Strong Towns member John Simmerman cares deeply about community health and wellbeing, and founded the organization Active Towns to help cities think about and create more opportunities for physical activity within neighborhoods.

But he wasn’t always an activist. For much of his career, John was in charge of developing wellness programs and fitness centers for large corporations. He brings that insight and experience into his Active Towns work today, creating podcasts, articles, and videos—plus speaking around the world about making cities more walkable, bikeable, and generally active.

At Strong Towns, our focus is on building financial resilience in communities across North America, and many of the practices which build this financial health also result in healthier people: things like sidewalks that allow people to enjoyably and safely walk to a store or restaurant, beautiful parks that provide a place for people to be outside and also raise property values around them, bike paths that attract visitors and provide an easy route to work for residents…and so on.

John uses the term “activity assets” to describe all of these things and anything else that helps someone be physically active in their place. Listen to this episode of our Bottom-Up Revolution podcast, hosted by Rachel Quednau, and then keep an eye out for the activity assets in your own community. What does your town have going for it? And where could it do better? John Simmerman inspires valuable thought on how to build more active towns.

Active Towns website and podcast

Active Towns on Instagram, Facebook, and Twitter

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It’s a special week for us at Strong Towns. It’s our Member Week, where we honor and celebrate the incredible people who are members of this movement all across the country. You’ve heard several of their stories on this podcast in the past, and there will be many more to come.

If this movement for bottom-up change and financial resilience has got you inspired to start taking action in your own community, it’s time to make your participation official by becoming a sustaining member of Strong Towns today. Visit strongtowns.org/membership to do so.

Today’s podcast episode features two fantastic advocates who are part of this movement. Nathan Chung is a Strong Towns member and master’s student of regional planning at the University of Massachusetts-Amherst. He’s also been part of a really cool effort in his town called the Amherst Mobile Market, which is bringing healthy, fresh, local food to sell in neighborhoods that don’t have much access to it. Nathan is exploring other mobile market efforts around the world, aiming to expand this model elsewhere.

In this conversation, Nathan and podcast host Rachel Quednau are joined by Ryan Karb, founder and farmer at Many Hands Farm Corps. He’s been part of this mobile market program, as well, and is dedicated to creating a resilient local food system in his community. 

In this conversation, Ryan and Nathan talk about how the Amherst Mobile Market program got started, the impact it’s made, and the way they’ve rooted all of their efforts in what their neighbors ask for and need. 

Amherst Mobile Market

Many Hands Farm Corps

Nathan Chung’s website

Other examples of mobile markets: Go Fresh Mobile Market in Springfield, Heiko in Germany, and Tokushimaru in Japan

Send us your own voicemail about the small (or big) thing you’re doing to make your town stronger. Just record a voice memo on your phone and email it to [email protected].

Join our new course, “Aligning Transportation with a Strong Towns Approach” and, for a limited time only, get 20% off your purchase with discount code “NoStroads.” We’re also offering 20% off our whole 8-course bundle with code “LearnEverything.”

Support this podcast by becoming a Strong Towns member today.

In today’s episode of The Bottom-Up Revolution podcast, we’re talking with Sophia Hosain, who’s helping to lead a community composting initiative headed up by the Institute for Local Self-Reliance, a long-time friend and partner of the Strong Towns movement.

Right about now, some of you are probably very excited to hear more, while others are thinking, “What the heck does compost have to do with building strong towns?”  As Sophia explains in this conversation with Strong Towns Program Director Rachel Quednau, community composting programs do a lot to make our communities more economically resilient. First, they allow our neighborhoods and cities to be more self-reliant, taking the garbage we generate and—instead of pouring it into a landfill that occupies precious space and decreases the value and livability of everything around it, and costs money to maintain—we’re taking our food scraps and turning them into soil, which can then help us grow more food.

