Somerville

[push-stars.livejournal.com]

Who should determine the future of a community? Somerville probably has over 80,000 people but only 10,000 actually voted in the last round of elections for Mayor and Alderman. The people, who actually voted, voted because they had huge interests in their business, or town government. Or perhaps they voted because someone in their family was a civil service worker. It is even more likely that a lot of these votes were cast simply because they were told that this person or that was Good person and not because of a platform that was genuinely aligned with the community. Most people actually were not involved. They were not empowered to protect their own interests or they just did’nt know how to effectively. Most of the leadership, most of the power in our community actually dissuades people from getting involved to protect their own interests. A lot of seats were won un-contested and these winners still found they only got less than 70% of the vote. The other 30% left their portion of the ballot blank. We all Know that Un-contested elections are bad. You can see the results of the election here: http://www.ci.somerville.ma.us/CoS_Content/documents/UnofficialCityElection11-08-05.pdf


“Years ago, a left-wing Yale music professor made history in New Haven. He won an election as a third-party candidate, the first such victory in generations. He and his party called for publicly funded elections, bike lanes, cleaner air, support for Yale unions--all positions on which Democratic City Hall was either opposed or silent. The Yale prof rode his bike on his new rounds as a city alderman. He was dubbed "Alderman Bike." The city's Democratic mayor, John DeStefano, drove around town in his taxpayer-paid Lincoln Navigator SUV.” Check out how another town was able to become a leader in change, this link is really key to the message here:
http://prorev.com/whyiran.htm

We don’t all have to vote for a particular candidate or tote a specific party line to make big things happen. But when we vote en force for our values and for what is important we give our elected officials the currency they need to make changes. see what happened here: http://www.mattgonzalez.com/index.php

Finally East and West Somerville are two totally different worlds. I am begging and pleading for all the help we can get in protecting homes, residents, renters, and business like Ricky’s Flower shop in Union square. Ricky’s is just one of many family run business that serve the fabric of our community in ways that places like home depot can’t. Help make sure that our neighborhoods are not rezoned into commercial districts and that our town remains a neighborhood controlled by our neighbors.

thanks again for listening,

Comments

[abilouise.livejournal.com]

I personally voted in the last local election because I knew which of the candidates I thought would make the best choices. Many people were not involved, but from what I saw, a growing number of people were.

Also, it shouldn't be underestimated that the city has a very high turnover rate of voting-age residents, some of whom are not yet citizens, some of whom consider their "real" home somewhere else, where they may understand local politics better, and many of whom are exactly the demographic that don't vote no matter WHERE they live.