“Right now the dominant narrative of our climate future focuses on the inevitability of apocalypse. Instead, we have to start talking about the inevitability of a better world. By explicitly focusing on aspirational futures, we make them more likely to actually happen.”
– Eric Holthaus in The Future Earth: A Radical Vision for What’s Possible in the Age of Warming
Negative campaigns don’t work.
I don’t mean that candidates playing dirty don’t get elected. They do.
Here’s one example: a few weeks ago a candidate stood on my front porch to, presumably, secure my vote. Because Hartford is a small town and we all know each other, or their daughters, their cousins, their dog’s best friends, I made the requisite small talk I wouldn’t have given to the paid door knockers. (They would have been quickly told yes/no if I would be voting for that candidate and wished a good evening) I expected to be asked what issues mattered to me. Isn’t that what candidates seek to learn when going door-to-door? This was never asked. I wanted to know what he had already accomplished, seeing as how he held this office previously. Instead of providing me with 3-5 quick wins, like I expected, he sharply criticized an opponent, claiming she was not showing up for meetings. I picked at that accusation, and then he said she was only attending meetings virtually. That was where he lost my vote.
Virtual attendance is attendance. Technology allows people to more fully participate when they otherwise may have been shut out due to disabilities, due to the premature lifting of public mask wearing, due to childcare or elder care arrangements. I was stunned to hear someone, progressive in a few ways, lean into the old ways so hard, voice this perspective that would exclude many from civic engagement.
Unofficial tallies have him beating this opponent by a mere four votes. There will be a recount. That’s days away from now. Whatever the official and final vote tally is, a lead so small that an automatic recount is triggered is not a mandate.
But more than that, I will know him as the kind of person who wants to uphold a culture that did not and does not work for many folks. That is not a win.
This shows someone locked into the status quo that many of us hoped would be rewritten post-Corona. When it comes to leadership — those who have been entrusted to make change — I expect more future-oriented perspectives. When it comes to leadership, I seek out those who are willing to get creative and take risks. I want ordinances passed and budgets designed and approved by folks who have vision and are not afraid to make bold moves.
His was not by any means the only local campaign filled with bad vibes. Most of those challenging the now Mayor-Elect sought to cut him down instead of highlight what they planned to do. Interestingly, I overheard a mayoral candidate talking to someone in a parking lot about how he wants the entire workforce to return to their offices in downtown Hartford on a full-time basis. Again, another person out of touch with how technology can be a benefit to those with varying abilities and life situations. Instead of hoping that the suburban workers who leave at 5 PM will return to the downtown (and Asylum Hill) towers, we could focus on adding more of a range of housing, improving transit, and working on the other elements that make a place attractive for living in. I am over the whole practice of people earning money here and then spending most of it in the suburbs or exurbs where they live. We can stop bailing out major employers and spend our energy instead on how to make the city more livable for people. In some cases, this very well might look like converting now vacant office space into apartments. The world we are moving toward should look different from the one that changed overnight in 2020.
Some of us were likely raised in households of negativity, for whatever reason. Maybe those who were supposed to be the adults in the room simply were not. Maybe there was addiction. Abuse. Maybe there was constant anxiety from those with pressing worries about poverty, or fears rooted in residual trauma from their own legitimately stressful childhoods.
But as adults, we all get to choose who we are going to be. We can break away from those kind of trapped mindsets. We don’t have to believe that everyone is only out for themselves. We can step out of that limiting framework, take a few breaths, and look around. That’s not to say it’s a smooth process or easy, just that it is more than possible. We should question what we were taught growing up and consider how much of that information is helpful, or harmful, to us now. We can decide on other ways to be.
It is freeing when one can move into the space to articulate what they want, rather than merely react to what they fear or dislike.
