Local (Resistance and) Progress

I’m headed out to Denver today for a board meeting of Local Progress, the national network of progressive local elected officials (mostly City Council members, but also county officials, elected school board members, DAs, etc). It is a truly inspiring group: 500+ local elected officials who work closely with community groups, progressive labor, and local activists for an economy that works for everyone, equal justice under law, livable & sustainable cities, and effective democracy that brings people together to improve our shared fate.

Local Progress members have been core partners to the activist movements of recent years (Fight for $15, Black Lives Matter, DREAMers). And it’s no surprise our members have been very active in resisting the hate, injustice, and corruption of the Trump regime. I’m pleased to be the new board chair. So it seemed like a good moment to introduce you to a few of the other board members.

Here’s a little of what they’ve had to say in recent days:

Helen Gym, Philadelphia City Council & Local Progress Vice-Chair: “There’s a reason that over 300 municipalities have adopted sanctuary policies: these policies make us safer. Sanctuary policies are promoted by local law enforcement across the country. They are built to protect the human and constitutional rights of all of us. We know that our cities are stronger when all of our neighbors trust and feel comfortable going to the police and when all of us maintain our due process rights enshrined in the Fourth Amendment. The executive actions taken today are a direct assault on America’s communities — an assault that spews the same hatred and divisiveness that Trump campaigned on. Americans know better. That’s why he lost the popular vote by nearly 3 million votes. We’re on the right side of history. It’s our immigrant communities who are revitalizing our towns and cities, reversing decades of population decline and repopulating our public schools, and who are rebuilding the economic engine of our nation.” (Great piece on Helen here.)

David Alvarez, San Diego City Council (on the Local Progress pardon letter): “We must protect the legal permanent residents of our city. President-elect Trump proposed a deportation plan modeled after Operation Wetback from the 1950s. Dividing families by recklessly deporting hundreds of thousands of legal permanent residents would be morally wrong and economically destructive.”

LaToya Cantrell, New Orleans City Council (from the Women’s March): “We stand for all people. Women have proven that we are a force — not only in government, but we are a force in community. You are the ones who will determine the future of the city and our future growth, and who we uplift as we focus on all the issues.”

Gregorio Casar, Austin City Council: “I’m calling for resistance. Frankly, I would not be allowed into the room with Donald Trump because I would be out in the streets protesting with you. I will be part of your disobedience. I will go to jail with you. No nos moverán. There is no healing today for the families who fear they will be arrested, deported, and torn apart by Trump. Those who believed in civil rights did not call for healing in George Wallace’s Alabama. Where there were calls for unity, they were calls for unity in resistance.”

Elizabeth Glidden, Minnealpolis City Council: “We are centers of organizing and protest. We have to be loud with our voice and our values. The laboratories of democracy, the laboratories of policy innovation really are cities right now.”

Bill Henry, Baltimore City Council (Op-Ed in the Baltimore Sun about race in America post-Obama): Talking plainly and candidly about race is a risk each time; such conversations are highly charged, from an emotional perspective… I have buried deep within myself the anger and the desire to respond with violence, which racist actions or comments continue to engender within me. It’s not gone (“That’s my secret; I’m always angry…”), but like the bottom of a compost pile, it generates the heat needed to break down the layers above. That heat fuels change, even if that change comes slowly.

Robin Kniech, Denver City Council: “We, as a city council, discussed that yesterday, how strongly we support our residents and our obligations to those residents. If that’s the risk, we will face that risk…. I have been working with colleagues in Austin, Texas, New York City, Los Angeles and other cities all across the country who are standing up to these threats just as Denver is. I’m confident we have a national movement.” Robin recently helped created Denver’s first dedicated affordable housing fund.

Meghan Sahli-Wells, Culver City CA City Council: The national election has left many in Culver City horrified. Instead of breaking the glass ceiling, it’s as if the sky has fallen, and the highest office has espoused the lowest ideologies: bigotry, sexism, religious intolerance, mass deportations, torture, homophobia, anti-intellectualism, the suppression of the free press, ecological destruction, climate injustice, the end of civil discourse, the end of reproductive freedom, the list goes on and on… Contrast the national election with local results, and a very different picture emerges: that of a people willing to invest in critical infrastructure for clean water (Culver City’s Measure CW), healthy transportation (LA County’s Measure M), to provide housing and services for homeless individuals (LA’s Measure HHH), champion bilingual education (CA’s Prop 58), uphold the country’s very first statewide ban on single-use plastic bags (CA’s Prop 67), among many other important progressive initiatives.”

Ritchie Torres, NYC Council: “Now he thinks that his constituents may be among those who will suffer the most under a Trump Administration. Some of them “live in a state of fear” at the prospect of being deported, he said. The city’s budget relies on seven billion dollars a year in federal funding, for services from welfare payments to rental subsidies and childcare vouchers, all of which would be imperiled if spending is cut. In addition, NYCHA is perhaps the most vulnerable agency in the city, since it gets nearly all its government funding from HUD.” (From the recent profile on Ritchie in The New Yorker, well worth reading).

Thanks Sarah Johnson, Local Progress co-director, for compiling these quotes! And we’re also grateful for our institutional board members, Center for Popular Democracy, SEIU, AFL-CIO.

And that’s just a selection of the board members. Local Progress is more than 500 local elected officials, fighting injustice, inspiring hope, and getting things done all across the country. At this dark moment, I feel very lucky to be among them.