Elizabeth Turman-Bryant: The Bottom-Up Path to Local Leadership

Elizabeth Turman-Bryant is a councilmember in Burlington, Washington. She joins Tiffany to discuss the importance of balancing responsive bottom-up activism with influential local government involvement. (Transcript included.)

Podcast, Top Story 2Strong TownsApril 24, 2025podcast, The Bottom-Up Revolution, washington, local government, activism

Bottom-Up Shorts: How This California City Builds Bikeable Streets

Denyse Trepanier is the president of Bike Walk Alameda. She joins Norm to discuss the city's efforts to improve biking infrastructure, including a network of low-stress bikeways. (Transcript included.)

Podcast, Top StoryStrong TownsApril 22, 2025podcast, The Bottom-Up Revolution, Bottom-Up Shorts, california, bikeability

Doing the Math as a City Council Member

Steven Zittergruen is a city council member from Decorah, Iowa. He joins Norm today to discuss the ways he’s making his community stronger, including revamping the city’s budgeting process. (Transcript included.)

The Bottom-Up Revolution Is...Designing Prosperous Places

Will McCollum is the president and co-founder of Citymakers Collective, a nonprofit that teaches aspiring architects and planners how to design resilient, beautiful and prosperous places. (Transcript included.)

Podcast, Top StoryStrong TownsApril 10, 2025podcast, The Bottom-Up Revolution, people centered places, design, architecture

Bottom-Up Shorts: How To Build a City’s Economic Core

Amy Emery is a community leader focused on fostering sustainable growth and smart development in Warrenville, Illinois. She joins Norm to discuss several ways the city is working to build a core downtown. (Transcript included.)

The Bottom-Up Revolution Is...Using Art To Advocate for Street Safety

Sarah Rose is an artist and advocate from Washington. She joins Tiffany on this episode of The Bottom-Up Revolution to talk about how the intersection of advocacy and art is driving change in her city. (Transcript included.)

Podcast, Top StoryStrong TownsApril 3, 2025podcast, The Bottom-Up Revolution, safe and productive streets, washington, arts

Bottom-Up Shorts: How Local Pride Can Strengthen a Town

Hannah Rechtschaffen is the director of the Greenfield Business Association in Greenfield, Massachusetts. She joins Norm today to talk about how Greenfield is becoming a stronger town. (Transcript included.)

The Bottom-Up Revolution Is...Building Strong Cities in Two Countries

Kip Santos is a trained civil engineer and construction manager who quit his job to build Local Conversations full-time. Now he splits his time between the U.S. and Canada, nurturing the groups he's founded and building missing middle housing. (Transcript included.)

Bottom-Up Shorts: How To Legalize Strong Neighborhoods

Sean Hayford Oleary is a city council member in Richfield, Minnesota. Today, he and Norm discuss his efforts to reintroduce duplexes, reduce parking mandates, and support walkable neighborhoods. (Transcript included.)

The Bottom-Up Revolution Is...Empowering a Network of Advocates

Tiffany is joined by Montana Gau, a Local Conversation leader in Denver. They discuss how Gau built the group into a registered nonprofit with several hundred members and how his role shifted from advocating “on the ground” to creating a space where others can more effectively advocate. (Transcript included.)

Podcast, Top StoryStrong TownsMarch 20, 2025podcast, The Bottom-Up Revolution, colorado, local conversations, taking action

Bottom-Up Shorts: How Decorah, Iowa, Is Becoming a Strong Town

Travis Goedken is the city manager of Decorah, Iowa. He joins Norm to talk about the practices and reforms that are making Decorah strong, including making its budgeting easier to understand for residents and finding creative loopholes in restrictive state housing laws. (Transcript included.)

The Bottom-Up Revolution Is…Re-Localizing the Benefits of Housing Development

Ryan Andrews is the CFO of a small-scale development company and capital fund in Bend, Oregon. In this episode, he discusses the importance of local investment and explains how to channel the profits from housing development back to locals. (Transcript included.)

Bottom-Up Shorts: How To Make Your City’s Finances More Accessible

David Jenkins is a city councilor and Local Conversation leader in La Plata, Maryland. He joins Norm to discuss his work with the city’s budget, particularly his efforts to share financial information in a simple way that lets residents participate in the budgeting process. (Transcript included.)

Bottom-Up Shorts: How a Personal Loss Can Drive Public Change

Josh Stewart is an advocate from Littleton, Colorado. A year ago, his 12-year-old son was struck and killed by a car while biking to school. Since then, Josh has been relentlessly pushing for safer streets in his community. He joins Norm today to share his story and what he’s learned over the last year of advocacy work. (Transcript included.)

The Bottom-Up Revolution Is…a Better Way To Teach Transportation Engineering

Dr. Jonathan Gingrich is a professor of engineering at Dordt College in Iowa. Unsatisfied with the standard materials for his transportation engineering class, he incorporated safe street design, including having his class conduct a Crash Analysis Studio. He joins today’s episode to talk about how he did this and the benefits it had for his students. (Transcript included.)

The Bottom-Up Revolution Is...Making a Big Impact With Tiny Homes

Jesse Russell is the founder of Hiatus Homes, a development company specializing in small home design and cottage communities. He joins the podcast today to discuss how he became a small-scale developer and how to navigate the challenges of building small homes. (Transcript included.)

Podcast, Top StoryStrong TownsFebruary 27, 2025podcast, The Bottom-Up Revolution, Incremental Housing, small scale development, infill

Bottom-Up Shorts: How to Build Momentum as a Local Advocate

In this Bottom-Up Short, Norm is joined by Christian Schick, a Local Conversation leader from Virginia. His group has built a lot of momentum in the past year, and Schick talks about how they did that in a productive and helpful way, particularly while juggling local elections. (Transcript included.)

Podcast, Top StoryStrong TownsFebruary 25, 2025podcast, The Bottom-Up Revolution, Bottom-Up Shorts, local conversations, virginia

The Bottom-Up Revolution Is…Bringing the Benefits of Passenger Rail to Utah

Mike Christensen is the executive director of the Utah Rail Passenger Association. Today, he joins Tiffany to discuss the benefits of passenger rail, including how it can lead to more productive land use. (Transcript included.)

Bottom-Up Shorts: How To Capture the Rhythm of a City

Varsha Gopal is an architect from Chennai, India. She joins Norm today to discuss discuss two research projects she recently conducted in her city and what they taught her about thriving cities, urban design and community engagement. (Transcript included.)

Podcast, Top StoryStrong TownsFebruary 18, 2025podcast, The Bottom-Up Revolution, Bottom-Up Shorts, urban design, India

The Bottom-Up Revolution Is…Applying Big City Lessons to a Small Town

Maricela Sanchez is a city council member and anesthesiologist from Prosser, Washington. She has lived in several major cities, including LA, San Francisco and NYC. She joins today’s episode to discuss how her travels and profession molded her perspective on what makes a town safe and resilient. (Transcript included.)

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