Noah Roth: How Animation Can Build Strong Cities

Noah Roth is the founder of Streetcraft, a platform that uses visual storytelling and urban design to explore and improve the built environment. He joins Tiffany to talk about what led him to this form of advocacy, how visualizations can bring people on board with a project, and what he’s learned since starting his platform.

  • Tiffany Owens Reed 0:06

    Hi everybody. Welcome to another episode of the bottom up Revolution podcast. I'm your host. Tiffany Owens Reid, it's a rainy morning here in Waco, Texas, and I am spending part of the day working on the last few travel logistics for heading to Providence, Rhode Island, for the strong towns national gathering. If you haven't bought your ticket, I hope you will buy one soon and come say hi. I'll be hosting a panel there, which is related to today's conversation. We're currently in a series of interviews with YouTube creators as part of the run up to the national gathering, and I guess just like two weeks now, the panel I'll be hosting is all about content creation and how platforms like YouTube have contributed to growing the strong counts movement. I have had two conversations so far in this series. It's been really interesting to talk to creators in this space. It's also been interesting to watch this sort of organic, bottom up movement of urbanist creators emerge and grow over the past several years. I think they're doing really important work and taking complex urban issues and making them easier to understand for ordinary people, making you know, complicated topics more digestible for an audience that may not necessarily be an urbanist per se, or professional or engineer, or working for city government or anything like that. And I honestly think this work is critical if we're going to successfully rethink and reshape the American city. This is really a all hands on deck kind of movement, and I think the movement needs everybody from elected officials to stay at home moms to participate. So I think this is where the sort of YouTube content really plays an important role at helping reach a wider audience and helping more ordinary people realize that they have something to contribute. Today's guest is a YouTube creator who goes by the handle streetcraft. Noah Roth is the founder of streetcraft, a platform that uses visual storytelling and urban design to explore and improve our built environment. As a leading voice on social media, Noah creates solution oriented videos that simplify complex urban planning and transportation issues, sparking conversations about change by combining animation design and compelling narratives, his work helps people see how streets and places can be transformed, inspiring audiences to think differently and take action toward creating better places. Noah, welcome to the bottom up Revolution podcast.

    Noah Roth 2:32

    Thank you, and thanks for having me.

    Tiffany Owens Reed 2:34

    I feel like in anticipation of this conversation, I don't know if you heard it, but a really loud car just drove by my window, which is kind of fitting, because we're going to talk a lot about streets. So let's start off just hearing a bit of your story. I would love to know if you could share with us how you came to be interested in urban planning. I know from an earlier conversation, you told me you were kind of always interested in this side of things, but I would just love if, I don't know, maybe you can think of some early memories or stories or just things that you grew up noticing that put this field on your radar, kind of turned it from an interest into something to like, really pursue creatively and even professionally.

    Noah Roth 3:17

    Yeah. So when I was in high school, I really loved theme parks. And just going to a bunch of different theme parks, you know, I kind of noticed some of the traits of theme parks that I loved was the walkable places. And, you know, you're, you're in a place where you can walk around, and it's an enjoyable, pleasant environment. And through that, I kind of, you know, started looking at what I wanted to do next in life after high school, and I was kind of exploring all these different college majors. And urban planning was one that continuously came up and that just really interested me, because I'm like a lot of these same principles that I love about theme parks are things that apply to our actual places that we live. And so when I was, you know, kind of looking for majors to pick and what I wanted to, you know, do in life, I was like, Oh, this is really interesting stuff. And, you know, you know, the more you kind of unravel it, you realize all of these things are connected, you know, whether that's, you know, how we build housing, how we get around, how our streets are built. And yeah, it kind of just went from there. I, you know, I kind of found all of these topics really interesting. And yeah, it was, that's kind of how I got started with it.

    Tiffany Owens Reed 4:35

    So what did that eventually look like for you? Did you study urban planning in school?

