Ace is out of the race; here's what comes next
The results aren't what I wanted, but I'm proud of what I did
Hello, Ward 3 et al,
This isn’t the email I wanted to send; I’d hope it would sit in my drafts until I remembered to delete it sometime in December. Short version: I’m not going to be the Ward 3 city councilor for Northampton this year. To quote Kurt Vonnegut, so it goes; to quote the Beatles, life goes on.
I’m pleased with what I got to do in my first go at elected official. I registered eight people to vote. I started volunteering at Salvo House. I drank enough jasmine limes at Familiars to fill a bathtub. I got over a quarter of the vote in a preliminary with the highest turnout on record. I got my opponents to focus more on housing and how they plan to do things. I met a lot of stellar people who I hope to stay connected to, including you. And I got inspired to make more change happen, in and out of council chambers.
I’m gonna take a week, to mourn, to grouse, to feel my feelings and process them out. I’m saving my lawn signs; I’ll swing by to pick up yours if you’ve got one. And then I’m gonna do more things. The shortlist for now:
Volunteer twice a month teaching sewing at Salvo House
Get signatures for legalizing rent stabilization in Massachusetts
Try out doing write-ups of city council meetings, a la the Shoestring’s old I Go To City Council Meetings (so stay subscribed for the pivot!)
Look into getting a grant to create a database of all residential rental properties in Northampton for renters to use
Catch up on my day job of tailoring
As for who should represent Ward 3… I ran this race because I didn’t feel represented by Quaverly Rothenberg nor Laurie Loisel. Rothenberg advocates for tearing down the system, but hasn’t been able to work in collaboration nor coalition. Loisel can get things done in the current system, but has specifically embraced the established way of things in her campaign.
Picking candidates is like picking a bus: you choose what gets you closer to your destination. I don’t know who that is today for my ward; I hope it will become clear before November 4th. (I’ve got opinions on other races, but I’ll save that for the future.)
I want to thank the people who volunteered for me: Jada, Alex, Katie, Dennis, Moth, Noah, you spent time putting my name out in the ward in a real way. I want to thank Nykole and Alena, for hyping me on social media (I am…bad at Facebook). I wanna thank the candidates I got to meet who are working towards shared goals of mine, including Luke, Rachel, Jeremy, Alena, Emily, Tiffany, Will, Yakov, Al, Niko, Michele, Chris, Renika, Anat, and I know I’m missing names, please forgive my brain for who I’ve left out. Finally, I want to thank my partner K, who has worked hard on both this and on all the house and welfare things I left hanging to focus on here.
Stay tuned. I’m not going anywhere.