Emailing - League of Women Voters of Piedmont

Date: 4/1/2021
Subject: LWV of Piedmont - The Voter 04/01/2021
From: League of Women Voters of Piedmont

Political Responsibility through Informed and
Active Participation

The League of Women Voters, a nonpartisan political organization, encourages informed and active participation in government, works to increase understanding of major public policy issues, and influences public policy through education and advocacy.

We Need You!

Democracy is a team sport and we need you on our team! We have one-time, low commitment jobs and larger commitment, recurring positions all furthering the goal of Making Democracy Work. Send an email to Lorrel, Cathie or Hope to find out more.

Annual Meeting and Speaker Nancy O'Malley on May 6, 2021

Our Annual Meeting this year will immediately follow speaker Nancy O'Malley, Alameda County District Attorney, who will talk about "Perspectives on Women's Issues." She will discuss her important work with abused and homeless women, helping them move beyond trauma into a positive future. DA O’Malley will also address the many challenges COVID-19 has posed. The speaker presentation will be from 4:00 p.m. to 5:00 p.m. and our Annual Meeting will be from 5:00 p.m. to 5:45 p.m. Register for this event and find out more.

Save the Date! Speaker Shanti Brien on June 22, 2021

Piedmont's Shanti Brien, attorney and author of Almost Innocent will speak about criminal justice reform on June 22, 2021 at 4:00 p.m.

Read about her and her new book on Piedmont Exedra.

Piedmont Launches Community Fair Housing Survey

Visit the project website PiedmontIsHome.org to participate in the Community Fair Housing Survey and to comment on the Interactive Housing Map. The online and interactive "pinnable" Housing Map gives Piedmont residents the chance to identify sites for new housing development, including sites for new affordable housing development. These on-line community planning tools will be open until April 15, 2021.

Before taking the survey, read the following short and informative pieces on how housing policies relate to racial equity:

Farhad Manjoo, "How Berkeley Beat Back NIMBYs" NY Times, March 4, 2021
"Now is the Time to Embrace Density" written by Piedmont's own Carol Galante, Director of the Terner Center for Housing Innovation at UC Berkeley, NY Times May 12, 2020
PREC Housing Committee, "Affordable Housing: Yes We Can!" Piedmont Exedra, February 16, 2021

Impact Investing: A Tool for Social and Environmental Justice

On April 8, 2021 at 7:00 p.m., join Piedmont Racial Equity Campaign and Piedmont Connect for a discussion about impact investing for social and environmental justice. Impact investing is accessible to anyone and doesn’t mean sacrificing financial returns. If you have $100, you can Impact Invest. Come learn how to fund socially responsible businesses that can change society’s power structures and aid in social justice and environmental healing in our community and beyond. Find more information and register.

Stop AAPI Hate

The League of Women Voters of Piedmont condemns all xenophobic and hateful acts of violence and harassment against Asian American and Pacific Islanders, particularly Asian elders and women. We stand in solidarity with our AAPI community in Piedmont and AAPI communities across the country in calling for an end to anti-Asian hate and violence. LWVUS states, "We are committed to listening to and amplifying AAPI voices and educating ourselves on the historic and ongoing systemic racism that plagues this country so that we can be better allies. We urge our followers to do the same, and to call on elected and appointed officials at all levels of government to demonstrate their commitment to keeping ALL communities safe." Please visit StopAAPIHate.org and be part of the solution.

Students for Solar

A group of civic minded high school students launched the Students for Solar campaign with a goal of raising $400k to put solar panels on the STEAM building at Piedmont High School to result in Net Zero energy consumption. "Our generation does not have the option to ignore or deny climate change. Rather, we must open our eyes to the destruction we are causing and implement solutions before it is too late." Find out more and/or donate to the campaign.

LWVP Essay Contest with $500 Prize

The League of Women Voters of Piedmont is sponsoring its second annual essay contest. The contest is open to all high school juniors and seniors who are currently enrolled in Piedmont High School or Millennium High School or who are residents of Piedmont. This year's 250-500 word essay must be submitted by April 17, 2021 and will answer the question "Given the fragility of democracy as evidenced by the insurrection of January 6, 2021, how can your generation work to ensure that democracy in the United States is strengthened for future generations?" There is a $500 prize awarded to the first place essay. For more information and details on submission, please visit our website.

Bay Area League's Biennial Council Meeting

Save the date for the LWVBA Biennial Council Meeting on Saturday, May 1, 2021 from 10:00 a.m. to 12:30 p.m. This meeting will focus on Bay Area issues and their advocacy and implications for local Leagues. A featured Town Hall segment will provide time for local Leagues to share priorities, successes and challenges. More details to come!

Democracy Resource and Study Guide

Professor Emeritus of Politics at Mount Holyoke College, Douglas J. Amy, created a nonpartisan online resource for those interested in learning more about Democracy in the United States and a comparative analysis with other Western democracies. The site includes information about voting rights, money in politics, voter suppression, redistricting and much more including a reading list and additional online resources. This is a thorough resource for citizens concerned about the problems of democracy in the United States.

Follow Up Resources for Reimagining Public Safety

Here are some additional resources from Susy Struble, PREC Policing + Public Safety Subcommittee, for those who attended the "Reimagining Public Safety: Can Surveillance Be a Fair & Effective Tool?" panel that LWVP cosponsored with Piedmont Racial Equity Campaign and Piedmont Anti-Racism & Diversity Committee. If you have not already seen the panel you can watch it on our YouTube channel.

EFF’s Street-level Surveillance, which includes a crowdsourced database on known surveillance employed by municipal law enforcement (note much is incomplete, including Piedmont)
ACLU has many resources on Racial Justice as well as Privacy and Technology
The Century Foundation, The Disparate Impacts of Surveillance
The Appeal Podcast: American Cities’ Growing Reliance on Surveillance
New York Times: How One State Managed to Actually Write Rules on Facial Recognition
Bruce Schneier, Modern Mass Surveillance: Identify, Correlate, Discriminate. This was also an essay in the New York Times. He observes that the “whole point of modern surveillance is to treat people differently, and facial recognition technologies are only a small part of that.” For anyone who doesn’t have much of an idea of how much we’re surveilled by corporations -- all of which is available to government agencies with few real impediments -- this is a good primer.