One Civic Act

Today, I took the afternoon off from work and watched the Joe Biden’s inauguration as the 46th president of the United States. It was the capstone that completed my journey to commit one civic act per day for four years. It’s something that I’ll never forget, just like Amanda Gorman at the ceremony today.

Today, I took part in the final session for the Rocky Mountain Institute’s Building Electrification Accelerator program. Great program with lots of peer sharing with advocates from other municipalities.

I have to admit that I spend a lot of time on Zoom these days, and it’s harder to continue that pace of videoconferencing. So I didn’t join a call of Somerville Alliance for Safe Streets (SASS) last night. But, today, I did catch up on SASS’s statement of purpose today and plugged into the outreach process going forward.

The Buy Nothing Somerville community has been enormously rewarding. I’m really grateful to have been an admin for three years now and to shepherd its monumental growth. Growth has its limits, however. Today, I built Buy Nothing Somerville (#2), a parallel group that will eventually take over as the new publicly facing Buy Nothing Somerville group. We’ll get our admins trained and launch the group soon.

On the Somerville Commission on Energy Use and Climate Change, we’ve spent the past month or so developing reports in working groups on the intersection of Covid-19 and climate change. Today, I edited the three reports into a single document.

A few days ago, the Charles River Watershed Association engaged the Mass Rivers Alliance to hold an informal discussion about how the alliance’s board engaged in development efforts. I wasn’t able to join live. Today, I watched a recording of the session and really appreciated the approachibility of the Mass Rivers Alliance board and development team members.

Today, I joined a media training held by the Climate Nexus, as part of the Rocky Mountain Institute’s Building Electrification Accelerator program.

Today, I joined the monthly meeting of Somerville’s Commission on Energy Use and Climate Change. We spent some time discussing a municipal resolution on gas prohibitions, as well as getting updates from the administration.

Today, I joined a call for the Charles River Watershed Association’s Governance Committee, where we spent some time talking about our nominating process and priorities.

Today, I joined the monthly meeting for the Climate Coalition of Somerville. It was our first meeting of the year and we took the time to reflect on our mission. Plus, we were joined by CAAS , who briefed us on the Lower Mystic Municipal Resilience Survey.

Today, I joined a Somerville Protest Against Evictions & Foreclosures , organized by CAAS and others. The Climate Coalition of Somerville cosponsored the event.

Back in 2018, I saw Boston City Councilor Michelle Wu speak at a Green Energy Consumers Alliance event . It was a moving and dynamic speech. Last summer, she announced her plan for a Boston Green New Deal and Just Recovery . Today, I made a donation to Michelle Wu’s campaign for Mayor.

Today, I joined a call organized by MCAN that brought together advocates from around the state who have been working on our better buildings campaigns. Still working on a specific campaign for the coming year, but it’s clear there’s a lot to do.

Today, I joined back to back community meetings held for two applicants hoping to open recreational cannabis dispensaries. They’re both within a hundred yards or so of my house, so it was important to hear what they had to say. After the two hearings, nothing particularly problematic emerged.

Today, I was interviewed by a DEI consultant, for one of the boards that I serve on. It was important to share my sense for where the organization is on its diversity, equity and inclusion journey, and it gave me a lot of confidence in the work the consultant is doing.

Today, I led a call for the Climate Reality Project’s Boston Metro chapter. It was a good call, oriented toward getting more people involved as volunteers.

After months of dithering, the Massachusetts senate and house Conference Committee finally put out a reconciled climate bill, called “ An Act Creating a Next-generation Roadmap for Massachusetts Climate Policy .” It’s the most sweeping climate legislation the state has come up with since 2008. But it’s now sitting on the Governor’s desk. Today, I wrote the Governor asking him to sign the bill into law.

Today, I joined my second meeting of the Somerville Alliance for Safe Streets. We’re moving quickly toward a summit at the end of February.

Today, I made a Kiva loan to a grocer in Gisagara, Rwanda. The business is located near a refugee camp, most customers are refugees and he has hired six refugee employees.

Today, I put some time into some Somerville Commission on Energy Use and Climate Change projects, notably developing a working document on shovel ready projects for the Mayor. I also spent some time catching up on Labor-Climate summit and Climate Coalition of Somerville projects.