The Bottom-Up Revolution
Kirk and Brian know most parents care about safer routes to school but can’t track every plan or attend every meeting. They explain how Vibrant Lafayette does the legwork — digging into projects like the School Street path, meeting with staff, and then giving busy families clear, targeted ways to show up when it matters most.
Transcript (Lightly edited for readability)
Hi, this is Norm, and welcome to Bottom Up Shorts. I’m so glad that you’ve joined us for this opportunity to hear about what people are doing in their communities to build stronger communities, and in so doing, probably to take some tips and ideas for yourself.
One of the things that really anchors each of our Bottom Up Shorts is the reminder: do not judge your beginning by other people’s middle. That gives us an opportunity to always be inspired by what other people are doing, but then to take note and say, “Hey, what’s something that I could do?”
In my travels I was able to visit Lafayette, California, and there I met Kirk Wandy and Brian Parsons, who are our guests today. They are part of Vibrant Lafayette. Kirk, do you want to introduce yourself, and then Brian briefly for the podcast listeners?
Thanks for having us, Norm. I’m Kirk Wandy. I am a resident of Lafayette as of almost two years — moved here from San Francisco recently, but a native East Bay girl. Thanks for having us.
I’m Brian Parsons, recent resident of Lafayette. I’ve been in the Bay Area since 2012, but came to Lafayette because it met all of our criteria as a family: walkable, fun, and beautiful.
Awesome. Well, do you want to share just a little bit about Vibrant Lafayette — what its goals are, and why? Kirk, especially for you, why did you feel it was time to pull this together?
I moved here a year and a half ago from the city of San Francisco. I’ve always lived in urban areas as an adult, so moving to a semi-rural, suburban setting was a great change. But I was also excited to bring some of the energy that I had experienced on what we call the other side of the tunnel — whether that’s San Francisco, Berkeley, or Oakland — to the city of Lafayette.
In my early days I was wondering, am I the only one that feels this way? But then I started to talk to other people and got some like-minded folks together who had similar goals. Our goals as an organization really are to increase the vibrancy of our downtown. We have some great businesses down there, and I’d love to bring some more foot traffic and energy and increase the dwell time — people hanging out.
The second part of that is really making it easier to get to downtown without a car. We’re definitely a suburban environment, but we have these beautiful trails that wind through the homes and are really a lifeline for people, but they don’t connect us to town. Our main mission is to get people down there, spend time together, and increase that sense of community — not just passing each other in our cars every day, but really spending quality time as a community of Lafayette.
That stands out because I got to walk through Lafayette just briefly before the event that we did in the ice cream shop, which has still got to be the coolest venue I’ve ever done a session in. It was a talking and discussion session together with a broad swath of people within the community.
Brian, one of the things there’s a lot of focus on is: how do we make sure that the benefits are shared by all? When you think of vibrant places, how are they beneficial for everyone?
That’s a great question. I think a good litmus test is how many kids you see hanging out, and how many senior citizens. I believe that’s part of the book Walkable Streets. That’s kind of what we feel is missing in downtown — that vibrancy of just seeing independent play, independent seniors just being able to move around, and also people in our age range. We have to drive everywhere, so we really want to see our community members out walking around, biking around, and just interacting with each other. That means having better storefront access and more interesting things to be around, whether it’s hanging out or shopping or whatever.
An element of that too is having the good things just sort of expand ever so slightly outward and further, so that if a place is good and walkable, you take the opportunity to say, “How do we extend it just a little bit further? How do we make that next part a little bit more dignified or honorable, so that somebody is drawn or inclined to say, ‘I came into the downtown little area, I’m enjoying it here — but there’s more to discover and to see in my community.’”
Kirk, we were able to do a Strong Towns-inspired session, but your focus in the community is, first and foremost, for Lafayette. What is the conversation like, and what are some of the things that are giving you pause for encouragement in your place right now?
The things we’re focused on right now, first and foremost, is educating ourselves. We’ve been around maybe just a year now, and we’ve spent a lot of time trying to understand the finances and the players and the business owners — everybody who has a stake in the game, people who’ve been here for a while. I don’t think anybody likes it when you walk into their office and start complaining without offering solutions, or without having taken the time to educate yourself on what you’re really talking about. We have a long way to go with that. These people who have built this adorable little town have spent years chipping away at it. What I’m really trying to do right now, in the back seat, is take my time to do my homework and meet with people and understand their stories. That’s the first thing I would say is really important — it goes a long way in conversations when you’re not just coming in and criticizing.
