The Bottom-Up Revolution

Gary Oddi: A Lifelong Educator Advocating for Active Transportation

On today’s episode of The Bottom-Up Revolution, host Tiffany Owens Reed is joined by Gary Oddi, a longtime resident of Temecula, California, who served in public education as a teacher and administrator before retiring in 2016. A lifelong biker, he founded Bike Temecula Valley in 2020, a nonprofit that advocates for more active transit in his city.

Along with his duties as president of Bike Temecula Valley, Oddi is also a substitute administrator for the Temecula Valley Unified School District and the director of the Murrieta Creek Regional Trail Four Cities Planning Team. He also sits on the city of Temecula Services Commission and continues to lead drives and educate the community about active transportation.

ADDITIONAL SHOW NOTES

• Gary Oddi (Twitter/X).

• Tiffany Owens Reed (Instagram).

• Bike Temecula Valley (website).

• Check out Le Coffee, La Bottega, and Temecula Valley Wineries.

• Do you know someone who would make for a great Bottom-Up Revolution guest? Let us know here!

Barry Greene: A Dad Advocating for Density and Localism

This week on The Bottom-Up Revolution, host Tiffany Owens Reed talks with Barry Greene Jr., an urban journalist and local advocate from the Southside neighborhood of Richmond, Virginia. After spending time in Brooklyn and Charlotte, Greene returned to Richmond earlier this year and launched his Substack, Density Dad.

On Greene’s blog, he draws on his experience as a husband and father to write about city and urban design issues in an accessible manner, and also advocates for urban design that’s friendly to families, children, and seniors. In addition to working full-time as a fundraising and grants manager for an environmental nonprofit, he also serves on the board of Virginia Rapid Transit and the Partnership for Smarter Growth.

Today, Greene talks with us about his work with advocacy and his success as a small business owner.

ADDITIONAL SHOW NOTES

• Tiffany Owens Reed (Instagram).

• Barry Greene Jr. (Twitter).

• Density Dad (Website).

• Check out Urban Hang Suite, the Virginia Museum of Fine Arts, T. Tyler Potterfield Memorial Bridge, and Shades of Moss (Greene’s own local business!). 

• Do you know someone who would make for a great Bottom-Up Revolution guest? Let us know here!

Noah Tang: Working Alongside Local Government

Noah Tang, high school history teacher in Bloomington, Illinois, discovered the power of small steps when he invited a few friends over to discuss the city's housing issues. From that initial gathering, a Local Conversation movement was sparked that led to the city unanimously changing its zoning code. This change allows residents more flexibility to adapt to housing needs and build additional housing units (ADUs) on their property.

In this episode of the Bottom-Up Revolution podcast, host Tiffany Owens Reed catches up with Tang. They talk about why he chose to get involved in local government, his recent trip to the Netherlands, and how things are progressing in Bloomington. This episode follows Strong Towns' coverage of the Local Conversation Bloomington Revivalists' journey for change earlier this year.

ADDITIONAL SHOW NOTES

• Tiffany Owens Reed (Instagram).

• Noah Tang (Twitter).

• “History Teacher Steps Up and Starts the Conversation for Change in Bloomington, Illinois,” by Seairra Sheppard, Strong Towns (February 2023).

• Learn more about starting your own Local Conversation.

• Check out Bloomington's Farmers Market, McLean County’s History Museum, Epiphany Farms Restaurant, and Coffee Hound Cafe. 

• Do you know someone who would make for a great Bottom-Up Revolution guest? Let us know here!

LeVette Fuller: Actively Making a Strong Town

Who are the people working to make their places stronger? 

On this episode of The Bottom-Up Revolution, host Tiffany Owens Reed interviews LeVette Fuller. Fuller was born and raised in Shreveport, Louisiana, and has served for four years on the city council, ran for mayor, and is now working in real estate. She’s taken part in many projects pointed toward creating a stronger, more adaptable city, including Reform Shreveport, which hosts a Fiscal Impact Analysis conducted by Urban3 on their site, as well as a portal for citizens to inform the city of local needs. 

Tune in to this episode and hear Fuller talk about Shreveport, its unique history, and how she’s bringing new ideas to the city.