    Noah Roth 4:40

    So I actually didn't. I ended up doing an internship right out of high school in urban planning for our city planning office, and so I learned a lot of it from there. I got a little more interested in the development side of things, so I ended up going to school for business. But then after school, I got involved in a lot more advocacy, and kind of came back to the whole urban planning side of things. Things, specifically the whole transportation thing, I got really interested in, you know, the transportation space and specifically how streets are designed and how we're getting around.

    Tiffany Owens Reed 5:08

    So tell us a little bit about where you're from. Like, what would you say are the cities that have sort of anchored this journey for you?

    Noah Roth 5:15

    Yeah, so I'm from Michigan, and I went to school down in the Cincinnati area. And so when I was living down there, that was kind of my first big city that I had lived in, and I was getting experience walking around and living in a walkable community, and seeing how transportation really impacts your day to day life, and just kind of seeing of how, hey, there's different ways to do some of these things, and there's people that are involved in getting some of these things changed. And so just seeing that kind of really opened my eyes to looking at different ways of doing things. And yeah, that whole journey of changing our places.

    Tiffany Owens Reed 5:52

    Cincinnati is a great city, super underrated, in my opinion. And one of

    Noah Roth 5:57

    my favorites, yeah, I agree it is definitely underrated.

    Tiffany Owens Reed 6:00

    Yeah, yeah, I we were there. I guess I have lost, I guess last year, has it really been a year for the National gathering? And I remember, you know, getting set up in the Airbnb. I just had no idea what to expect. And so when I landed in this, like, walkable, older downtown, um, with, you know, the little bridges and everything, it just blew my mind, I was really surprised. It was amazing. That was where you you sort of got a little bit involved in transportation advocacy, a little bit, can you tell us a little bit about that? What that looked like in Cincinnati

    Noah Roth 6:30

    for you? Yeah. So I got involved kind of in a few different groups of, you know, people that were doing some change and, you know, showing up to some meetings and learning about what was going on and trying to figure out who to contact in terms of local officials, and, you know, just kind of the whole advocacy realm, it kind of opened my eyes to that. And, you know, the people that are on the ground kind of fighting for some changes, whether that's the highway projects or to bike lanes or to bridges, and that really was kind of like my first step into the advocacy world. And, yeah, it was just, you know, very interesting to see people, you know, fighting for changes in their communities.

    Tiffany Owens Reed 7:13

    I think you worked alongside another guest we've had on the show, Brian Bolin. I'm pretty sure he was doing some advocacy around a bridge in Cincinnati. Is that right forward project? And, yeah, Bridgeport, yeah, we had him on a year ago, I'm pretty sure, like, right before the gathering this time. Um, so for you, before you became a YouTuber, what was it like being involved in these conversations as some like, how did you learn what you needed to know? I guess that's what I'm curious. And did that sort of inspire you when you switched over to doing more of the content creation, I feel like you've had both experiences sort of just kind of throwing yourself in on the deep end and getting involved, but then also being able to stick, take a step back and create content to help other people who are getting involved. So how do you I'm just curious, like, as you're looking at those different types of experiences, did one inform the other? Or, like, did you find yourself so frustrated trying to understand something that it inspired you to go figure it out? Or, how did those two work together? It was

    Noah Roth 8:10

    like a perfect mix of kind of everything coming together, because I have quite a bit of background in media, and it's always been something that's been my passion, and I've done a lot of work in the past, like both on YouTube and social media and just doing other video work. And so I have experience, like technical experience with creating content and doing animations and stuff like that. And so, you know, when I kind of got involved in advocacy, I was like, I want to be able to visualize some of these ideas that I have for you know, how a bike lane could look on a street, or how a bridge could be reconfigured. And so that was kind of, you know, the very beginnings of streetcraft, is when I was looking at some of these ideas, and wanted to be able to communicate them to people in a way that everyone could understand. And so I used some of my visualization skills that I had done with other things in the past. And, you know, I found it to be a really effective way to communicate some of these very technical ideas. And you know, just over time too, you know, you start to learn some of the technical aspects behind it. Then you start to read, you know, like the manual for Uniform Traffic Control Devices. And you know, all of the nocto guides of how to do, you know, proper street design, and, yeah, through that, I've learned a lot. And there's so much, so many resources out there that can, you know, show you best practices. And, you know, that's been a lot of the stuff that I've learned over time.