In the ongoing battle over values in neighboring West Hartford, the recent spat has been between those who want safe streets to move on and those who have adopted the scarcity mindset. Despite years of evidence and examples showing that areas with Complete Streets (bike lanes, appropriately-wide sidewalks, etc.) that center humans rather than cars thrive, some merchants are angsty about how making it safer and easier for people to walk and roll, and cycle closer to their stores might impact the bottom line. It becomes sillier when you know how plentiful parking is in the Center. To laugh harder, all you need to know is that there are multiple bus routes that deliver people to the Center, including at the end of the road in question. It is less than a one-minute walk from a bus stop to one of the stores owned by someone upset about these plans. The other vocal safety opponent is a mere two minute walk from that bus stop. It seems that the shop owners could do their share to appeal to those who use public transit, promote the bus, and partner with CTtransit/CTfastrak/CTrides to help with messaging.
There have been the usual complaints waged about how the government left people out of the process — a process that is needlessly bogged down because the government has to hear out those who have not been educated on the matter. It would make everything easier if a few good local reporters devoted ink to how again and again it’s shown that installing bike lanes helps businesses. It would help if government was proactive in giving this information to residents and business owners.
The upset is not necessarily anything more than a few business owners feeling their feelings. Good leadership would move ahead with what they know needs to be done.
Over the last few years I have heard various people complain about the current mayor of Hartford, in real grudge-holding and unproductive ways. While politicians should be held accountable and are absolutely open to critique in ways that private individuals should usually not be, there is a line between purposeful criticism and just being a crabby hater. And everyone has the right to the latter, but work through those feelings in your diary. . . don’t bring that energy draining attitude around here. Because the first thing I will ask is this: what the hell do you actually want?
There are two places I am going with this.
The first is that Hartford’s Mayor-Elect has an easy contact form on his website where residents can advise Arunan on the issues that matter to them. It’s an opportunity to figure out what you would like and to communicate that with someone (well, someone plus his team) who can potentially work on making it happen.
Those who have aggressively expected the worst from Bronin could wipe their slate clean and try a different approach going forward. Instead of looking for something to grump about, they could start by articulating a vision for Hartford. “I don’t want people dying on the streets” doesn’t say what a person does want. Do we want young people to feel like loved and respected members of the community? Do we want people to have stable and affording housing in healthy buildings? Do we want everyone, regardless of income, to be housed and feel cared for? Articulate the things we want.
Then, there’s the leadership.
In a recent episode of the podcast The War On Cars, Mayor John Bauters of Emeryville, California talked about how he has been able to already begin to transform housing and transportation in his short tenure. Every candidate should give this a listen. Every elected leader, whether they are incoming or have held the position for 30 years, should listen, and listen again each year they are in office.
John Bauters, in talking with other leaders, asks people who say they want to make change what kind of political will they have. He says, “Are you willing to lose reelection over it? […] When you’ve decided the answer to that question is ‘yes’, you will be able to do whatever you want.”
“When we talk about building political will, it starts with a question of ‘why am I doing this? why did I run for office? what was I trying to accomplish?'”
It’s important for candidates to reflect on their own motives, and take note if these have changed. If you pay attention to enough elections, you can suss out who is running for the right reasons and who has less noble ones. You can discern those who’ve wrapped up their identity so tight around this idea of themselves as a politician, clinging to power or running for office again and again despite not having developed much of a resume to warrant either.
In the podcast episode, Bauters says “Among my values is to be transparent, to be accountable, to be compassionate.” Right now, that shows in how he acts in office, how he conducts himself online. Hopefully, for the residents of Emeryville, this will be consistent until it is time for him to move on.
It’s not outrageous to ask of our local politicians the same: be consistent, compassionate, accountable, and transparent. Be interested in our collective future.
Climate Possibilities is a series about climate mitigation, along with resilience, resistance, and restoration. It’s about human habitat preservation. It’s about loving nature and planet Earth, and demanding the kind of change that gives future generations the opportunity for vibrant lives. Doomers will be eaten alive, figuratively. All photographs are taken in Hartford, Connecticut unless stated otherwise.