ADDITIONAL SHOW NOTES

• LeVette Fuller (Twitter).

• Reform Shreveport (Website).

• Tiffany Owens Reed (Instagram).

• Check out Vinyl Coffee, Herby K’s, Southern Maid Donuts, the R.W. Norton Art Gallery Botanical Gardens, and Sweetport Ice Cream!

• Do you know someone who would make for a great Bottom-Up Revolution guest? Let us know here!

• Support this podcast by becoming a Strong Towns member today.

Introducing Your New Host for The Bottom-Up Revolution!

After taking a hiatus for her maternity leave, Rachel Quednau is back with a new episode of The Bottom-Up Revolution, where she's introducing Tiffany Owens Reed, who will soon be our new host for the podcast.

Those of you who have been around here for a while may recognize Tiffany as one of our regular writers and a previous guest on this very podcast, as well as a featured speaker in many of our workshops and events—including, most recently, the National Gathering. She's also a member of our advisory board, and, in general, has been involved with Strong Towns for many years.

We're so excited to welcome Tiffany to The Bottom-Up Revolution. We invite you to get to know her in this episode and look forward to hearing more from her in the coming weeks!

ADDITIONAL SHOW NOTES

• Read Strong Towns articles by Tiffany.

• Check out Tiffany’s previous appearance on The Bottom-Up Revolution.

• Read more of Tiffany’s writing at Cities Decoded.

• “Patterns, Placemaking, and People: 3 Questions for Observing Your City,” by Tiffany Owens Reed, Strong Towns (June 2023).

• Learn the 4-Step Process for Public Investment from Tiffany over at the Strong Towns Academy.

• Do you know someone who would make for a great Bottom-Up Revolution guest? Let us know here!

• Support this podcast by becoming a Strong Towns member today.

Top of the Bottom-Up: Creating a Coffee Shop for the Whole Neighborhood

While Rachel is on maternity leave, we’re re-running some of our best and most popular episodes of The Bottom-Up Revolution podcast.

This episode, which we published in May of 2021, came to us because Strong Towns Community Builder John Pattison is friends with the guest, Coté Soerens and her husband, Tim. In the podcast you’re about to hear, the focus is on a wonderful neighborhood coffee shop that Soerens opened to be a gathering place in her community of South Park in Seattle. But we’ve been thinking about this episode recently because John also let us know that Coté and Tim have been leading an effort called Reconnect South Park to tear down a harmful highway that cuts through the neighborhood.

Soeren’s coffee shop, Resistencia, has served as a convening space for advocates working on this issue, a perfect example of how a neighborhood café can create so much benefit for a city—not just in providing jobs, providing local goods, activating a storefront—but also in being a “third space” where people can get together and work on making their city stronger. If you want to learn more about how to get involved in stopping wasteful highways in your city, check out our End Highway Expansion campaign.

Additional Show Notes

• Reconnect South Park website.

• Visit the End Highway Expansion campaign page.

• Strong Towns articles on gentrification.

• Urban Fresh Food Collective.

• Support this podcast by becoming a Strong Towns member today.

Top of the Bottom-Up: Taking Matters Into Our Own Hands to #SlowTheCars

While Rachel is on maternity leave, we’re re-running some of our best and most popular episodes of The Bottom-Up Revolution podcast.

This episode from August of 2021 is a fascinating story about a Strong Towns member who literally bought a road in order to try and make it safer. Mary Moriarty Jones lives in Honolulu, where plenty of roads are privately owned, which is what made this story possible. You’ll hear a lot more about that process and why Jones is so passionate about making this street safer for her children to walk to school. But since we recorded, we also have an update to share: Jones emailed a couple months ago to say that she successfully transferred ownership of the road back to the city and county, who now plan to add sidewalks and crossings to hopefully make the street safer for everyone who uses it.

This is ultimately the story of someone who was so dedicated to the Strong Towns mission and so believed in the cause of safer streets that she did everything she possibly could to make it happen. We hope that those who come after her do not have to fight quite so hard just to ensure they can safely walk to work or school without risking their lives. But we’re thankful and inspired by advocates like Mary Jones. Check out our Safe and Productive Streets campaign if you want to connect more with these efforts.