    Tiffany Owens Reed 9:36

    Okay, so you just mentioned two things, the manual. I don't know what it's called. I know the MUTCD, yeah, and then the NAC. Can you explain those two really quick for listeners who may not know what you refer to.

    Noah Roth 9:48

    So one is a federal guideline book, basically that talks about all of the standards on the roads that have to be followed. So like when you're talking about how lanes. Going to be painted, and how signs are going to look and, you know, there's, it's very, you know, technical kind of guideline to make sure that all of the roads in the country are uniform. And then NACTO, they do a bunch of different guides on in different city street designs and how to do bike lanes and what's going to work best in terms of safety. And they do, they have a guide for all sorts of things, which is really cool, you know, how to design better crosswalks. And a lot of these best practices that are more technical, but, you know, they are showing good examples of what's worked. And they're for engineers and road designers and urban planners that can reference and then put forward some of these best practices.

    Tiffany Owens Reed 10:43

    So the MUTCD is federally backed, like, that's the official guidebook, right? And then NACTO is not technically, how does it, how does it work out to actually implement NACTO guidelines? Do, you know, no,

    Noah Roth 10:56

    I'm not really sure on, like, the, you know, from a city planning perspective. I don't know if it's more of just like a guide for them to follow, you know, best practices sort of thing, because I know the MUTCD is, you know, you have to follow what is in that you're going to be building roads. But I think NACTO, as far as I know, is more of a guideline for best practices. Interesting.

    Tiffany Owens Reed 11:21

    Okay, do you remember your first piece of content you made for YouTube? Like, what was your first topic?

    Noah Roth 11:26

    Yeah, my very first video I made was a video on a diverging diamond interchange in Sarasota, Florida. And I was living down there for a little bit at that time, and I had driven through it quite a bit. And I was, I saw how it functioned, and I saw there were a few issues with it. And I was like, I would love to be able to, like, visualize what's wrong with this and how it could be better. And I also wanted to dive into some of the, you know, kind of core urbanist topics, too, and talking about how, you know, this giant road isn't necessarily the problem. It's just a piece of the problem of designing our entire infrastructure and an entire built environment. But that was my first video, and I also made one right around the same exact time, like I talked about suburban development in general and how some of that can be improved. So

    Tiffany Owens Reed 12:20

    I'm just curious, as you were getting started, what was this like for you? Were you like, you know what? I'm just gonna have fun with this topic, or were you like, more strategic, like, having, like, a content planner and calendar and like, and also, how long did it take you to actually make those videos?

    Noah Roth 12:36

    It was definitely a little more strategic. I mean, I was doing it for fun, but I kind of went into it with a mindset of, like, you know, I wanted people to find it interesting, and I wanted it to be a good quality video that, you know, would actually be something people would want to watch. And, you know, like I said, I've done a lot of video in the past, so I've kind of have, you know, some experience there. It's not like I was just turning on a camera and making a video for the first time. It was the first one in terms of what was posted on streetcraft, but it was not the first video I've ever made. So I guess there was a little strategy behind it there. But,

    Tiffany Owens Reed 13:12

    yeah, it's just fun to hear how people kind of, because I feel like making content and then becoming an actual content creator are two very different things, you know, like some people, just like, I just made this for my friends, and then it kind of evolved and grew into this bigger thing, whereas I there are other people who kind of are a little bit more strategic from the start about really wanting to create a a creator space, you know, not just like pieces of content. Um, okay, so can you continue the story for us? How did that grow into Yeah, so how long have you been actually on YouTube now?

    Noah Roth 13:42

    Since that first video that was posted at the very beginning of 2024, so a year and a half.

    Tiffany Owens Reed 13:50

    Year and a half? Okay, yeah. So what's it been like for you this past year and a half as you've been building out your brand and figuring out content to put up? Have you found yourself refining your process, or, like, how do you find topic ideas and sort of manage the process from like ideation to like, actually putting it up?

