsafe streets and missing sidewalks to the exhaustion many mothers experience while coordinating transportation, childcare and social life largely on their own. Lauren shares how books, advocacy and small experiments with her daughters changed what she thought a neighborhood could provide. A place can either force every need into another private transaction or make room for families to help one another.

ADDITIONAL SHOW NOTES

Lauren Penn • (LinkedIn)

Stronger Denton • (Site)

Stronger Neighborhoods • (Site)

Pop-Up Market Makers
How One Front Yard Became a Neighborhood Pop Up • (Bottom-Up Short)

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. Thank you! Join fellow members discussing this episode in The Commons.

Where Did the Village Go?

Cities regularly ask residents for feedback, especially when budgets tighten or difficult tradeoffs approach. Norm and Mary Kate Norton look at what changes when people respond as an organized group instead of a collection of individual voices. They trace how Local Conversations grow from first meetings and small projects into groups that can communicate clearly, build relationships with public officials and take part in larger policy fights. A good idea may open the door, but organized local support gives it a better chance of surviving the meeting, carrying into the next discussion and becoming something the city can’t easily set aside.

ADDITIONAL SHOW NOTES

Mary Kate Norton • (LinkedIn)

Strong Towns Local Conversations • (Map)

Norm Van Eeden Petersman • (LinkedIn)

 • 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. Thank you! Join fellow members discussing this episode in The Commons.

Who Pays When the Highway Gets Bigger?

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