Every once in a while newspapers fill cover stories with breathless photos of mass movements and social revolutions, chipping away at systems and institutions.  More often, elected leaders step forward as the face of change by instituting policy wins, reforms or new programs.  Rarely do we hear about the actions of everyday people, working in their neighborhoods day in and day out so that change can take root.  Even more rare are examples where community-led organizing forges meaningful alliances with government collaborators to bring about urban social change.

In the fall of 2008, a groundswell of democratic action began to percolate through San Francisco’s Mission and Excelsior Districts.  On the eve of the District’s first supervisorial election, neighborhood residents and leaders came together to define a community agenda.  They organized a community forum to evaluate the eight candidates vying for election but instead of handing them the microphone, they asked the candidates to listen.

Meanwhile,  elite corporations and freewheeling government officials continued to hatch economic plans behind closed doors.   The dominant economic agenda excluded everyday people from decisions that affected their livelihood and their families.  Decades of underinvestment and failed economic development resulted in expoitative job conditions and economic hardship for neighborhood residents.

So one by one, neighborhood leaders, from high school youth to community elders stepped forward in the auditorium of Balboa High School in the Excelsior District to present their analyses of the crisis in affordable housing, the injustices faced by immigrants, the criminalization of youth, and the hollowing out of economic opportunities.  As active members in a coalition of community organizations, these leaders shared their first-hand expertise and time to become neighborhood policymakers.[i]  After listening to this powerful community platform, candidates were asked one by one to respond how they envisioned their term in office would support this community vision.  Afterwards, all attendees graded the candidates based on theır responses and the results were projected publicly at the conclusion of the forum.

Across young and old, in English, Spanish, Tagalog, and Chinese, a coalition of neighborhood leaders and organizations had joined forces to propose a different scenario – one in which everyday working people organize fiercely and develop creative solutions.  Organizations leading these efforts included PODER (People Organizing to Demand Environmental and Economic Rights) (www.podersf.org), the Filipino Community Center (www.filipinocc.org), Coleman Advocates for Children and Families (www.colemanadvocates.org), and later Chinese for Affirmative Action (www.caa.org).[ii]   These organizations successfully advanced both community and electoral organizing to bring the community’s vision one step closer to reality.

The people’s choice for District Supervisor, John Avalos, newly elected on the sweat of years of community and labor organizing, began to carry the community’s agenda in City Hall.  Years of budget deficits had brought City Hall to its knees, and new approaches were required to ensure government was resourced to meet the needs of the people.  Whereas some relied on the familiar adage of “the market will save us”, the Supervisor worked to “make our government serve us”.

This powerful synergy of community and electoral organizing was facilitated by a revision to the City Charter.  Back in 2000, the City’s Board of Supervisors had passed a landmark law enabling the election of district-elected representatives to the City’s Board of Supervisors.  In addition, the Elections Commission instituted a change to the voting system, enabling ranked-choice voting, and replacing the previous two-round system of elections.[iii]  These electoral reforms paved the way to bring in new, more progressively minded electoral leadership to both the Mission and Excelsior Districts.

The Excelsior District is a working class area with a very diverse population of immigrant families from Latin America, China, and the Filipines that has historically been under-served by the municipal government and under-invested by the municipal budgeting process.  Many similarities can be made with Istanbul’s Gazi neighborhood and Mustafa Kemal (previously May 1st) neighborhood in Istanbul’s Umraniye District.  In addition, the Mission District is a historically low income neighborhood that has served as a vibrant gateway to Latino immigrant communities.  It has been on the frontlines of economic forces that have led to gentrification and displacement of its working class residents.  In the last 15 years, City Hall policies, frenzied market-driven development, and an influx of well-paid technology workers have held this neighborhood hostage and caused the steady hemorraging of its cultural fabric and low income population.  Many similarities can be made with Istanbul’s Tarlabasi neighborhood in Beyoglu District.