    Noah Roth 14:10

    Yeah, so in terms of like topics, I've kind of had a list of topics that I've kind of built over time, and there's even videos that I have had the ideas for years ago that I still haven't even gotten around to making yet, just because, like I said, I've been interested in this in a long time for urban planning. And so there's projects that I've kept an eye on that are going on all over the place. And so I've kind of built a running list over time of stuff that I found interesting, or things that I think would make a good video. And so I've built a list over time, and then in terms of the process, I've kind of figured out kind of what works best, and I've hired an editor, and, you know, kind of built out a process of how how to make a streetcraft video from start to finish. And I. You know, there's a lot of animation to it, but, you know, there's also a lot of strategy when it comes to writing the script and getting the entire storyline out there in a way that makes sense to everyone.

    Tiffany Owens Reed 15:13

    Yeah, it's definitely not. I feel like sometimes being a content creator can there can be this perception that it's easy, I think, on social media, but it has definitely, I do not feel like that is the case, especially if you're on YouTube and making the kind of high quality videos that you are. So how do you you know, one of the things we're thinking about with this whole series, and one of the things we're talking about on the panel, is how the kind of content you're making can help advance the conversation about our cities in a productive way. How have you seen that play out with your platform and the audience that you've built?

    Noah Roth 15:52

    Yeah, so that's kind of the baseline of what I am trying to make content about, is trying to create change. And I feel like I come into it with a very baseline, easy to understand way. So I want it to almost be a step one for people of saying, Hey, I find these kind of topics interesting, and like the way our roads are designed, I find interesting, but I know nothing about it. I don't know how to get involved. I don't know what it's even called. And those are the kind of people that I want to make sure that video that I make is going to make sense too. So I've seen it play out, you know, a lot through, like, the comments and the kind of community that you build, and just seeing a lot of people that are like, what is this called? I want to know what this is. I want to do a job in this field. And that's a question that I get quite a bit from people. Is interesting, yeah, you know, is it? Is it architecture? Is it engineering? Is it, you know? And, you know, obviously it's kind of a mix of a lot of things in this space. You can kind of come at it from a lot of different angles. But yeah, I get a lot of questions from people that want to get involved somehow, and they just don't know either what it's called or how to do that yet.

    Tiffany Owens Reed 17:04

    Yeah, um, the little bit of like content creation that I've done, I feel like, or just talking about these topics with friends at church, or just, you know, hanging out, it's always so fascinating to me how people like light up the minute you start talking about something like, you know, a random empty lot in downtown, or trying to, you know, how much you want to just be able to walk somewhere and and I try not to talk about it too much, because all my friends will kind of tease me at some point, because I can basically show up anywhere and start a conversation about walkability or cities. But it's always so encouraging and just interesting how, like, people will hear you talking, and just suddenly they have so much to say. And I really feel like that this is something that people care about. And I it's kind of strange to me how it's become such a professional, like, like, I don't know, I guess it has this like feeling of like, Oh, you have to be a professional to talk about the city. You have to be a professional to talk about Lane wits. And it's like, do you really, though? Because I keep finding ordinary people who have a lot to say about some of these, quote, unquote, technical or professional, like, like, design elements or whatever. And I'm like, is it really, is it really that technical? Or I feel like so much of this, people just into it, and they kind of just understand, on a very basic level, what have you, what would you add to that? Yeah,

    Noah Roth 18:31

    I mean, I totally agree. I think when you look at your built, built environment, it's something that affects every single person. Like, whether you are you could be an accountant or you could be a scientist, and you're still going to be driving on the same roads as the doctors and the lawyers. Like, that's this, you know, it's something that affects everyone of like, how your built environment is built. And so, like you said, I think a lot of people have their own opinion on it, and a lot of people can know how it feels like it doesn't. They don't have to know the lane widths or the curb turning radius just to know what a good intersection feels like versus what a bad intersection feels like. They're walking across it and it doesn't feel safe to them. It doesn't matter if they have the technical knowledge or not, because it still matters if it doesn't feel safe to people. And like you said, it's like a lot of people have have the knowledge. They might not know the technical terms, but it is something that affects everyone. And I think that's why so many people, you know, like you said, light up when you start talking about it, because it's something that actually

