Public planning's importance, our next training (nearer the beach!) and activism in summer, when progressives get some fresh air. All in the Weekly Memo... check it out.

Progressive Maryland weekly memo for Monday June 3 2019

Public planning is important – and so is diversity among those who are at the table. When only the wealthy make planning and development decisions, guess who doesn’t win?

MOCO PLANNING BOARD CANDIDATE FORUM TONIGHT

The LGBTQ Democrats of Montgomery County invite you to a public forum to hear from candidates for the Montgomery County Planning Board. The forum will be held on Monday, June 3, from 7:00pm – 8:30 PM at the Silver Spring Civic Center. 

The five-person Montgomery County Planning Board plays a major role in the land use decisions throughout Montgomery County––from zoning, building heights and density to creation of new parks and developments affecting the 1.1 million county residents.

There are two vacancies on the Planning Board and a total of 24 applicants. In June, the County Council will narrow the field of candidates and then select two appointees. 

BE INVOLVED IN THIS IMPORTANT DECISION – VET THE CANDIDATES AND THEN LET THE COUNCIL KNOW YOUR CHOICES.

Progressive Maryland is hosting a one-day Movement Leadership Training on June 15th.

At this training, you'll learn the basics of Progressive Maryland's organizing methodology. This training is for folks who are seriously interested in developing their personal leadership and building community power to improve collective living conditions. 

The training is $10 for members, $15 for non-members, and FREE for a small number of training volunteers. Click here to RSVP.

We want to empower passionate folks like you to have the skills and tools you need to change the political landscape in Maryland. 

The training will cover:

• How to build power
• How to have successful one on ones
• The nuts and bolts of learning others self-interests and how it helps you organize.

The training will be held in Salisbury, MD on Saturday, June 15th. Space is limited so RSVP today! If you have any questions feel free to reach out by email at [email protected].

Summer has officially begun – but our issues are still on the front burner. We work for environmental justice , reform of the criminal justice/policing system and cutting the school-to-prison pipeline, fair elections that loosen the grip of big money on our politics, and reform of the systems that keep our families trapped in poverty in the midst of wealth. Read more about our issues here.

OUR CHAPTERS AROUND THE STATE

Progressive Prince George’s

 PMD Montgomery

Frederick County Progressives

Take Action Anne Arundel County

Progressive Howard County

Talbot Rising

Lower Shore Progressive Caucus

PMD Baltimore

EVENTS FROM OUR PROGRESSIVE ALLIES

Wednesday, June 5 -- “Knock Down the House” documentary is a 2019 American documentary film about the primary campaigns of Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez, Amy Vilela, Cori Bush, and Paula Jean Swearengin, four progressive Democrats who ran in the 2018 election. At 6:30 PM, free, Busboys and Poets Hyattsville, 5331 Baltimore Ave, Hyattsville, Maryland, 20781. View Map

Thursday, June 6 – Progressive Cheverly Forum: “More Highway Lanes? Toll Roads?  Transportation Proposals and Alternatives” -- Nicholas Orrick, member of the Transportation Committee of the Sierra Club Maryland chapter will be speaking. ASL interpretation provided.  Light refreshments will be served. 7:00 - 9:00 PM Hoyer Education Center (cafeteria) 2300 Belleview Ave. (Parking available) Cheverly

Friday June 7 “Jazz Night at the ‘Lift – Funding In/fusion” Community Forklift fundraiser with music, food and drinks  6:00 - 8:00 PM Community Forklift 4761 Tanglewood Drive, Edmonston 20781

Sunday, June 9, “Toxic Contamination at Military bases: Another Threat to our Environment” 2:30 to 4:30 PM Presented by Pat Elder Adelphi Friends Meeting https://adelphifriends.org/directions/ 2303 Metzerott Road Adelphi, Maryland 20783

Monday, June 10 Reversing Global Warming: Introduction to Drawdown,  7:00 - 9:00 PM at the Connie Morella Library on Arlington Road, in Bethesda. The Environmental Sustainability Group at Bethesda Friends (Quaker) Meeting is sponsoring the workshop. Project Drawdown is a coalition of more than 200 researchers and other experts from 22 countries who have identified and modeled the 100 most substantive, already existing solutions for addressing global warming.

Saturday, June 15 United Democratic Women of Maryland Southern Region Luncheon -- Sartik's , 7670 Hawthorne Road La Plata, MD 20646. Guest speaker is Del. C.T. Wilson. Info and costs, email Karen Fennell.

 Baltimore progressives, Check in on Max Obuszewski’s highly useful activist calendar and tip sheet at http://baltimorenonviolencecenter.blogspot.com/

Reading the Progressive Maryland BlogSpace: our blogs for the previous week are shown below, but if you want a handy way to keep track – and never miss a blog post – you can sign up to get this Weekly Memo by email. Remember this is your blogspace and your participation is heartily invited. See something going on that you don’t like – or that you do like and hope to see more of? Send us your thoughts; submit to the moderator at [email protected]

We recently published these blog posts:

June 01, 2019 Weekender: Co-Governing Puts Us ‘In the Room Where It Happens’

Veteran Chicago and People's Action organizer Richard Hatch examines what the emerging strategy of "co-governance is coming to mean in practice:  co-governance means that once elected, officials will continue to listen to and actively work with our communities – rather than corporate lobbyists – to draft policies and move them forward, together. We don't vote and then turn our backs, and neither should the folks we vote into office. Thoughts for the first weekend of June, 2019 from Progressive Breakfast at People's Action.

May 31, 2019 Financial Setup of Hogan Toll Lane Plan Raises New Questions

Gov. Hogan's gauzy plans for a free Interstate upgrade courtesy of the slippery public-private partnership dodge has significant big risks for Maryland taxpayers written right into the contract documents, as transit activist Benjamin Ross outlines here in a Maryland Matters opinion article. All this free stuff may have a high price after all, and the Board of Public Works should definitely turn this scam down when it comes up next week.

May 29, 2019 What we don’t think about when we think of incarceration as a solution

If we think of incarceration as a solution to problems of criminal justice, we need to think about the whole picture, which amounts to a series of traps experienced by those who have "paid their debt to society." As we know, employers can still screen out criminal records with one check-box on the application -- and Gov. Hogan just last week vetoed a bill that would ban that practice. PM activist Dave Bazell gives a close-up picture of all the ways that a "debt to society" is very, very hard to completely satisfy, and how it affects poor and working families.

See also the Job Opportunities Task Force's detailed study of how Maryland carries out the "Criminalization of Poverty."

May 28, 2019 Progressive Maryland Weekly Memo for Tuesday, May 28, 2019

Summer begins but our issues are no less urgent. Read about Gov. Larry's trickle of vetoes, a petition to stop private police forces, and news of our activities and those of our progressive allies.

>>REMEMBER – these blog posts are frequently expressions of political opinion from our wide-ranging membership and circle of allies. They are not expressions of opinion by Progressive Maryland. Don’t be surprised if they sometimes vary in their political content. You might even disagree with them – a good reason to contribute a blog of your own. Send it to the moderator, Woody Woodruff, at [email protected].

>>Keeping up with the blogs is easier with the index. The blogs published in the PM BlogSpace from June 2015 through December 2016 are all available with descriptions and links here. You can follow blogs for 2017-18 starting from here