The Bottom-Up Revolution
Sam Foster is an engineer, Local Conversation leader, and mayoral candidate in Marietta, Georgia. He joins Norm to talk about why he's running for office at 24 years old, how he uses social media to educate the public, and what he has planned for a more prosperous Marietta.
Transcript (Lightly edited for readability)
Hello and welcome to this episode of Bottom-Up Shorts. I'm Norm of Strong Towns, and a key part of my work is connecting with Strong Towns members all over North America and increasingly in other parts of the world as well, who are joined by a deep desire and resolve to help their community become stronger, more resilient, and just more capable of providing for the needs of everybody who lives within the community. One such person is Sam from Marietta. Sam Foster is in Marietta, Georgia, and he's running for mayor and taking the opportunity to be able to articulate a really compelling vision for what constitutes a strong future for the community. So Sam, welcome to Bottom-Up Shorts.
Thank you for having me, Norm.
It's great to have you on today, and I'd love to hear you describe the work that you're currently doing to articulate a vision for your community and the influences that Strong Towns is having on this, but also the way in which you're able to turn this into a question of how do we build a much stronger community?
So over in Marietta and metro Atlanta area at large, it's a story that's repeated across multiple different cities and regions throughout the country. We view growth through very large projects. Most recently, our biggest project was a $68 million bond we took out to basically do this massive gentrification project over on a road known as Franklin Road, now known as Franklin Gateway. That is the type of growth that I see that we're chasing after. We just also built a new data center here that is causing us to not bring in as much revenue as we could be otherwise. It's making it so that we can't develop community like we used to.
We have a very historic square here in Marietta, and that was developed before the post-World War II growth patterns, suburban growth pattern. That is the most successful place in the city. For some reason, people don't understand that that model is so successful because of how it was designed. Instead, we're chasing after this other growth that is not going to be as successful, and it hasn't been as successful. So that's really the nerdy answer that I never give in person. But since we're in a Strong Towns podcast, the campaign is based a lot on incremental change.
Last year we had a giant transit referendum called MS Plus that sadly failed extremely badly. It got 30-something percent of the vote, and I campaigned for that. Personally, I was on the campaign. Through that experience, and then coming approaching this election, I started to understand that people need to see things work before you ask them for something. So people need to see that they're able to change their own communities through being able to start their own business in their own home. People need to see that, okay, we're not going to build this train and I'm not going to ask you for money to build it. How about we get those bus frequencies down to 10 to 15 minutes on the most used corridors?
So the campaign is really based a lot on incremental change, following through on a lot of plans that we've done in the past, and just doing the thing instead of talking about doing the thing.
That's been a key part of your social media sort of awareness-raising as well. Can you describe some of the efforts that you've made on social media in a way to really educate people and share with people an alternative? I think what you're describing is sort of this sense of, "Wait, you're actually willing to question the big projects, because you say if we can take those small, careful steps, but do lots of them, that we will actually have improved our standing." What's been the reaction, and what are some of the tools that you found to be super useful in this?
So social media things started out because I remember watching Not Just Bikes, watching some early Strong Towns videos. I liked that documentary style, where you go somewhere, you talk about it, and you just put it out there, and then you talk about what your solutions are. So I did that, I believe, last year for this trail connectivity plan we did in Marietta in 2019. None of it's been done. So I did a video on that, and that was the format that I wanted to go forward with. I had a whole bunch of ideas planned.
We have a local conversation here that I helped co-found, A Better Cobb, and that was going to be where I put all the ideas that you're seeing now. Then I had this crazy idea to run for mayor. So I bought this camera months ago, before I started running, Osmo Pocket 3. I was like, "Okay, I'm gonna get my tripod, I'm gonna get my camera, my microphone, I'm gonna go to the park, I'm gonna go to the street, I'm just gonna record a video." Because when you see local politicians here, it's not the flashy stuff you see when you see AOC or Trump or whoever. It falls flat almost every time. You're getting videos with 100 views, 200 views, maybe you get a video with 1,000 views. Then even when you get to the state level, or you get to governor level, it's pitiful.
