When Mrs. Chen’s Garden Met the Fire Hydrant Last month, I watched Mrs. Chen from three houses down argue with a city inspector about her vegetable garden. The inspector spoke only English. Mrs. Chen spoke only Mandarin. Her teenage granddaughter wasn’t...
The Tuesday Night Vote That Hit Your Wallet Last Tuesday at 7:47 PM, City Councilwoman Martinez made a motion that will add roughly $8 to your monthly water bill starting in January. The 4-3 vote funds repairs to the aging water...
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...
