Cary Westerbeck: Uniting Advocates to Build Strong Towns

Welcome to the first episode of the Bottom-Up Revolution Podcast in 2021—our Strong Towns Year of Action! All year long, we’re going to be sharing resources, ideas and opportunities for you to take action to make your community stronger and more resilient.

We’re kicking off the 2021 season of the podcast with an interview with a long-time Strong Towns member, Cary Westerbeck. Cary is an architect and principle of his own architecture firm, as well as an advocate who founded a Strong Towns local conversation group in his community of Bothell, Washington.

We’ve been wanting to have him on the show for a while now because his story is one that so many people can learn from. There are probably a lot of you out there who’ve thought at one point or another, “I wish I could find other advocates in my neighborhood who care about making our community more resilient, and then work together to get stuff done.” Well, Cary did just that. 

In this conversation, you’ll learn how he used existing community platforms to find interested neighbors, gathered people to learn about Strong Towns concepts together, shared resources with one another, and eventually got three of their members elected to the city planning commission—taking action on a whole bunch of local issues along the way.

You might event want to take notes during this one because there’s a lot to take in, and so much of it is things you can get started on right now in your own neighborhood. And we hope you do.

Additional Show Notes

• 2021 Local-Motive Tour

• Bo-POP website

• Westerbeck Architecture website

• O-POP website

• Incremental Development Alliance

• Strong Indy

• Strong Towns - Sioux Falls

• The High Cost of Free Parking by Donald Shoup

• Walkable City by Jeff Speck

• Jefferson Beer Supply

• 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 rachel@strongtowns.org.

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

• Support this show and our many other resources for helping your town grow stronger by becoming a member today.