Local Politics

[genuinegirly]

How interested are you in local politics?

Do you know everything there is to know about who is running for your city council or school board?
How about your mayor - do you know the margin by which they won? Or perhaps they're not elected, do you know how your mayor came to office?
If you live in a small town or suburb, are you more interested in the nearest large city's politics?
Do you find local politics more interesting or influential than national politics?
Is there anything with your local politics that has driven you up the wall in the past year?
Does the current presidential campaign distract you from local politics?

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I thought of starting this thread because McCain's vice presidential candidate Palin has shown us that in a small state like Alaska, local politics start to matter. She started off on the city council of the tiny Wasilla (population 7,025) and worked her way up to governor within a relatively short amount of time. Honestly, it seems fairly shocking to me that she could rise out of nothing like this. There are probably other stories like this that I'm not aware of.


I have started speaking more about local politics with friends and acquaintances, to see how much they know and care. I tend to think that local politics has more impact on my everyday life than national politics. You'd be shocked what big issues you can bring up and change life for the better locally- hot topics that cannot be dealt with nationally due to lack of consensus. There seems to be less red tape on the local scale, and it's easier to come to a consensus.

Recently my city passed an ordinance against smoking in outdoor places where children might be present. This includes restaurant patios, parks, shopping centers, city streets, and so on. This has ban was put in place to essentially limit smoking to personal residences. I am not a smoker, but I think this is an extreme measure. When I have mentioned this smoking ban in conversation with friends and acquaintances who live in my town, they aren't aware of the ban.

In our city, we have a small city council that meets weekly. The mayor position rotates between city council members. The city council is elected. Their meetings are public, and are aired on public television. Community members who attend city council meetings are given 2 minutes to speak on a topic if they sign up in advance. City council meetings stretch on for hours. Most community members do not attend a city council meeting unless they catch wind that there is something to be discussed that directly affects their way of life.

I find city politics interesting, but I do not keep track of the names of everyone involved. Those who are elected tend to prove themselves more harsh than I anticipate, often ignoring issues that community members bring to council meetings. I know nothing of the school board. I'd like to think that if I had kids, and they were attending a local school, I'd follow that as well.

[ratbastid]

No idea about city council--or where I live, neighborhood association.
Our governor won in a landslide about six months ago, and she's GREAT.
We'll have a new governor-elect after the election, and it could either be the Democrat who will really shake things up, or the Republican who is in the same pockets the last republican was in.

None of that has my attention or, I think, will affect my life as much as the national elections.

[dksuddeth]

i voted other, because it really depends on what the hot issues are at the time.

[shoegirl]

I'm definitely interested in local politics, but only because I work for the county I live in. When election time rolls around, the people who get elected can really make a difference in the work I do, especially the county commissioners.

But, even though I'm interested in local politics, I still prefer national politics. Usually more interesting.

[snowy]

I find them equally important. They impact my life in different but important ways. Local politics deserve attention too, in my mind. Of course, I live in a community where the values of said community are taken seriously by most of the people who live here, and maintaining those values means having an interest in local politics.

I know who my city councilman is. I know who the other city councilors are. I know who the mayor is, and know he won quite handily in the last election. He wasn't the candidate I voted for.

I read the local paper every day, plus the various blogs by the paper reporters, to keep me up-to-date on what's going on here in Corvallis.

And genuinegirly, we have a smoking ban, but it's an indoor smoking ban (like the statewide one where you live; we don't have a statewide ban here). The smoking ban here is an example of the positive impact city government can have. We're still one of the only cities in Oregon with an indoor smoking ban, though it has spread considerably. Portland still has no indoor smoking ban. We also have a zero-growth policy, meaning all of the development within city limits has to go before the City Council for approval. Given that one of our core community values is to promote and encourage small business, this is especially key. The Council often denies development that does not fit in with our long-term plans. However, they do make exceptions when there is an obvious service not available that is being proposed; for instance, they approved the development of a Home Depot, as we only have two tiny mom-and-pop hardware stores for a town of 50,000+. They've approved commercial development of a parcel of land at the south end of town as commercial services in general are lacking in that part of town.

We have a city council election going on right now, obviously; my councilman is up for reelection and I plan on reelecting him. Additionally, there are other seats up, but a number of councilors are running unopposed. One of the seats that is being contested I really hope goes in favor of one candidate over another. In a public forum last week, one of the candidates for this seat said he wanted to cut parks and rec services to save taxes. What?! Parks and rec are a cornerstone of our community; almost everyone I know takes advantage of their services, either by using the parks themselves, taking a parks and rec class, or playing parks and rec sports. Clearly, this guy does not belong on the Corvallis City Council, as he doesn't understand that a councilor doesn't represent his own interests; ideally, a councilor represents the interests of his constituents.

[Charlatan]

When I was in Toronto, I paid close attention to local politics. Now that I am not living there, I just keep a cursory eye on Toronto politics.

I can't vote where I live now and there hasn't been an election here that wasn't won buy the ruling party in all of the 44 years this country has existed. I don't see that changing any time soon.

[The_Jazz]

I keep an eye on no less than 4 locations - Chicago, the town I grew up in, one I lived in post-college and one that I do a lot of business in. But really Chicago is the one I follow closest.

I am a firm believer in "all politics are local". At the end of the day, people care most about getting the pothole in front of their house fixed and making sure that the kids down the block aren't having a noisy outdoor party at 3 am. Don't get me wrong - national and state politics are important too, but I think that they spring from local.

[roachboy]

i'm inclined the opposite way--i keep much closer track of international and national level politics than i do local politics. but that follows from what i'm interested in intellectually, really. in questions that get me in a more militant frame of mind, that reverses--organizing makes politics local, theory makes it bigger. the two are a loop.

at the moment, i live in a ridiculous little eastern massachusetts town on the ocean. i don't really know anyone, and in a place like this politics is mostly patronage so is mostly network-based. i spend alot of time thinking about microphones and the marsh and how to introduce them to each other, so i think that makes me a distracted fellow.