The second thing we’re really trying to do is engage a part of the community that maybe doesn’t have a voice currently, and that’s not necessarily because they’ve been shut out. We are a community of a lot of parents. This is a thriving area for raising children, as well as senior citizens. I am a mother of two, and when you are in my demographic, it is very difficult to carve out time to also be engaged civically. What we’re trying to do is break that down for people — do the homework and learn the things that need to be learned in order to have an opinion. A lot of people in our demographic that we’ve spoken to agree with our mission in terms of bringing more vibrancy to downtown and finding places for kids to play, but they don’t know how to make that happen. We’re trying to figure out how to make that happen.
What we’ve done is create a website and an opportunity for people to subscribe to our newsletter, and the more we can build up that following, when we are ready to push through an initiative that really means a lot to us, hopefully those people who stand by our mission — who can’t be there every day — will be willing to write a letter or show up at a city council meeting. Engaging that audience has been a big part of it for us, just making sure that we have a backing. Brian and I can’t do this alone. Even the group of seven of us cannot do this alone. We realize we need members of the community to stand behind us and add that additional force. City leaders often listen when there are numbers and people showing up — the conversation goes in a different direction than if those people had not shown up. That’s not necessarily always reflected by the views of the entire community; it’s about the people who are able to be there.
We have these three pillars we’re really focused on: economic development — we’d really like to bring some family-focused businesses into town and celebrate the businesses that are already here. We’ve tried to hone in on very specific projects that we can influence, rather than just coming in and saying, “This is broken, here are our ideas.” In order to connect this trail to downtown, we think it should go a certain way. Brian has met with various people on street design. What we’re focused on is getting in there, educating ourselves, and moving the masses in the direction that we think the community really wants to support.
Brian, can you share just a little bit about that work of helping to shape the conversation or propose new ideas for that great shared asset — the core of the community — and the way that it relates to each person making the streets safer? Do you want to share maybe some suggestions or guidance for others that would like to do something similar but feel daunted by it?
As Kirk mentioned, we have this beautiful trail that goes through Lafayette, and it mostly hits the residential neighborhoods. It does not connect directly to downtown, where the commerce is. There was a tragic incident several years ago, before we moved here, where a crossing guard was killed, and that spurred on the need to connect this trail a little bit closer to downtown. It’s right in front of a school — it connects the middle school and the elementary school. Lafayette had known about the dangers of not having a path there, but until the death, people didn’t really galvanize to make it happen.
They’re putting in this path called the School Street Path. When we met with city officials, especially the engineering department, they said, “Hey, we’ve got one more opportunity for public input. Can you just stand up and say this is something you really want?” So I brought my son to city council and the transit committee meetings. He’ll be using the paths for the next ten years as an elementary school student, and we both spoke, and we helped the engineering department by getting this project through.
We’re kind of building goodwill and aligning on our goals to get these major projects done. A lot of it, as Kirk was saying, is asking around and doing our homework. It’s asking what the city officials also need and meeting with them. It’s hard as parents to do that, but I found that getting coffee in the morning right after school drop-off, or getting lunch with them, is time I can make work. That’s just one example of bringing these connections together that will build projects that make the town vibrant.
I love that. Kirk, what about for you? You have experience in the music industry, and it strikes me there are a lot of analogs here — having a collection of people with an artistic vision or a desire for something, but helping them to see that through. I feel like that spirit is really in your work with Vibrant Lafayette and the efforts you’re making in the community. The only difference is there isn’t a day when the record drops and the project is complete. Instead, this is the work of continuing to be stewards and tenders of our community. Do you have some suggestions or ideas of ways that other people can take inspiration from your life skills and build on that?
The first thing I want to say is I have absolutely no training or credentials whatsoever to be doing this. When I’ve told people what I’m doing, they’re like, “Wow, did you go back to school? How did you get involved in that?” I say, “I don’t really know. I just started doing it, and I don’t know where it’s going all the time.” I think that’s okay.
As you mentioned, my previous life — I was in the music industry for 14 years. I worked in New York, and my last role there was as an account manager chasing Amazon. The skill set there was kind of advocating for our records within a big machine. Amazon has their way of doing things, and you have to show up every day and sort of say, “I understand that’s your direction and what you want to do, but this is a priority for us.” That work, I think, has taught me how to be a little bit bold and brave in knowing what exists and trying to find ways to work within that.