Futures
“Right now the dominant narrative of our climate future focuses on the inevitability of apocalypse. Instead, we have to start talking about the inevitability of a better world. By explicitly focusing on aspirational futures, we make them more likely to actually happen.”
– Eric Holthaus in The Future Earth: A Radical Vision for What’s Possible in the Age of Warming
Negative campaigns don’t work.
I don’t mean that candidates playing dirty don’t get elected. They do.
Here’s one example: a few weeks ago a candidate stood on my front porch to, presumably, secure my vote. Because Hartford is a small town and we all know each other, or their daughters, their cousins, their dog’s best friends, I made the requisite small talk I wouldn’t have given to the paid door knockers. (They would have been quickly told yes/no if I would be voting for that candidate and wished a good evening) I expected to be asked what issues mattered to me. Isn’t that what candidates seek to learn when going door-to-door? This was never asked. I wanted to know what he had already accomplished, seeing as how he held this office previously. Instead of providing me with 3-5 quick wins, like I expected, he sharply criticized an opponent, claiming she was not showing up for meetings. I picked at that accusation, and then he said she was only attending meetings virtually. That was where he lost my vote.
Virtual attendance is attendance. Technology allows people to more fully participate when they otherwise may have been shut out due to disabilities, due to the premature lifting of public mask wearing, due to childcare or elder care arrangements. I was stunned to hear someone, progressive in a few ways, lean into the old ways so hard, voice this perspective that would exclude many from civic engagement.
Unofficial tallies have him beating this opponent by a mere four votes. There will be a recount. That’s days away from now. Whatever the official and final vote tally is, a lead so small that an automatic recount is triggered is not a mandate.
But more than that, I will know him as the kind of person who wants to uphold a culture that did not and does not work for many folks. That is not a win.
This shows someone locked into the status quo that many of us hoped would be rewritten post-Corona. When it comes to leadership — those who have been entrusted to make change — I expect more future-oriented perspectives. When it comes to leadership, I seek out those who are willing to get creative and take risks. I want ordinances passed and budgets designed and approved by folks who have vision and are not afraid to make bold moves.
His was not by any means the only local campaign filled with bad vibes. Most of those challenging the now Mayor-Elect sought to cut him down instead of highlight what they planned to do. Interestingly, I overheard a mayoral candidate talking to someone in a parking lot about how he wants the entire workforce to return to their offices in downtown Hartford on a full-time basis. Again, another person out of touch with how technology can be a benefit to those with varying abilities and life situations. Instead of hoping that the suburban workers who leave at 5 PM will return to the downtown (and Asylum Hill) towers, we could focus on adding more of a range of housing, improving transit, and working on the other elements that make a place attractive for living in. I am over the whole practice of people earning money here and then spending most of it in the suburbs or exurbs where they live. We can stop bailing out major employers and spend our energy instead on how to make the city more livable for people. In some cases, this very well might look like converting now vacant office space into apartments. The world we are moving toward should look different from the one that changed overnight in 2020.
Some of us were likely raised in households of negativity, for whatever reason. Maybe those who were supposed to be the adults in the room simply were not. Maybe there was addiction. Abuse. Maybe there was constant anxiety from those with pressing worries about poverty, or fears rooted in residual trauma from their own legitimately stressful childhoods.
But as adults, we all get to choose who we are going to be. We can break away from those kind of trapped mindsets. We don’t have to believe that everyone is only out for themselves. We can step out of that limiting framework, take a few breaths, and look around. That’s not to say it’s a smooth process or easy, just that it is more than possible. We should question what we were taught growing up and consider how much of that information is helpful, or harmful, to us now. We can decide on other ways to be.
It is freeing when one can move into the space to articulate what they want, rather than merely react to what they fear or dislike.
