Why subscribe to Tom’s “CivicNotes”?
Dear “CivicNotes” Subscriber and Potential Subscribers:
Thank you so much for your support of my work over the years.
You may know that I have retired from the CivicLab (www.civiclab.us) and that Routledge Press recently published my account of the No Games Chicago campaign from 2009 (www.nogameschicagobook.com – use promo code “AFLY03” for 20% off!).
After fifty years of public work, I am slowing down – but not stopping. I feel like I still have something to contribute to our civic ecosystem – some ideas about the way to go now that a sociopath is steering America towards a sterile and hate-fueled future.
But what would be the best use of our collective time? I tried a number of approaches to writing for the “CivicNotes” newsletter – but now, what could I contribute to our civics that might be worth attending to? Certainly no more handwringing or reporting of what the Trump Administration is doing or dismantling. Plenty of others are doing this. We are all getting enough panicked pleas for money to fuel lawsuits and to fill in service gaps that lost funding is causing. So, you won’t see me begging you for money to save some program or pay a high-priced lawyer to lose a case against the federal government.
You will, however, see me ask for funding to continue receiving “CivicNotes.” I am asking for $50 per year for all the content that I will be producing. If you have already chipped in $100, I will extend your subscription through 2026. I will be doing a minimum of four posts per month – at least every Monday. Here are the beats I will be covering:
1. More (Civic) Love – This is my Prime Directive. Care for others, as is expressed in Africa with the concept of Ubuntu (“I am because you are. You are because we are”). This is the foundation of my Unified Field Theory of Civics. Without embracing and expressing more civic love, all is lost. I will also be writing about the leadership model called Servant Leadership and will explore that topic and profile great Servant Leaders.
2. More Power – The main criticism I have of the Left or Progressives or the People Who Care About Stuff, whatever you want to call us, is that we have failed to plot a path to power to govern for the common good. What has the Other Side done so well that they have run the table on civics in America? Is it that they have a bunch of racist billionaires backing their play? Well, that certainly helps – but is a relatively new factor in our civics. No, there is something else here worth understanding. What can we learn from their success and how do we get the power to govern as Servant Leaders who champion service, science, justice, equity, creativity, and peace? What organizations are dong the smartest things to move the Other Side OUT of power and Our Side INTO power?
3. More Public – This is the final piece of my civic formula. This, for me, is the end game for our civics. We need a robust and expansive public sector to construct solutions and infrastructure, to regulate, to care for everyone, to create vast new opportunities for peace and prosperity. The greatest modern example of this is The New Deal. Started by President Roosevelt in 1933, this expansive series of programs put millions of Americans to work, rescued our economy from the Republican caused Great Depression, built dozens of public structures (roads, post offices, parks, depots), and laid the foundation for just about every public program that helps hundreds of millions of Americans annually – Social Security, unemployment insurance, labor union organizing, bank and financial regulation, and much, much more. Republicans hated the New Deal and attempted to kill it and, eventually, they succeeded in scaling and trimming it. And today, 90 years later, they are still attempting to kill Social Security, Medicare, Medicaid, the Affordable Care Act and many other aspects of federal helping programs.
We need a responsive public sector to STOP doing a bunch of stuff, as well. Notably, stop killing the planet, stop doing violence against its own people, stop corporations from stealing public assets (land, resources, dollars), stop projecting power around the world and helping to topple foreign governments. I assert that the omissions and commissions of government have caused harm but also that our government has created a ton of good around the world and here at home and can do much more. I believe in government, but I often have sharp criticism of some of our elected governors (at all levels of office).
We cannot charity our way out of our pressing civic and environmental crises. So, in this beat I will be preaching and teaching about the concept of “public” and reminding us of Great Public from our past and present as well as examples of Great Public from around the world.
4. “CivicNotes” Updates & Musings – This the place for updating you on my own work in civics. I continue to do research, teach, and organize against TIFs and megaprojects. I can also share news and announcements from my subscribers if you send me notices at tom@tresser.com.
If you would like to see samples of my recent work before you subscribe, including several “CivicNotes” pieces, please click over to https://www.tresser.com/recent-work.
As a special service to my paid subscribers, I will offer a quarterly live Zoom session where we can meet and exchange insights and concerns. I will also offer paid subscribers other special deals and share advance looks at my research and future writings. For example, paid subscribers will have advance access to the review of all of Chicago’s TIF activity for 2024 – available at no other place, really!
I am excited to announce that my next book will be a manual for fighting TIFs. It is tentatively titled “Abolish TIFs! Get Reduced Property Taxes & More Equity!” I am seeking to raise funds for this project at www.tinyurl.com/Fund-TIF-Book. Paid subscribers will get an early look at that content, once it is funded and completed.
You can still subscribe at no charge, and you will receive a once-a-month update with some of the highlights from the previous month, along with any news of my own work. But I am hoping that you will invest in “CivicNotes” and join me on my next stage of defending and extending Public in Chicago and America. If there is one thing that I have learned from doing this work it is that democracy is NOT free. If you want to keep democracy going, you need to help pay for it.
In civic solidarity in dark civic times,
Tom Tresser
Civic educator. Public defender.
www.tresser.com – tom@tresser.com - tresser.substack.com
Stay up-to-date
You won’t have to worry about missing anything. Every new edition of the newsletter goes directly to your inbox.
Join the crew
Be part of a community of people who share your interests.
To find out more about the company that provides the tech for this newsletter, visit Substack.com.
Consider Becoming a Founding Subscriber
