Bottom-Up Shorts: Giving People Better Transportation Options

Bottom-Up Shorts: Giving People Better Transportation Options

Author: Strong Towns July 15, 2025 Duration: 19:46
Wendy Nash is the founder of Get Around Caboolture, a grassroots transportation initiative in Caboolture, Australia. She and Norm discuss the group's efforts to promote more transportation options, including hosting the first Week Without Driving outside the U.S. Wendy emphasizes the importance of tailoring messages to different audiences and explains why she would like to see more comedy in advocacy. ADDITIONAL SHOW NOTES Get Around Caboolture Strong Towns Academy Norm Van Eeden Petersman (LinkedIn) Do you know someone who would make for a great The Bottom-Up Revolution guest? Let us know here!   This podcast is made possible by Strong Towns members. Click here to learn more about membership, including member-exclusive perks.

There’s a quiet shift happening in neighborhoods and city halls across the continent, a push to rethink what makes a place thrive. The Bottom-Up Revolution, from the team at Strong Towns and hosted by Tiffany Owens Reed, dives into that shift by sharing real stories from within the movement. Instead of grand top-down plans, this podcast focuses on the tangible, often overlooked work of everyday people who are rolling up their sleeves to foster economic resilience right where they live. Each conversation explores the practicalities-how someone identified a small, solvable problem in their community, the steps they took to rally their neighbors, and the challenges they faced turning an idea into reality. You’ll hear about the messiness of local advocacy, the importance of building connections to create lasting influence, and the personal lessons learned along the path to a stronger town. It’s a resource for anyone who believes change starts on their own street, offering not just inspiration but a sense of shared struggle and possibility. Tune in for a candid look at the grassroots work that’s quietly reshaping our cities and towns, one concrete action at a time.
Author: Language: English Episodes: 100

The Bottom-Up Revolution
Podcast Episodes
From Parklets To Pilots, Sheboygan Reclaims Its Streets [not-audio_url] [/not-audio_url]

Duration: 17:19
Brian Kelly and Braden Schmidt went from curious residents to leaders helping redesign streets, modernize zoning, and unlock safer, more affordable neighborhoods in Sheboygan, Wisconsin. In this conversation, they share…
Inside West Allis's Playbook for Stronger Local Economies [not-audio_url] [/not-audio_url]

Duration: 19:02
Steve Schaer and Patrick Schloss share how landlocked, eleven‑square‑mile West Allis, Wisconsin has become one of metro Milwaukee’s most business‑friendly cities by growing from within after major factory closures. They…
Building Community With The Neighbors You Already Have [not-audio_url] [/not-audio_url]

Duration: 55:23
When Graham McBain moved to Sacramento, he realized he had no local friends—just nearby houses. In this episode, he shares the simple, sometimes scary steps that turned that street into block parties, front-yard hangouts…
How Vibrant Lafayette Organizes Parents for Safer Streets [not-audio_url] [/not-audio_url]

Duration: 21:07
Most parents worry about safer routes to school but can’t track every plan or attend every meeting. In Lafayette, Kirk Wandy and Brian Parsons help lead Vibrant Lafayette in doing the legwork—digging into projects like t…
Starting Where You Stand: The Great Raleigh Cleanup Story [not-audio_url] [/not-audio_url]

Duration: 40:35
Instead of waiting for permission or a grand plan, Preston Ross III started picking up trash on his own block—and kept going. Learn how that simple habit evolved into a nonprofit, a workforce program for unhoused neighbo…
What Jasper Teaches Us About Beating Mega Projects [not-audio_url] [/not-audio_url]

Duration: 20:25
A small Indiana city took on a 54‑mile, $3.4 billion highway with yard signs, town halls, and hard numbers. Mark Nowotarski traces six years of grassroots organizing against the MidStates Corridor, from local resistance…
Building Culture Around Beauty, Craft, And Daily Life [not-audio_url] [/not-audio_url]

Duration: 50:32
In an era of quick, generic construction, Austin Tunnell makes the case for caring about beauty and craft. He shares lessons from masonry, small‑scale development, and his own projects on creating places people actually…
How One Front Yard Became a Neighborhood Pop Up [not-audio_url] [/not-audio_url]

Duration: 21:56
Discover how Denton mom and civic advocate Lauren Penn turned her front yard into a thriving micro market for local makers and families, all without a big budget. She shares what it took, from permits and vendors to a ra…
From Empty Lots to Budget Gaps: Mapping Portland [not-audio_url] [/not-audio_url]

Duration: 58:53
Downtown Portland is full of vacant lots, surface parking, and struggling storefronts—and every one of them has a price tag. Sam and Jeremiah break down how they estimated the city’s road and pipe costs, modeled new tax…
From Biostatistics to Better Streets in Fayetteville [not-audio_url] [/not-audio_url]

Duration: 18:20
After moving through nine states, Aaron Caldwell chose Fayetteville as home—and started using his data skills to decode city finances and a key local bond. In this episode, his work on a modest South Fayetteville infill…