My husband had the opportunity to move abroad to northern Spain for his job, and so we all went from 2019 to 2022. What I saw there was just a very beautiful display of community that I think is very hard to replicate in the US in the same way, just by the design of the cities. As Brian was saying, kids of all ages, people of all ages, elders hanging out — there’s so much emphasis put on living life. It’s not like, “Let’s get together for this event” and creating more things for people to do, because I think especially in our culture, we already have so many things to do. It’s a lifestyle — let’s go down to the park and hang with friends or watch the kids kick the soccer ball around the plaza.
I’m not naive enough to think I’m going to recreate that European vision, but there are so many elements of that experience that struck me while living there that I would like to bring some of them to the community here. The combination of those two things has really emboldened me to try to make some change.
To pick up the metaphor, it’s interesting — some Strong Towns ideas, or some principles of just wanting a vibrant community, it’s almost like an album you put on the shelf and make sure it’s present, and it will become attractive. We can show it to business leaders, to city leaders, to people who are somewhat suspicious, just to explain that given time this will blossom, and it’s a good bet for our community to make together — in part because it’s grounded in that real vision of what it means for people to flourish together. It can’t just be running a handful of great events and then getting everybody off to their respective places. It’s actually weaving together the fabric of a community. I love that. I’m going to be thinking about that for quite a while.
Brian, do you want to share what’s something that gives you hope in your community?
Hearing all of the parents talk about what they want in informal conversations. I don’t even tell them I’m a part of Vibrant Lafayette — I’m not ringing that bell really loudly — but we all hear the same things from these parents: “Oh yeah, I wish I could get my kids to walk down to La Morinda Music for music lessons, but I just don’t want to cross Moraga Road,” or “I hate crossing Moraga Road on my commute to BART.” Just hearing everyone frustrated with it and wanting change helps me spend my evenings looking stuff up and trying to get the website ready, because I know people want it.
I think there’s a big disconnect between city government and how to communicate with the people, and that’s not just the city of Lafayette — that’s in general. You look at most city websites and they look like they’re from 1993, so people don’t want to go there to get information. You go to the website and it’s got all this great information, and you hear these parents complaining about wanting to do stuff, but they don’t want to dig through a terrible website to find it. Just knowing that there is a disconnect, and that people like Kirk and I can kind of bridge that gap if we figure out a solution of how to get these voices heard — to have our city push the projects that we want.
To be that guide, or that assistant along the way, to make it just a little less difficult. Kirk, you’ve shared a number of wonderful things here. What is something that gives you hope?
Something I’m really hopeful about right now is one of my other passion projects: kids and screen time, not being outdoors, and the independence that’s been lost. I remember when I was nine or ten years old, being outside all day and playing in my court and all of that. I think we’ve lost that ability to let our kids just be.
To bring this back — I think there is an awakening happening with parents right now. People are saying, “We’re not going to do the cell phone thing. You need to go outside and play.” I love organizations like Let Grow and Wait Till Eight, that type of thing. I think all of that plays really well into this desire for people to have more human connection, especially coming out of the pandemic. Every podcast I listen to or book I read talks about how what we really need as Americans in particular is more human connection. There’s a lot of loneliness happening out there.
I really feel the tide turning on that. Relating it back to Vibrant Lafayette, I think there is a desire for people to dwell and for people to hang out. To Brian’s point, I think people are yearning for easier connections to make that happen, and the tide is in our favor to make changes in town that support that feeling.
That’s fantastic. Can you share how people can get in touch with Vibrant Lafayette?
Sure. You can email us at [email protected]. We have a website, vibrantlafayette.org, and there is a button there to join us and contact us. We are also on Instagram under Vibrant Lafayette, so any of those will work.
Fantastic. Well, thank you both so much for joining me on this Bottom Up Short. I really appreciate the time that we could spend together.
Thank you so much, Norm. Thanks for having us.
Thank you so much.
I hope that as you are here listening to this, you can take note of what is something that is worth speaking up for in your community, and perhaps you’re that person who can help others as well. They may not know as much about the process of making a public comment or sharing with a council member or interacting with city staff. Perhaps you’re already at that point, having listened to enough podcasts and devoured enough content. You may be that person who comes in and can be of great value, as both Kirk and Brian are in their community — and so many others within the community as well.
Thanks everyone for listening. 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.