ADDITIONAL SHOW NOTES

• A couple of articles about Mary Jones’s quest for safer streets, from Civil Beat: “This Diamond Head Mom Found An Unusual Way To Fight City Hall“ and “Diamond Head Mom Who Took Over Road Riles Neighbors By Charging For Parking.”

• Safe and Productive Streets campaign page.

• Support this podcast by becoming a Strong Towns member today.

Top of the Bottom-Up: Building Family and Community Resilience

While Rachel is on maternity leave, we’re re-running some of our best and most popular episodes of The Bottom-Up Revolution podcast.

The episode we’re re-running this week is one of Rachel’s all-time favorites. It features our amazing colleague Lauren Fisher, although that’s not why it’s a favorite. Rather, it’s because of the candid way Lauren speaks about her life and the choices she has made to build household resilience: raising animals, growing food, mending and crafting things herself rather than buying new, and, perhaps most important of all, developing deep connections with neighbors and family for the good times and the bad.

Since we recorded this conversation in the summer of 2021, Lauren and her husband have moved to a new home in the same area which offered them greater opportunities for their little homestead. Her parents also moved in with them into the basement unit of the house and plan to eventually build an accessory dwelling unit for them to live in long term. In addition to the chickens and rabbits she was already raising, they’ve added sheep. Lauren’s also been selling and exchanging things like flowers and eggs with people in her town, and plans to do more of that in the coming months. All of these things are not only a way to provide for the family, but also a way to meet her neighbors. You’ll hear more about why that’s so important and the role of community in building resilience throughout this conversation.

ADDITIONAL SHOW NOTES

• “#DotheMath on Chicken Regulations,” by Lauren Fisher, Strong Towns (August 2020).

• “5 Places to Meet New People to Join the Strong Towns Conversation,” by Lauren Fisher, Strong Towns (April 2021).

• Sign up for Strong Towns email.

• Support this podcast by becoming a Strong Towns member today.

Top of the Bottom-Up: Building Gentle Density and a Grassroots Campaign for City Council

While Rachel is on maternity leave, we’re re-running some of our best and most popular episodes of The Bottom-Up Revolution podcast.

We were reminded about this episode after recently recording a new interview with Sarah Cipkar, a small-scale developer based in Windsor, Ontario, whose interest in accessory dwelling units prompted her to build her own ADU.

Today’s re-run conversation with Ashley Salvador was recorded in the fall of 2021. Salvador is a big advocate for accessory dwelling units and, like Cipkar, lives in Canada, in the city of Edmonton. (Canadians must be onto something when it comes to expanding housing options and making housing more affordable!) We could sing the praises of accessory dwelling units all day, but the basic gist is that they allow homeowners to build a small additional apartment on their land, meaning rental income for the owner and the chance for a new resident to live in a desirable neighborhood at a much lower cost than the typical home in that area. It’s a win-win situation.

What started for Salvador as a research project turned into people asking her for input on how they could build their own ADUs and navigate the zoning and permitting processes, so she started an organization to help teach people about all of this. And eventually, she was so driven to make her community stronger that she decided to run for city council and won in 2021.

It’s a trajectory we’ve heard about many times on this show: Someone starts exploring an issue they care about, momentum gets built around that issue and other people start joining the cause, and, sometimes, that individual decides to take the next step into leadership and run for local office. You’ll hear about that whole journey in this conversation, which is one of our most popular episodes to date.

Additional Show Notes

• YEGarden Suites website.

• Check out the related interview with Sarah Cipkar.

• “Will Edmonton Be the First Major Canadian City to Eliminate Parking Minimums?” by Ashley Salvador, Strong Towns (May 2020).

• “How to Get Rid of Parking Minimums,” a Strong Towns webcast featuring Ashley Salvador.

• Follow Ashley Salvador on Twitter.

• Support this podcast by becoming a Strong Towns member today.

The Bottom-Up Revolution Is…Getting Stronger

On this special Member Week episode of the show, Chuck Marohn and Strong Towns Member Advocate Norm Van Eeden Petersman talk about the membership experience at Strong Towns and the new initiatives we hope to launch soon. We hope you enjoy it, and if you want to be in on the Strong Towns member experience, then join us! Become a Strong Towns member today.