Almost every town in America is far from a goal of being able to sustain itself on locally grown food. A community composting network like the one Sophia leads in Baltimore helps neighborhoods to develop rich soil in which to grow healthy food. This process takes waste produced by the community and turns it into something productive that benefits the community. Everyone wins.

As Sophia will also share, the programs she’s worked with have helped generate job training, opportunities, and entrepreneurship, plus strengthen neighborly connections and a sense of ownership within neighborhoods.

Listen with an open mind to this conversation about community composting.

Institute for Local Self-Reliance (ILSR)

ILSR’s Composting for Community program

Community Composter Coalition, where you can find information about composting in your area

Neighborhood Soil Rebuilders Composter Training Program

Sign up for “Breaking Out of the Resource Trap: An Economic Plan for Resource-Based Communities” - June 8 webinar and ebook release

Send us your own voicemail about the small (or big) thing you’re doing to make your town stronger. Just record a voice memo on your phone and email it to [email protected].

Join our new course, “Aligning Transportation with a Strong Towns Approach” and, for a limited time only, get 20% off your purchase with discount code “NoStroads.” We’re also offering 20% off our whole 8-course bundle with code “LearnEverything.”

Support this podcast by becoming a Strong Towns member today.

If you heard that a new coffee shop was opening in a lower-income neighborhood, what would be your reaction? In most bigger cities and plenty of smaller ones, the coffee shop is a universal symbol for gentrification. It means that this neighborhood has been designated as the new trendy hotspot and rents are about to go up.

At Strong Towns, we’ve been having an ongoing conversation about the meaning of the term “gentrification” and the complex story behind this concept that is so often oversimplified in public discourse and media. It’s not as clean-cut as “poor people live here and now they’re getting kicked out and that’s bad.” Empty storefronts getting filled, streets getting fixed up and property values increasing are all good things—especially when we consider the alternative, which is those storefronts remaining vacant, those streets staying neglected, and the people who live there experiencing continued disinvestment and devaluation of their neighborhood.  

The problem comes when the people who live in a given community are excluded from the improvement and new investment that’s happening there. If we can help neighborhoods incrementally revitalize—if we can make space and opportunity for residents to start businesses, fix up homes and storefronts, and make their community a more prosperous place—then we’re accomplishing something different. This is what Incremental Development Alliance co-founder, Monte Anderson calls “gentlefication.”

This week’s Bottom-Up Revolution podcast episode features Coté Soerens, who opened a coffee shop in a lower-income immigrant neighborhood in Seattle. She’s participating in that positive reinvestment and revitalization, rooted in and for the community. Resistencia Coffee was founded a few years ago with the intention of being a neighborhood “third space”—a place to hang out and spend time with neighbors outside of the home or workplace.  

The coffee shop came into being through the efforts of so many community members, from investors who helped with start-up capital to contractors who helped build out the space, and many others. In this conversation with Strong Towns Program Director Rachel Quednau, you’ll hear about Coté’s dedication to helping her community grow and thrive, while also operating a financially sustainable business. You’ll learn about the essential need for listening to and collaborating with neighbors to make an effort like this successful. And you’ll also hear about the unique ways Coté has adapted her business and space during COVID.

Resistencia website

Strong Towns articles on gentrification

Urban Fresh Food Collective

Send us your own voicemail about the small (or big) thing you’re doing to make your town stronger. Just record a voice memo on your phone and email it to [email protected].

Subscribe to The Bottom-Up Revolution on iTunes, Google Podcasts, Podbean, or via RSS.

Join our new course, “Aligning Transportation with a Strong Towns Approach” and, for a limited time only, get 20% off your purchase with discount code “NoStroads.” We’re also offering 20% off our whole 8-course bundle with code “LearnEverything.”

Support this podcast by becoming a Strong Towns member today.

