Over recent months most of my non-work attention has been redirected from purely political issues to more local Town oriented work.
Local involvement was an total accident for me. I didn't plan it. Back last winter things started to happen with our growing County's land use plans and I did not particularly like what I was seeing. Being a resident of a small town in the part of my county that's been experiencing massive growth over the last ten years, I tried to get appointed to a county wide committee as a representative of our Town.
Naive? Absolutely.
Needless to say, that didn't work out, but it opened other doors.
The contacts I made in that effort dropped me into a place where I could get a real life education on how local government works and how it's managed.
The manager of our town and a council member asked if I'd be interested in joining the Downtown Development Association (DDA). My mother has had art galleries in various small downtowns for the last 30 years, so I was familiar with the concept of a DDA and I jumped at the chance. The Downtown coordinator asked me to apply. I did. I think I got accepted because I said I'd
"... be happy to chair one of the four DDA sub-committees."
Naive again? Slightly.
Intimidating? Yep.
Way cool? Absolutely!! :)
So now I go to DDA meetings, Economic Restructuring Committee meetings, Town Council meetings when I can, I'm reading all kinds of new stuff, studying up on small business management, and I'm learning how to support, retain and recruit small businesses, retailers, entrepreneurs, service professionals, restaurants and loyal customers to the charm and beauty of Main Street.
What I've seen and learned in the past year has given me a great deal of respect and appreciation for the work and service of local government.
I'm still involved in the local Dem Party and I'm totally excited about the 2008 election season here in NC and participating in boots on the ground campaigning with that (I joined the party AFTER the 2004 election), but working on a Town advisory board has really opened my eyes to the importance of good, smart, independently minded people in government, no matter their Party affiliation. Good smart people gets us good policy, innovation, the common good, stewardship, effective public management and good decision making at the local level. That positively affects our day to day lives in huge ways, and if it's done right, smart, innovative local management can work to fix bigger issues on the state and national level ... from the ground up.
"How's that," you ask?
Well, let me give you one small little example ...
Our friend, Linda Cockman (at the Pilot blog, Progressive Discussions) posted information about the Southeast Regional Conference on Mega-Dumps, Nuclear Power & Sewage Sludge. [h/t lcloud]
I wrote a comment there that sparked this post today. Here it is and it contains the small little example I promised.
This sounds like a great conference, Linda. Reducing the volume of trash we send to our landfills all over America is absolutely necessary. I think the most efficient way to reduce waste is at the local level. One thing Clayton in Johnston County is doing is putting a REAL recycling program in place. Those little uncovered recycling containers worked for a while, but they are a serious pain in the butt. Clayton residents will soon be able to recycle all the usual stuff like newspapers, glass, plastic milk jugs and soda bottles, alum. & metal cans -- but beginning January 1 we'll also be able to recycle catalogs, phone books, cereal box cardboard, corrugated cardboard, office paper, junk mail and plastics numbered 3-7. But the BEST thing is that we're getting new big 64 gallon covered roll-to-the-curb containers! I'm very excited about that. Wake Forest recently did the same thing and they saw their recycling rates skyrocket. We expect the same to happen here in Clayton. (Props to Waste Management for getting on the stick and setting up these full recycling programs for small communities.)
These small changes to recycling programs small towns all over the country could reduce our waste by half and double resident participation. Clearly that's a big dream for the entire country, but it gets done Town by Town, citizen by citizen, Council member by Council member.
Some of y'all have been working at this politics stuff for a while and you know how important good local governance is. It's frustrating and even maddening sometimes, but it's worth effort. So to all of you who are now or have been or might want to get involved in local government and town, city and county management ...
Thank you.
And thanks for reading. I just wanted to share a tiny piece of how much good people can do when they are able to participate, speak up and make changes right where they live. Hopefully it encourages others to do the same.