In the ongoing battle over values in neighboring West Hartford, the recent spat has been between those who want safe streets to move on and those who have adopted the scarcity mindset. Despite years of evidence and examples showing that areas with Complete Streets (bike lanes, appropriately-wide sidewalks, etc.) that center humans rather than cars thrive, some merchants are angsty about how making it safer and easier for people to walk and roll, and cycle closer to their stores might impact the bottom line. It becomes sillier when you know how plentiful parking is in the Center. To laugh harder, all you need to know is that there are multiple bus routes that deliver people to the Center, including at the end of the road in question. It is less than a one-minute walk from a bus stop to one of the stores owned by someone upset about these plans. The other vocal safety opponent is a mere two minute walk from that bus stop. It seems that the shop owners could do their share to appeal to those who use public transit, promote the bus, and partner with CTtransit/CTfastrak/CTrides to help with messaging.
There have been the usual complaints waged about how the government left people out of the process — a process that is needlessly bogged down because the government has to hear out those who have not been educated on the matter. It would make everything easier if a few good local reporters devoted ink to how again and again it’s shown that installing bike lanes helps businesses. It would help if government was proactive in giving this information to residents and business owners.
The upset is not necessarily anything more than a few business owners feeling their feelings. Good leadership would move ahead with what they know needs to be done.
Over the last few years I have heard various people complain about the current mayor of Hartford, in real grudge-holding and unproductive ways. While politicians should be held accountable and are absolutely open to critique in ways that private individuals should usually not be, there is a line between purposeful criticism and just being a crabby hater. And everyone has the right to the latter, but work through those feelings in your diary. . . don’t bring that energy draining attitude around here. Because the first thing I will ask is this: what the hell do you actually want?
There are two places I am going with this.
The first is that Hartford’s Mayor-Elect has an easy contact form on his website where residents can advise Arunan on the issues that matter to them. It’s an opportunity to figure out what you would like and to communicate that with someone (well, someone plus his team) who can potentially work on making it happen.
Those who have aggressively expected the worst from Bronin could wipe their slate clean and try a different approach going forward. Instead of looking for something to grump about, they could start by articulating a vision for Hartford. “I don’t want people dying on the streets” doesn’t say what a person does want. Do we want young people to feel like loved and respected members of the community? Do we want people to have stable and affording housing in healthy buildings? Do we want everyone, regardless of income, to be housed and feel cared for? Articulate the things we want.
Then, there’s the leadership.
In a recent episode of the podcast The War On Cars, Mayor John Bauters of Emeryville, California talked about how he has been able to already begin to transform housing and transportation in his short tenure. Every candidate should give this a listen. Every elected leader, whether they are incoming or have held the position for 30 years, should listen, and listen again each year they are in office.
John Bauters, in talking with other leaders, asks people who say they want to make change what kind of political will they have. He says, “Are you willing to lose reelection over it? […] When you’ve decided the answer to that question is ‘yes’, you will be able to do whatever you want.”
“When we talk about building political will, it starts with a question of ‘why am I doing this? why did I run for office? what was I trying to accomplish?'”
It’s important for candidates to reflect on their own motives, and take note if these have changed. If you pay attention to enough elections, you can suss out who is running for the right reasons and who has less noble ones. You can discern those who’ve wrapped up their identity so tight around this idea of themselves as a politician, clinging to power or running for office again and again despite not having developed much of a resume to warrant either.
In the podcast episode, Bauters says “Among my values is to be transparent, to be accountable, to be compassionate.” Right now, that shows in how he acts in office, how he conducts himself online. Hopefully, for the residents of Emeryville, this will be consistent until it is time for him to move on.
It’s not outrageous to ask of our local politicians the same: be consistent, compassionate, accountable, and transparent. Be interested in our collective future.
Climate Possibilities is a series about climate mitigation, along with resilience, resistance, and restoration. It’s about human habitat preservation. It’s about loving nature and planet Earth, and demanding the kind of change that gives future generations the opportunity for vibrant lives. Doomers will be eaten alive, figuratively. All photographs are taken in Hartford, Connecticut unless stated otherwise.
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