perarduaetal
45816
1901
45
Jan 23, 2025 10:51 PM
perarduaetal
45816
1901
45
KentKnifen
A former neighbor bullied our local government with functional non-compliance. The law stated you needed to have five acres to have a goat. Well, the neighbor did... The five acres just wasn't all connected to each other. The goat was VERY well cared for, mind you. Anyway everyone knew the law meant five continuous acres, but they got tired of dealing with her and let it go.
Zeddicuszull
I have two degrees in civil engineering and work in a red state department of transportation. My job only works when a town mayor or county judge wants to do a roadway improvement and sends that request to my office. It would be real easy for someone that wants a local road to be upgraded to find these politicians and harass them about it, and they will take notice and send that request to me. Especially since all of my designs are for rural residential roads and county roads.
LuminoZero
I work in Environmental Cleanup. One comment on a public document from one citizen is, at minimum, two weeks of work.
Plagen
If you're gonna email them in mass too, make sure everyone emailing them aren't using the same subject or too similar of bodies for the emails. Otherwise, they can just create a rule to filter all of it into one folder and keep things orderly.
fitgirl1
This matters so much, onward and upward to the front page!
And absolutely get involved locally. Get the council to hear you about changing our lawns to pollinator paradises and or producing food for us, push for support for the unhoused, keep DEI policies in place, keep businesses in check.
NumptyDumptyLump
I'm a childless single man that never wants children. However, I've been pondering leaving the hospitality industry to help children that I want to be educated publicly to try to help the future so they might have some semblance of normality and critical thoughts. My city is around 100,000 but the school board seems uninterested in helping other kids. Just their own.
Local is very important.
EucalyptusTrees
"Low cost groceries instead of bigotry chicken": I LOVE THAT!!!
vcgetdown
Nothing against the general message here but if traffic was an issue how is a grocery store a better option than a restaurant? Aren't grocery stores pretty high traffic?
vizeroy42
The grocery stores (at least around here) tend to have more spread out traffic. drive through have quite intense rush hours.
varonicaED
The problem with being in local government is the local people vote you in or out, therefore you can't afford to piss off the local people. The advantage of being in state or federal government is that people all across the state vote for you and they don't care what you do to piss off your local population, all you have to do is say a few lies and you are in. Try lying to the locals who actually elect you and see what happens!
Komorikat
How is that a problem? That's how a functioning democracy should work. If you make the people unhappy you get voted out.
varonicaED
I didn't say it was a problem, it's a problem for people wanting to take advantage of the system, they have to actually listen to the people, you are reading stuff into my post that doesn't exist.
regicidalveggie
As a former official, get involved in budget and zoning case conversations early on. They have a massive impact on how your city looks and runs.
flarflarf
local governement and local laws almost certainly impact you far more than federal ones, but people largely ignore local politics
relsky
I absolutely disagree on "more," but I will concede that they affect people in more immediate, noticeable ways. Murder and rape being illegal doesn't stop people from murdering and raping, but if those things WEREN'T illegal, things would be much, much, much worse. Much worse than, for example, if the speed limit by the nearby church was 45 instead of 35.
flarflarf
I dont really think laws against murder and rape were really what i was talking about here, more of general policies, but I will note that typically murder (and i assume rape is similar) are NOT federal crimes, but prosecuted by the state, except under extenuating circumstances like it crossed state lines or happened on federal land or so forth.
blaghart
Note: this doesnt work if you live in a large city and are therefore much easier to ignore. You need more people to make this work in large cities. Source: Even Mesa is too big for this to work with a small handful of people, as I've been having these fights for the past ten years here and even being a land-owner here isn't enough to get me clout on my own
Tasselfoot
Yeah... I've been to a ton of civic meetings in Philly and it just don't fly that way here. City-wide things? Not a chance. Neighborhood Association things? Maybe... but still probably not, because there are like 10-20k people in your neighborhood, and the people there at the meetings are incredibly passionate, on both sides, resulting mostly in insanity and yelling.