Instead of echoing the dominant view of “letting private developers run the City and line their pockets”, the neighborhood leaders began to say “put the people in charge of planning their own communities”.  They believed that development should be something the community plans, rather than developers and the City’s public agencies imposing reckless development in their neighborhoods.  For too long, city government had stood by as developers built luxury condos in working class neighborhoods or sited polluting industries near homes and playgrounds.  Reckless decisions like these depleted the amount of affordable housing and resulted in the slow but steady displacement of low income families and people from the city.

Community groups geared up to sit at the decision-making table.  They galvanized around a key strategy – reclaiming municipally-owned land in their neighborhoods.   They took neighborhood ideas to City Hall, advocating for municipal agencies that own or exert control over lands to creatively redevelop these sites to meet the community’s needs.

Through a combination of community planning efforts, direct action organizing, and electoral initiatives, they forced city government to initiate community development on these parcels.  As a result, a new neighborhood park is in the works (at Folsom & 17th Street in the Mission District) and multiple affordable housing projects are being planned in the neighborhood (at the Balboa Park Station and 17th & Folsom Streets in the Mission & Excelsior Districts).  These sites are one step closer to being transformed into affordable housing villages, open spaces, and community projects.[iv]

But it didn’t stop there.  Neighborhood leaders reconized that straightforward community development was not enough to ensure that stakeholders maintained a long term voice over the decisions that affected their lives.  They emphasized that these community wins should be sustained long enough to impact future generations.  How could this be done?  Community organizations and progressive elected officials began to explore strategies to foster community based governance, authentic democratic action, and cooperative ownership.

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“We have grand aspirations to be part of a new economy.  We want to help create a system in which we know, from start to finish, who we are working with and how we are using our resources.”

—domestic workıer and student

[/one_half]Together, neighborhood leaders and their elected representative began to educate themselves about solidarity economy practices such as cooperative housing, time banks, worker centers, municipal banks, social enterprises, and participatory budgeting strategies.   Something remarkable happened.  Instead of community leaders and elected officials working in silos or in spite of each other, neighborhood solutions emerged from youth, elders, and everday immigrant women and men talking and planning together.  And they continued with the elected supervisor urging public agencies to step forward as strong partners, providing policy changes and public investments.

Today, these efforts are leading to the creation of community based assets shepherded by neighborhood leaders who are active producers in their local economy.  Through community based decision making, they are contributing to the management and well-being of their families and communities and investing in the resiliency of their local communities and neighborhoods.  Moreover, these efforts are supported by public investments, demonstrating how government can serve the people.

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“If I were the mayor, we would be a discoverer of talents in our neighborhoods.  Our communities may be economically poor, but we are rich with talents are too often underutilized.  Our city should harness our community’s talents to strengthen our infrastructure and create an equitable local economy.”

—grandmother and entrepreneur, originally for Puebla, Mexico

[/one_half]Whereas some say “bankers and bosses, investors and markets, they make the economy run”, the community began to say “community-based and worker-run puts the economy back in our hands”.  They spearheaded efforts to redefine how public investments strengthen workers and communities.  Through solid community based research and policy advocacy, they successfully secured commitments from city agencies to invest in programs to create local jobs, protect workers’ rights, invest in worker and community cooperatives, and provide training in careers that strengthen and rebuild their communities.

Soon a youth-led urban farming initiative on publicly owned lands emerged, and a worker cooperative formed from the local talents of everyday immigrant workers.  Organizing and advocacy efforts strengthened workers’ ability to defend and protect their workplace rights.  And neighborhood groups advocated and successfully secured commitments from the city budget to ensure summer job opportunities for undocumented immigrant youth.

Whereas some might say “maximize production and profits, workers and the planet be damned.”  These efforts prove that what is needed is to “restore health and home, honor work and land.” Embedded in the grassroots organizing that led to these wins is the need to rewrite the rules, build new institutions, and regain control of the decisions that affect the lives of everyday people.  And a recognition that often the best policy makers come from our very own neighborhoods.

This article includes excerpts from: Sowing Seeds, Growing Justice, Restoring Community. How PODER Members are Building A New Economy Now