#Local Politics

[themarchrabbit]

Crabs are classified as detritus-eaters. It's the technical term for "trash". They're actually a huge part of the health and stability of aquatic ecosystems, because they're the sanitation workers of the water. It's not a glamorous role, but it's important, and the reason why groups like the Chesapeake Bay Foundation put so much effort into preserving their populations.

Don't climb in the bucket. Tip it over.

Hey

Hey Americans.

The federal government is about to get useless for at least a bit. This is a GREAT time to get involved in state level environmental orgs. That's where you're gonna be able to do the most for the next few years. Even a bit of casual volunteering can make a big difference.

I've done this off and on for years and when we go local we WIN. And friends winning feels good. This is how a lot of progressive agendas have won in this country. The whole US isn't out of this. People ARE still fighting climate change all around you.

You could be one of those people, in community with other people who are doing something.

doom and gloom "oooh everything is pointless oooh I'm so deep and edgy because I love trying to be the death of hope" people will just get blocked. I'm not talking to your crab-bucket ass.

[salamanderinspace]

Town meetings be like: should we use our resources to arrest homeless people or build better child prisons?

[montmorillionite]

I went to give public comment at my county's library board meeting this week. The library board was considering requests to ban books presented by a local far right group. They included Flamer, Genderqueer, All Boys Aren't Blue, Zenobia July, Looking for Alaska, and a couple others I don't remember.

The collections manager for the library system gave an excellent presentation on the laws and policies that govern collection management and also brought a copy of a Holocaust history book (I think it was Why The Germans, Why The Jews) in to show that it had been defaced with swastikas and antisemitic phrases and talk about the quiet censorship problem in our libraries.

The actual meeting itself lasted 5 hours, and the board chair refused to eject members of the far right faction who were disrupting the meeting and trying to pick fights. One of them even said "let's take this outside" to someone asking them to be quiet and let the meeting continue.

I'm pretty used to seeing and receiving hateful rhetoric and messages online. Comes with the territory of being an out trans woman online. But it felt different spending 5 hours in a room with people who are openly calling you a groomer and saying you're sexualizing kids. Who are trying to claim that the exclusion of queer people from public life is just "common sense" and "having community standards".

They also claimed that the director of the American Library Association wanted to turn all libraries in the country into transgender Marxist recruiting centers and because of the the local library system should cut ties with the ALA.

I guess I'm probably mostly writing this down to process it. It was a lot, and also a powerful reminder that the fascists are here. They're in our communities, they're trying (and at least here, partially succeeding) to control local politics. For me at least it's one thing to see it online. That feels at least a little removed. Seeing it in person was scary, but it feels good to have been part of resisting it and successfully opposing book bans locally.

[reasonsforhope]

"Construction of a massive municipal park—over 20 years in the making, is finally underway in the city of Irvine.

They say if California became its own country, it would have one of the world’s largest economies. The new Great Park of Irvine is a reflection of the always lofty ambitions of the state, and is expected to dwarf Central Park by more than 500 acres.

It was on May 23rd this year that the “Great Park Project” broke ground on the long-derelict El Toro Marine Corps Base, 21 years after voters approved a ballot measure ordering the state to create a park on the site.

Expected to take another 10 years to complete, the park will span 1,300 acres and include several museums, an amphitheater, a veterans memorial garden, an aquatics center, a sports complex, and not one but two lakes.

“After many years of community input and after the last year of intensive planning and design, we are excited to be launching what is a $1 billion investment to establish the world’s next great metropolitan park,” said Irvine City Councilman Michael Carroll who serves as Chairman of the Great Park Board...

First item of work on the agenda is to demolish and clear away 77 old military buildings while leaving the El Toro air traffic control tower which will be leased by the FAA. However a portion of the Irvine Great Park, as it’s being called, is already open to visitors and includes a soccer pitch and some other amenities including tethered balloons to take visitors up into the sky."

-via Good News Network, July 12, 2023

--

More of this, please!!!

Also, I checked, and somehow the tethered balloon thing is not only real it's actually free. They go up 400 ft in the air

[parsstuff]

The only time I ever saw the mayor of my town he went to my elementary school and played basketball with us. He would later go on to get beat by his wife’s lover in the next election (true story)

Here’s a good one

[flowerishness]

Aubrieta deltoidea (purple rock cress), Salvia nemorosa, (woodland sage) and Fragaria × ananassa (garden strawberry)

Escape artists

A few years ago, our local city council created a fancy boulevard sidewalk on the road leading down to the beach. The intention was to create a carefully-maintained, flower-laden, tourist route to endless fish and chips and ice cream cones.

