Episode Details

Anne Keehnen has spent years building relationships in Nacogdoches, Texas, one conversation and one local effort at a time. She’s run for city council, worked with younger residents on walkability, stayed involved in city meetings, and kept looking for ways to connect people around street safety and neighborhood life. Anne compares that work to building good compost: the conversations and relationships accumulate, creating better conditions for the next idea to take root. Anne describes what she has learned from staying with a place for years and why seeing the same people, listening to their stories, and earning their trust can become part of the work itself.

• Reclaiming Your Community: You Don’t Have to Move out of Your Neighborhood to Live in a Better One by Majora Carter (Book)
• Strong Towns Speech Club (Site)
• Norm Van Eeden Petersman (LinkedIn)
• Do you know someone who would make for a great Bottom-Up Revolution guest? Let us know here.

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