Let's change Cambridge: why local politics is a great way to start making a difference
Hi,
You're getting this email because you either saw my post on Reddit about affordable housing and signed up for my newsletter, or signed my petition in support of 30 Wendell St and indicated you want to receive more emails from me.
Here's why you should read this, and hopefully future emails:
Our planet is facing the massive, accelerating and self-inflicted catastrophe of climate change. But there's 8 billion people on the planet, and you're just one person.
Our country just elected Trump as president, and a Republican majority in Congress, and at best things are going to get a lot worse for a lot of people. But there's 340 million people in the US, and you're just one person.
Housing in the Boston area is ludicrously unaffordable—during a time when many more people will have motivation to move here. But there are a million people in the Boston area, and you're just one person.
So can you make a difference? Can you get involved, take some actions, and know that you've made the world a slightly better place, helped solve even a tiny bit of the problems we're all facing?
It depends. Can you make a difference working alone to change the whole world? Probably not.
But working together with others, on a local scale? Definitely.
Why local politics are a great place to get started
1. Smaller groups can still make an impact locally
I'm just one person, just like you. But I wrote two posts on Reddit (which didn't take very long!), and over 130 people signed up to get this email. 130 is still a small number, but that's a lot more than one.
And consider:
- 40 votes can shift a local election: Evan MacKay ran a primary challenge in Cambridge this summer against State Representative Decker. Decker had the support of the governor, the whole of the state legislature, the Boston Globe, and most of the City Council... but she only beat MacKay by 40 votes.
- 20 people can mobilize thousands of others: Tens of thousands of people in Cambridge want to be able to bike safely—but the core organizers in advocacy group Cambridge Bike Safety are only around 20 people.
- 2300 votes is all it took to elect a City Councilor in Cambridge last year. That's rather more than 1, or even 130... but it's an achievable number.
2. You can see and learn from the results of your actions
I have helped elect a City Councilor, and helped turn out hundreds of people to City Council meetings, and helped get laws passed. Mostly my contribution were small, but they were still meaningful. And I can walk around Cambridge and see the changes I helped make happen.
This is motivating, which is very important—but it's also a much better way to learn. If you volunteer for a national campaign, it's very difficult to say how your actions are helping, what worked and what didn't. That doesn't mean you shouldn't volunteer, but it does mean it won't be as educational. With local engagement, the feedback is faster, the connection between actions and outcomes is clearer, and you'll learn new skills much faster.
Once you have those skills, you can then choose to apply them at a larger scale.
3. Local changes can have larger impacts
Legislation that local group Cambridge Bicycle Safety helped pass has been copied by Seattle and Washington DC, and locally by Somerville; advocacy groups in other cities are trying to expand the list.
I'm uncertain if affordable housing legislation pushed by groups like A Better Cambridge has been directly copied by other cities, but it has certainly been an inspiration. Berkeley tried to pass an ordinance directly inspired by Cambridge's Affordable Housing Overlay, and Salt Lake City considered this approach, though it went with a different model for affordable housing.
What I'll be writing about
My goal is to try to get as many people as possible—including you!—actively informed about and engaged in Cambridge politics. So I'll be writing about:
- How the City's problems become your problems, where those problems come from, and how we might approach solving them.
- How the City works politically.
- Tools and skills for political advocacy, mobilization, and organizing.
- Specific actions you can immediately take.
All of this is a work in progress; I'm certainly not an expert. There's always more to learn, my privileges can bias or limit my understanding, some parts of local politics are opaque because they happen in private, some policy areas are very complex, and so on. Please share your questions, ideas, corrections, and disagreements! (And if you're one of the many people who know more than I do, I'd love proposals for guest posts.)
A bit more
Educational material: Video/transcript of an interview with Jane McAlevey on the difference between advocacy, mobilizing, and organizing.
Take action! Today's theme: getting more engaged with local groups.
- Sign up for Act on Mass's mailing list, your best source for learning about how dysfunctional the state legislature is, and some actions you can take.
- Excited about biking in Cambridge? Sign up for Cambridge Bicycle Safety's mailing list.
- Hate how expensive housing is in Cambridge? Sign up for A Better Cambridge's mailing list.
Today's song: Alfa, by Igor Savin (1979)