Power of the Towns, Power of the People

For parents, the New Year does not start on January 1. It starts on a day in August, who knows why, on a date of which we are not exactly sure until it is too late to get the perfect backpack, when school begins again. Because far more than forgotten resolutions, when and where our kids go to school determines the trajectory of our days.

So, when I got an email informing us that our child wasn’t accepted into the public school around the corner from our house, I broke down sobbing. Not only would this mean two drop-offs, quadrupling the time we had to spend in the car, but it also meant my kids wouldn’t be able to high-five each other at recess or give each other a boost when they needed it, when I wasn’t there.

Long story short, I turned to the Internet for answers and discovered our child’s denial was based on an undisclosed policy that the school board unjustly used to override the publicly posted policy I based our application on.

I’ll cry all the details to you if you buy me a cup of coffee. But here in black and white, I’ll just say we had the law on our side and we won.

Hurray!

But you may be asking: Why am I writing about the minutiae of school board policy in An Unruly Woman?

Because revolution, that’s why.

With the midterms looming and the fate of our democracy in the balance, many, myself at times included, often focus our full attention on the federal government as the most important lever to shift the balance of power.

Yet, in many cases, the most tangible aspects of our lives are determined by local government. In the case of my children, requiring the school board to abide by publicly stated policies got my kid into our neighborhood school and also prompted discussions of a fairer admission standard.

This is the whole point of city government: to empower citizens to control the mechanisms that shape their lives. This truth is inherent to the very definition of democracy, which does not, as some would have us believe, translate from the Greek as “power of the super PACs” or “power of the over-bloated, parasitic politician.” 

Rather, democracy most accurately translates to “power of the towns” because it is in our towns and cities that We the People can effect immediate change. More often than you might think, these changes do double work, rippling out to state and national laws.

Take, for instance, the scourge of ICE. Local governments have been central in resisting draconian immigration policies. In Santa Barbara, the County Board of Supervisors voted in April to prohibit ICE from using county properties, parks, and recreation areas for unauthorized activities. They also directed county planners to research how to prevent ICE detention centers from being built in the county. This research can and will inform other city and state policies.

What about the rent being too damn high? City Council is currently embroiled in debate over whether to implement rent control and, if so, how. Thousands of Santa Barbarians will be affected on both sides of the equation, and no doubt the next mayor will have a hand in determining how this policy is implemented. Surely, other cities will look to Santa Barbara’s success ― or failure ― to shape their own proposals.

With Governor Newsom’s declaration of a state of emergency over the historic El Niño, climate change is top of mind for many, where, again, our local government plays a crucial role. Last March, the County Board of Supervisors added an Environmental Justice Element to its General Plan, including measures such as planting trees, opening climate resiliency hubs, and cleaning up hazardous sites. As progressive as it sounds, community advocates rightly point out that under this plan, marginalized communities receive less-than-equitable protection.

Indeed, every issue that we too frequently expect the federal government to fix is being addressed on a local level every day. National policy of course plays an important role, but it is from the local government that the federal government most often, and most accurately takes its cues. Because, democracy.

And yet, a recent Portland State University study found that in many major American cities, fewer than 15 percent of eligible voters participated in mayoral and city council elections. The next time you wonder why the fascist movement was able to erode American democracy in just two presidential election cycles, remember this number. 

Our democracy begins and ends with local elections. Accordingly, preserving our freedom neither begins nor ends in November, but rather in every single election that we have the right and responsibility to cast our ballot. Vote accordingly. Vote every chance you get. Vote like your life depends on it. Because it does. See you at the ballot box.