#Local Politics

[bluebelly-sun-serpentine]

Thank you for the note on that post about activism. I’ve never seen a protest actually work and I’m 24 years old. I know It’s important to keep trying but, you hit the nail on the head for why young people are so disillusioned, nothing we do seems to help. Do you have any information about some that did, and maybe what the difference was?

Hi anon,

Yes, I have one very current example of an ongoing protest that is working:

People have been protesting outside of Tesla dealerships all around the country every Saturday for months now, and these small, localized protests (as well as online activism and generalized social pressure) absolutely have been helping to tank Tesla's stock price, which is one way of weakening Elon Musk's power. These protests have made it unpleasant for people to get their cars serviced, way less likely to go to a dealership to buy, and much more uncomfortable about driving their cars around town because of the stigma associated with Tesla. Have they stopped Musk from running roughshod with DOGE? No. But they have made people look elsewhere for electric cars, and they've clearly sent Musk into a tailspin. [EDIT: apparently they already are impacting his ability to ruin stuff with DOGE. I thought it would take longer but @lydiardbell has informed me things are moving more quickly than I'd expected!] They're more effective than meeting once en masse at fewer places, because the consistency helps remind people this is a live issue, and if you're driving down a big arterial road in your random town and see a bunch of people posted up with signs at the Tesla dealership rather than seeing them in NYC on TV that says to you "people in my town, in my area, care about this. It's not just the most annoying people in the major metro areas that I resent calling for this stuff. People like me, living in my circumstances, also care."

I will also say that protest and public outcry is constantly making changes at the local level. Here's a negative example: If you're wondering why you're struggling so much with the cost of housing, it's probably in large part because NIMBY activists - people who don't want any new housing built, especially the kind of dense housing that's good for a city's financial solvency and for lower income people and for the environment – are consistently showing up to city/town council meetings and loudly protesting any new development. These tend to be people who don't want housing stock to increase because it will make housing cheaper (and thus their single-family properties less valuable for resale or remortgage) and also people who are just allergic to change. You know who's not showing up to these meetings? Young people who need housing. Part of that is structural (people who are struggling to find housing are more likely to be economically stressed and not have time to show up regularly to council meetings) but it's also that a lot of young people are unwilling to spend their free time doing something "boring" like advocating for themselves and their communities at a meeting where you have to wait around and maybe have a speech or a letter prepared, or do some research beforehand. And maybe if more people showed up to oppose NIMBYs at boring meetings, more housing would get built. In my area the NIMBY harassment of pro-housing city council members has been so bad that some have resigned out of fear for their families' safety. If these people had had more support, maybe they'd still be doing the work.

Protest isn't always an organized mass on a public street; it's also citizens making some organized attempt to oppose a policy or project, or citizens calling loudly for the need for a project, repeatedly, consistently, in places where the general public isn't even likely to see the action.

I tend to think mass protests with vague goals are ineffective at achieving their vague goals for obvious reasons, but that they do have some utility; they bring people together and help them make connections with other people who are motivated to make change. But if you want to see change that's less abstract or incidental, that's really directly a reflection of your actions, then focus on local activism, and have clear policy goals in mind. If you want more housing, for instance, you have to start caring about zoning, about how development works, about how local property tax laws affect the issue, or you have to start listening to people who DO care about that stuff.

The biggest mistake I see young people making is basing your politics entirely on the vibe. The people who are effective at making change figure out how things actually work. They don't have to be the people who have the best or purest motives and cleanest, most virtuous personal politics. Often they're not. Being effective sometimes means learning stuff you would once have found boring, and deciding it's interesting because it's materially useful to your cause. It also means building coalitions with people who disagree with you on some things in order to achieve a goal you DO agree upon.

The Tesla protests are trying to create a physical and social impediment to people who would otherwise buy Teslas, and by focusing on the places where a lot of those sales would actually happen (and where all the vehicle servicing has to happen, because Tesla sucks) they have actively made it annoying and unpleasant to buy a Tesla. Protesters introduce real friction into a process that Tesla wants and needs to be easy. Similarly, NIMBYs introduce friction into the process of housing development, so even if a developer has already bought a lot and is planning to build a bunch of new units that could house a lot of people (has designed the development, put in the proposal, has the permits, is all ready to go), the developer might end up deciding it's not worth it because the delays caused by change-averse retirees at city council meetings are costing them too much. So you have less housing in your city over-all, rents and property values remain prohibitively high, density remains low (which means the city's tax base is smaller and you have less money to go to projects that benefit everyone, like schools and libraries and social programs and even basic infrastructure like sewage systems and roads). If you show up to that city council meeting and are a counter to the voices trying to make friction - if you help ease the way instead - maybe the housing does get built. Maybe increases in supply mean the rents can come down a bit, because people have more options. The city gets a little bit denser, there's a little more money to hire another librarian, or fix the potholes on your street, or make safe bike lanes, or hire more school counselors. You've not only achieved your goal of making it a little easier to find a place to live; you've made your town a better town in other ways, too.

