1st press conference/report from Durham
The first press conference was with elected Greens from across the nation. Included were David Doonan, Mayor of Grenwich Village in New York, Dave Bosserman, member of the Washington DC Neighborhood Advisory Committee, and Eugene Platt, Vice-Chair of the James Island Public Service District Commission in South Carolina. They ofered a wide array of experiences in elections and public service.
Some details can be read by clicking this article’s headline, but a full report will be difficult because of my rotator cuff repair surgery.
David Doonan said that one of his most important recomendations is to attend meetings of the body you hope to get elected to before running. By doing so he was able to learn the processes the city board used in running their meetings and making decisions.
He said that he had been able to get his city council to adopt a resolution in support of single-payer healthcare, adopting a resolution adopted earlier by the US Conference of Mayors.
He was elected to office 1 1/2 years ago. Many people told him that he would have a hard time winning office because he had moved to the area only a bit more than a decade earlier. He ignored that advice because others had won after living in the area for much less time. The town has about 1900 residents.
Doonan said that the community is in a very rural area which is undergoing a transition into a bedroom community as a near by community is about to become home to a large manufacturing concern expected to bring many new residents to the area. Doonan said that this is not a bone of contention for those already in the area.
Many of those in the area are dairy farmers. Doonan said that the city has decided to use a few acres owned by the town to develop a community garden. Two local farmers have offered to plow the land while others are doing other work to prepare the land for a spring planting. If this pilot project is sucessful, there are plans to work with the school board to turn several acres into a community farm, with produce used by the local school system as well as local food banks and food services for the community’s elderly.
The village has provided water to the garden from the community water system.
Doonan hopes to take the village into the electricity market with either a small scale wing farm or turning an abandoned dam into a hydro project. Funding for research into this and other community planning efforts has come from two grants totalling about $425,000.
The village has adopted a policy restricting store size to about 60,000 square feet, far less than the average “big box” store. He also said that while he campaigned actively as a Green, with all literature and websites promoting the Green Party, he believes most of the village’s voters don’t know or care that he is a Green. He said that most voters don’t care which party he is with, but with results and with knowing that their voices have been heard. Part of the process he uses to keep people satisfied with his efforts is being very accessable to the voters. He walks the streets for exercise and to keep him in touch with the community’s concerns.
More later.
