Dear community partners,
This was a big week for our advocacy efforts, and we are delighted to share several victories YOU made possible.
In local races, there are strong climate commitments represented among new members of the City of Grand Rapids and Kent County commissions. Because many of the incoming commissioners responded to our candidate questionnaires, we can hold them accountable in the term ahead. At the state level, Michigan saw strong turnout, delivering a Democratic trifecta for the first time in decades and giving reelected Gov. Gretchen Whitmer further mandate to improve on the MI Healthy Climate Plan. So, thank you for getting out the vote and being a Climate Voter!
Our other campaign this fall was to urge the Grand Rapids City Commission to prioritize climate in its 2023 budget. At yesterday’s budget prioritization workshop, armed with results of the greenhouse gas inventory that the City’s Office of Sustainability and Performance Management worked hard to obtain, the City Commission spent an hour of
the three-hour meeting discussing climate, environment, and waste reduction priorities. This would not have been possible without coalition supporters’ comments to their commissioners and community support behind this coalition as we presented an organized climate justice front to the Commission over the past 20 months. We look forward to further engagement with the City as it works to set community-wide goals. When we organize, we can help elected officials take stronger and more equitable climate action.
This week’s wins were only possible because of grassroots support. The
re will be more to unpack and strategize over in the weeks ahead—stay tuned—but for today: THANK YOU!
P.S. If you got one of our ‘Climate Voter’/'Voto Por Justicia Ambiental' lawn signs, 1) thank you! 2) please hang on to yours rather than throw them away since we expect there will be another opportunity to use them, and 3) please reply to this email if you have one so we can contact you in the future about opportunities to use your sign.