    Tiffany Owens Reed 19:35

    affects people. Yeah, and I think that's why the work that you're doing and the work that other creators are doing is so important. Because I do feel like there can be a gap between the experiences we have and the things that we intuit or that we understand on an intuitive level, and the more technical explanation, or even I think there's also plenty of conversation to be had around like, Why does any of this actually matter for what it means to be a human? Human being that's the more like philosophical side of my brain. But I think the work that you're doing is helping people kind of learn a new language, right? So that they can step outside their door and look at the turning radius or the lane widths or the sidewalk width or the tree canopy, and be able to actually put language to the things that they are intuiting, and kind of give themselves more clarity, but also be feel more confident in being able to articulate their experience.

    Noah Roth 20:29

    Yeah, and I think that helps a lot with, you know, kind of finding the next steps for people. Is that once people can kind of learn some of the language, they can show up to the town hall meetings where the city engineer is and be able to say, Hey, I, you know, the lane width on this is, you know, too wide, and it's like this because it's designed as a highway with lane and, you know, that's starting to speak the same language as the people that are actually in charge of making it different.

    Tiffany Owens Reed 20:56

    So I want to talk a bit more about the getting involved side, because I think this is one aspect to the not even just the strong townsmen, but anyone who cares about their city. I feel like it's kind of a process, right? Of like, something happens, and you start to pay attention, and then, you know, you find these resources that help you, like, better understand and interpret your experience or your observations. And then I think the next step is like, Okay, well, what do I do without it? How do I get involved? Or, like, what do I do with everything I've learned? And I think this is where things can kind of get a little bit messy or confusing or overwhelming, or they can just kind of get stuck and die. So, you know, I think what we're trying to talk about, we're in this conversation about, well, how do we use this content to help move forward this movement? How have you navigated that tension between like creating content about more like, high level topics like language, but also trying to make that something that people can actually feel empowered to like, do something with like in their actual community. How do you see that? Do you have any thoughts on, like, what that could look like like, effectively moving from knowledge, from observation to knowledge to action, like, as you've thought about that, like, what has come to your mind?

    Noah Roth 22:12

    Yeah. I mean, it definitely is a tricky thing to get. You know, it's one thing to tell people about what a road looks like, versus actually getting them to show up to a town hall meeting to get that road changed, and it is difficult, I mean, to get that actual action implemented. But, yeah, I mean, I think some of it is education. I think a big part of it people don't know how the process works. And, you know, unfortunately, it's, like you said, a messy process, but getting people involved in a way that they can understand what's going on, I think, is a good first step, because they actually know, like, Okay, I'm going to show up to a town hall meeting. I'll have two minutes to speak, and the speaking will be at the end of the meeting. Like, getting people those details, I think, is really crucial, because then it's getting people like, I think it's helping with people's anxiety of like, well, I don't know what to do. I don't know where to start, and so little things like that, I think can even have an impact, or figuring out who to actually write an email to that will be responsible for making a change sometime in the future, or whatever the action might be. I think getting people educated on how to be a part of that is going to be crucial. And I've tried a little bit with content in the past, but like I said, it's kind of a messy process. So it can be different everywhere

    Tiffany Owens Reed 23:34

    exactly. I was just thinking that like, it's like different for every city. It's almost like we need roadmaps for like, Okay, if you're in this city email, you know this is what the process might look like. But in this city, it might start more with this staff person, rather than with your council member. And I think that's where things they do slow down, because you have to sort of take your observations. You have to take the knowledge and your ability to properly interpret what you're observing and experiencing, but then you have to do this really slow, messy work of figuring out, like, well, what's my context, and what's the actual political infrastructure here? And there's no easy YouTube video for that side of things. I don't think, but it's so I think it's still worth doing to, like, figure out what, what are the processes, the systems for change in my town, and what are the like relationships and the people that need to that I need to speak with. But I think sometimes, maybe people burn out because they hope it's a little it's easier than that. It's just like a simple formula that you can you know, if you follow the right steps, you'll get a great outcome. And I just, I think it's much more relational than that, and much more, much slower and probably a lot messier, yeah,

