Bottom-Up Shorts: How To Humbly Observe Where People Struggle
Danny Wind is a Local Conversation leader and Regional Transportation Commission member from Lake County, California. In this Bottom-Up Short, Danny discusses their Open Street Map Project, which gives people a space to share photos and descriptions of the everyday challenges they face. Danny explains how this method of humbly observing where people struggle is a powerful force for change and how it intersects with their Regional Transportation Commission work.
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Norm Van Eeden Petersman 0:06
Welcome to bottom up shorts. I'm Norm with strong towns, and after meeting 1000s of strong towns members, I often think I've got to tell you about this person, and that's the idea of this bottom up short as well, quick introductions to regular people doing exciting things. They're not superheroes. They once felt like you might unsure if they could make a difference.
Today, my guest is Danny Wind from Lake County, California. Danny leads a local conversation in their community, and is doing some really creative and impactful work there. They've built out a custom Open Street Map Project where folks can post photos and descriptions of the very real, everyday challenges that they're facing. That's a powerful way to crowdsource local knowledge, make issues more visible and engage the broader community in new conversations. Danny's also been working to improve trail accuracy and accessibility through that very same platform, to bring clarity to areas that have long needed it. On top of that, they recently started working with blue zones on community projects and were just appointed to the Regional Transportation Commission, putting them in an even stronger position to help shape the future of their place. Isn't that what being a strong towns member and being a strong citizen in the community truly is? And so Danny's a fantastic strong towns member who's making things happen on the ground in thoughtful people centered ways.
I first connected with Danny through their work leading the local conversation in Lake County, and was struck by how much they care and how much creativity they bring to it. And so I'm glad that Danny has shared this with us, and I'm excited to introduce them to you. Enjoy the episode.
Danny, welcome to bottom up shorts. Can you talk about the Open Street Map Project and why it is that this is one of the aspects of giving people a new visibility of things that they might not have otherwise noticed?
Danny Wind 1:46
Yeah, this original- Well, thank you also for having me on the podcast. I'm humbled to be among so many other leaders in their own communities. I started working on open street maps when we had an active transportation plan come up. They redo it every few years, and we needed to have a sidewalk inventory of all the sidewalks in Lakeport. And I found that was sort of the best tool to catalog that. I was originally introduced to it when I nominated a crash for the crash analysis studio in neighboring community.
And then I was introduced to open street maps through that, and found it was just a really powerful tool to catalog the community as it exists in the built environment. Through that, I also use, like Google Maps has a My Maps platform that lets people upload those photos and sort of catalog things. And I found that before street maps. That is also nice to be able to have people upload photos and more human descriptions of what might be happening, whether a sidewalk is too narrow, or just the speeds near the road are really poor, or the bike lane is incomplete and doesn't connect to anything.
Norm Van Eeden Petersman 3:10
What are some of the things that you're looking at as now a new member of the Regional Transportation Commission, you've taken note, I think, of many of the gaps in your existing system of transportation for people to be able to navigate as well as you know, gather in your community. What are some of the things that you're noticing and wanting to work to change?
Danny Wind 3:30
One of the things that I've sort of modeled, what I choose to document, is the chaotic-but-smart or orderly-but-dumb sort of things. So for example, sidewalks that don't connect to other systems of sidewalks. There are these things called truncated plates, which I think people have noticed walking around their community. They're the indicators for people where there are curb cuts so that people with low vision or vision impairments are able to find their way from curb to curb, and sometimes those aren't aligned with each other. Those sorts of things can make it difficult for people to navigate the area.
There's also things that are great to document, that aren't well documented, like the historic buildings in the neighborhoods. A lot of those in our neighboring communities will have, like historic placards, sort of talking about the building and the history. And we oftentimes have something engraved in the wall, like building established in whatever year, but we don't necessarily have a history of that building, and so I've been working to populate some of those areas that could use a little sprucing up, let's say. Yeah.
Norm Van Eeden Petersman 4:51
And can you share a little bit more about like, how did you become this person that is interested in this and tackling these things, not. Only it seems it's deeper than just a hobby or a passion project, and I think there's this often overlap between the things that energize us, but also the things that really like move us to take action in addressing these needs in our community. Can you talk a little bit about your own evolution in this?
Danny Wind 5:17
Oh yeah. So I obviously found strong towns a few years ago, and one of the things I resonated with early on was that “humbly observe where people in your community struggle,” and as we've tried to get our local conversation to build momentum. Before I was able to do that, I sort of found that this was a good way to document the things that I was just noticing walking around my community. I think that's the next smallest thing that anyone can do, regardless of having a local conversation, and I just needed a way to catalog the things that I was noticing through that. Then I ended up being reached out to as a stakeholder for the active transportation plan in our city, and having that was really helpful to sort of guide the technical staff on certain areas that might be that might pose an issue for people navigating the streets. For example, crosswalks that get flooded when we have rainfalls and make it just difficult for people to cross, but someone in a automobile might not always notice that, or notices it less. Those sorts of things became really helpful to the technical staff doing that planning.
