Cville Dems

The Charlottesville Democratic Committee

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REPORT: June 2nd Summer Bash Fundraiser (Featuring Rural GroundGame’s Lynlee Thorne)

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Fundraising Committee Chair Nancy Damon and her group (we thank them all for their great work on this!) gave us this recap of a very fun and successful event (even the weather cooperated!):
We had about 150 people come out to socialize, meet the candidates, and hear our speaker Lynlee Thorne, Rural GroundGame’s Political Director.
Big thanks to:
  • Our 60+ sponsors, at all levels, whose generosity makes all our work possible!
  • Our primary food vendor Soul Food Joint (for the chicken and sides and all their table and chair hauling/set-up/takedown), and to Sticks and Mona Lisa Pasta for some of the vegetarian dishes.
  • To Black Bear Composting for… composting!
  • To everyone who pitched in to help with the cleanup, which included delivering our excess to The Haven, which they greatly appreciated.
It worked out very nicely having Lynlee speak; we got lots of compliments about her organization’s good and important work, and our arranging the chance for them to learn more about it.
As Lynlee explained in her talk, Rural GroundGame (RGG) is a Political Action Committee that provides in-kind assistance to Democratic candidates running in rural areas across the Commonwealth. Our party has tended to neglect rural voters, and that has hurt us badly, especially in state-wide elections. RGG helps candidates in many ways (e.g. supporting canvassing efforts, media coordination), and it’s developing a new online platform and research arm.
For more information about RGG, to make a donation, or to see how you might be able to plug in as a volunteer or collaborator, visit www.ruralgroundgame.org.
                
                 

Draft Zoning Ordinance

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Horizontally-oriented graphic reading "Community Forums" in a yellow handwriting-looking script and "Long-Range Planning" in a standard print font surrounded by a white background and an abstract geometric design
As the City continues to discuss the draft Zoning Ordinance (all three modules are now available), a Cville Dems working group continues discussing how our party might contribute to the process by acting as an additional information channel. If you have thoughts on the matter, please reach out to us: communications@cvilledems.org .
Note: Cville Plans Together is holding a Module 3 open house at CitySpace 4:30-7:30pm on Wednesday, June 14. Members of our working group are planning to attend, please join us!

Cville Dems Zoning Plan Informational Forum is a GO!

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Horizontally-oriented graphic reading "Community Forums" in a yellow handwriting-looking script and "Long-Range Planning" in a standard print font surrounded by a white background and an abstract geometric design

The Cville Dems will host a post-primary informational forum, likely a late summer or early fall in-person event, about the City’s upcoming Draft Zoning Plan (all three mdoules are now available). Our party hasn’t taken a position on the issue yet.
A planning group has started meeting to organize the forum and would like to know:
  1. What issues are you most interested in (e.g. affordable housing, parking, density requirements, trees and environmental impacts)?
  2. What are some of the takeaways and/or fears people have shared with you (in person or online)?
  3. If you’d like to join our group!
For any or all of these, please reach out to us: communications@cvilledems.org .

New Organization Profile: “Rally PVCC”

