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After more than a year of advocacy by the Center on Policy Initiatives (CPI) and community allies, San Diego has a new ordinance requiring banks to register all foreclosures and be held accountable if they neglect the properties. On Tuesday, Dec. 18, new Mayor Bob Filner made the Property Value Protection Ordinance the first ordinance he signed into law.
With a new mayor taking office December 3, Center on Policy Initiatives (CPI) helped set the tone for shifting San Diego's traditionally developer-centered policy agenda to a focus on fighting working poverty. On December 4, we started a two-week campaign to get 500 San Diegans to send letters to the new mayor urging him to "Make Poverty a Priority."
The Partnership’s community benefits model is taking hold in new cities. The Workers Defense Project and the local branch of the Laborers International Union of North America (LiUNA), both Partnership allies, have been working hard to ensure that working people in Travis County, Texas are afforded the compensation and respect that they deserve.
The Partnership is bringing light to the waste and recycling industry’s potential to be a powerful channel for good jobs and green development. At the annual Economic Analysis and Research Network (EARN) conference the week of December 10, we organized a workshop to share strategies our network has developed to transform the industry in a way that builds strong local economies.
In November, the City of Los Angeles took a transformative step toward a pro-community, pro-worker, and pro-environment system for managing its trash by adopting Don’t Waste LA’s proposal for an exclusive franchise agreement for commercial and multi-family waste. City Council’s bold action will advance the City’s march toward zero waste, stop rate-gouging for small businesses, help communities of color impacted by waste facilities, and create new hope for the workers who handle our trash.
On Black Friday, shoppers looking for holiday bargains weren’t the only ones at Walmart. Walmart workers and supporters rallied in 1,000 protests across 46 states. The actions had two goals: educating shoppers about the abysmal working conditions in Wal-Mart stores and suppliers; and showing strong solidarity to prevent Walmart bosses from retaliating against participating workers.
A broad-based labor-community coalition, in close partnership with the City of Oakland, has finalized a groundbreaking construction careers program for the $400 million revitalization of the Oakland Army Base.
Clergy and community leaders with ISAIAH, a Partnership affiliate, celebrated the defeat of the voter restriction amendment in Minnesota early November 7, after months of talking with religious voters in their congregations and neighborhoods.
In California, an unprecedented statewide coalition turned around the state’s history of regressive tax measures and won two crucial statewide victories:
Proposition 30 passed with 54% support to raise $6-9 billion annually for California schools and restore cuts to vital programs and services. Having wealthy Californians pay their fair share will bring equity to the tax system.
In a move towards a stronger economy for San Jose, voters overwhelmingly approved a measure to increase the minimum wage in the city from $8 to $10 an hour. Measure D drew 59% of the vote in a race where opponents outspent supporters by more than 2 to 1.