Today we’d like to introduce you to Austin Valle.
Alright, so thank you so much for sharing your story and insight with our readers. To kick things off, can you tell us a bit about how you got started?
I was born and raised in Central Florida, so I’ve seen it change a lot over several decades. It’s grown up as I’ve grown up. Like most people, I’ve always had a lot of thoughts and opinions about our city, but about a year ago I decided for a number of reasons that I wanted to get in the arena and try to effectuate change. Housing is something that affects everybody – including me, my family, and my friends – and I had a lot of thoughts about our housing crisis in Central Florida. I’m blessed to have friends who are just as passionate about this stuff, and luckily for me, they’re crazy smart. A few of us decided that important voices and perspectives were left out of the housing conversation, and so we started Orlando YIMBY in the spring of 2021 and haven’t looked back.
Alright, so let’s dig a little deeper into the story – has it been an easy path overall, and if not, what were the challenges you’ve had to overcome?
Not at all. I think our ideas have resonated pretty quickly at a high level, but it can be difficult to organize in support of new housing. It’s easy to get neighbors riled up and mad about new housing. But how do you get people motivated to come speak in support of new housing across the city from them? The “cost” of housing is felt acutely by a small group of people, but the benefits are felt diffusely across the hundreds of thousands. The way we approve housing favors the small group of mad people.
Thanks for sharing that. So, maybe next you can tell us a bit more about your work?
I have a full-time job as a business leader and an even more important job as a dad and husband. I’m an activist on the “side,” and I’m still learning the ropes. I hope I bring a different set of skills to activism – how I operate, the way I communicate, and so on – but there’s also a lot of fundamentals to organizing that I have a lot to learn about.
Do you have any advice for those looking to network or find a mentor?
Any success I’ve found in life, I never would have without mentorship. Personal chemistry matters a lot. Somebody could be a great mentor for your colleague, but a terrible mentor for you. I would say: don’t necessarily try so hard to target specific people as mentors. You should always be picking the brain of anybody smarter than you who will give you the time. Some of those will blossom into mentorship relationships, and some won’t.
Contact Info:
- Email: austinevalle@gmail.com
- Website: www.orlandoyimby.org
- Instagram: @austinvalle
- Twitter: @austinvalle
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