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A new student political organization is forming at PVCC!
PVCC student Mara Cox took a “Women in American History” course from Prof. Jennifer Tomas in Fall 2022 and, in a class discussion, was really surprised how many of her classmates didn’t realize there was an election coming up that year (didn’t follow current events much at all). Though political decisions impact almost every aspect of students’ lives, from housing costs and food insecurity to health care and transportation, and understanding of the world, most of her classmates were intimidated by politics and political discussion. And in an unrelated Geology Club author event,  Timefullness author Marcia Bjornerud emphasized that addressing climate change and other challenges requires scientists to get involved in politics, and politicians willing to learn and value science.
Putting those two threads together, Mara decided to plunge into political work herself, and that was the beginning of Rally PVCC.
Photo of the founders of Rally PVCC: Emily Moss, Mara Cox, and Justin Roberts
Founding officers of Rally PVCC: (L-R) Emily Moss, Mara Cox, and Justin Roberts
Though the club will be welcoming to all, the three founding officers all personally fall on the progressive end of the political spectrum:
        • Mara Cox (co-President) – Mara, now 33, was working in the food service industry before illness and pandemic boredom led her to start reading about evolution, which led to a passion for geology that brought her to college (at age 31) to study geology and hopefully go on to teach geology at the community college level. She started the Geology Club at PVCC, which is now the most popular student club on campus!
        • Justin Roberts — Justin is a member of Charlottesville DSA who’s done anti-eviction work with its Housing Justice Committee (canvassing tenants facing eviction, court watch, etc.). That work, particularly talking 1:1 with the housing insecure, has galvanized his desire to build working power in Cville. He’ll be attending VCU in the fall.
      • Emily Moss (co-President) — Emily was born and raised on California’s Central Coast, where she was active in local politics. She previously attended design school and worked in product design and brand/media consulting, but her passions for climate justice, human rights advocacy, and politics in general have led her to “switch gears”; she’s attending PVCC to earn general credits to transfer to UVA and then plans to attend law school!
      The group is now chartered by PVCC, with Prof. Tomas as faculty advisor. They’re planning to hold an event in late April or early May (maybe even a City Council candidate forum!?), while school is still in session, to build some momentum for a big launch soon after Fall semester begins.
      Their focus over the past 5 months has been soliciting opinions from other students about the mission and structure of the organization. That process is still ongoing, but a general concept has started to gel; a club without partisan labels, litmus tests, or any set agendas that would help educate students about political issues and encourage students to become more civically engaged in their communities (Charlottesville) and in the political process. To do this, the club would be a safe space where any student who was interested in learning more about issues could come and engage with other students (and potentially outside community members) in a safe space.
      Please reach out to Rally PVCC at rallypvcc@gmail.com if:
      • you or a friend/family member might be interested in keeping informed about their events and programs
      • if you’d be willing to act as a community resource for them (e.g. as a potential speaker, or advisor to students in an area you’re knowledgeable about, etc.)
      The Cville Dems are looking forward to working with these very sharp and energetic founders to help build a vibrant student organization at PVCC. We’re confident that, as its members learn more the serious issues we’re all confronting, they’ll find themselves largely aligned with Democratic Party values and policy prescriptions.
      Note– shoutout to PVCC student Torrance Malone for connecting us with this group!

Interested in an Informational Forum on the City’s Zoning Plan?

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Horizontally-oriented graphic reading "Community Forums" in a yellow handwriting-looking script and "Long-Range Planning" in a standard print font surrounded by a white background and an abstract geometric design
At the March 27 Full Committee meeting, we continued discussing whether to sponsor an informational forum about the City’s upcoming Draft Zoning Plan (Modules #1 and #2 of 3 are now available) on which our local party hasn’t taken a position. We did an informal straw poll at the meeting and a significant majority voted to hold a forum.
So far, most of the informational events have either been the City presenting the plan or presentations from local activist group Livable Cville; there’s not been an event where people can hear perspectives from multiple stakeholders.
We’re thinking that, in addition to being useful in and of itself, such an event can be part of our agenda of increasing outreach to the community. Working class and minority families are increasingly being priced out of the local housing market, and they need to know that we hear and share their concerns.
This will be on the agenda for the 4/24 Executive Committee meeting, so we want to check one more time to see:
  1. Would you like to see this kind of multiple stakeholder panel/forum on the Draft Zoning Plan?
  2. If so, what groups/people would you be most interested in hearing from?
  3. Any other thoughts about this that you’d like to share with us?
Please send your thoughts to cvilledemschair@gmail.com .
More broadly on the topic of community outreach: we’re always looking for ideas and projects to increase our involvement in our community, and we would love to hear from you about what we can do in that regard (e.g. each newsletter issue now identifies a possible action item that’s relatively quick and easy for people to engage with). Please send any ideas or suggestions for anything else related to community engagement: cvilledemschair@gmail.com . Thank you!