Episode 6 – How to start a productive conversation in your community

Kevin sits down with Tim Wright, co-founder of Re-Form Shreveport [this was before he joined the Verdunity team!], to talk about about the conversations and actions that incrementally help make a community stronger. Tim gives insight into ways to build momentum and trust, through his roles as both a civil engineer and as a neighbor in a new city.

1:00 – Introducing Tim Wright and Re-Form Shreveport

4:50 – Teasing our involvement in the upcoming Strong Towns Regional Gathering (join us for that!)

13:05 – Beginning of Kevin’s discussion with Tim

15:26 – Why Tim (and Kevin) joined the Strong Towns movement

17:45 – Key challenges for an engineer who is concerned about social and fiscal sustainability

21:27 – The soft skills today’s engineer’s need to have

23:35 – On discussing the adverse effects of sprawling development with other engineers and city officials (vs. the benefits of infill)

25:45 – “Do you know what a block of your street costs?” and “Do you think your city has enough money to fix it when it needs to be replaced?”

31:50 – What it means to “Re-form Shreveport”

39:33 – Putting the principles of a people-friendly, fiscally-sustainable approach into action

51:00 – Starting small, by making Shreveport’s Highland Park a true place

54:24 – Harnessing citizens’ ideas for ways their neighborhoods could be better (and then implementing them)

1:00:07 – Advice for someone in a new city who wants to make a difference

1:02:11 – Takeaways from the discussion

1:06:38 – An impromptu discussion on resource shortages and what that means for the wellbeing of cities and citizens

(Music from this episode is from Custodian of Records)