LtRooney
They're going ahead with that stupid fucking arena, despite nobody wanting it and multiple years long effort, coordinated efforts to stop the project.
Tasselfoot
No they aren't. Has nothing to do with the mass opposition to the project, but... after it was greenlit by city council... like 2 days later, the 76ers turned and cancelled it, and announced a joint-venture with Comcast for a new stadium in the South Philly stadium complex. In effect, all the effort for the Chinatown stadium was just leverage to force Comcast into a deal with Harris.
The whole situation is shit, but at least Chinatown isn't getting destroyed.
LtRooney
Well, praise be for small miracles. That's the best news I've heard all day!
meowingintensifies
I asked my town to put in a pedestrian crossing on a road and was given the runaround ("someone else does that") until they closed my case.
ADDGirl
We live in one of the top 10 largest cities in the state. My husband decided one day that he wanted to keep bees in our yard.
It took something like 4 meetings over 8 months, but we got it done. We can now have 2 bee hives in our yard because my husband decided one day that he wanted more tomatoes per plant and didn't want to hand pollinate them.
usernametakenisthestoryofmylife
I want musk publically slapped with a wet flounder.
YangKoete
Cornobble him!
itsjustplaid
Con: waste of flounder. Pro: he'd never see it coming.
Uselesstoy
People hate looking stupid repeatedly, in front of other people. You can tire them out. I love and agree with 99% of everything said... But on this statement I raise you one James Comer... That mofo keeps getting back up to get his face hit with a shovel of his own stupidity and knocked back down for years... But like the Terminator of stupidity.. he keeps coming back.
Judgementalwizard
There's some lines. There's an old guy in chicago who won't shut the fuck up about a skate park and has made the entire park district mad at him, making it less likely he'll get one. Be active, make your voice heard, but maybe try to not make them hate you
WarKittyKat
What if they already hate you before you start? Like, as an actual serious question.
Judgementalwizard
Tbh, idk, it's kinda situational? Fuck 'em and fight like hell is my gut reaction. If they like logic you can try that ig. Be present, be active, join or form groups of likeminded people. One person can be ignored, get half the neighborhood going, maybe the local rep has to start listening.
montyman185
Don't bitch about the things you actually care, but still go be a nuisance. If they're being assholes from the start, hit back. Call them on every little thing, ask constant clarifying questions, overwhelm them with nonsense.
While doing that, get someone they like to pitch your ideas, so hopefully they just say yes while distracted.
Also, run for office yourself. Anyone can run for council, so do it
kevinholland10
If you are in South Carolina, please look up More Justice. They actually demand politicians to say they will vote in favor of certain policies that will be voted on. If they vote differently, they are completely shut down by their masses
hoopyhoop
Why on earth would you start with yelling and being annoying when you can describe the problem and ask? Most politicians, especially local politicians, WANT to do stuff for the community. Maybe try not being a dick until you need to.
CyberWizard252
Can confirm. I spent 10 years operating the sound system for a municipal council and watched impassioned individuals overturn stupid ideas many times.
DidItForScience
Convince smart and passionate people who care to run for and participate in government. Cause things like this will only cause temporary inconvenience in the long run.
XavierElrose
Jesus had a parable about this. Fight the good fight, stand up for the poor, the marginalized, the discriminated. And never underestimate the power of being a stubborn sonofabitch.
XavierElrose
In a certain town there was a judge who neither feared God nor man. And there was a widow in that town who kept coming to him with the plea, ‘Grant me justice against my adversary.’ For some time he refused. But finally he said to himself, ‘Even though I don’t fear God or man, yet because this widow keeps bothering me, I will see that she gets justice, so that she won’t eventually come and attack me!’
kowanfox
We were 50 in my city who would nonstop contact our representatives to ask for vegetable gardens to be grown on the front yard instead of the "surburban dreamy green grass". After 4 weeks of doing it, we are now allowed to do it on 75% of the front yard, and we're allowed to have a few chickens in the backyards. It. Works.
masteryoplait
Damn that’s amazing
What3Birds
I was friends with a councillor a while back, he said that 99% of the work was created by 1% of the people, and they didn't even have to be a voter
lightfoot2
Good point. Local politics can make amazing results. It doesn't benefit everyone which is the problem, but it can make the world a bit better in this shit storm.