    Noah Roth 24:45

    and I wanted to also bring up the whole relational thing, like you said it, that's a huge aspect of it is, like making relationships with people that are going to be, you know, involved in these decisions, and, you know, building up trust of like, hey, you know, I'm an. Advocate trying to make things better, and, you know, trust that I'm trying to make things better, rather than I'm just trying to get in your way. And, you know, stop whatever you're trying to do, because I think, you know, advocacy can be a little messy, and you can stuff on some toes sometimes, and navigating that whole social aspect of it too is definitely a big part of it, and building those relationships.

    Tiffany Owens Reed 25:20

    How have you navigated the um tension? Or maybe it's not a tension for you. Sometimes it feels like a tension for me with like, I'm like, Oh yeah, I host this podcast for strong towns, but I still feel like I'm constantly fumbling with, like, effective advocacy in my town. Have you struggled with that or thought about that as it pertains to

    Noah Roth 25:38

    like, yeah. I mean, it's, it really is hard. It's like, it's so much of just like, yeah, go, go advocate and go show up to city hall meetings, and then it's a total different thing to, like, sit through the meeting for three hours. Yeah. Why am I doing this thing that makes

    Tiffany Owens Reed 25:55

    it so hard is you don't really know where the finish line will be, or what this or like, if you'll even be successful. It's you're really going on this adventure. Of like, Well, I'm gonna do this and see what happens. Well, I'm gonna do that and see what happens. It's not as neat and tidy as I think we'd like it to be. But, yeah, I've definitely, I definitely found myself kind of struggling with that, of like, Hmm, maybe I should be more involved, or maybe I should be advocating more. It's tricky for comp for various reasons, but it's definitely something I always feel challenged about with. Like, every single person I bring on this show, man, you guys are all challenging me. I need to, I need to figure out how to crack the code on this. So you're currently on the road, heading to the national gathering, or is there anything particular that you are looking to explore, or anything in particular you're thinking about these days as pertains to, like, things you're noticing, or videos you're hoping to make soon? Yeah,

    Noah Roth 26:52

    so I've kind of got a list of a bunch of different intersections and roads that I want to check out throughout the whole kind of northeast area that people have sent in over over the last few months. And so I have a few different things that I feel like will make pretty interesting videos, either for short form or for YouTube stuff, but also just kind of exploring more projects in the future. I would love to do more development kind of projects too. I think those are really exciting. I made a video last summer about the I don't know if you're familiar with the development going on in Covington, Kentucky, right across the river in Cincinnati, but they're doing a huge development, basically building out a whole new part of their neighborhood. It's like right downtown Covington. And there used to be an old IRS building there, and then they got it tore down, and now they're going to be developing it. And I just think that's a really exciting project, because they're getting to start from scratch, and they're going to be able to build out, you know, new streets and reconnect the grid. And I would love to explore more projects like that in the future, because I think they're really interesting, and the audience has found them really interesting, and it's encouraging to see kind of these real life changes that are happening. And I think it can be really encouraging for to keep people going towards some of this. It's not conceptual. It's like, Hey, here's a project that is working, and it's doing what we are trying to do in a lot of other places. And so I think finding more of those positive examples of what has been done, or what is in the process of being done is going to be really cool to explore more.