So I was like, "You know what? I'm just gonna put these out there. We're gonna see what happens." And it blew up. I didn't understand it. I still don't understand it. But that was me talking about things people didn't know about the city. They didn't know about our traffic calming ordinance, how you can't traffic calm on arterial streets, but those arterial streets literally cut through the middle of your neighborhood. People didn't know that the mayor vetoed a mixed-use development that was going to go on a vacant lot. They didn't know that we had this 33-acre vacant parcel as a result of failing to bring IKEA into the city. We shouldn't have tried to bring them in in the first place, but whatever, I digress.
So that has been one of the main vehicles. It's been a legitimizing factor for the campaign. It's helped us bring in a lot of dollars, and it's also reached people in Marietta, which was extremely shocking. So I get recognized every time I'm out in public now. People are like, "Oh, Sam." I think I got honked at three times today in a positive way as I was riding my bike. But yeah, people are like, "What is this 24-year-old doing running for mayor?" Then they see the videos, and they see me talk about my ideas, the concepts, and then they're like, "Oh, that's what this 24-year-old is doing running for mayor. He's actually read the plans and stuff."
So it's been nothing but positive for the campaign, and it's made up for a lot of our shortcomings in a way. We haven't knocked on as many doors as we originally wanted to. Hopefully we still reach that goal, but the social media definitely has gotten us—we've knocked on some people's doors, they're like, "Oh, I was just talking about you 30 minutes ago. I was watching your TikTok." I'm like, "What?"
That's awesome. You're doing that in a way that really helps to build people's own sense of, "Oh, I can see these things." I think one of the insights of Strong Towns says sometimes the most powerful thing is when someone sees something that they can no longer unsee. So the width of a stroad and the way in which it wastes public resources and even private potential, in the ways in which we just double down on these things. We say as our second principle that land is the base resource for building community prosperity, and it must not be squandered.
Then we can turn and look at very specific instances, like you said, the 33 acres that are being squandered because of a missed opportunity to not only maybe bring in the big speculative bet on a single project, but what would that have actually looked like in the traditional development pattern? It would have been carving it up into many small lots so that many small hands would be participating in building something together, but not being so reliant on any single person or entity to do that work.
It speaks to me of the pattern also for the whole community, that you need to build out those coalitions. Can you share a little bit about how a coalition of many, many participants are helping you in this project of not just running for mayor, but building A Better Cobb as part of your local conversation work too?
So when I first got here, the way I got involved was buying a bike. I think the bike is right there. I started biking around the city, noticed it wasn't safe, so I joined up with what was a community group at the time, A Better Cobb, and slowly we've brought in so many different people and became a 501(c)(4) nonprofit. It's wild. Even in this campaign, there's seven people who are in the main core of the team that we have, organizing volunteers, going with me to events, doing interacting with people who have media requests and stuff. So it's been a very interesting experience.
We also have over 550 individual donors. So all of this just teaches me that you can't do this alone. It's been very humbling, and it also speaks to what you said, there is nothing more powerful than bottom-up change, because it's not just one person. If it is one person, when that one person fails, you lose everything.
Yeah, that's powerful, and it's tied to that sense of taking personal ownership for our place in the community. A city is essentially a co-op, a nonprofit co-op that everybody is a part owner of. Yet we so often default to very limited understandings of who we are. "I am a taxpayer. I'm a ratepayer. I am the customer." No, no, you're a co-owner and participating in that.
I love that language of the grassroots work of propelling this vision forward, and it prompts me to ask, who are you that this is something that's part of your story and now part of your pursuit as well?
Who am I? I am a community activist. I am an engineer. I work at the company that runs the National Spelling Bee. At least at the time that you're watching this. I'm sure in five years, maybe I'll be doing something else. I'm a first-generation American. My parents are Jamaican immigrants. I'm also, first and foremost, a regular person. I ride my bike all around town. I take the bus. I go to all the local shops. I have friends here. I just love this place.
Who I am is pretty much just any regular person in Marietta. For some reason, people have problems with that, but I think we need more regular people in office. We need more people who believe in their communities, instead of that big, shiny object that you're going to bring into your city and it's going to fix everything.
