If you feel you need to "fight City Hall" over an issue involving eminent domain, land use, etc. Here is a brief list of suggestions you can follow for starting your campaign. This is not a comprehensive list but gets you on the right track for amassing information for a campaign.
1. Contact your local Environmental Coalition, members are usually actively participating in advising City Commissioners on the impact of such and such thing City is about to vote on. They can be a formal advisory committee of the City, as is the case in Kalamazoo, MI, they're called the Kalamazoo Environmental Council. Members are usually groups like Ducks Unlimited, Sierra Club, the Nature Center, etc. You will want them to vote at their meeting to support your cause. This may take a few months as they need to hear from you, place the issue on their agenda, discuss it at a meeting, take it back to their own groups for discussion and vote, and then the Coalition needs to vote on it after that. This is profoundly effective and totally worth the wait: plan on making a presentation, having hand outs, and offering to attend meetings of the individual groups, if they are willing to have you. You need to be very clear on why it's good, for example, to have Ducks Unlimited support this project: this can be as loose as you support us on this now, we'll support you on your issue later OR specific, like, we have a pond on our property that ducks use all the time (this was only an illustration of how you should argue for support, not an actual argument you should use...) You will, finally, want a letter from the Council supporting your cause. If you can't get a Council letter, letters from the individual groups are VERY good too. And, as groups sign on, start using that fact in your other PR efforts. Don't wait for everyone to sign on until you start listing your supporters. 2. Get a really good "dog and pony" show ready: this includes a Powerpoint presentation, banners, bumper stickers, pamphlets, etc. Go to ALL of the neighborhood associations and ask for their support NOT just the one nearest your property. There is usually a Coalition of Neighborhood Associations too. Do the same thing as I suggest in #1 with them. You can get the contact information about the Neighborhood Coalitions from the City Building/Inspection/Community Development Department. 3. Pass out pamphlets asking for support, Are you an organization that can receive donations? Start soliciting donations for postage, mailings, printings, etc. Ask people to sign a petition. Be sure to follow a form, like that used when you want to get your name on a ballot. What I mean is ask people if they are registered voters of your City. Don't bother with people outside the City (for this purpose). You want City Commissioners to know that THESE people can vote them in or out at the next election. Be sure to get Name, Address, telephone #, Signature, Date. Start compiling this info into a spreadsheet and use the names when you send anything to the Commissioners, to the press, etc. 4. Send press releases to the local TV stations, newspapers and radio stations as you have relevant information to them, ie., invite the tv station to do a 20-second piece at your garden. AND YOU HAVE to have the 20-second sound bite ready!!!! Plan on them not giving you more time than that. It's not a tour, its not a history lesson, it's a "save it now" bite. 5. Deluge the City Commissioners with information, who's supporting your cause (list the names EVERYONE - orgs and individuals), over and over and over as the list keeps getting bigger. Ask for meetings with the Commissioners NOW. If they feel enough pressure, they can stop this before it gets to a vote. If you have specific questions, please feel free to contact me. I may come up with some more ideas later and will forward this on when I do. Have a great day! Sincerely, Amy DeShon, MPA Executive Director American Community Gardening Association (ACGA) 1777 E. Broad Street Columbus, OH 43201 1-877-ASK-ACGA Direct Line: 614-645-1537 adeshon at communitygarden.org