    Tiffany Owens Reed 28:24

    I can see that resonating with so many people, because I feel like there's one big question, which is, well, what does what does it look like to be effectively advocating? I think a lot of people get stuck with that question, but I think the other question is, what are we actually asking for, right? Like, what is, what does a strong town, or what does better urbanism? Or what does, what does it actually look like? I think sometimes people have a hard time actually knowing what to ask for instead, or conjuring up like a better vision, because, you know, we refer often to, like, how we used to build cities, like 100 years ago, or like historic cities. But in some ways it's like, well, we can't all just go back, right? Like, what does it look like to actually go forward and build better places given the constraints and the Federal guidebooks and the budget constraints, and, you know, the whole culture that we've built around the way our cities have been designed? Like, what does it actually look like to build better places in the middle of all of that? And, I mean, that's another really important question to wrestle with, because as much as we can learn from the past, I think we can't expect to actually be able to go back to that. And I think if you're able to give people, like a picture or like a vision of like, hey, here is a way that as Americans, or North Americans, we can move forward and build better places within the context and the constraints that we're operating in, I think that could be really powerful.

    Noah Roth 29:44

    Yeah, definitely. And, you know, I don't think we all I don't think everything you know from the past is that great either it's like, there's things we can do now that we didn't do in the past even better. And, you know, I think bike infrastructure is a big one. Like, there's a lot of good examples of new. Bike infrastructure that, you know, really wasn't necessarily considered in the past, but especially now in our modern world, where we have, you know, kind of these big highways and, you know, being able to adapt to what we've built. I think creating more multimodal transportation options, I think is something that, you know, something that we're kind of doing, essentially for the first time, in a way we've had shared streets and stuff in the past, obviously, but some of the new examples of what's being built out there, I think, is really exciting. And it's exciting because it's ways you can adapt the current environment versus just tearing it all down and starting

    Tiffany Owens Reed 30:38

    again. Yeah. And I think that's what the question will end up being. It's like, what does it look like what does it look like to adapt and integrate with what's here now? And I think it'll be interesting to see what type, what type of urbanism that eventually leads to. One thing I want to ask you, I've kind of been asking this of all the different creators I've been talking to, how do you balance wanting to do excellent work with kind of following where your audience is at and also keeping tabs on how, like, sort of the algorithm is always changing. Do you how do you navigate? I guess you could call them like, those three different goals, you know, or just, I guess, like signals, you know, it's like you have the things that you're interested in, but you have the things you're you're, I'm sure you're noticing things your audience is interested in, and then there are different types of content or formats or strategies that the algorithm rewards. How do you navigate content creation in the middle of all that? Yeah,

    Noah Roth 31:33

    I mean, it's definitely a big world of trying to balance it all, but in so different to depending on what platform you're posting on. So when I do a lot of this, do a lot of the short form stuff, the videos that typically do really well, and what the audience loves are those intersection like renovation videos, right? You know, look at an intersection and say, Hey, this is bad because x, y, z, there's a bunch of different streets coming in. The crosswalks aren't there. And, you know, here's how it could look different. Instead, people love those before and afters. You know, there's also, you know, 1000s of terrible intersections around the country. So it's like everyone has their own ideas of what should be different. And I think people just like that concept of reimagining and, you know, having their imaginations kind of sparked by what could be different. So those kind of things do really well on short form. I do some of that kind of in the long form videos too on YouTube, and kind of integrate some of that same concept in of like reimagining. But, I mean, yeah, it's really different depending on the platform too. And I feel like on YouTube, you can dive in a little bit further into some of these topics, and kind of do a more deeper, sometimes more technical dive, where it's not just a 62nd long video, you can actually explain some of the things. Like my video I just posted on YouTube earlier this month was about Michigan left like, the concept of doing U turns in order to do a left turn. And it really dived in to, like, a lot more of the technical aspect behind it and why it works, and why it's sufficient, and how it can be applied on different scales and stuff like that. And so it's cool to be able to do more of those, like deep dive videos on YouTube, but it's also cool to be able to capture people's attention in 60 seconds with a intersection renovation video.

    Tiffany Owens Reed 33:19

    Yeah, I feel like it's important to know what works on different platforms. I feel like that's a huge part of the strategy for content creation. How did you pick I feel like with the urbanism world, there's so many different things that are interesting and worth talking about. What was it about transportation that really stuck out to you? Like, and I don't mean just like the broader conversation of, like, how we get around, but like, the more of the technical side. Like, how do you find your Well, I guess what I'm asking is, like, what motivates you to like, continually, like, explore more of the technical aspects of road design or transportation, and how, why do you think it's important for people to understand that?

