How Ice Cream is Like Democracy
I am running to make Medford a more vibrant, engaged community that says “Yes!” to community-led ideas.
In my experience traveling around the country to help people with local political organizing, I’ve come to understand that the most important thing any city councilor can do is to engage people in making their community better.
At my launch party, we put up a community ideas board. And we did a little “speed community” game where we paired people up to talk about their ideas. Then everyone got to vote for their favorite idea.
There were at least a dozen kids at the launch, and they got together to suggest “Free ice cream” as their idea. And that post-it got the most votes from both adults and children.
There are lots of ways that free ice cream could make Medford better, and I heard many ideas at the doors when I asked people about this after my launch. What if we had a “Free Ice Cream Day” in a different square in Medford throughout the summer? We could highlight local businesses in each square, we could make the ice cream free if you bought anything from a local business, we could combine it with a scavenger hunt about local history…and that’s just on the local businesses idea.
I thought, why not integrate this into my campaign? Every Friday after I knock on about 150 doors, I host an ice cream social in that neighborhood. This is an opportunity for neighbors to get to meet each other and chat, and to talk about ideas for how to make our community better. We bring a hand-crank ice cream maker, which is in some ways a metaphor for democracy – everyone who is able takes a turn at the crank so we can all have nice things. Many hands make light work.
As I knock on doors, after I introduce myself, I pretty much just listen. I might hear about something they think could be improved, and I’ll ask – what is your idea to make it better? And I hear so many fantastic ideas, ideas that are tailored to their neighborhood…ideas we should be acting on, providing resources for, and enabling.
And it doesn’t hurt to make things fun! My experience is that when people are given permission to join together to create something in a fun and welcoming environment, they can’t wait to come back and do it again.
Democracy isn’t about voting once every two years and then stepping back and waiting for somebody else to create change. Democracy is about getting engaged in making your community better – and that might sometimes involve legislative policy, but very often we don’t have to wait for that.
The “secret sauce” I will bring to the city council is that I will prioritize my time listening to groups of Medford residents, hearing their ideas, connecting them with others who have similar ideas, and providing them with the resources they need to make those ideas happen. Helping people dream, plan, and do.
PS: At one door, a woman asked if I would have dairy-free ice cream. I wasn’t sure, since we can only make one batch. But now we buy a pint at the grocery store to make sure we have some on hand each week. And at another door, a 3yo asked if I could do strawberry. And that was our flavor of the week! I love to make everyone feel welcome and included.
PPS: A side note is that I don't actually like ice cream very much – oh no, will I lose votes by saying that?? It’s not that I hate it, but I’d rather have most other desserts. We’ll go get ice cream as a family and I won’t get anything. But to me it’s not important whether I personally like the idea, it’s about whether the idea is a good one for the community. And I recognize how much people love ice cream, so I’m in!