Another positive example is the recent Target boycott, which as I understand it was organized by black religious activists (the call was specifically to avoid Target for lent); the decreased foot traffic had Target walking back its Trump-appeasement on the issue of DEI. A boycott isn't a protest where you show up with a sign; instead it's a negative action with a hope of a positive outcome. They work better the more specific and organized they are.

There are a lot of ways that you can make a difference. If you don't think showing up to a reactionary mass protest every so often is the way for you (though I'd argue doing that is still helpful) that doesn't mean that activism isn't for you, or that you can't make major change. Pick something specific, and make that your thing.

It's also worth noticing that gun-control activists in Florida actually did get some stuff done; unfortunately a lot of the progress they made was rolled back, and that's a good lesson in realizing that the arc of the moral universe doesn't automatically bend toward justice. You have to consistently, actively make it bend, and if you don't – if you give up – things get worse.

[scarlettohairdye]

Hey, Seattle! I have a reminder for you! Go find your ballot and VOTE YES ON PROP 1A!!!

Prop 1A funds social housing - a thing we approved last year with I-137 - by taxing big businesses like Amazon. You know, the company absolutely destroying Seattle's livability, whose CEO is stealing land from native Hawaiians and happily complying with fascism in order to make more money?

Piss off our useless city council and mayor. Piss off Amazon. Make the city a better place. Vote Yes on Prop 1A, and get those ballots in by Tuesday the 11th!

Also VOTE YES ON SCHOOL PROPS 1 & 2! Fund our schools! It's important!

You can trust me. The people love me for my fat ass and sense of civic responsibility!

[aroacesocialist]

I know as a young person, many of us feel like we are just fucked over by the system and can only watch. But that simply is not true. There are some things we cannot control, like major legislation and decisions. However, we can be active as fuck locally. You could be a nuisance to your local politicians to get them to vote for legislation that will help your area, and you can advocate for candidates that will actively work to improve your home rather than tear it down. The best part is, you can do both of those previous things just with your phone. In person communication is important as well, so try and find local groups that have similar thinking with you, and start to be active in a community. It’s easy to fuck over a bunch of individual people, but a community is a lot harder to mess with. You can also work to raise awareness for topics you care about within your community. I, personally, cannot drive and live in a smaller town, so i thought most organizing was off the table. But I was talking with my best friend after the election, and they suggested we actually fucking do smth. I agreed and we started a discussion group to cover important issues, with the overall goal of promoting critical thinking and awareness in society. All we did was grab a few of our friends, told them to show up at the public library, and came up with a set of guidelines for our discussions. We actually have our first meeting tomorrow, and everyone is looking forward to it. The point I am trying to make is to not give up, even if you think you can’t do something. You always can, whether it is getting one good bill passed or convincing one person to help your cause. There is always something a person can do, and once you build a community it grows naturally. If anyone wants me to share what my group is I will gladly go more in depth in a different post.

[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.

[yugocar]

oh also a reminder that approximately 8 hours ago students started their march on foot from belgrade to novi sad. this is almost a 100km distance and they left today in order to arrive by saturday, when a large protest is scheduled there on three separate bridges

[titleknown]

So, context: I'm in the Tucson, Arizona branch of the Democratic Socialists Of America. They need to get this out to more social media sites, and I volunteered my Tumblr. So here we are.

For further context, there's currently a debate in Tucson on what programs and services to cut. There's a lot of things they want to cut that they really shouldn't, including our big Free Mass Transit program.

So, this is to get folks to do the survey (Deadline is Friday, April 11th, 2025) to tell them no, don't do that, just increase the taxes by a bit and cut the cops. So, if you live in Tucson, please take the survey, and if not, please boost this so someone in Tucson might find it.

Full transcript past the break, because it's way too long for an alt-text:

------------

Your Money Matters! City of Tucson is asking YOU what services they should KEEP & what they should SLASH this year. TELL THEM!

This guide is for those who want to engage in collective action with others when filling out the FY2026 Budget Survey for Abolition & Housing Justice!

Don't Wait! The Survey Closes Fri, April 11th (Date changed from Friday, April 8th on the original) at 4:59 PM

Tucson’s Fiscal Year 2026 Budget Survey:

People should feel free to follow their hearts on the survey. Your voice DOES matter. If you choose to use your voice for collective action, here are some recommendations.

Words and phrases in BOLD are ones we want people to use specifically. 

There are some #hashtags suggested. Feel free to use all or none of them! 

Q1) Choose 8 Priorities:

Affordable Housing

More Firefighters

Fund early education 

Substance Use Help

Homelessness Support

More Shade and Trees

Job Skills Training

More Arts and Culture

Q2) Are there expenses in the City's General Fund that you consider to be wasteful/unnecessary that the Mayor and Council should examine cutting? Limit to 4 sentences.

Example:

#lesspolice #carenotcops 

Nearly 1/3 of the general fund is taken up by police personnel. The current high number of uniformed officers and surveillance technologies like cameras are a waste of city money when many tasks TPD does could be eliminated with a better public safety strategy.

Q3)

Are there city service changes you think would save money and or improve impacts for the community and visitors that the Mayor and Council should consider adjusting?