    Noah Roth 33:57

    Well, I think biggest thing is that it's a national tragedy right now that we're losing so many lives on our roads, and so I think that's kind of the biggest thing that drives me to it. It's like, we're we have this really terrible infrastructure that's killing a lot of people. And I think a lot of people just are like, yeah, that's just how it is. But I mean, if you looked at, you know, plane crashes, for example. And if you compare the number of people that die in a plane crash, and like, you know, compared to how many people die on the roads, it's like, it's so many more, you know, it's a total different scale. And it's like, I just think we've kind of, we've kind of ignored, I guess, road safety for a long time in the past, and I think that conversation is changing, and I think a lot of people get excited about it, what that change could look like to be safer, but yeah, I think part of that is just kind of raising the awareness of like, Hey, this is not necessarily acceptable, at least in my opinion, of having this many people die on roads, and I. I think that's why the technical aspect is interesting, because it's real engineering solutions that can be implemented that will actually save lives, and that's kind of my biggest motivation behind it. And yeah, I think a lot of people kind of resonate with that same idea,

    Tiffany Owens Reed 35:16

    yeah. Well said, well, in closing, Noah, I would love it if you could tell us a little bit about your city. About your city, like where you're based. I always ask this at the end of every show, what do you enjoy about your city? And what are a couple places that you like to recommend people check out if they come visit to get a slice of local life? Yeah.

    Noah Roth 35:34

    So I am based in Traverse City, Michigan, and I love it because it is kind of like a smaller city. The downtown is very walkable, and it's cool to be able to live out a lot of these things that I am advocating for in my own built environment. And so you know, kind of the live what you are preaching for, I guess, which is really cool. It's cool to be able to walk around and bike around. And I just love the way that the city is designed in terms of really prioritizing that. And I think there's a big culture there too, of outdoor recreation. So it's like people care about walking and biking, and so it's it gets prioritized, which is really cool to see. But there's also so much natural beauty there. I would definitely recommend to check out Sleeping Bear Dunes, National Lakeshore, which is about 45 minutes from downtown Traverse City, just gorgeous dunes right on the shore of Lake Michigan. And then also check out a lot of the wineries. There's tons of wineries in the area, which is really cool. And downtown Traverse City itself is just really neat, especially if you love, if you're listening to this podcast, you probably love kind of walkable environments. And good transportation infrastructure, and so, yeah, walk around downtown and just check it out. It's a cute, quaint, small downtown and has a ton of really, really good restaurants, especially for the size of the town that it is.

    Tiffany Owens Reed 36:55

    All right. So do you have a specific restaurant, and do you have a specific winery, like, favorite? Ooh,

    Noah Roth 37:02

    I don't know. It's hard to pick favorites. I would say downtown, there's a restaurant called the Flying noodle, which is really good. And then just outside of downtown, there's a place called farm club, which actually they grow a bunch of their own food. It's really good. I think they do wine too. But in terms of winery, I don't know that's a hard one. There's there's just, like so many of them, I don't know what my favorite would be.

    Tiffany Owens Reed 37:30

    Okay, well, Noah, thank you so much for coming on the show with me. Thank you for sharing your story. And look forward to talking more on our panel. If you're listening to this, I hope this has inspired you to buy your ticket to the national gathering, or pop by the panel or say hello. I'll be back soon with another conversation. In the meantime, keep doing what you can to build a strong town.

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Tiffany Owens Reed
Tiffany Owens Reed

Tiffany Owens Reed is the host of The Bottom-Up Revolution podcast. A graduate of The King's College and former journalist, she is a New Yorker at heart, currently living in Texas. In addition to writing for Strong Towns and freelancing as a project manager, she reads, writes, and curates content for Cities Decoded, an educational platform designed to help ordinary people understand cities. Explore free resources here and follow her on Instagram @citiesdecoded.

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