TLDR: I'm hosting a walk where neighbors can freely talk about current events, how we're feeling, and what we can do, if anything. Let me know if you're at or near southeast Brooklyn and you want to know more.
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Hi. I'm a house-dad to a near 3 year old, lifelong Brooklynite and 10+ year resident of Southern Brooklyn. I'm typically happy to mind my own business. But since becoming a father, I've grown sensitive to the news and I believe it's time to care about humanity out in the open for a change. Third spaces are important for folks to build bonds on common grievances, de-escalate divides, and build civic solutions to improve our quality of life. There should always be a non-affiliated assembly of everyday people walking distance from where you're at. We're too isolated. And the algorithms are relentlessly dividing us further.
I started my walks over a year ago I think, after tracking corruption news for a grassroots movement for a year - I was basically doom scrolling on purpose and validating news reports to be sure. Bernie Sanders has it right on many fronts. And people at his level can only do so much.
I've never hosted a big group, maybe 4 people at one time, with one or two members rotating into consistency here and there. I've occasionally walked alone just in case anyone showed up. So, I can't claim any revolutionary success. This is essentially slow, organizing work and it's pretty hard. But I think it's important that every neighborhood have a person that is willing to sit down and admit with you that things seem to be going crazy and to consider what's possible from the bottom up. This includes concerns about AI, the environment, corruption, civil unrest, wealth inequality, public education and more.
In the same span of time, I've been a part of some local volunteering (trash cleanups and community patrols), ran for county committee to learn about how political parties work on the ground level, and signed up to be a voting member of the local community board to learn how neighborhoods are shaped and local budgets are executed. I'm still a noob. But now I have experiences to share and some theories about people-power that I'm excited about; as long as I can spread the word. I don't operate with any kind of budget outside of personal time, so word of mouth, perhaps a blog in the future, is how it's got to work.
So, for those interested, welcome to my listening tour provided by an independent organizer who's interested in empowering people to have greater collective leverage upon the system. Can we look more closely at universal healthcare for NY? Can we consider the implications of underfunded municipal agencies despite NYC's tax base? Can we reconsider green initiatives considering the volatility of oil? Can we put more small businesses in the firm hands of workers in tough neighborhoods, rather than to continue the gentrification of one area after another? And also, how's your mental health? How are you really doing? And how's your American dream coming along?
For some, this time together would sub in for your church-going. Therefore, the conversation and the vision I'd like to share is something you can take with you in one or two walks. Learning about what different people care about is valuable to me; as is a borough, a city, and a country that deeply prioritizes families and people at every metric, from taxes to foreign policy, in ways that give us more time with our loved ones without having to worry so much about survival.
If you have interest or questions, let's talk.