OSCgal
Time to dust off the old phrase: "Think globally, act locally"
PocketCleric
This is all true, so ture that people use it to influence what books can be loaned out in libraries or at schools
RevRagnarok
I wish that worked... my wife is on an advisory board and the county commissioners have straight up said "we don't believe the science." 🤬
Also the "party of small government" telling farmers they can't put solar panels in their fields... 🙄
VincitQuiSeVincit
It's almost like democracy requires participation for it to operate effectively, but that can't be right...
GriffinMann41
It's always kind of funny to me that these are the exact things people have been saying for decades now. And on the one hand, it's good to see people sharing it still. But on the other, the fact that people *have* been saying these very exact same things for decades, that your local politics are incredibly important and often the most effective, easy way to make the changes you want to see, speaks to the fact that *despite* people saying it, they don't *do* it. Not enough, at least. Please do.
Onisa
I feel there's a point on good/evil scale that this stops working. Otherwise 'small town politics' wouldn't have the connotations it does.
FacelessAce
This is my first time hearing this. I think it's important to keep saying it, because any time could be someone's first time.
WibblyWobblyTimeyWimeyFox
And because /our society doesn't/, because oligarchy wants you to think checking the box for president and doing nothing for the rest of the four years is all you can do.
koboldesq
Remember to be firm but professional. Don't get typecast as a "loon" or a "crazy" as that just makes it easier to ignore you
pareidoliaperson
Wish that was true.
drucifer0
Being dismissed as "crazy" definitely is a thing that can happen, especially if you're really emotional, especially if you don't have other people around backing you up. It's valid to consider the optics. But yeah sometimes loud assholes just win because nobody voices opposition, and I totally feel you on that being an insanely frustrating part of local organizing.
HonestlyNotARobot
Never (under any circumstances) let anyone see you get frustrated or upset. The minute they start trying to get under your skin (and this will happen), you've won. Ignore the personal attacks and stick to your points. They legitimately don't know how to deal with people who not only don't back down, but also never show themselves getting upset, angry or frustrated.
LTareyouserious
"If you don't have any constructive criticism for the actual plan, I'll mark your banter as approval and we can get to the next topic for tonight."
anxiouschickennugget
This is some of the best advice I’ve seen on here and can be use in multiple instances with many different people/entities
ScottPilgrimVSTheIndians
The Leslie Knope character is honestly the perfect epitome of the kind of effort and professionalism needed to accomplish the exact sentiment in this post.
Tigersterne
Smear feces on face and put boot on head. Got it!
Pilgrymm
I got an entire park built from scratch by canvassing for signatures and standing in front of the grocery store every day with a couple clipboards. Out of 12,000 signatures we ended up getting I was responsible for over 1500. Community action works.
aring981
test
Pilgrymm
1 2 1 2
regicidalveggie
Leslie knope?
Pilgrymm
Haha I wish.
Bigblackdick69
Bigblackdick69
masteryoplait
Wow, that is fantastic
Pilgrymm
To be fair there were a LOT of us that wanted it and the only opposition to the park was some horrible "environmentalist" group that didn't actually care about the environment. More like Nimby's using EIP's like a weapon.
masteryoplait
Oh yeah I’ve seen a ton of nimbys claiming environmental concerns to just keep their privileged position.
Pilgrymm
The park had a disc golf course attached and they were concerned that we would hurt the trees with the disc's. There were also some bog area with endangered micro-organisms but we had no plans to mess with those areas. Didn't stop them from bringing it up tho
sapphireDerivative
Lol, do they think disc golfers play with buzzsaws? What the heck.