Cara Courage
Dr. Cara Courage is a placemaking practitioner, researcher, writer, and cultural strategist whose work explores the relationships between culture, community, and place.
Molly Alexander
For more than three decades, Molly Alexander has built a distinguished career in downtown revitalization and economic development, spanning leadership roles in both the public and private sectors.
In 2022, Molly founded Imagine The Possibilities (ITP) Consulting, working with clients and communities around the country on retail revitalization, community redevelopment and business strategy. In addition to her consulting work, she owns and operates Elgin Dry Goods an award-winning retail establishment in downtown Elgin, Texas. In April 2025, she sold her flagship store The Owl Wine Bar & Home Goods Store.
MJB Consulting
MJB Consulting is a retail planning and real estate consulting firm focused on helping downtowns, commercial districts, developers, and communities understand what makes retail environments work. Based in New York City and the San Francisco Bay Area, the firm approaches retail as more than a collection of shops and restaurants: because it occupies the ground floor and meets people directly at the sidewalk, retail plays an outsized role in how a street, district, or community is experienced.
Jaime Izurieta
Jaime Izurieta is an architect, designer, urban development consultant, and founder of Storefront Mastery, where he works with downtown organizations and small businesses to rethink the relationship between storefronts, sidewalks, and thriving local economies.
Michael Berne
Michael Berne is a consultant and thought-leader in all things Retail.
JT Mudge
JT Mudge is an award-winning futurist passionate about sustainability, ethics, and ancestral futures. I have a masters of science in foresight from the University of Houston, where I am also an adjunct professor teaching foresight and change theory.
Starkey Strategies
Starkey Strategies is a boutique strategic consulting firm that provides consulting services for business improvement districts and urban and rural destinations, nonprofits, governmental entities, corporations and startups around the United States.
Bright Brothers Strategy Group
Bright Brothers Strategy Group is a people-first, data-driven consultancy that works with cities, districts and DMOs on strategic planning, marketing, and placemaking.
From connecting with your constituents and target audiences, to mapping out customer journeys and strategic touchpoints that drive tangible results, to human-centered placemaking initiatives, Bright Brothers Strategy Group is on the cutting edge of the intersectionality between urban planning, vibrant places and economic impact. We've worked with dozens of downtowns and districts around the country, and understand that every community starts with one thing: people.
Josh Yeager
Josh Yeager is a founder and principal at Bright Brothers Strategy Group and has been an active champion of the Urban District Place Management world and a vocal advocate for great places and great people.
Josh has been a guest and a guest host on Sidewalk Ballet and brings a depth and breadth of experience in making great places.
Jay Pitter
Jay Pitter, MES, is an award-winning placemaker and author creating joyful public spaces that foster belonging, prosperity, and cultural memory. She advances this work through cultural planning, policy frameworks, and storytelling—bridging rigor and collective imagination to advance public joy as essential urban infrastructure and a human right. As an adjunct urban planning professor, she has engaged students at Cornell, Princeton, and MIT, advancing new theories of public joy that connect practice, policy, and pedagogy. Her two forthcoming books will be published by Penguin Random House, including Black Public Joy. Beyond her professional roles, Jay is passionate about cultivating everyday joy and inspiring communities to be stewards of one another’s joy—nurturing more harmonious and hopeful cities during these divided times.
Project for Public Spaces
Project For Public Spaces is the original Public Space Organization.
For over 50 years PPS has been a tremendous resource for communities and organizations working to improve spaces for people.
Vision
We imagine a future where all communities can unlock the power of public space to spark civic and social life, build resilience, and expand economic opportunity.
Our Mission
Project for Public Spaces co-creates outstanding gathering places with the people who use them every day, and supports public space champions through convening, learning opportunities, and advocacy.
Rob Ready
Rob is that guy.
He knows everyone in the city, and everyone knows him. And it seems, everyone likes him. I like him.
When I was putting together the first episode of the Sidewalk Ballet A couple of themes were emerging. I was interviewing Karen Christensen about Third Places, and her forthcoming sequel to Ray Oldneburg’s The Great Good Place. So, as part of the episode I shared my own journey to find my own Third Place in San Francisco. There’s no one better to take as your spirit guide to the neighborhood bars than Rob Ready.
Abra Allan
Abra Allan is Cofounder of Big Creative Consulting and Sidewalk Ballet’s unofficial Foreign Correspondent.