Equity is on the ballot this Tuesday

tl;dr: It’s our responsibility to make sure we aren’t voting against BIPOC, low-income, and other underrepresented candidates that would provide meaningful representation, especially in majority-minority precincts.

In my last post, I wrote about the home-ownership rates of endorsed candidates from different organizations. I highlighted that while most Brookline residents are renters, at least 86% of Brookline By Design’s endorsed candidates are homeowners.

Since then, there’s been a lot of discussion comparing Brookline By Design (BBD) with Brookline for Everyone. I’ve seen them pitted against each other, but these organizations are not necessarily opposed to one another, and I don’t think that’s the right conversation to be having. The issue I see doesn’t have to do with the details of housing policy — it’s about disparities in equity that are invisible to so many of us.

When I highlighted that homeowners are over-represented in Brookline By Design’s endorsed candidates, my point wasn’t that there’s something wrong with being a homeowner. Many excellent candidates own their own home, and I hope they get elected. The problem is that renters and public housing residents are clearly missing in Town Meeting and are often just an afterthought in decisions that most certainly affect them. We should be making a serious effort to ensure they have adequate representation in Town Meeting.

I wrote about homeowners/renters because that data was easily accessible to me, but there are plenty of other groups missing from Town Meeting, including BIPOC, low/mid-income, and young folks. Unfortunately, not enough people in any of these groups are running for Town Meeting, which means we should be extra careful about who we’re excluding when we vote.

I’m a member of the Brookline Equity Coalition, a group of bold progressives committed to taking real action for racial, climate, and economic justice. We’ve been working hard to support candidates who will best represent our under-served neighbors. We’ve seen how hard it is to get Town Meeting members to understand the urgency behind issues that don’t personally affect them, and we want to fix that.

When we don’t make equity a priority, we end up excluding the people who need representation the most.

When I look through some of the endorsement slates, the lack of focus on equity is apparent. For example, Precinct 2 is one of two new majority-minority precincts in Brookline. This means that racial minority groups make up the majority of the total population, giving them a better opportunity to elect candidates who will provide meaningful representation. Additionally, many Precinct 2 residents are low-income and live in public housing.

Brookline By Design is endorsing 15 candidates for 15 open seats. 14 of them are homeowners, and more than half live in single-family homes (which make up only 4% of the housing units in Precinct 2). Several of these homes are over $2M. Brookline By Design is not endorsing 4 of the 5 candidates who live in public housing, including multiple people of color and Kimberley Richardson — a Black public housing resident named one of Brookline’s 2022 Women of the Year for her work to advance racial justice and equity in Brookline.

To be clear, not all candidates were seeking an endorsement from Brookline By Design, and I’m sure BBD doesn’t want to endorse candidates that don’t align with their values. But by endorsing enough candidates to fill every open seat and spending over 15x as much money than anyone else on marketing materials, they’re essentially shutting out the very people we’re trying to support in the creation of a majority-minority precinct.

The same thing is happening in Precinct 1. They’re endorsing 15 candidates for 15 open seats, excluding all renters running for Town Meeting. They’re also excluding Deborah Brown, a fierce advocate for affordable housing and safe living conditions in public housing, and President of the Brookline Improvement Coalition.

Many more marginalized people will be left out like this if you’re planning on voting on a slate of candidates without considering equity.

I don’t particularly think anyone is doing this intentionally — but that’s the point. We should all know by now that we need to be proactive in ensuring that our actions don’t adversely affect our neighbors. When we don’t pay attention, we perpetuate the systemic racism entrenched in every aspect of our society.

Make equity a priority this Tuesday.

Please vote for Brookline Equity Coalition’s endorsed candidates if you care about supporting equity-focused candidates. We care deeply about racial, climate, and economic equity and justice, and you can read more about our values. I cannot emphasize enough how hard-working and caring these people are — it’s a great group to organize with and I’m proud to be endorsed by them.

Since our endorsement criteria were particularly strict this year, I’d also highly recommend Brookline for Everyone’s endorsed candidates. There’s a lot of overlap with Brookline Equity Coalition candidates, and I agree with their platform.

Finally, there’s a website for Precinct 4’s BIPOC and low-income candidates. Precinct 4 is a majority-minority precinct, and while I’m not as familiar with many of these candidates, I’m very happy to see this organizing happening and hope to see new faces in Town Meeting this year.

Your vote is extremely valuable in low-turnout local elections — be a voter this Tuesday, May 3rd!