Example

#replaceTPD #freebuses #CBVI #morehousing

Replacing police services with community-based violence prevention and intervention would be a big improvement. Moving money away from police services upstream towards social services, transit services, & climate resiliency would be more cost effective.

Q4)

What options should the city explore for new or increased dollars to help solve its projected deficit? Number with 1 being your top priority, and 6 being your last priority:

Suggestion:

1) Increase the local per-night-stay Bed surtax

3) Advertising tax

2) Secondary Property Tax

4) 1/4 cent sales tax

5) DO NOT SELECT 

6) DO NOT SELECT 

Transit fare -DO NOT SELECT - do not add a 5th or 6th priority

Please leave transit fare unranked

Q5) What additional Thoughts or comments do you have regarding the City's FY26 budget development? Limited to 4 sentences:

For this question, we wanted to highlight how badly the city manager’s office had bungled the public participation for FY2026. 

Example:

The budget should be participatory

A rubber-stamp public participation program conducted like this, rushed & inaccessible to Spanish speakers, lowers trust in the government

Stop lumping fire service with police

Keep transit free, fund housing & services to unhoused, raise unarmed city worker wages

[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

[vooshiemba]

For those who kept saying, "Project 2025 is just a conspiracy! Trump would never do that." Well I hate to say it but you were wrong. Trump instantly reinstated Schedule F, Trump is already firing people, Trump is already appointing people based on political loyalty, Trump has removed trans and intersex recognition in law!

Trump is already installing Projects 2025!

We can stop it though. We need to protest like hell, join and vote in your local politics, and protect people in your personal life! ✊🏼✨💖

[onbearfeet]

Went to a school board meeting with a friend to support her and her union in their opposition to hundreds of teacher/counselor layoffs. Filled out a little card to speak because why not, we're trying to make this meeting run crazy long, so they probably won't get to me, and if they do, I can yap, right? I'm a yapper. All I have to do is yap.

Meeting does go crazy long. So long, in fact, that people start trickling out of the overflow room we're all stuffed in and the temperature drops. I put my black peacoat around my shoulders, over my black shirt and dark jeans. I am the only person in here wearing a mask, and I only know one person here, so I'm mostly quiet and listening to others talk. I write a little statement in my notebook to read in case I panic, mostly about the importance of educators in a time of misinformation and chaos. I listen more. I scroll Tumblr. I say very little, except to cheer and boo when the room does.

3.5 hours in, my name is unexpectedly called. I'm one of the last to speak and they're calling a lot of people who've already left, so I jump up and hustle out to the board chamber, talk my way past the guard, and stride swiftly into the room and up to the lectern so as not to waste any more of anyone's time.

I read my statement. It's angry because fuck these people, they're firing teachers in the middle of a shortage to cover up their own incompetence. I've done theater, radio, podcasting, and some teaching, so I know my way around a mic and I project my voice like a motherfucker. My voice is a little rough because of three hours of mask-induced postnasal drip. I get to the end of my statement (about 30 seconds), and instead of thanking the board, I snarl, "DO BETTER," into the mic. Then I walk out--again, with a long swift stride for efficiency, but yes, it could technically be called storming or stalking.

I cross the hall back to the overflow room, where everyone has been watching on a screen. I awkwardly squeeze past some people in the doorway and start to scurry back to my seat when somebody whoops and several people applaud. I sit back down with my friend and HER friends are giving me startled/impressed looks. My friend hugs me.

It is then that I realize that, between my somewhat aggressive eyeshadow and deep-set eyes, my mask, and my nearly all-black ensemble, I probably look a little spooky right now, especially on the monitor. Also, I just growled an angry and impassioned message at a government body, and then I swept out of the room with my coat billowing behind me like I was the goddamn Batman of secondary school funding. Which most of the room probably did not expect out of someone who otherwise said maybe ten words all night, all of which were cheerful and about snacks and/or my handmade teddy bears.

Anyway, this is your sign to try to terrify your local school board into doing the right thing.

[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?

[scarlettohairdye]

Hey, Washington state: Join me in doing this cool thing I call "Calling your WA state reps and tell them to tax big businesses and billionaires to fund the state government." I even wrote you a script!

Take Money Away from Billionaires Script Hi! My name is [Name] and I’m a constituent from [City and Zip]. I’m calling today because Washington state doesn’t need budget cuts, we need more fully funded social programs, and the best way to fund that is by taxing big businesses and billionaires. It’s clear we won’t be able to rely on the federal government for funding as long as it’s a clownshow in DC. There has never been a better time to tax big businesses and billionaires. Seattle just voted to fund social housing with a payroll tax on employees making over a million dollars a year, and it passed 70% yes to 30% no. Taxing big businesses is popular. Big businesses and billionaires have proven they will do their best to use their money to make all of our lives worse – just look at Elon Musk. We should take their money through taxes and use it to make everyone’s lives better. Tax big businesses and billionaires! Fund the state government! Do the right thing! Thank you for your time.

Local politics are one of the best places to effect change. I want them to hear this DAILY.

You can find your reps here! https://app.leg.wa.gov/districtfinder

[ploobertus]

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]