Revitalize, or Die.

09/08/2026

"Why would you move here?"

"Why would you want to start a business here?"

"Why would you renovate a building here?"

I hear these questions in nearly every town I visit. People asking them of their own community. About their own home.

That's not pessimism. That's not realism either. That's low civic self-esteem and it plagues most of our cities and towns.

The problem with low self-esteem is this: it can't be repaired with the typical approach. There are no technical applications that lift self-esteem. All the grant money in the world can't make a community like itself. Even the best plans can't force a town to believe in itself.

Cities don't behave like machines. They behave like people. Because cities are made of people and not parts.

09/04/2026

09/03/2026

A healthy community is actually the default setting.

This is what most of us forget. We are built for community. Humans are optimistic by default. We want to believe tomorrow will be better than today. We tend to see the best in one another. We want to belong somewhere. A well-functioning, optimistic, self-reliant community is not some rare achievement. It is how we are meant to operate.

So why do so many of our towns feel like the opposite?

Because something has gone wrong with the soil. We have an imbalance. And when the healthy majority steps back from civic life, that void gets filled. In every instance I have witnessed, it never gets filled by people with good intentions. The bullies, the pessimists, the conspiracy theorists and the complainers fill it instead. Not because they are more numerous, but because the rest of us stopped showing up.

Here is what I want you to understand. Those people are not the norm. They are the weeds. They only dominate when the flowers disappear. And the flowers disappear when we stop tending to them.

The solution is not complicated. It does not require a strategic plan or a consultant or a comprehensive study. It requires the healthy majority to show up. To make civic life fun and social and worth participating in. No one has ever proven that a boring meeting is more effective. No one has shown me that joy in a process diminishes outcomes. People want to feel connected. They want to have fun. They want to be part of something worth caring about.

All of us deserve to live in places that make us happy, that provide us with rich social connections and a sense of belonging. Every one of us should have a place to call home that enhances our mental, social, physical and fiscal health.

Trust in human nature. Trust in your fellow community members. The weeds only win when we let them.

Show up. Tend to the field. Fill it with flowers.

09/02/2026

Going live today at noon EST with an AMA.

Drop your questions below if you haven’t already.

09/02/2026

When the healthy majority steps back from civic life, that void gets filled and in every instance I have witnessed, it never gets filled by people with good intentions.

Unhealthy towns are always more susceptible to corruption, always more prone to messy politics, and there is always some ridiculous conspiracy being bantered around. The worst part is, the well-intentioned and concerned get vilified but those with no intention of participating.

This is because there is an imbalance in how things are supposed to operate. The flowers have receded and no one remembers anything but the weeds.

The solution isn’t that complicated, though we have done our best to make it seem so. No one has ever proven to me that a boring meeting is more effective than a fun one. No one has yet show me that having joy in a process diminishes the outcomes. People want to have fun and feel connected.

Lighten up, this work is too important to be boring. Make your civic work fun and social. Get people together. Fill the field with flowers again.

The weeds only win when we let them.

09/01/2026

Humans are optimistic by default. We want to believe tomorrow will be better than today. We tend to see the best in one another. We want to be part of a community.

A healthy, well-functioning, optimistic and self-reliant community is actually the default setting. This is what 99% of us want.

But something has gone wrong with the soil in most of our towns.

We have an imbalance and it has created conditions that are healthier for weeds to grow. Those weeds are thriving, but only because we let them.

The bullies, the pessimists, the conspiracy theorists and the complainers will always be a part of a community. But when a town is healthy, no one notices them or pays attention to them. They shout into the wind for all it matters because the rest of the town is occupied with being content.

When the healthy majority steps back from civic life, that void gets filled. And in every instance I have witnessed, it never gets filled by people with good intentions.

08/31/2026

The problem isn’t that the “wrong” people are downtown. The problem is that everyone else isn’t there.

A healthy meadow contains weeds as well as flowers and no one thinks twice about the weeds. But when something is wrong with the soil, only weeds grow and we can spot that something is out of balance.

Downtown is where people should gravitate. The heart of the community. The question shouldn’t be how do we get certain people out of downtown, but why isn’t everyone convening there?

When everyone is enjoying the center of the community, those who might be struggling don’t stand out so much. They are just as much a part of the community as anyone else.

The real question is what happened to the healthy balance of people. And why aren’t we asking it.

08/28/2026

Don’t trust anyone that argues aesthetics don’t matter or that beauty is entirely subjective. They just want your town to accept less than you deserve.