A few months ago, we came across an article about a fascinating and unique program where lower-income kids in Birmingham, Alabama, were learning home renovation and building skills as part of their high school education. This wasn’t just about learning construction skills, though, it was also about lifting up and revitalizing the neighborhood where they lived. The school program is called Build UP and this episode of the Bottom-Up Revolution podcast features an interview with Jeanyll Morris, Build UP’s chief academic officer.  

In conversation with Strong Towns Program Director Rachel Quednau, Ms. Morris talks about how Build UP came to be, how these missions of education and neighborhood revitalization are entwined, and how the program has already made a positive impact on so many kids and families.  

Ms. Morris’s own background in addressing educational needs and rebuilding schools in the south after Hurricane Katrina—and all the resilience she gained as part of that experience—has prepared her for what she does now. She explains that different school types (charter, private and public) bring various possibilities and drawbacks when trying to approach education with a new and creative model like Build UP’s. She also describes how step-by-step, home-by-home rebuilding can help a neighborhood grow more economically strong and stay that way for many years to come.

Listen to this episode if you’re eager to hear about a creative approach to education that sees children as an integral part of their communities—rather than just little machines to be programmed and sent off to college or careers. We guarantee you’ll be inspired by Ms. Morris’s passion and dedication to everyone she works with.

Build UP website

“This Alabama school wants to turn its students into future homeowners, and build careers in the process,” by Francesca Giuliani-Hoffman (CNN.com, March 29, 2021)

Send us your own voicemail about the small (or big) thing you’re doing to make your town stronger. Just record a voice memo on your phone and email it to [email protected].

Subscribe to The Bottom-Up Revolution on iTunes, Google Podcasts, Podbean, or via RSS.

Join our new course, “Aligning Transportation with a Strong Towns Approach” and, for a limited time only, get 20% off your purchase with discount code “NoStroads.” We’re also offering 20% off our whole 8-course bundle with code “LearnEverything.”

Support this podcast by becoming a Strong Towns member today.

You might be familiar with food co-ops or housing co-ops. But how about a laundry co-op? A group of community members in the Woodhill neighborhood of Cleveland are starting just that. Marilyn Burns and Leah Ross are part of a group of residents who, through surveys and outreach, learned that a majority of their neighbors do not have access to a nearby washer or dryer. This may seem like a small thing, but it’s such a fundamental and basic component of human dignity. Being able to show up at school or a job with clean clothes—especially during this time of COVID when everyone is more attuned to hygiene concerns—should be something everyone’s able to do.

Accordingly, Burns and Ross are collaborating with neighbors to get a cooperative laundromat started. In this interview, hosted by Strong Towns Program Director Rachel Quednau, Burns and Ross get into what it’s like to start a neighborhood-based effort like this one. They talk about all the important steps along the way, including gathering people together, doing your research, finding funding, and building support for the effort—always rooted in a dedication to listening to neighbors’ needs rather than dictating an outcome. It’s community engagement in the truest sense, from the bottom-up.

Woodhill Community Co-op on Instagram

Send us your own voicemail about the small (or big) thing you’re doing to make your town stronger. Just record a voice memo on your phone and email it to [email protected].

Subscribe to The Bottom-Up Revolution on iTunes, Google Podcasts, Podbean, or via RSS.

Join our new course, “Aligning Transportation with a Strong Towns Approach” and, for a limited time only, get 20% off your purchase with discount code “NoStroads.” We’re also offering 20% off our whole 8-course bundle with code “LearnEverything.”

Support this podcast by becoming a Strong Towns member today.

Strong Towns members Charles and Whitney Coats are a husband and wife duo doing important work to increase housing opportunities in their home state of Texas. After spending two years in the Peace Corps in the Republic of Georgia (where they saw firsthand what it was like to live in a walkable, traditionally-designed neighborhood) to working for Habitat for Humanity today (where they help neighbors who wouldn’t otherwise be able to to access homeownership), Charles and Whitney are passionate about serving others and building strong towns.  

