Maria’s Map and the Missing Pieces Maria Gonzalez spreads a hand-drawn map across the counter of her corner market every Tuesday morning at 8:15 AM. It’s not a treasure map, though it might as well be. Each X marks a small...
The Problem Nobody Wanted to Talk About Last spring, Main Street looked rough. Really rough. Between the pandemic closures and the new strip mall out by the highway, we’d lost six businesses in eighteen months. The remaining shop owners were barely...
When Planning Meant Planning, Not Producing Remember when the neighborhood block party meant Carol borrowed folding tables from the church, Jim brought his ancient grill that only worked if you kicked it twice, and everyone just showed up with whatever they...
Start Where People Already Are Maria Torres didn’t set out to become a housing advocate. She just wanted the broken streetlight outside her apartment fixed. Six months and twelve phone calls later, she was standing in front of the city planning...
The Fight Nobody Saw Coming Remember when the biggest controversy at city council was whether to allow food trucks downtown? Those were simpler times. Last Tuesday’s meeting ran until 10:47 PM because of one agenda item: the proposed bike lane on...
When Maria Started Counting Cigarette Butts Maria Gonzalez keeps a small notebook where she tracks things most people ignore. Last Tuesday’s entry: “47 cigarette butts, 3 fast food containers, 1 broken chair.” She’s been documenting the debris in the vacant lot...
