Greenbelt Alliance supporters know elections matter. We’ve worked for decades on local ballot measures to protect our precious natural and working lands, to invest in affordable housing and conservation, to build an effective and accessible transit system.
This year we launched our Vote Climate Resilience campaign building on that legacy and our community and Bay Area voters showed up! We heard loud and clear that you want to support measures that do right for our planet, and that you are looking for more leadership to build a climate-resilient future. In fact, of the 9 ballot measures Greenbelt Alliance made recommendations on, we have officially won 7, and are hopeful on one still pending. A specific highlight is that the residents in the city of Sonoma protected critical open space by passing Measure W with an overwhelming majority—a campaign Greenbelt Alliance led and worked tirelessly on with the community and our partners to pass. Throughout the rest of the region we saw voters invest in public transit, natural and agricultural land protections, and urban green space. And though it’s still too close to call in San Mateo, we’re optimistic that the majority of voters chose to break down barriers to affordable housing, a major step in building an equitable, climate-smart community. We look forward to expanding our Vote Climate Resilience platform in future election cycles to continue to help Bay Area voters make informed choices about building a better future.
We’re also pleased to see conservation and climate action win voter approvals on local measures across the country. We were thrilled to see the successes of our colleagues at the Trust for Public Land in passing conservation measures around the country—approving nearly $3.7 billion in new funding for parks, climate resilience, and public lands. This funding includes a “climate sales tax” in Denver, CO for climate-related programs with an emphasis on maximizing investments in communities of color. We’ll be looking at these ideas and other innovative models for our future.
And last but not least, we stood riveted and inspired by President-Elect Joe Biden and Vice President-Elect Kamala Harris as they both called out bold climate action in their first speeches as leaders of this nation on the evening of Saturday, November 7. We have a critical window of opportunity to move quickly at a local, national, and international level to cut emissions and rebuild our economy for a greener future. Now is the time to come together to collaboratively face this challenge, and we’re starting with the CLEEN (Clean Economy Employment Now) best ideas project to amplify highly actionable clean economy job creation efforts at the federal level.
Elections matter, and our actions start with voting, but don’t end there. We look forward to building on these electoral victories to create a better future!
Photo: Katzz Meow via Flickr
