||| FROM NEW DEAL SAN JUAN ISLANDS |||
The San Juan Islands are like no place on earth. Our remarkable natural beauty is rivaled only by our tight-knit communities. San Juan County also has one of the more progressive voting blocks in the nation. Yet, with a few exceptions, we haven’t used it to make the powerful change we can. What if we enacted policies fully protecting our environment, taking bold climate action, building a strong, equitable economy, and ensuring our residents are treated with equality and respect? What if our County government powerfully represented our core values? We can make it happen.
Over the past few months, the COVID-19 crisis has been cruel and swift. As we moved to protect the health of our islands, we also felt devastating consequences. Schools, resorts, restaurants, small businesses, shops, and even the libraries closed, with hundreds of islanders losing their income entirely. While American unemployment reached its highest levels since the Great Depression around 15%, San Juan County’s soared to over 27%. Our food banks and other service organizations saw an over 200% increase in need and our beloved islands changed dramatically.
But many of us would argue that inequality was ravaging our communities before the virus. We have one of the most unequal economies in the United States: in 2017, real estate costs rose faster here than in any other County. And racial injustice around the nation has spotlighted inequity and division that dwells right here with us. Our problems are deep-seated.
While these crises hurt us, they also offer an opportunity to change our systems profoundly and permanently. Let’s use it: all it takes is harnessing our own power.
In the 2020 election, we’re not just choosing a President: we’re seating two County Councilmembers. These officials have the ability to take action on all the issues important to daily life. We’ve launched a website to recommend policies for these County Councilmembers to support on climate, plastics, agriculture, housing, and justice. We encourage you to contact our candidates to advocate for our suggestions– ensuring that whoever we elect will take visionary action.
Even though we’ve drafted ideas, New Deal San Juan Islands is a people’s movement, a work-in-progress. It is a starting point: participatory, collaborative, and open-ended. Already, we’ve researched the strongest global examples of bold policies, and we’ve also built off of the great work of the San Juan County Equity Coalition and the Vacation Rentals Working Group, and others. This must be a community-led conversation and always incorporate additional perspectives. Please share your vision for a New Deal on our website or Facebook page.
So let’s get to work and advance County policy that advocates for ourselves, our land, our neighbors, and our future. It’s time for a New Deal.
New Deal San Juan Islands is a policy project of the Madrona Institute. A team of Islanders working across disciplines helped jumpstart the website and assert policy goals. Visit newdealsanjuanislands.com for more information.
I’m fairly shocked that groups and organization continue to allow for Kevin Ranker to be included among their membership after he desecrated one of our local democratic institutions, took advantage of an employee that was his subordinate by having an extremely inappropriate relationship with them, and was shown to belittle and scream at people who disagreed with him or that he had power over.
Good luck on the image white washing tour, but some of us in the County won’t soon forget what this man perpetrated while being paid with the public’s money and I hope to never see him in a position of power again after he showed what he will do with it. Having him among your group only does damage to your cause. But apparently those things don’t matter to other people of power in our community if you’re friends with the right people, and you belong to the appropriate political party.
From their “About Us” link on the New Deal San Juans website:
“New Deal San Juan Islands is a Policy Project of the Madrona Institute. A team of islanders across disciplines helped jumpstart this initiative. They include Bella DeVaan, Bruce Gregory, Jeremiah (Jay) Julius, Kyle Loring, Chris Minney, Kevin Ranker, Sarah Severn, Melonie Walter and Ron Zee.”
I look forward to your statement of the problem. Thank you.
I would have paid more attention to this opinion if it had been signed by an individual or a list of individuals. As it is, can’t tell what’s really behind it.
Let’s see what’s on the table (I don’t see it on the website), and how each issue is proposed to be executed.
A context for the energy that may have led to the New Deal San Juan Islands is found at KeepSanJuansWild.org I am concerned that the thoughtful work done by NDSJI has not been developed via a broad community conversation on big picture issues within which NDSJI has developed ordinances.
The big picture view, created and legally adopted, is the SJC Vision Statement (see: https://www.sanjuanco.com/DocumentCenter/View/15824/2018-06-19_VIS_CC_Adopted_Vision_Clean). This statement is like the difference between “should” and “shall”; there is no requirement, no “shall”, that the Vision Statement be translated from a nice-sounding aspirational concept to ordinances that fulfill the vision statement. There never has been, regardless of the original comp plan’s statement (in the introduction to the CP) that the whole comp plan is designed to fulfill the vision statement, or the current comp plan introduction statement that the vision statement is the “north star” of the plan. Under the hood, tho, the legal reality makes a mockery of the aspirational desires of the community. FYI, the legal reality is in the UDC (these are the laws) and not the comp plan (these are the policies and goals).
There never has been any community conversation about how to define words or sentences in the vision statement and how, once defined, those terms can be honored by establishing them in law. No matter who is elected, it is up to the community to hold elected officials accountable to operationalize our collective future around values we have collectively created.