Norm Van Eeden Petersman 6:37
Yeah. And so as you've worked to build up your own sort of capacity in the community you're referencing there the strong towns approach to public investment, which is begin by humbly observing where people in the community struggle, then asking yourself, like, what is the next smallest thing that you can do to address that challenge? And then three, to mobilize to do that thing, and then to repeat it, and really inculcating that sense that through iteration and through small incremental steps, we can actually begin to rapidly iterate on and improve our communities. What are some of the areas that you'd like to work on as you go forward?
Danny Wind 7:14
One of the things that I've really embodied with the strong towns approach and following the crash analysis studio is that like quick build, sort of demonstration to show people what's possible in a short term period. And so I've been approached by, like some other community members and neighboring, neighboring communities. I say neighboring communities because Lake County is a small community, and we're kind of in our own little valley bubble, and so we all sort of bump into each other. Have to go to each other's neighborhoods for certain services and whatnot. And so, like, the schools are a great example of this. And traffic at schools, as many people know, is oftentimes a problem, and people's first solution is usually, oh, let's just add parking. But the reality is, a lot of our schools have decreasing enrollment, and their bus ridership is also down. And so figuring out how to move people through these areas is one of the things that I've been working on. And how to do that in sort of the right way, rather than doing a tactical urbanism project that sometimes is not always in the interest of public officials or technical staff.
Norm Van Eeden Petersman 8:35
Yeah, yeah, and not running into that sort of buzz saw, of all of a sudden being at odds with official public leadership and creating additional tensions when that's you know, we certainly know that there is enough tension in our communities. And I think maybe a question I'm will draw upon the fact that, like internally, we often learn about things that you're active in in Lake County, and you're so supportive of many of the different live streams that we've done and participating and continuing to grow and learn as a strong towns advocate. And one of the things I'd love for you to share is like, what advice do you have for someone who wants to get involved but doesn't know where to start? What does starting look like?
Danny Wind 9:17
I actually started about the same time that I was getting into strong towns, someone else that I followed online was talking about the fact that many people with the loudest voices can sort of have a disproportionate amount of say in their communities. And so oftentimes you'll have one person who shows up to the same meetings, whether it's school board or city council, and that person is recognized for better or worse in their community. And so I found things like the Maddie Act, which requires municipalities in the United States to post vacancies of different committees and planning things in their community, different boards committees in their community.
Oftentimes, just going and sitting in the room if you're not ready to apply for one, I found that you get to know the people who are making those decisions, you get to know what sort of makes people click. Which is one of those things, sort of another way of humbly observing how people interact in situations and what makes people click, and how you can sort of help shape the conversation around certain things. So like, whether that's a Economic Development Advisory Committee or that's a Main Street business association. I think strong towns people, strong towns members, often have an idea and have positive things to contribute to those conversations, and it's sort of looking for that window and looking for that opportunity when someone is willing to listen or take ideas, not necessarily just showing up to a meeting, and soap boxing every chance that you get.
Norm Van Eeden Petersman 11:11
God, I love that. And and it's that looking for that open window or those open doors, and making sure that there is a way forward. And as we close, can you talk a little bit about like, what is it that gives you hope, and where are some of the open doors that you're looking to go just as you advocating your community, but also as you build up coalitions for change.
Danny Wind 11:31
Sometimes, when you're operating in smaller communities, you'll deal with the same sort of people who don't necessarily want to see change. But what I found is that through just being persistent and pushing certain ideas forward, is that people will show up around you, people will recognize what you're talking about and want to see that change. And I found myself allying with people who I really did not expect to because they approached me and wanted to talk about sort of safe and productive streets, or how traffic calming works, or, “Oh, what's that thing where they make the curb sort of come out a little bit more so that a pedestrian doesn't have to cross as far of a distance?” And then I say “Oh, that's a curb bulb out.” That sort of thing. Just having that sort of arsenal of lingo in my back pocket, to be able to just relate to people, and even if it's not directly in, you know, my city, it's a relatively small county, and other people notice what you're doing.
Norm Van Eeden Petersman 12:32
And I think what it does is it just helps more people to realize the barrier to entry is often not fully imagined, because there certainly are real challenges, but at the same time, the opportunities to enter in is actually quite significant, and there are many ways, and I think you definitely embody that in so many different aspects. And so with that, I'm so grateful, Danny for your time, and look for an article about Danny's work in Lake County as well that's going to be coming out during our member week. And Danny, thank you so much for being on the podcast, really and glad that you could do this. Thank you. Norm, yeah. Thank you. And to everybody out there, look for that open window and see what is standing ahead of you. I really appreciate your time today. Take care and take care of your places.
ADDITIONAL SHOW NOTES
Read more about Danny: “A Love That Helps Your Place Live Up To Its Full Potential”
Learn more about the Strong Towns approach to public investment.
Norm Van Eeden Petersman (LinkedIn).
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