They’ve been actively bringing Strong Towns conversations and ideas into their work at Habitat for Humanity and educating their colleagues about this message of financial resilience, built from the bottom up. They even started a podcast to discuss housing issues with fellow Texans.    

The Coats are also involved in statewide efforts to reform housing policy. Charles serves on the board of a group called Texans for Housing, which is currently working to promote more flexible zoning laws, eliminating parking minimums and other steps that will enable more Texans to access and afford their own homes.

In this episode of the Bottom-Up Revolution podcast, hosted by Rachel Quednau, Charles and Whitney share their insights on how to speak to people from different political persuasions and geographic backgrounds to find common ground on housing issues, and how to make arguments for Strong Towns principles in a manner that can best be received by the leader or resident being appealed to. For Charles and Whitney, efforts to build stronger towns start with the simple act of loving your place, observing where your neighbors struggle, and then taking the small steps to make life better and more resilient for all.

This week’s Bottom-Up Revolution podcast features Mayor Chris Frye, who’s been leading the city of New Castle, Pennsylvania, since January 2020.  Before running for mayor, his background wasn’t in politics but in social work and community service. He’s a husband and father of three—and he’s utterly dedicated to helping his city grow stronger. He’s also New Castle’s first black mayor, and a Republican. 

New Castle, as you’ll learn from Mayor Frye, is a city going through the same challenges of economic downturn, disinvestment and neglect that so many cities in the Rust Belt and Midwest have encountered during the last several decades.

However, like our guest last week (De’Amon Harges), Mayor Frye is focused on seeing the assets and gifts in his city, not just the problems.  He knows that the work of revitalization is not merely about fixing up old buildings or bringing jobs back, but about changing negative perceptions. He wants residents and outsiders to see New Castle, not as a place of blight, poverty, or crime, but as a beautiful city that can thrive and is thriving.

At the end of our conversation, Mayor Frye shares his thoughts for other leaders whose cities may be in a similar economic situation. One piece of advice? “Stay hopeful, and don’t become complacent.”

This week’s Bottom-Up Revolution podcast guest is De’Amon Harges. Based in Indianapolis, Harges’ work focuses on deep listening and asset-based community development. He’s the executive director of a nonprofit called The Learning Tree, a board member of the Grassroots Grantmakers Association, recent recipient of Wesleyan Investive’s Tom Locke Innovative Leader Award, and a member of the Parish Collective. Perhaps the best way to describe him, though, is by his title, “the roving listener.”

Harges is dedicated to listening to his neighbors, hearing their stories and drawing out their gifts and talents. His work is rooted in the belief that everyone has something to offer their community, and the most meaningful transformation will happen when we focus on those assets and abundance—not on what a person or a neighborhood lacks.  

In this conversation, we talk about the power of listening to help build strong towns and make our communities more resilient.

This week’s Bottom-Up Revolution podcast guest is Lisa Leslie, who helped lead an effort to create a cohousing community with 11 families in Silverton, Oregon. Lisa and her husband went from living with two other families (including Strong Towns Content Manager, John Pattison’s family) in a cooperative house, to dreaming of building a full-fledged cohousing community, to seeing that dream come to fruition this past year.

Cohousing is a term that really applies to the way most humans live around the world today and throughout history: it’s living with extended family and friends in close proximity, rather than having individuals and single households all occupying private, separate dwelling places. In Lisa’s case, the cohousing community she helped found, Evans Oaks, is made up of several small homes, clustered together, with lots of shared space and a commitment to doing life together.  This isn’t some socialist commune, it’s folks who want to live close to their neighbors, share some duties and expenses, and have a support system around them.

We feature Lisa’s story today because it’s a wonderful example of someone envisioning a strong community and incrementally building it with her neighbors.  The lessons she shares today—about patience and dedication and committing to deep engagement with one’s community—bear relevance even beyond a particular living situation. We hope it provides a fresh way to think about how we choose to live, no matter who your household or housemates are.