Well, I think it's telling that one of your mediums for communicating is a video camera, which is the ultimate version of noticing. It's noticing, then carefully documenting. But I think it's not just that. What brings power to the work that you're doing is, I'm noticing, I'm documenting these things, but I'm also then giving context to it, telling the story, sharing sort of why this matters and what it is that goes into it.
So I would definitely recommend it for the folks that are listening. Go check out Sam's YouTube content and on Instagram or TikTok, or the other socials as well that are out there. But I'd love to hear from you, as you're in the thick of it, what are some tips or suggestions that you have for others that might consider walking a similar path to you in their community as well?
I would say be realistic, but never ask for permission. We obviously don't know how my race has turned out, at least at time of recording, but if I had asked for permission, I wouldn't have run. I just did this. I didn't ask somebody, "Hey, is this okay for me to do?" I did talk to people internally, but I didn't go to the mayor and be like, "What if I ran for office?" Or I didn't tell him, I just did it.
Too often, we have people who are running on their experience. They're running on how long they've been in the community, or how long they've been here, and those are people who put themselves up in a position to exclude others. Really when it comes to holding public office, I really like people in office who feel that the role calls them instead of, "From I was five years old, I wanted to be mayor of Marietta or I wanted to be president."
When you feel that there is an urgency and there's a problem you need to solve, and then you step into that role, just do it. Even if you fail, just do it. Don't let anybody stop you and find your own unique way to make that race yours and excite people.
Yeah, I love that. It touches on the fact that some of our local conversations, for example, they'll have someone that says, "Oh, we should do this, or we should do this," and they'll flip the table and say, "Are you prepared to lead that? Because we think that's a great idea. Are you ready to do that?" I love that sense of, you don't have to wait around seeking somebody's permission if there's an opportunity right in front of you, to take that opportunity and really grow from that.
I know that we could chat for a lot longer. I know that you've also got a team that is counting on you to be able to knock on doors and do all of that work and build up a deepening understanding of your positive vision for your community. I bet you want to share, what are some of the things that give you hope as you take this on?
I think Marietta, among all the cities—we live in a county called Cobb County in Georgia—among all the cities in Cobb County, Marietta is in a unique position because it's a historic city. So if I am able to be in this leadership role, and if some of these council races go the way we want, we are right on the edge of getting the things that we need to get done. Because the blocker is not really money. It's not really layout of our road network. The blocker is really our attention and our focus.
So what makes me hopeful is that Marietta is one of the places where I truly do believe that there can be a lot of change that is done within a relatively quick period of time. Another cool thing that we have, we have a decent amount of roads that are owned by the city. We don't have too many interstates cutting through neighborhoods. There's only really one. Then we have a couple state-owned roads running through some main parts of our city. We have the opportunity to bring in more revenue through some of those vacant lots. We have a lot of smaller parcels that we don't really have to develop to the point where it's, "Oh, this is unfeasible."
So really, Marietta is so unique in my eyes in Cobb County, because we already have the layout. We just need the vision to take us there. So that makes me hopeful.
Yeah, I love that, because that's taking advantage of the advantages that your community has by having good bones, by not having some of the hindrances that other places have to grapple with, of widespread roads that have blasted through core neighborhoods or things like this. I mean, there's always that grappling. What do we do with our existing assets? But I love your recognition. We have the things ready here for us. We need to now begin to continue to build upon that solid foundation.
So really appreciate you, Sam, coming on Bottom-Up Shorts today. If people want to follow what you're doing, what's the best way for them to do that?
SamForMarietta.com website. Sam for Marietta on all platforms, TikTok, Instagram, and YouTube, mostly TikTok and Instagram. That's really it.
Oh, that's great. Sam in Marietta is also Sam for Marietta, and I think that's very fitting. So thank you, Sam. I really appreciate having you on Bottom-Up Shorts. To those that are out listening, definitely feel that sense that Sam is communicating as well, of the opportunity in front of you to be able to build a stronger community with what you have, continuing to build up connections with other people, but doing so in a way of saying, "I'm here for my community. I want to build it and make it ever stronger." So folks, take care and take care of your places.
This episode was produced by Strong Towns, a nonprofit movement for building financially resilient communities. If what you heard today matters to you, deepen your connection by becoming a Strong Towns member at strongtowns.org/membership.