Grassroots Democracy

I love the fact that I know most of my neighbors. One neighbor and her adorable 3-year-old daughter often come over to our house to look at our baby Max (who’s now four months old), or I go over there for soup, or she lends me her lawn mower, or sometimes we just bump into each other on the street and talk about the neighborhood, or the weather, or the cutest things our kids just did.

Another neighbor two houses down just had a birthday party for their little girl that my family attended, along with dozens of other neighbors.

And I’ll never forget that when we moved into our house, our next-door neighbors to our left greeted us with a loaf of bread, hearty handshakes and warm smiles.

The neighborly atmosphere makes it welcoming for me as I walk through the neighborhood, passing out fliers about what we accomplished in the last two years in the Legislature. I enjoy meeting people on their front porches and hearing their concerns.

Sometimes, I’ll bring Max along. That’s also great because then I get tips from my neighbors about childcare resources, or information about activities for newborns, or stories about when their kids were small.

Meeting my neighbors isn’t just fun, it’s part of my job as a State Representative. I can’t represent the needs of the Old North End without knowing what’s on folks’ minds. I admit it’s a lot of work to knock on thousands of doors throughout Burlington, but it’s important to get out there and meet my neighbors.

When Max is with me, I know that he can’t possibly understand what’s going on. But still it gives me a kick that I’ll be able to tell him, when he’s older, that he was a part of grassroots democracy, Vermont-style.