06 – How to start a productive conversation in your community

Kevin sits down with Tim Wright, co-founder of Re-Form Shreveport, 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.

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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

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We'd love to see you at the Strong Towns Regional Gathering in Plano (or the free Curbside Chat in Arlington)!

For more on our podcasts and blog, visit GoCultivate.org. This podcast is a project of the nice folks (whose voices you're listening to) at VERDUNITY.

(Music from this episode is from Custodian of Records)