Of course, one city council's 'pet project' is the next city council's 'waste of money' and that "carefully-maintained" part never happened. Unfortunately, the little flowerbeds soon went to wrack and ruin. On the other hand, it's interesting to see these successful garden escapees making a go of it in extremely poor soil. Now why doesn't my strawberry patch look this good?

[glass-soup]

To all Americans:

It may all seem hopeless right now but listen, focus on your LOCAL POLITICS! this is where you will see immediate change that YOU have the power to influence, one person in small town won't be able to change the outcome of a national bill, but YOU can change the outcome of a local one, this is where immediate and tangible change is made: LOCALLY!! THERE IS HOPE! GO LOCAL! FOCUS ON LOCAL POLITICS THAT IS WHERE TANGIBLE IMMEDIATE CHANGE IS MADE FOR YOU!

love from NZ 🫂

[turtlesandfrogs]

Saw this on bluesky, and I think it's a start towards political engagement for those who don't know where to start:

One tidbit of advice: prepare for boredom, and have strategies to keep yourself engaged. Governments move slow, even on the local scale, and when you start going to city council meetings, you're going to hear a lot of complaining about a lot of things that seem like a waste of energy to complain about, before they get to your thing.

This is not the only way, but it is a way.

[flameraven]

[jean-meowreau]

Hey guys! US HoR is trying to reintroduce a bill that was already voted out a couple of days ago, HR9495. It is a bill to revoke tax-exempt status for non-profits that "support terrorists". Any charity that aids or goes against the US Government would suffer from this, including those who support Palestine, Congo, Sudan, and others.

This amazing creator, Lily Hi'ilani Okimura explains in detail above and has wonderfully created a document to help contact your rep about this issue.

There is a link to find out who your rep is(it's never too late to start getting involved!), how they voted previous, and messages to send them to stop this bill. My rep did not vote, so I sent the response for someone who voted for it to pass.

The first link sends you directly to your rep's website and you can easily find contact information from there.

[ivygorgon]

Seeing a lot of Harris Walz signs and demonstrations in my red state. Love to see it!

[bisexualbaker]

Off the top of my head:

followfriday - There's a post every Friday where you can share links to interesting things in the comments, new communities among them dw_community_promo - The official Dreamwidth community for promoting communities; has a lot of followers newcomers - This one is a bit more of a grey area, but I think it'd fit to promo your community there, since Newcomers is also a place where a lot of, well, newcomers to Dreamwidth gather and share news and such; I wouldn't be surprised if there end up being a few who show up there in the next few weeks what with... everything @radiofreemonday - Not actually a Dreamwidth community, but I've promo'd a number of my Dreamwidth communities through it before to decent effect

Also, dropping a link to it in the comments the next time there's an official news post would probably be okay. A lot of people watch the comments in those. I also took the liberty of boosting the community on my own account, though I can't guarantee it'll be seen by a lot of people there.

Anyway, fully agreed! I feel like Dreamwidth in particular is a site we can trust to have our backs, as the official Dreamwidth Advocacy community will detail. (Community is to share advocacy done by Dreamwidth itself, rather than users promoting their own advocacy.)

Thank you for being here, and for continuing to fight the good fight. I needed to hear punk rage right now; it's made this day a lot more bearable.

I did also make this if it's something you want to share - a small blog to share city council notes and other very local political news, because local resistance requires organization.

https://hyperlocal-politics.dreamwidth.org/343.html

Good job. <3

[iwriteaboutfeminism]

View this post on Instagram

A post shared by NowThis News (@nowthispolitics)

All seven members are women.

Six are women of color.

All are under 40.

All are Democrats.

Well done, St. Paul!

[faydesignss]

Hey, so genuine question, what can we do to get involved in local politics? To make sure we can protect our rights? I'm not even sure how someone starts

[isaacsapphire]

It seems kinda obvious that one of the underlying factors in the nature of politics and culture war stuff in the general post 2012/2016 or so era is that politics is all local at root, but also everyone is discussing their (local) issues and conditions online as if it’s global and everyone is understanding the stuff they see online as global, so every localized problem is understood as global, and every local failure is seen as global. Americans think they have British problems and Brits think they have Indian problems and so on, and it would be hilarious if it wasn’t so damaging.

[1000-silverfish-in-a-hoodie]

So much fear mongering about communism and then you join a local communist group and it’s like “we hand out flyers and try too give food to homeless people”